(Jerusalem) Israel vowed Tuesday to make Iran pay the price for its unprecedented attack on Israeli territory, despite international calls for restraint in a region already shaken by the war in the Gaza Strip.
In Tehran, President Ebrahim Raïssi warned that “the slightest action” by Israel against “Iran’s interests” would provoke “a severe, widespread and painful response” from his country.
In this context which reinforces fears of a conflagration in the Middle East, the offensive of the Israeli army in the besieged Gaza Strip and threatened by famine, shows no sign of respite, with 46 Palestinians killed in the last 24 hours , according to the Ministry of Health of the Islamist movement Hamas.
Twelve days after a deadly strike against its consulate in Damascus on the 1er April blamed on Israel, Iran launched a drone and missile attack against Israeli territory on Saturday evening, the first ever carried out from Iranian soil.
Almost all of the 350 projectiles were intercepted with the help of the United States and other allied countries, Israel said, reporting injuries.
“We cannot remain idly faced with such aggression, Iran will not emerge unscathed” from its attack, said army spokesperson Daniel Hagari, during a visit organized for the media on a base in southern Israel.
PHOTO AMIR COHEN, REUTERS
Daniel Hagari
“Firing 110 missiles directly at Israel will not go unpunished. We will respond when, where and how we choose,” said Rear Admiral Hagari, whose country is the sworn enemy of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“In no one’s interest”
Just after its attack, Iran claimed to have acted “by exercising its right to self-defense” following the strike which destroyed its consulate in Damascus and cost the lives of two senior Iranian officers in particular, and said it was considering “ case closed.”
The Israeli army claimed that the victims of the strike in the Syrian capital were “terrorists” acting against Israel, without confirming or denying its involvement.
Fearing an explosion in the region, the United States, Israel’s unwavering ally, quickly made it known that it did not want “an extended war with Iran” and warned that it would not participate in a Israeli retaliation operation.
The United Kingdom and France have also distanced themselves. Russia called on both parties to “restraint”, assuring that “further escalation is in no one’s interest”.
“We do not need additional conflict in our region,” said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhane.
After the support of several allies in the interception of the missiles, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the international community to “remain united” in the face of “Iranian aggression, which threatens world peace”.
” Without mercy ”
Iran, which calls for the destruction of Israel, has until now refrained from attacking it head-on and confronts it via its allies such as the Lebanese Hezbollah.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching two explosive drones from Lebanon on Israeli positions in the north. The army later claimed to have killed a Lebanese movement commander in a strike.
Despite the twists and turns linked to Iran, Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed his determination to continue the war against Hamas in Gaza.
“You are joining the IDF (Israeli Army) in glorious fighting units to repel a cruel enemy, the monsters who attacked us,” he told new recruits at the Tel Hashomer base (center). “We strike them back mercilessly and we will defeat them. »
The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel, which left 1,170 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report established from official Israeli data. More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain held in Gaza, 34 of whom have died according to Israeli officials.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union.
33,843 dead in Gaza according to Hamas
The devastating offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed 33,843 people since October 7, according to the Hamas health ministry, and has caused a humanitarian catastrophe with most of the 2.4 million residents at risk of starvation according to the ‘UN.
In front of a bakery that has just reopened in Gaza City, Palestinians queue for hours to buy bread.
“I waited six hours for a loaf of bread,” said one man, Khaled al-Ghoula. “It’s very difficult, it’s unfair to only have one bakery to feed the entire Gaza Strip. »
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the volume of humanitarian aid authorized by Israel to enter Gaza remains well below the target of 500 trucks per day, with “181 trucks” every day since the beginning of April.
Hamas continues to demand a definitive ceasefire with a view to a truce in the war. But Benjamin Netanyahu maintains his plan for a land offensive against the city of Rafah, in the south, which he presents as the last great bastion of the Islamist movement.
The international community fears a bloodbath in this city which has become a refuge for 1.5 million Palestinians, most of them displaced.
reference: www.lapresse.ca