TEHRAN - For decades Israel was considered the unrivalled military power in the West Asia region. However, that concept has eroded.

The myth of the invincibility of Israel shattered in Israel’s 34-day war against the Hezbollah of Lebanon.

If it defeated Egypt, Syria and Jordan in just six days in 1967, now after the passage of nearly a year it has failed to overwhelm the new generation of guerrilla fighters in Gaza.

Israel’s only superiority is its airpower. It is just because the United States supplies the most sophisticated fighter jets that it has in its possession to Israel. It can only massacre civilians by dropping 2000-pound bombs from these fighters that are also supplied by the United States.

However, it seems that more deadly weapons are being used. A military analyst told Al Jazeera that the ordnance used by Israel in its attack on Beirut late on Friday that killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was a “very new type of bomb” – the GBU-72. Elijah Magnier said the weapon was “an advanced 5,000-pound [2,200kg] bunker buster that was created in 2021”.

In its new decision to enter a large-scale war with Hezbollah, its reliance is on the air force. 

However, now the occupation regime is in its worst nightmares. Every moment it expects ballistic missiles launched from Yemen’s Ansarullah movement from 2000 kilometers away from the south or Hezbollah in the north. Add to this drone attacks earlier by the resistance forces from Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq.

Its two most important cities, Tel Aviv and Haifa, are now being seriously threatened by Ansarullah and Hezbollah. Ansarallah first fired a ballistic missile at Tel Aviv on September 15 and again on September 27. Hezbollah also for the first time fired a surface-to-surface ballistic missile at the Mossad headquarters near Tel Aviv. It has also fired missiles at military installations near Haifa more than once.

Though Israel’s army has claimed it has intercepted missiles launched at these two landmarks, each time sirens have been sounded and millions fled to bomb shelters.

How many missiles can Israel intercept if one day it faces numerous missile attacks from Ansarullah and Hezbollah? Now with the assassination of the Hezbollah leader, that day seems more likely.

So far missile attacks by these two powerful resistance movements have been quite prudent primarily intended not to exacerbate the situation. However, if the situation gets out of control, which seems it is moving in that direction, air superiority cannot save Israel from a total collapse.

Now Israel has turned into a glass house and those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.