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Israeli Army on High Alert in Anticipation of Iranian Drone Attack

IRGC drones in an underground base (Tasnim)
IRGC drones in an underground base (Tasnim)
    Tel Aviv - Nazir Magali
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Israeli Army on High Alert in Anticipation of Iranian Drone Attack

IRGC drones in an underground base (Tasnim)
IRGC drones in an underground base (Tasnim)

The Israeli army increased its alert level on the Syrian and Lebanese borders in anticipation of Iranian attacks, according to security sources in Tel Aviv.

The sources said that Tehran took a clear escalatory step when it announced its responsibility for the bombing of an "Israeli" site in Erbil with 12 ballistic missiles.

The sources stressed that the recent Israeli strikes were very harsh on Iran, especially the recent attack when Israel destroyed about 600 drones on Iranian territory and the attack on Syrian territory earlier this week, which killed two senior fighters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Syria.

Israel announced its alert status in the Israeli diplomatic headquarters in Azerbaijan, Iran's northern neighbor.

US sources revealed that the Israeli airstrike on an Iranian drone factory last month took off from an Israeli site in Azerbaijan.

Israeli sources condemned the United States' disclosure that the Iranian bombing in April targeted Israeli training sites, warning that it only brings harm.

The drone war between Israel and Iran escalated in recent years.

In February 2018, the first significant event occurred when Iran launched a drone into the occupied territories in response to the airstrikes in Syria.

The drone was shot down, and the Israeli army responded by attacking targets in Syria, including the car that launched the drone.

The Iranian drone was carrying many explosives and was on a mission above military sites in the Syrian Golan Heights.

In August 2019, Israel thwarted two explosive drones sent to Israeli positions on Jabal al-Sheikh in the northern Golan. The army killed the cell members who launched the drone, who were Lebanese of the IRGC's Special Task Force.

It led to security tension and the exchange of strikes on the border with Lebanon that lasted for several months.

In recent years, Israel has been accused of launching various explosive drone operations against nuclear facilities in Iran.

During the last war on the Gaza Strip, in May 2021, Iran launched a drone that penetrated the Jordan Valley and was shot down.

Last week, the Israeli army revealed that two drones sent from Iran had been intercepted and shot down over the skies of other countries in the Middle East using F-35 stealth aircraft.

Israel is running an international campaign against Iranian activity, stressing that Tehran's stockpile of lethal drones and ballistic missiles threatens all regional and Western countries, not only Israel.

The commander of the US Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie, said before the Senate Armed Forces Services Committee that Iran has over 3000 ballistic missiles of various types, some of which can reach Tel Aviv.

"None of them can reach Europe yet, but over the last five to seven years … they have invested heavily in their ballistic missile program," McKenzie said.

"Their missiles have significantly greater range and significantly enhanced accuracy," he added, saying it is a "remarkable" advancement.

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Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
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Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)

A huge power outage hit large parts of Spain and Portugal on Monday, paralyzing traffic, grounding flights, trapping people in elevators and leaving power operators scrambling to restore power to millions of homes and businesses.

Some hospitals halted routine work and the two countries' governments convened emergency cabinet meetings, with officials initially saying a possible cyber-attack could not be ruled out. Outages on such a scale are extremely rare in Europe, and the cause could not immediately be established.

Reuters witnesses said power had started returning to the Basque country and Barcelona areas of Spain in the early afternoon, a few hours after the outage began. It was not clear when power might be more widely restored.

Hospitals in Madrid and Cataluna in Spain suspended all routine medical work but were still attending to critical patients, using backup generators. Several Spanish oil refineries were shut down and retail businesses shut.

The Bank of Spain said electronic banking was functioning "adequately" on backup systems, though residents also reported ATM screens had gone blank.

"I'm in a data center, and everything has gone off. All the alarms popped up, and now we're with the groups, waiting to find out what happened," said Barcelona resident and engineer Jose Maria Espejo, 40.

In a video posted on X, Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida urged city residents to minimize their journeys and stay where they were, adding: "It is essential that the emergency services can circulate."

In Portugal, water supplier EPAL said water supplies could also be disrupted, and queues formed at stores by people rushing to purchase emergency supplies like gaslights, generators and batteries.

The main Portuguese electricity utility, EDP, said it had told customers it had no forecast for when the energy supply would be "normalized", Publico newspaper said. It warned it could take several hours.

Parts of France also suffered a brief outage. RTE, the French grid operator, said it had moved to supplement power to some parts of northern Spain after the outage hit.

Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, forcing 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov and British opponent Jacob Fearnley off the court as scoreboards went dark and overhead cameras lost power.

TRAFFIC JAMS

Spanish radio stations said part of the Madrid underground was being evacuated. There were traffic jams in Madrid city center as traffic lights stopped working, Cader Ser Radio station reported.

Hundreds of people stood outside office buildings on Madrid’s streets and there was a heavy police presence around key buildings, directing traffic as well as driving along central atriums with lights, according to a Reuters witness.

One of four tower buildings in Madrid that houses the British Embassy had been evacuated, the witness added.

Local radio reported people trapped in stalled metro cars and elevators.

Portuguese police said traffic lights were affected across the country, the metro was closed in Lisbon and Porto, and trains were not running.

Lisbon's subway transport operator Metropolitano de Lisboa said the subway was at a standstill with people still inside the trains, according to Publico newspaper.

A source at Portugal's TAP Air said Lisbon airport was running on back-up generators, while AENA, which manages 46 airports in Spain, reported flight delays around the country.

Such widespread outages are unusual in Europe. In 2003 a problem with a hydroelectric power line between Italy and Switzerland caused a major outage across the whole Italian peninsula for around 12 hours.

In 2006 an overloaded power network in Germany caused electricity cuts across parts of the country and in France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and as far as Morocco.