Despite calls for restraint from Washington, Israel remains committed to retaliating after an Iranian missile strike on its territory last week.
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Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has again warned that Israel’s retaliation for Iran’s missile strike on its territory last week would be “deadly.”
In a speech to Israeli troops, the minister said Israeli retaliation would catch Iran off guard, without providing more details on the scale of the Jewish state’s military response.
“They won’t understand what happened or how it happened.”underlined Yoav Gallant.
Iran fired nearly 200 missiles at Israel last week after Israel intensified its airstrikes on Lebanon, killing several senior commanders of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group – including its leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The comments confirm that Israel has no plans to slow down its military campaign against Hezbollah, which has seen the Israel Defense Forces strike the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and launch what it calls a “limited” ground invasion in southern Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate against the Iranian attack. However, he did not confirm when or how this would happen in what would be a further escalation of the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
US President Joe Biden urged Netanyahu to avoid a strike on Iran that would hit sites linked to Iran’s nuclear program or its oil sector, fearing an impact on the global oil market that would drive up prices and could affect the American presidential elections.
The two leaders spoke on Wednesday. It was their first call in seven weeks, with Vice President Kamala Harris joining the conversation.
Despite his repeated attempts to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Joe Biden reiterated his support for Israel, apparently praising Benjamin Netanyahu for his “intense and determined operations carried out by Israel against Hezbollah”according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.
Since their last telephone exchange at the end of August, Netanyahu has intensified his attacks in Lebanon against Hezbollah.
A video released by the Associated Press news agency on Thursday appeared to show a group of soldiers waving an Israeli flag in a village in southern Lebanon, as an IDF strike killed five paramedics, according to an IDF spokesman. civil defense.
In the south of Israel, the Israeli army also continues to bomb Gaza while it extends its operations to Lebanon. Strikes in central and northern Gaza left dozens dead on Wednesday as the death toll from the year-long conflict passed 42,000, according to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Ministry, which did not makes no distinction between militants and civilians.
