Israel's defence minister warns Iran it may end up like Gaza and Beirut if it considers attacking
An Israeli strike targeted the Sfeir neighbourhood in Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday.
In short:
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says anyone who wishes to harm Israel should consider the action taken by the country in Gaza and Beirut.
On Sunday Lebanese state media reported that five consecutive strikes, four of them "very violent", hit Beirut and its outskirts.
What's next?
The Israeli military says it will retaliate in its own time against Iran for a ballistic missile attack launched by Tehran on Tuesday.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has warned Iran that it might end up looking like Gaza or Beirut if the Islamic republic was considering an attempt to harm Israel.
"The Iranians did not touch the air force's capabilities — no aircraft was damaged, no squadron was taken out of order," Mr Gallant said in a statement on Sunday.
On Tuesday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired some 200 missiles at Israel in retaliation after the leaders of groups allied to Tehran were killed in attacks.
"Whoever thinks that a mere attempt to harm us will deter us from taking action should take a look at [our achievements] in Gaza and Beirut."
Iranian media said the country had prepared a plan to respond to a possible Israeli attack.
"The plan for the necessary response to a possible action by the Zionists [Israel] has been fully prepared," Tasnim news agency said, quoting "an informed source" in the armed forces.
A man drives a scooter past a building destroyed in an Israeli strike on Sunday.
"If Israel takes action, there will be no doubt that an Iranian counterattack will be carried out."
It added that Iran "has a list of many Israeli targets", and said Iran's attack on Tuesday "showed that we can level to the ground any place it desires".
Tuesday's missile barrage, Iran's second-ever direct attack on Israel, came after an Israeli air raid killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC top general Abbas Nilforoushan in Beirut.
It was also in retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on July 31 in Tehran in an attack widely blamed on Israel.
On Saturday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned of a "proportional and similar reaction from Iran, and even stronger" if Israel attacks.
On Sunday, Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad visited a key oil site in the Gulf, amid growing concerns over possible Israeli strikes on Iran's oil facilities.
US President Joe Biden on Friday advised Israel against targeting oil sites in Iran, one of the world's 10 largest oil producers.
Late on Sunday, Iran's foreign ministry summoned the Australian ambassador in Tehran over what it said was his country's biased stance on Iran's attack against Israel, Tasnim reported.
Ian McConville was summoned due to his country's repeated bias, including on Iran's response to what it called "the Zionist regime," meaning Israel.
Australia's embassy in Tehran did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
Five Israeli strikes hit south Beirut, four of them 'very violent'
Five consecutive Israeli strikes hit south Beirut and its outskirts on Sunday, with four of them "very violent", sending booms across the city and sparking flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometres away, according to official Lebanese media.
Earlier, Israeli army called for residents to evacuate the Hezbollah bastion.
"Israeli enemy warplanes carried out four very violent strikes on [Beirut's] southern suburbs, and one strike on the Chweifat [area]" Lebanon's National News Agency said on Saturday evening local time.
The AFP new agency is reporting that Hezbollah said its fighters had pushed away Israeli troops that attempted to storm a Lebanese border village early on Sunday, in the latest clashes after Israel announced ground operations earlier this week.
The fighters launched "artillery shells" at "Israeli enemy soldiers who attempted to infiltrate from … Blida … forcing [them] to retreat," the Iran-backed group said in a statement.
The Israeli military says it will retaliate in its own time against Iran for a ballistic missile attack launched by Tehran on Tuesday, adding that two air bases struck in the attack remained fully operational and no aircraft were damaged.
"The way in which we respond to this disgraceful attack will be in the manner, at the location and the timing which we decide, according to the political leadership's instructions," Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
The strikes came after days of Israeli bombing of Beirut suburbs considered strongholds for Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and possibly his potential successor.
Twenty-five people were killed and 127 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Friday, the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
An Israeli strike hit Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli for the first time early on Saturday, after more bombardment hit Beirut's suburbs and Israeli troops sought to make new ground incursions into southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had killed two militants from the armed wing of Hamas operating in Lebanon.
Macron urges halt to shipment of arms to Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit out at France's President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday for saying shipments of arms to Israel used in the conflict in Gaza should be stopped as part of a broader effort to find a political solution.
"Shame on them," Mr Netanyahu said of Mr Macron and other Western leaders who have called for what he described as an arms embargo on Israel.
Mr Macron says France's priority is to "avoid escalation".
"Israel will win with or without their support," he said in a pre-recorded video released by his office, adding that calling for an arms embargo was a disgrace.
Mr Macron earlier told France Inter radio that the priority was "to get back to a political solution [and] that arms used to fight in Gaza are halted".
"France doesn't ship any," he said.
"Our priority now is to avoid escalation.
"The Lebanese people must not in turn be sacrificed, Lebanon cannot become another Gaza."
France is not a major weapons provider for Israel, shipping military equipment worth 30 million euros ($48 million) last year, according to the defence ministry's annual arms exports report.
Mr Macron's comments come as his Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot is on a four-day trip to the Middle East, wrapping up on Monday in Israel as Paris looks to play a role in reviving diplomatic efforts.
Potential Hezbollah leader out of contact since Friday
The potential successor to slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been out of contact since Friday, a Lebanese security source said, after an Israeli air strike reportedly targeted him.
In its campaign against the Iran-backed Lebanese group, Israel carried out a large strike on Beirut's southern suburbs late on Thursday.
Axios cited three Israeli officials as saying the strike targeted Hashem Safieddine in an underground bunker.
Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed last week, with Israel claiming responsibility for his death.
The Lebanese security source and two other Lebanese security sources said Israeli strikes since Friday on Dahiyeh, a residential area and Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, have kept rescue workers from scouring the site of the attack.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had killed two militants from the armed wing of Hamas operating in Lebanon.
The military named Muhammad Hussein Ali al-Mahmoud, who it said served as the group's executive authority in Lebanon, as being killed in an Israeli air strike.
Said Alaa Naif Ali, a member of Hamas' Military Wing in Lebanon, was also killed in an Israeli operation overnight on Saturday, it said.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, confirmed the deaths of two of its fighters following Israeli air strikes in Lebanon, but provided different names for them: Mohammed Hussein Al-Louise and Saeed Attallah Ali.
Hezbollah has made no comment so far on Safieddine.
The loss of Nasrallah's rumoured successor would be another blow to Hezbollah and its patron Iran.
Israeli strikes across the region in the past year, sharply accelerated in the past few weeks, have decimated Hezbollah's leadership.
At least 24 killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza
At least 24 people were killed and 93 others wounded when Israeli air strikes targeted a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday morning, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.
The strikes on the mosque and the school, near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, came as Israel's war in the Palestinian enclave approaches its first anniversary.
Eyewitnesses said the number of casualties could rise as the mosque was being used to house displaced people.
The Israeli military said in a statement it "conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre embedded in a structure that previously served as the 'Shuhada al-Aqsa' Mosque in the area of Deir al Balah."
ABC/wires
By：https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-06/israel-defence-minister-warns-iran-it-may-end-up-like-gaza/104437810(责任编辑：admin)
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