Israel and Tehran exchanged threats after a major Iranian attack on Israeli territory to avenge the deaths of the leaders of Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas, with the Israeli army carrying out new strikes on Wednesday against the pro-Iranian Lebanese movement.
Hezbollah announced in the morning that it was fighting Israeli forces “infiltrated” in a village in southern Lebanon, after claiming to have pushed some back, the day after Israel announced land incursions targeting it.
“Iran has made a serious mistake […] and will pay the price,” warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after Iran launched around 180 missiles according to Israel, 200 according to Tehran. Israel also declared UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres “persona non grata” for failing to condemn the Iranian operation.
This second attack in almost six months is “complete”, Tehran said overnight, according to which “90% of the missiles” reached their target.
Iran’s chief of staff, General Mohammad Bagheri, warned that Iran would strike “with greater intensity”, targeting “all infrastructure” in the country in the event of Israeli retaliation.
For the first time, Iran used hypersonic missiles for this operation, called “Honest Promise 2”, according to Iranian media.
A large number were intercepted by the anti-missile system, said the Israeli army, which benefited from the support of American and British forces, according to the Pentagon and London.
The attack, which caused sirens to sound across the country, left two people lightly injured in Israel and killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, according to emergency services and a Palestinian official.
Mossad targeted
The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, claimed to have “aimed at the heart” of Israel to avenge the deaths of the leaders of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, of Hamas Ismaïl Haniyeh and one of their commanders, killed with Hassan Nasrallah Friday in Lebanon.
According to the Iranian chief of staff, the missiles targeted “the three main military air bases” of the country, “Mossad”, Israeli secret services, and two other air bases.
Iran exercised its “right to self-defense”, after “restraint for almost two months, in order to give way to a ceasefire in Gaza”, its head of diplomacy wrote on X, Seyed Abbas Araghchi.
The pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar called the attack a “major setback” for Israel.
“This is not going to end well,” Mr. Netanyahu “has a long tradition of vigorous and rapid response” and “restraint is not his strong point,” political analyst Jordan Barkin commented for AFP.
American “full support”
On April 13, in response to a deadly strike attributed to Israel on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Iran carried out a first major attack on Israel, called “Honest Promise”. Most of the missiles were intercepted by Israel with the help of allies, especially the United States.
“The United States fully, fully, fully supports Israel,” US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, noting “ongoing” discussions with the Israeli ally on the response.
Iran has warned Washington against any intervention, Mr. Araghchi said.
The attack, denounced by the European Union, London and even Japan, risks “igniting” the entire Middle East, warned the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz. “The situation is developing in the most alarming way,” echoed the Kremlin, calling “all parties to exercise restraint.”
The UN Security Council must urgently address this escalation on Wednesday, and Rome has convened a G7 meeting during the day, according to an Italian government source.
It comes after almost a year of war led by Israel against Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the unprecedented attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement against its territory on October 7, 2023, and cross-border exchanges of fire with Hezbollah, ally of Hamas.
On Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a devastating Israeli raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut.
On July 31, Ismaïl Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, was killed in an attack in Tehran, blamed on Israel by Iran and Hamas.
Before the missile salvos, an attack was carried out on Tuesday in Tel Aviv by Palestinians from the West Bank – one shot and the other injured, according to the police – killing seven civilians, including a Greek national, according to Athens.
The Israeli embassy in Stockholm was targeted by gunfire on Tuesday evening, without casualties, said the Swedish police, with its Danish counterpart reporting two “explosions” in the night near the Israeli representation in the suburbs of Copenhagen. .
Strikes in Lebanon and Gaza
According to the Lebanese National News Agency (Ani), Israeli aircraft carried out a new strike in the morning on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, from where an AFP photographer saw smoke. rise after a night of violent raids.
The Israeli army, which announced that it had struck Hezbollah “targets” in the area and called on residents to evacuate, then urged civilians to “immediately” evacuate new locations in southern Lebanon.
A source from the Lebanese security services confirmed the night’s strikes on Beirut, with AFP journalists reporting around twenty explosions. Hezbollah television, Al-Manar, reported 11 Israeli raids on the area in two hours.
The Lebanese Health Ministry announced Tuesday evening that 55 people had been killed and 156 injured by Israeli strikes in 24 hours.
According to the disaster management unit, 1,873 people have been killed in Lebanon over the past year.
According to an Israeli official, the ground incursion consists of “localized raids of a very limited scale”, intended, after more than a week of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah, to “remove threats” from northern Israel .
On Wednesday, the Israeli army also announced that it had attacked two schools in the north of the Gaza Strip and a third in the center, used according to it by Hamas as command centers.
At least 51 people have been killed in the last 24 hours, the Hamas government’s Health Ministry announced on Wednesday, bringing the human toll in the devastated Palestinian territory to 41,689 since the start of the war.