JERUSALEM: Iran and Israel traded threats after Tehran’s first-ever direct attack on its arch-enemy sharply heightened Middle East tensions and as the Gaza war ground on with no ceasefire in sight.
Israel’s military chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi on Monday vowed “a response” after Iran launched a barrage of over 300 missiles, rockets and drones at Israel at the weekend. The recent escalation has put the Middle East on edge, with concerns mounting about the potential for further conflict.
The Iranian attack came after a deadly Israeli airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Syria, prompting Iran to take measures in self-defense.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi warned of severe consequences for any action against Iran’s interests, while US President Joe Biden reiterated commitment to Israel’s security while seeking to prevent the conflict from spreading. Israel’s top ally and arms supplier, Washington, has made clear it will not join Israel in any attack on their common adversary Iran, a senior US official said.
While Israel weighs its options in response to the Iranian attack, the situation remains volatile, with uncertainties about the targets and timing of any potential Israeli retaliation. Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza have so far been unsuccessful.
Biden said, “We are committed to a ceasefire that will bring the hostages home and prevent the conflict from spreading beyond what it already has”.
Israel kept its bombing in Gaza, the coastal territory that has been largely devastated by more than six months of Israeli bombardment and a siege on its 2.4 million people.
Since the Iranian attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has twice convened his war cabinet. Israel was weighing its options after the Iranian drone and missile onslaught.
It remained unclear when Israel might strike and whether it would target Iran directly or attack its interests abroad, including in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
In Iran, nuclear facilities were temporarily closed over “security considerations”, said International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi.
On Monday, Israel made its first official comment on the deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that prompted Tehran’s weekend attack.
The strike on April 1 levelled the five-storey building and killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.
“These were people who engaged in terrorism against the State of Israel,” said Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari. “There was not a single diplomat there as far as I know.”
Gaza Truce Talks Between Israel and Hamas
Truce talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have so far failed to bring a deal, and Israel has rejected a Hamas demand that it withdraw its forces from Gaza.
Since October 7, Israel’s relentless offensive has killed at least 33,843 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli bombardment and siege have triggered a dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, with desperate shortages of food, medicines, water, and fuel, alleviated only by sporadic aid deliveries.
Israel has faced growing global opposition to the relentless bombardment that has reduced vast areas of Gaza to a wasteland of gutted buildings, bomb craters and mountains of rubble.
Netanyahu has insisted, despite US objections, that the army will invade Gaza’s far-southern city of Rafah where some 1.5 million people live in shelters.
The United Nations has warned that the Gaza bombardment and siege have caused “the highest levels of catastrophic hunger in the world”.
