BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said a Hezbollah-affiliated paramedic was killed Saturday in an Israeli strike on a medical center in south Lebanon, which left five others wounded, three of them Hezbollah-linked paramedics.
“The Israeli enemy’s raid on a medical center in Bazuriyeh resulted in” the death of a rescuer with the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee. It brings to 164 the number of rescuers and paramedics killed in Lebanon since Hezbollah and Israel began trading cross-border fire last year, the health ministry said.
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Lebanon says Israeli strike kills Hezbollah-linked rescuer
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Lebanon says Israeli strike kills Hezbollah-linked rescuer
- It brings to 164 the number of rescuers and paramedics killed in Lebanon
Israel strikes on Iran, a show of force in simmering conflict
- “The goal, in my opinion, is to strike Iran’s missile-production industry to decrease one of the main threats to Israel,” said Michael Horowitz
- “Israel has made a media and political coup and not a military one. It expects rewards from Washington for the moderate nature of its attack,” said Hasni Abidi
JERUSALEM: Israel struck several military facilities in Iran on Saturday, marking the latest exchange in the hostilities between the two longstanding adversaries in a conflict that has simmered for months.
Israel’s strikes were in retaliation for the October 1 attack by Iran, when Tehran fired about 200 missiles at Israel, though most were intercepted by the country’s aerial defense systems.
Experts AFP spoke to characterised Israel’s latest strikes as a calculated show of force in a conflict that has long threatened to engulf the region.
However, they believe a broader escalation into a regional war remains unlikely.
By hitting Iran’s missile factories, Israel is likely hoping to blunt a potent weapon the Islamic republic has used against the country in recent months.
Iran has hit Israel directly two times this year — once in April and the other time on October 1 — with massive missile barrages that were mostly neutralized by Israeli air defense.
However, some missiles were able to slip through.
“The goal, in my opinion, is to strike Iran’s missile-production industry to decrease one of the main threats to Israel, while also increasing Israel’s freedom of operation by attacking Iran’s air defenses,” Michael Horowitz, an expert with the Le Beck security consultancy, told AFP.
There were also no reports of mass civilian casualties or damage to the Iran’s economic infrastructure, which may provide a route for de-escalation between the two foes while earning Israel praise from its US backers.
“Israel has made a media and political coup and not a military one. It expects rewards from Washington for the moderate nature of its attack,” said Hasni Abidi, director of the Center for Studies and Research for the Arab and Mediterranean World in Geneva.
“At the same time, Israel has conducted a real test of the level of capacity reached by Iranian defense,” Abidi added.
Experts also suggested that the Israeli attack aimed to showcase the country’s ability to retaliate against Iran with a complex operation using precise firepower.
“From Israel’s point of view, it is a huge demonstration of capabilities,” said Sima Shine, an Iran specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv.
“I think it is the first time that many, many airplanes were flying to Iran, attacking in Iran, (and) coming back safely.”
Joost Hiltermann, Middle East program director at the International Crisis Group, said the Israeli show of force also left Iran more vulnerable.
“The importance of attacking Iran’s air defenses is that in a next round Iran would be largely undefended,” he told AFP.
Danny Critinowicz, another Iran expert at the INSS, believes that Israel’s ability to conduct largely umimpeded strikes stems from its successful efforts to weaken Hezbollah, Iran’s key ally in Lebanon.
“It was really the protecting wall of Iran, and the fact that Hezbollah is quite weak in its war on Israel, I think changes Israel’s calculus regarding attacking directly in Iran,” he said.
“This is a direct consequence of that.”
Though Critinowicz called the attack “unprecedented” and “historical” by breaking the taboo of a direct attack on Iran’s military on its soil, he said escalation into a full-blown regional war was unlikely.
Explosions in April shook Iran’s Isfahan province in what US officials, cited by American media, said was Israeli retaliation, though Israel never publicly acknowledged its responsibility.
“Nobody wants to find themselves in a regional war,” he told AFP, adding that Iran’s minimizing of the attack’s impact was a way to defuse tensions.
“Iran shows a lot of flexibility when they don’t want to do something... they know how to find the right excuses.”
However, he said that the strikes “can be a preview for what could happen in the future.”
“Since the Iran-Iraq war, Tehran has not suffered such attacks on its territory.... Iran’s leaders are obviously not interested in a regional war,” Critinowicz said.
“The ball now is in the hands of the Iranian leadership, which has committed in the past to an immediate response to any significant Israeli attack.”
Hiltermann of the ICG said Israel was also under US pressure to reduce the possibility of more escalation.
“The US doesn’t want a wider war and made clear to Israel what it expected,” he said.
Shine also pointed to the United States’ role and said “Israel and the US have also transmitted different messages to Iran not to retaliate to close the cycle of attacks.”
Still, she pointed to Iran’s own capacities should it choose to retaliate, saying it still had a stockpile of ballistic and other missiles.
