Israel vowed to respond to an Iranian missile attack on its soil last week, although the United States urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be cautious in a phone call between the two leaders on Wednesday.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant warned that Israel’s response to the Iranian missile attack on its territory last week would be “deadly.”
In a speech to Israeli forces, Gallant said the strike would surprise Iran, although he did not provide further details about the scale of the alleged planned strike.
“They won’t understand what happened or how it happened,” Gallant said.
Iran fired nearly 200 missiles at Israel last week after Israel intensified its air strikes across Lebanon, killing several senior leaders of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group — including its leader Hassan Nasrallah.
These comments confirm that Israel does not plan to slow down its military campaign against Hezbollah, which has seen the IDF strike the Lebanese capital Beirut and launch what it calls a “limited” ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to respond to the Iranian strike. However, he did not confirm when or how this would happen in what could be a further escalation of the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
US President Joe Biden urged Netanyahu to avoid launching a strike on Iran that might hit sites linked to the Iranian nuclear program or the oil sector, for fear of an indirect impact on the global oil market that would push prices higher and possibly affect the upcoming democratic elections. campaign.
The two leaders held their first call in seven weeks on Wednesday, with Vice President Kamala Harris joining the conversation.
Despite his repeated attempts to broker a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Biden reiterated his support for Israel, and reportedly congratulated Netanyahu on the “intensive and determined operations carried out by Israel against Hezbollah,” according to Netanyahu’s office.
Netanyahu has repeatedly ignored Biden’s calls for a ceasefire, which includes a temporary cessation of fighting.
Since the last phone call between the two leaders in late August, Netanyahu has intensified his attacks in Lebanon against Hezbollah.
On Thursday, a video published by the Associated Press news agency appeared to show a group of soldiers raising the Israeli flag in a village in southern Lebanon, at a time when an Israeli army raid killed five medics, according to a civil defense spokesman.
The IDF continued to bomb Gaza as part of the expansion of its operations in Lebanon. The raids on the central and northern Gaza Strip resulted in dozens of deaths on Wednesday, while the death toll from the conflict that has been ongoing for a year exceeded 42,000 people, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that Israeli forces are continuing their operations in Gaza to prevent Hamas from regrouping.
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