Washington was warned Thursday of the Israeli attack on Iran but neither approved the operation nor played any role in its execution, officials were quoted by American channels NBC and CNN as saying.
The Israeli army told AFP that it had no comment “at the moment” on the subject of these explosions reported early Friday.
The military said alarm sirens had sounded in northern Israel, the scene of exchanges of fire in recent months between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, supported by Iran.
Australia on Friday urged its nationals to leave Israel and the Palestinian Territories after the explosions in Iran.
These new developments come as Israel threatened to respond to the attack on its territory last weekend launched by Tehran after a deadly strike attributed to Israel against its consulate in Damascus, Syria.
Israel said it had intercepted with its allies almost all of the approximately 350 drones and missiles launched by Iran, and affirmed that the Iranian attack would not go “unpunished”.
It was the first direct attack ever carried out by Iran against its archenemy. The head of Iranian diplomacy Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that Iran would make Israel “regret” any attack against its territory.
But by attacking Israel, Iran said it was acting in “self-defense” after the attack which destroyed its consulate in Damascus on April 1 and cost the lives of seven of its soldiers, including two senior officers. Tehran accused Israel, which neither confirmed nor denied.
“Iran’s self-defense actions and countermeasures are over, so the Israeli terrorist regime must stop any further military adventurism against our interests,” Amir-Abdollahian said during a meeting on the situation in the Middle East. -East.
“On the brink of war in the Middle East”
Israeli strikes also targeted a military position in southern Syria on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said.
“Israeli strikes targeted a radar position of the Syrian army between the provinces of Soueida and Daraa,” the director of this NGO, OSDH, based in the United Kingdom but which has a vast network of sources in Syria, Rami Abdel Rahman. Rayan Maarouf, activist and head of online media Suwayda 24, also reported these strikes.
Israel initially revised its plans for rapid retaliation in Iran after discussions with US President Joe Biden, according to Israeli public broadcaster Kan.
Israel’s first ally, the United States had urged Israel to exercise restraint, opting instead to strengthen its sanctions against “the Iranian drone program, the steel industry and automobile manufacturers.” The EU and the United Kingdom also announced new sanctions against Tehran.
“We are on the verge of a war in the Middle East which will cause shock waves in the rest of the world,” underlined the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, calling for restraint. .
“The Middle East is on the precipice. The past few days have seen a dangerous escalation, through words and actions,” said Antonio Guterres.
“A miscalculation, a miscommunication, a mistake, could lead to the unthinkable, a widespread regional conflict that would be devastating for all those concerned, and for the rest of the world,” he added, calling first for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Meanwhile at the UN, the United States on Thursday vetoed a resolution from Algeria calling for full Palestinian membership in the United Nations.
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip and considered a “terrorist organization” by Israel, the European Union and the United States, condemned the American veto.
Ditto for the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, whose administration is based in the occupied West Bank, which sees in the American veto a “blatant aggression against international law” pushing the Middle East “even further to the brink of the abyss”.
The Israeli campaign of intensive bombing, followed by a ground offensive, was triggered by the October 7 attack by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians. , according to an AFP report established from official data.
More than 250 people were kidnapped during the attack and 129 remain held in Gaza, 34 of whom died according to Israeli officials.
However, talks on a truce in Gaza associated with the release of hostages have stalled for months, with the belligerents accusing each other of blocking them.
In Tel Aviv, relatives of hostages demonstrated once again to demand their release before Jewish Passover which begins Monday evening. “A hostage deal now!” », “Stop the war”, proclaimed signs brandished by the demonstrators.
