Israeli researchers, using sophisticated imaging technology first developed by the American aerospace program, have deciphered the text on heretofore illegible fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Ruth Schuster and Nir Hasson explain:

For the sake of posterity, digitalization, and research, all [the scrolls] are being photographed in high resolution under different types of light, which among other things brings previously unseen writing invisible to the naked eye, as well as some ink stains, to light. [One fragment’s] handwriting differs from previously found scroll fragments, [the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Oren] Ableman explains. Its uniqueness leads him to speculate that there may be a whole scroll that has disappeared, or at any rate, not been found yet. . . .

The writing on many of these fragments is just a few letters rather than complete words or sentences. Even so, Ableman could tell which scrolls most of the fragments were from, generally speaking. . . .

[The one exception] is written in ancient paleo-Hebrew, which could not be attributed to any one of the known manuscripts. This raises the possibility that it belonged to a still unknown manuscript. [Researchers] haven’t done carbon-dating on the fragment, but this form of blocky paleo-Hebrew was the script commonly used in the First Temple period. That said, some scrolls were still being written using that ancient script in the late Second Temple period. Even among the paleo-Hebrew fragments, there are signs that help the researchers distinguish differences between First Temple and Second Temple texts, and certain features of the handwriting indicate that this fragment dates to the late Second Temple period.

Early Friday morning, Israel attacked military installations near the Iranian cities of Isfahan and nearby Natanz, the latter being one of the hubs of the country’s nuclear program. Jerusalem is not taking credit for the attack, and none of the details are too certain, but it seems that the attack involved multiple drones, likely launched from within Iran, as well as one or more missiles fired from Syrian or Iraqi airspace. Strikes on Syrian radar systems shortly beforehand probably helped make the attack possible, and there were reportedly strikes on Iraq as well.

Iran itself is downplaying the attack, but the S-300 air-defense batteries in Isfahan appear to have been destroyed or damaged. This is a sophisticated Russian-made system positioned to protect the Natanz nuclear installation. In other words, Israel has demonstrated that Iran’s best technology can’t protect the country’s skies from the IDF. As Yossi Kuperwasser puts it, the attack, combined with the response to the assault on April 13,

clarified to the Iranians that whereas we [Israelis] are not as vulnerable as they thought, they are more vulnerable than they thought. They have difficulty hitting us, but we have no difficulty hitting them.

Nobody knows exactly how the operation was carried out. . . . It is good that a question mark hovers over . . . what exactly Israel did. Let’s keep them wondering. It is good for deniability and good for keeping the enemy uncertain.

The fact that we chose targets that were in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility but were linked to the Iranian missile and air forces was a good message. It communicated that we can reach other targets as well but, as we don’t want escalation, we chose targets nearby that were involved in the attack against Israel. I think it sends the message that if we want to, we can send a stronger message. Israel is not seeking escalation at the moment.