Breakout of fever between Israel and Iran against the backdrop of the war in Gaza

Threats of retaliation from Iran against Israel are raising tensions in the Middle East on Friday, sparking calls for further action. withholding at the time when ù progress towards a truce in the Gaza Strip is awaited.

While the mediating countries await responses from Israel and Hamas to their latest truce proposal, the war in Gaza is causing a new outbreak of fever in the region.

Iran “threatens to launch a significant attack against Israel,” US President Joe Biden said earlier this week, assuring his ally of his “unwavering” support, despite tensions between the two countries over the conduct of the Israeli offensive against Hamas.

As a “precaution”, and a concrete sign of tensions, the United States announced on Thursday that it would restrict movements in Israel diplomatic personnel and members of their families.

And a US general in charge of the Middle East, Michael Erik Kurilla, is in Israel to discuss “security threats in the region” with the country's military leaders, in a context of escalation with Iran.

The German airline Lufthansa announced that it would extend the suspension of its flights to and from Tehran, “probably until Saturday (inclusive)”, due to these tensions.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose country, an enemy of Israel, supports Hamas, indicated that Israel would be “punished” after a deadly attack attributed to it on April 1 in Syria.

This strike destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus and left 16 dead, including seven members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, according to a NGO.

– “Terrorist attack” –

“If Iran carries out an attack from its territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded in Persian.

The charred car of the three sons of the Hamas leader in the Shati refugee camp, April 10, 2024 in Gaza © AFP – –

After telephone conversations with his German, Australian and British counterparts, the head of Iranian diplomacy, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, spoke of the “need” for Tehran to respond to the strike against its consulate in Damascus , while seeking to “avoid tensions”.

During these talks, “I declared that Iran was not seeking to broaden the scope of the war “, he wrote on X.

The White House said Thursday it had “warned” Iran, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by telephone with his Chinese, Turkish and Saudi counterparts, calling on them to pressure Tehran against any attack targeting Israel, according to the State Department.

Russia and Germany, for their part, called for “restraint” to avoid an escalation in the Middle East where tensions have increased between Iran, Israel and their respective allies since the start of the war in Gaza.

“We are in the middle of a war in Gaza, which continues at full speed (…) but we are also preparing to face challenges in other theaters ” operations, Mr. Netanyahu said on Thursday.

– “Panic among the children” –

The war broke out on October 7 when commandos from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas infiltrated from the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an established toll. by AFP based on official Israeli data.

A woman cries at the grave of a relative, in a cemetery in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, April 10, 2024 © AFP – –

More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain detained in Gaza, 34 of whom have died, according to Israeli officials.

In retaliation, Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union. His army launched an offensive that has so far killed 33,545 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.

More than 250 humanitarian and human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Oxfam, joined an open letter launched in January by 16 NGOs, calling for an “immediate” end to all arms transfers “to Israel and groups armed Palestinians”, they said on Thursday.

“The situation is disastrous and getting worse, the bombings have not stopped and continue”, told AFP Imad Abu Shawish, a 39-year-old man, in the Nousseirat sector, in the center of the territory. “We hear the sound of missiles falling near us before exploding, causing panic among the children,” he added.

– ” Very reasonable offer” –

Mediation efforts have so far failed to reach a compromise. On Thursday, Israel accused Hamas of “turning its back” on a “very reasonable offer”.

Children in the streets of Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, April 10, 2024 © AFP – –

The latest proposal put forward by Qatar, the United States and Egypt initially provides for a six-week truce as well as the release of 42 hostages held in Gaza in exchange for 800 to 900 Palestinians incarcerated by Israel and the return home of residents of the north of the territory displaced by the war, according to a Hamas source.

Hamas demands a cease-fire before any agreement -definitive fire, the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a significant increase in humanitarian aid, a return of the displaced and a “serious” agreement to exchange hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

And its leader Ismail Haniyeh maintains that the death earlier this week of three of his sons in an Israeli strike in Gaza would not weaken his position in the negotiations.

The Islamist movement also wants to have “sufficient time and security” to be able to locate the hostages who “are in different places in the hands of different groups”, a Bassem Naïm, one of the members of the Hamas leadership, said Thursday.

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