The Israeli army launched dozens of deadly strikes on Monday on the Gaza Strip, ravaged by six months of war, as the world awaits Israel’s response to Iran’s unprecedented attack which aggravated the risks of a regional conflagration.
This first direct attack carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran against Israeli territory, which Israel said it had thwarted with its allies, was launched in response to a strike against the Iranian consulate in Damascus on 1er April, blamed on Israel.
In the process, Iran said it considered “the case closed” and warned Israel, its sworn enemy, against any “reckless behavior” which would trigger a “much stronger” reaction on its part.
As the question of Israeli reprisals arises, a new meeting of Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet began on Monday in Tel Aviv. A previous meeting on Sunday ended without any decision, local media said, reporting divisions among Israeli officials.
Historical allies of Israel, the United States have already said that they do not want “an extended war with Iran”, and international calls for de-escalation have multiplied.
“We will not participate in any potential action on the part” of Israel, an American official insisted on Sunday.
“We do not support a retaliatory strike,” British Foreign Minister David Cameron told the BBC on Monday. French President Emmanuel Macron has called for avoiding a regional “conflagration”.
“Not a single moment”
In the meantime, the Israeli army has said it is determined not to deviate from its objectives against Palestinian Hamas, an ally of Iran, in the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged for six months and threatened with famine due to the war, according to the UN.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by the Islamist movement Hamas from Gaza, which left 1,170 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official data. More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain held in Gaza, including 34 who have died, according to Israeli officials.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which it considers a terrorist movement and which took power in Gaza in 2007. Its army launched a major offensive, first by air and then by land, against the poor and overpopulated Palestinian territory.
In the last 24 hours, 68 deaths have been recorded in Gaza, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health on Monday, bringing to 33,797 the number of people killed, mostly civilians, in Israeli operations since October 7. ‘after the same source.
“Even when we were attacked by Iran, we did not lose sight, not for a single moment, of our essential mission in Gaza, which is to save our hostages from the hands of Hamas, Iran’s proxy,” he said. Army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Sunday, announcing the upcoming dispatch of two reserve brigades to Gaza.
Before dawn, dozens of Israeli raids hit the Khan Younes sector, in the south of the narrow strip of land. Eighteen bodies were recovered from the rubble there and transferred to a hospital, Civil Defense said.
Hostages in Rafah, army says
Benjamin Netanyahu above all wants to launch a ground offensive against Rafah, a town in the south of the Gaza Strip, which he presents as the last major bastion of Hamas and where hostages are being held, according to the army.
And this despite warnings from the international community, including the United States, which fears a bloodbath among the approximately 1.5 million Palestinians crowded into Rafah, most of the displaced having fled the fighting elsewhere in the territory. .
On Sunday, following a false rumor that the army was allowing displaced people to return to northern Gaza, thousands of these displaced people headed back. “We can no longer breathe in Rafah. It’s terrible,” Basma Salman told AFP.
But the army denied the rumor. “The northern Gaza Strip remains a combat zone.”
“On the edge of the precipice”
“The Middle East is on the precipice. The populations of the region face a real danger of devastating widespread conflict. This is the time for de-escalation,” declared UN boss Antonio Guterres during an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Sunday.
He condemned both the Iranian attack and the strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
At the meeting, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan called on the Security Council to “impose all possible sanctions against Iran.” And Iran’s ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, stressed that his country “had no choice but to exercise its right to self-defense.”
“Western countries should appreciate Iran’s restraint in recent months,” “instead of making accusations,” said Iranian diplomatic spokesperson Nasser Kanani on Monday, after the condemnations of the attack on Tehran against Israel.
The Islamic Republic of Iran calls for the destruction of Israel. But until last Saturday, she had refrained from attacking him head-on.
Its allies, the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthi rebels, carried out numerous attacks against Israel after the start of the war in Gaza.
On Monday, Hezbollah claimed to have detonated devices as Israeli soldiers crossed the border into Lebanon. The army reported four soldiers injured but without confirming that they crossed the border.