Israel bombs Gaza, its response to the Iranian attack is overdue

The Israeli army launched an attack. Monday dozens of deadly strikes on the Gaza Strip ravaged by six months of war, the time when the world awaits Israel's response to the unprecedented attack by Iran which worsened the situation the risks of a regional conflagration.

This first direct attack carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran against Israeli territory, which Israel said it had thwarted with its allies, was launched in response to a strike against the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, attributed to Israel.

In the process, Iran said it considered “the matter closed” and warned Israel, its sworn enemy, against any “reckless behavior” which would trigger a “much stronger” reaction on his part.

While the question of Israeli reprisals arises, a new meeting of Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet began Monday in Tel -Aviv. A previous meeting on Sunday ended without any decision, local media said, reporting divisions among Israeli officials.

Israel's historic allies, the States -The United States has already said it does not want “an extended war with Iran”, and international calls for de-escalation have multiplied.

A woman walks near a giant poster showing missiles with the emblem of the Islamic Republic in central Tehran, April 15, 2024. © AFP – ATTA KENARE

“We will not participate in any potential action on the part” of Israel, a US official insisted on Sunday.

“We do not support a retaliatory strike,” British Foreign Minister David Cameron told the BBC on Monday. French President Emmanuel Macron called for avoiding a regional “conflagration”.

– “Not for a single moment” –

Israel, Palestinian territories and Iran © AFP – Jonathan WALTER, Anibal MAIZ CACERES

In the meantime, the Israeli army has said it is determined not to deviate from its objectives against Palestinian Hamas, an ally of Iran, in the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged for six months and threatened with famine due to the war according to the UN.

The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by the Islamist movement Hamas from Gaza, which left 1,170 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official data. More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain held in Gaza, 34 of whom have died, according to Israeli officials.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 and considers a terrorist movement, and its army has launched a major air and then ground offensive against the poor and overpopulated Palestinian territory.

In the last 24 hours, 68 deaths were recorded in Gaza according to the Hamas Ministry of Health on Monday, bringing the number of people killed to 33,797, the majority civilians, in Israeli operations since October 7 according to the same source.

A mural by the art group “Grafitiyul” on the facade of a wall in Tel Aviv, depicting on an Israeli flag President Joe Biden dressed as “Captain America” ​​with his shield and the Star of David symbol , April 15, 2024 © AFP – JACK GUEZ

“Even when we were attacked by Iran, we did not lose sight, not for a single moment, of our essential mission in Gaza, which consists of saving our hostages from the hands of Hamas, proxy of Iran,” said Army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari on Sunday, announcing the upcoming dispatch of two reserve brigades to Gaza.

Before dawn, dozens of Israeli raids hit the Khan Younes sector, in the south of the narrow strip of land. Eighteen bodies were recovered from the rubble and transferred to a hospital, Civil Defense said.

– Hostages in Rafah according to the army –

An Israeli anti-aircraft defense battery near a village not recognized by the authorities, in the Negev desert, southern Israel, April 14, 2024 © AFP – AHMAD GHARABLI

Benjamin Netanyahu above all wants to launch a ground offensive against Rafah, a town in the south of the Gaza Strip, which he presents as the last great bastion of Hamas and where, according to the army, hostages are being held.

And this despite warnings from the international community, including the United States, which fears a bloodbath among the approximately 1.5 million Palestinians crowded together in Rafah, most of the displaced having fled the fighting elsewhere in the territory.

Sunday, and following a false rumor according to which the army was authorizing the displaced to return to northern Gaza, thousands of these displaced people set out on their way home. “We can no longer breathe in Rafah. It’s terrible,” Basma Salman told AFP.

But the army denied the rumor. “The northern Gaza Strip remains a combat zone.”

– “On the edge of the precipice” –

“The Middle East is on the edge of the precipice. The populations of the region face a real danger of devastating generalized conflict. This is the time for de-escalation,” declared UN boss Antonio Guterres during an emergency Security Council meeting on Sunday.

He condemned both the Iranian attack and the strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

At the meeting, Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, called on the Security Council to “impose all possible sanctions against Iran.” And Iran's ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, stressed that his country “had no choice but to exercise its right to self-defense.”

“Western countries should appreciate Iran's restraint in recent months,” “instead of making accusations,” Iranian diplomatic spokesperson Nasser Kanani said on Monday, after condemnations of its attack on Israel .

The Islamic Republic of Iran calls for the destruction of Israel. But until last Saturday, it had refrained from attacking Israel head-on.

Its allies, the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthi rebels, have, after the start of the war in Gaza, carried out numerous attacks against Israel.

A crater caused by an Israeli strike on a road in the village of Alma al-Chaab in southern Lebanon, April 15, 2024 © AFP – –

On Monday, Hezbollah claimed to have detonated devices as Israeli soldiers crossed the border into Lebanon. The army reported four wounded soldiers but did not confirm that they crossed the border.

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