The Israeli military is in the midst of planning a response to Iran’s Tuesday night ballistic missile attack, and warned on Saturday that it would be “serious and significant.”
The Israel Defense Forces has said that Iran’s attack of some 200 ballistic missiles on the country would “have consequences.”
The attack caused damage in Israel, including in Israeli airbases, though the military has said that no aircraft or critical infrastructure were hit, and the Israeli Air Force was operating at full capacity.
The military on Saturday said that the response to the Iranian missile attack would be “serious and significant,” and that it was devoting much of its time to planning it.
On Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said that Israel would respond to the missile attack, vowing that the military could “reach and strike any point in the Middle East.”
The military plans will need to be approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
At a security cabinet meeting in a secure bunker near Jerusalem in the aftermath of the attack, Netanyahu warned that Tehran had made a “big mistake tonight” and vowed that “it will pay for it.”
The comments on Saturday from the IDF come as the US has sought to dissuade Israel from hitting Iranian nuclear or oil infrastructure as part of the response.
US President Joe Biden on Friday said Israel has not yet decided how it’s going to respond to Iran’s ballistic missile assault, but suggested it should refrain from attacking Iranian oil facilities.
“If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,” Biden said during a rare appearance at the White House daily press briefing.
Earlier this week, Biden said he opposed Israel targeting Iranian nuclear sites as well.
Biden’s latest remarks came a day after he said the idea of an Israeli strike on Iranian oil sites was “in discussion,” causing oil prices to shoot up amid fears of a sudden shock to the global supply.
However, on Saturday, Iran’s oil minister Mohsen Paknejad said that he was “not worried” about the escalating conflict in the region amid reports that Israel would strike Iran, the ministry’s Shana news site said.
Paknejad’s comments were made during a visit to Assaluyeh, the energy capital of Iran.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also indicated that Iran was looking to de-escalate the situation, renewing a call for ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon as he held talks with his country’s Syrian ally.
“The most important issue today is the ceasefire, especially in Lebanon and in Gaza,” he told reporters. “There are initiatives in this regard, there have been consultations that we hope will be successful.”
Araghchi’s visit to Damascus, his first since he took office in August, comes almost a year after Iran-backed terror group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages and triggering war in Gaza.
The conflict has also drawn in Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, who began firing thousands rockets at Israel on October 8 forcing Israel to evacuate thousands of residents from near the border.
Last month, Israel sharply intensified its campaign against Hezbollah as it vowed to push the terror group away from the border and allow the residents to return home safely.
“The purpose of my trip to Damascus is to continue consultations regarding the developments in the region,” Araghchi said.
His meetings in the Syrian capital follow a visit to Beirut Friday during which he voiced support for a truce in Lebanon acceptable to Hezbollah “simultaneously with a ceasefire in Gaza.”
However, his comments stood in stark contrast to those of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who said Iran-backed terror groups “will not back down.”
Khamenei delivered a rare Friday sermon defending this week’s missile attack on Israel that deepened fears of a regional war, while praising the “logical and legal” Hamas-led October 7 invasion and massacre in southern Israel.
Speaking in front of tens of thousands at a mosque in the capital Tehran, Khamenei said Iran-backed armed groups in the Middle East “will not back down” even after Israel recently killed a spate of terrorist leaders.
In his first public Friday sermon in nearly five years, Khamenei spoke in Arabic to discuss fighting against Israel by the Iran-aligned “axis of resistance,” including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Palestinian terror group Hamas.
“The resistance in the region will not back down with these martyrdoms, and will win,” Khamenei told the crowd at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque, where supporters carried portraits of slain Hezbollah and Hamas leaders.
“Israel will never defeat Hamas and Hezbollah,” he declared.
The Washington Post reported Friday that at least two dozen of roughly 200 ballistic missiles fired by Iran at Israel on Tuesday managed to break through air defenses and hit or land near at least three military and intelligence sites.
The Post said it verified videos that showed 20 missiles striking the Nevatim air base in southern Israel and three striking the Tel Nof base in central Israel. Other videos showed that at least two missiles landed near Israel’s Mossad spy agency headquarters in Glilot.
The Israeli military on Wednesday acknowledged that some of its airbases were hit in Iran’s massive ballistic missile attack on the country a night earlier, but stressed that no harm was caused to the functioning of the Israeli Air Force.
The IDF said that it measures the effectiveness of an attack based on how much damage was caused to critical infrastructure and assets, how many casualties were caused, and not how many missiles ultimately impacted. Air defenses successfully prevented such damage and major casualties, it said.
Araghchi traveled to Damascus by air after Lebanon said an Israeli air strike on Friday severed the main international highway linking the two countries.
Israel said its strike was aimed at preventing the flow of weapons to Hezbollah from Iran via neighboring Syria.
Iran has been a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad throughout the civil war that erupted in 2011 following the suppression of anti-government protests.
Israel has warned that after destroying large Hezbollah stockpiles, it would not allow the terror group to rearm.
On Saturday, an Iranian Qeshm Fars Air flight from Tehran, heading for Lebanon or Syria, made a U-turn over Iraqi airspace, data from flight tracking websites showed.
The flight was allegedly carrying weapons to Hezbollah, and therefore, the IDF worked to warn it to turn around.
The IDF said that its “military blockade” on Lebanon will continue, likely for a long time.
As part of the blockade, aimed at preventing Iranian arms from being delivered to Hezbollah, the IDF struck all of the “military” crossings between Lebanon and Syria — including a tunnel — and also hit a civilian crossing after Hezbollah began to use it.
The IDF has also warned it would foil any attempts by Iran to transfer weapons to Hezbollah via the civilian Beirut airport.
Separately, the IDF has allegedly struck several warehouses in Syria in recent days, which were believed by the military to have been used to store Iranian weapons that were to be delivered to Hezbollah.
コメント