Iran vows 'stinging response' to any attack by Israel and US

Photo: Office of Ayatollah Khamenei via Agence France-Presse “The enemies, both the United States and the Zionist regime [Israel, editor’s note], should know that they will certainly receive a scathing response to their actions against Iran and the resistance front,” Ali Khamenei warned in Tehran.

Ahmad Parhizi – Agence France-Presse in Tehran

Published at 10:32

• Middle East

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vowed Saturday to respond “scathingly” to any attacks by Israel and the United States, a day after pro-Iranian groups in Iraq fired drones into Israeli territory, which were intercepted.

At the same time, the Israeli army continues its wars against the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, two Islamist movements allied with Iran, engaged in recent months in a cycle of attacks and retaliation with Israel, which raises fears of a conflagration in the Middle East.

A few days before the presidential election on November 5 in the United States and despite international pressure, attempts to end hostilities have been in vain.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a devastating offensive in Gaza, on its southern border, after a bloody attack by this movement against its territory on October 7, 2023. It also wants to neutralize Hezbollah on its northern border, after the Lebanese movement opened a front against it in support of the Hamas.

In this explosive context, the United States announced on Friday new deployments in the Middle East, including ballistic missile defenses, fighter jets and B-52 bombers, which will arrive “in the coming months” for the “defense of Israel” and as a warning to Iran.

“The enemies, both the United States and the Zionist regime [Israel, editor’s note], must know that they will certainly receive a scathing response to their actions against Iran and the resistance front,” Ali Khamenei warned in Tehran.

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Drones launched from Iraq against Israel

In addition to Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran supports the Houthi rebels in Yemen and armed groups in Iraq, which are part of what Tehran calls the “axis of resistance” against Israel, which has occupied Palestinian territory since 1967.

On Saturday, the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq,” a coalition of pro-Iranian armed groups, claimed responsibility for drone attacks on Eilat, a city in southern Israel on the Red Sea.

The Israeli army said it intercepted three drones over the Red Sea approaching from the east.

On October 26, Israel targeted military sites in Iran in retaliation for Iranian missile strikes on Israeli territory on October 1.

“The response to the enemy's aggression [of October 26] will be given in a firm, thoughtful and powerful manner, and will surpass the enemy's understanding,” threatened the spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards, Iran's ideological army, Ali Mohammad Naini.

“Apocalyptic”

On Israel's southern border, the Israeli army bombed the north of the Gaza Strip, notably Jabalia and Beit Lahia, and the center, notably Nousseirat where three Palestinians died according to the civil defense.

The army, which has been concentrating its offensive since October 6 in the north of the territory to neutralize Hamas, claimed to have “eliminated dozens of terrorists in Jabalia”. She also reported operations in the south and centre of the besieged and devastated territory.

All residents of northern Gaza are at “imminent risk of death from disease, starvation and violence,” the heads of the UN’s major humanitarian agencies warned Friday. “The situation is apocalyptic.”

Israel has been bombarding the impoverished and cramped territory, where the vast majority of the roughly 2.4 million people have been displaced and live in conditions the UN has described as “dire.”

Its air and ground offensive has killed 43,314 people, mostly civilians, according to data from Hamas’s health ministry, and caused colossal destruction and a humanitarian disaster.

The Hamas attack on October 7 killed 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or killed in captivity. Of the 251 people kidnapped, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army.

Hezbollah rockets on Israel

On the northern front of Israel, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for salvos of rockets on a military base near Tel Aviv, a base for “military industries” north of Haifa and other targets in northern Israel.

At least 19 people were injured in Tira (center) by the fall of a projectile on a building which was gutted, the Israeli authorities indicated, reporting the interception of several rockets.

The day after destructive and deadly Israeli strikes in Lebanon, the Israeli army again bombed southern Lebanon on Saturday, where its forces have been engaged in a ground offensive since September 30.

After a year of cross-border firefights, Israel intensified its strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon on September 23, saying it wanted to neutralize the movement in the border regions and prevent rocket fire to allow the return of 60,000 displaced people in the north of the country.

At least 1,900 people have been killed since September 23 in Lebanon, according to an AFP count based on official data.