Israel's strikes on Iran draw condemnation, calls for de-escalation
The Associated Press | Posted: October 26, 2024 3:57 PM | Last Updated: October 27
Ceasefire in Gaza Strip and Lebanon trumps any retaliation against Israel, Iran says
The latest:
- Iran says attack killed 4 soldiers, caused 'limited damage' to radar sites.
- Israel says more than 200 projectiles fired from Lebanon; no injuries reported.
- Hezbollah declares some Israeli towns legitimate targets over IDF presence.
- IDF detains dozens of staff at Gaza hospital, Health Ministry and WHO say.
Israel unleashed pre-dawn airstrikes against military sites in Iran on Saturday.
The attack risks pushing the arch-enemies closer to all-out war at a time of spiralling violence across the Middle East, where militant groups backed by Iran — including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — are already at war with Israel.
The early Saturday strikes on Iran were in retaliation for a ballistic missile assault on Oct. 1, Israeli officials said. Iran says the Oct. 1 volley was in itself a retaliation for Israeli killings of Hezbollah leaders and aggression in Lebanon, including the use of pagers and walkie-talkies as explosives, and the war in Gaza.
Iran had previously launched missiles at Israel in April after top Iranian officials were killed by an apparent Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic post in Syria. Israel responded to that with rockets targeting a military base in Iran.
Saturday's attack, threatened for weeks by Israel, comes as the Middle East sits on the precipice of a regional war more than a year after an Oct. 7, 2023, attack by the militant group Hamas on Israel. In the time since, Israel has launched a devastating ground offensive in the Gaza Strip and an invasion of neighbouring Lebanon, targeting militants long armed and aided by Tehran.
Lebanon's Health Ministry says more than 2,600 people have been killed and 12,200 wounded in the past year of fighting, which has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the United Nations children's agency. Israeli strikes have killed much of Hezbollah's top leadership since fighting ramped up in September.
Israel's siege in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 people, the majority of them women and children, according to local health authorities. The Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack killed some 1,200 — mostly civilians — and saw about 250 others taken into Hamas-controlled Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
4 Iranian soldiers killed, military says
Iran says four people serving in the country's military air defence were killed in Saturday's Israeli attack, adding that the strikes targeted military bases in three provinces and caused "limited damage" to radar sites, which it says are being repaired.
Israeli aircraft "struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year," the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said. "These missiles posed a direct and immediate threat to the citizens of the state of Israel."
The IDF added that it also "struck surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities, that were intended to restrict Israel's aerial freedom of operation in Iran." It offered no damage assessment.
Iran's military issued a carefully worded statement on Saturday night stating that, while it held the right to retaliate, a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon trumps any reciprocity against Israel.
It added that Israel used "stand-off" missiles over Iraqi airspace to launch its attacks and that the warheads were much lighter in order to travel the distance to the targets they struck in three provinces in Iran.
Israel pushing region 'to the brink,' Turkey says
Turkey accused Israel of having "brought our region to the brink of a greater war" following its strikes on Iran.
"Putting an end to the terror created by Israel in the region has become a historic duty in terms of establishing international security and peace," the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
It called on the international community to take "immediate action to enforce the law and stop the Netanyahu government," referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Turkey has been a harsh critic of Israel's military operations in Gaza and Lebanon while voicing support for Hamas.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he condemns all acts of escalating violence in the Middle East and says they must stop immediately.
Expressing deep alarm following the Israeli airstrikes on Iran, the UN chief urgently appealed again to all parties to cease military action, including in Gaza and Lebanon, and "exert maximum pressure to prevent an all-out regional war and return to the path of diplomacy," UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Saturday.
U.S. informed of strike beforehand
U.S. President Joe Biden said Saturday that he got a heads-up from Israel before the strikes on Iran.
"Looks like they didn't hit anything but military targets," he told reporters in Philadelphia, where he was en route to a campaign event in Pittsburgh.
"I hope this is the end," he added
WATCH | U.S. to send anti-missile system to Israel:
Hundreds of projectiles fired from Lebanon, Israel says
Israel's military says more than 200 projectiles have been fired at Israel from inside Lebanon on Saturday.
In a statement, the military said there were no reports of injuries. It said fragments from about 30 rockets damaged several buildings and cars in the northern town of Nahariya. Israel's fire and rescue service said its teams were tackling fires sparked by rocket attacks at seven sites across northern Israel.
Israel says it has stepped up attacks in Lebanon in the past weeks in order to push Hezbollah from the border, so that thousands of Israelis can return to their homes after Hezbollah began firing rockets in support of Hamas after Oct. 7.
Late on Saturday, Hezbollah warned residents of more than two dozen towns in northern Israel to immediately leave, saying they had become legitimate targets because it said Israeli troops were stationed there. The group also issued a similar warning to some communities in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
IDF detained hospital staff, Gaza Health Ministry says
Israeli troops withdrew from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza after holding a number of people inside for hours, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
Those held included medical staff and patients, the ministry said, and women were held separately "with no water or food." The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The troops later withdrew from the hospital, leaving behind massive damage, the ministry said. Footage circulated online showed the courtyard bulldozed and the wards vandalized.
WATCH | Gaza doctor released after 6 month in Israeli detention:
The director general of the World Health Organization said 44 male staff members were detained at Kamal Adwan Hospital, where he said Gaza's Health Ministry was reporting that Israel's siege had ended.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said only female staff, the hospital director and one male doctor are left to care for almost 200 patients. He called the situation in northern Gaza "catastrophic."
Throughout the year-long Israel-Hamas war, Israeli forces have stormed and bombarded a number of hospitals, including Gaza's largest medical facility, Shifa Hospital. Israel accuses Hamas of using medical facilities across Gaza for military purposes, an accusation the militant group has denied.
Earlier this week, the director of the hospital told The Associated Press that the facility is facing a "catastrophic" shortage of basic supplies and that ambulances can no longer service the site.