View of a street in Tehran, October 26, 2024 (AFP / ATTA KENARE)
Iran asserted its right to defend itself on Saturday after strikes against its military sites carried out by Israel, the latest episode in hostilities between the two enemy countries which has sparked calls for restraint in the face of the risk of military escalation in the Middle East.
For the first time, Israel publicly announced that it had attacked Iran by launching airstrikes before dawn on Saturday against missile manufacturing facilities in that country. Iran reported “limited damage” and four soldiers killed.
Israel then threatened Iran to “pay a high price” if it retaliated, while Tehran said it had “the right and duty to defend itself against foreign acts of aggression”, prompting warnings over risk of fire.
“I hope this is the end,” said US President Joe Biden, whose country is a close ally of Israel and its main arms supplier.
During a telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin warned that “Iran should not make the mistake of retaliating”, saying that there was currently “an opportunity to use diplomacy to reduce tension in the region.
Map locating the fixed sites of the Iranian air defense system with the range of known installations, according to a US intelligence report published in 2019 (AFP / Paz PIZARRO)
The Israeli raids are a response to a missile attack by Iran against Israeli territory on October 1, a spiral of violence linked to wars waged by Israel against two Islamist movements supported militarily by Iran: the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The war in Gaza was sparked by a deadly attack launched on October 7, 2023 by Hamas against Israel from the neighboring Gaza Strip. In support of Hamas, Lebanese Hezbollah opened a front against Israel the next day by firing rockets into northern Israel, bordering southern Lebanon, hostilities turning into open war in mid-September.
– “Limited damage” –
A photo provided by the Israeli army on October 26, 2024 shows a fighter jet leaving a hangar at an unspecified location in Israel (AFP / -)
On October 1, Iran fired some 200 missiles at Israel to avenge the death, on September 27, of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and an Iranian general, killed in Israeli strikes near Beirut, and that July 31 in Tehran of Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh, killed in an attack blamed on Israel.
In response, the Israeli army said on Saturday that it had “struck missile manufacturing sites (…) that Iran has been firing at the State of Israel for a year”, as well as “ground missile batteries”. air and other aerial systems (…)”.
The Iranian military assured that these strikes had caused only “limited damage”. “Only certain radar systems were damaged,” announced the general staff of the armed forces. “A significant number of missiles were intercepted and enemy aircraft were prevented from entering our airspace.”
– “Political coup” –
Despite concerns, life continued as normal in Tehran and Tel Aviv.
“I don’t think there will be war in Iran,” said Sepideh, 30, on his way to work in Tehran.
“We are worried but not more than that,” reacted Yaniv Chen, 42, on a beach in Tel Aviv.
According to experts, the aim of the attack was to demonstrate Israeli offensive capabilities while avoiding escalation.
For Joost Hiltermann, director of the Middle East program at the International Crisis Group, the United States wanted these retaliations to be “proportionate, so that Iran would not need to respond.”
A Palestinian boy emerges from the rubble of a home hit by Israeli bombardment in Gaza City, October 26, 2024 (AFP / Omar AL-QATTAA)
Likewise, Hasni Abidi, director of the Center for Studies and Research on the Arab and Mediterranean World (Cermam), believes that under pressure from the United States, Israel carried out a “limited” operation to reduce the risks of a “blast”. Israel “carried out a media and political and not a military coup”.
– Negotiations expected in Doha –
Palestinian children wait to eat around a fire in the Bureij Palestinian refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, October 26, 2024 (AFP / Eyad BABA)
On the Lebanese front, the Israeli army reported “80 projectiles” fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon and continued its strikes on the south of the country.
The Lebanese national news agency Ani reported early Sunday an Israeli raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, where the Israeli army had called on residents of two neighborhoods to evacuate their homes.
Israeli troops have been engaged in a ground offensive since September 30 in southern Lebanon with the objective of neutralizing the fighters of the Lebanese movement and stopping rocket fire.
After a year of a devastating and deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip where it weakened Hamas, the Israeli army concentrated its operations in Lebanon by carrying out intense and deadly strikes mainly on the strongholds of Hezbollah from the 23 september.
A protester holds up a sign during an anti-government rally calling for action to obtain the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, in front of the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv on October 26, 2024 (AFP / Jack GUEZ)
On the Gaza front, the Israeli army is continuing its air and land offensive in the ravaged Palestinian territory which is in the grip of a humanitarian disaster.
New negotiations are expected on Sunday in Doha between Israelis, Americans and Qataris to discuss the possibility of a truce in Gaza associated with the release of hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023 and taken to the Palestinian territory.