“But as they have seen the previous two times, there is a very effective defense system” in Israel, she said.
“They have more interest in closing this cycle than opening it.”
Israeli army leaves north Gaza hospital, detains medics, says health ministry
- Footage circulated by the health ministry showed damage to several buildings after the Israeli forces withdrew
- Three nurses were injured during the raid and three ambulance vehicles were destroyed, the ministry said
CAIRO: Israeli forces withdrew from a hospital complex in northern Gaza on Saturday, one day after storming it, and the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said the troops had detained dozens of male medical staffers and some of the patients.
Health officials said on Friday Israeli forces had stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of three medical facilities struggling to operate in the area, and also stationed forces outside it.
Footage circulated by the health ministry — which Reuters could not immediately verify — showed damage to several buildings after the Israeli forces withdrew.
Medics said at least 44 of the facility’s 70-member team of the hospital had been detained by the army. It later said the army had released 14 of them, including the hospital’s director.
An Israeli military spokesperson declined comment on the hospital report. On Friday the Israeli military said it operated in the area of the hospital based on intelligence “regarding the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure” there.
Medics said at least two children had died inside the intensive care unit after Israeli fire hit the generators and oxygen station in the facility on Friday.
Medical staffers have refused Israeli army orders to evacuate the hospital or leave their patients unattended. Before the army raid, medics said at least 600 people had been in the hospital, including patients and their escorts.
“The safety and lives of patients who are left inside Kamal Adwan Hospital without medical staff and much needed medication are at risk now,” said Marwan Al-Hams of the health ministry.
Three nurses were injured during the raid and three ambulance vehicles were destroyed, the ministry said.
MILITARY STRIKES
Israeli military strikes on the towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza have so far killed around 800 people during a three-week offensive, the Gaza ministry added.
Israel says its forces returned to northern Gaza to root out Hamas fighters who regrouped there. The Israeli military said on Friday that three of its soldiers were killed in combat in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said Israel’s incursions in northern Gaza and storming Kamal Adwan Hospital were a violation of international humanitarian law that it could not have committed without “the protection of Western countries.”
Israel regularly accuses Hamas of exploiting the civilian population and property, including hospitals and mosques, for military purposes. Hamas denies the accusation.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had expanded the humanitarian-designated area of Al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip, where the army has in the past told Palestinians to go when forced to evacuate their homes.
Separately on Saturday Israeli forces killed a Hamas member during a raid in the city of Tulkarm, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Israeli security force said in a statement. It said the man had been planning an imminent attack.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the dead man as Islam Jamil Awda, 29. In a statement, Hamas said Awda had died “clashing with the occupation forces who besieged him for hours in a house in Tulkarm camp.”
Violence has surged across the West Bank since the start of the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians — including armed fighters, stone-throwing youths and civilian bystanders — have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
Dozens of Israelis have also been killed in Palestinian street attacks over the past year.
Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
The death toll from Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza is approaching 43,000, with the densely populated enclave in ruins.
Algeria book reading on Jewish heritage canceled amid Gaza war
- Its cancelation came days after an Islamist lawmaker, Zouhir Fares, said in a statement that the culture ministry was banning the reading following a formal plea
- Fares also posted the letter in which he had called on authorities to take action, calling the book a form of “cultural normalization with Zionists“
ALGIERS: A reading event for a book titled “Jewish Algeria” was canceled on Saturday, the organizers told AFP, after critics said it was untimely amid the war in Gaza.
L’Arbre a dire, a bookshop in the capital Algiers that was set to hold the event discussing Algeria’s Jewish heritage, said it had to call it off without providing further details.
Its cancelation came days after an Islamist lawmaker, Zouhir Fares, said in a statement that the culture ministry was banning the reading following a formal plea.
There have been no official statements from the Algerian authorities on the book or reading events.
Fares also posted the letter in which he had called on authorities to take action, calling the book a form of “cultural normalization with Zionists.”
In the letter, he said the book’s foreword was written by “a citizen of the Zionist entity (Israel) who had served in its army not long ago,” referring to French author Valerie Zenatti.
An earlier book reading on Thursday in Tizi Ouzou, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Algiers, was also called off, Librairie Cheikh, the organizing bookstore, said on Facebook.
In an interview with Algerian newspaper Le Soir last February, the book’s author Hedia Bensahli said “Jewish Algeria” was a book about Algeria, and not about “what’s happening in other parts of the world.”
She said the book, spanning a history of over 2,000 years, had already been on sale when the Gaza war broke out last year.
“Like everyone else, I could not have foreseen the Hamas attacks on October 7, nor the bloody response of the Israeli army,” she said.
L’Arbre a dire said the book was no longer available in its collection but said authorities have not ordered its removal.
Iran warns will defend itself after Israeli strikes
- Israel warned Iran would “pay a heavy price” if it responded to the strikes
- Islamic republic insisted it had the “right and the duty” to defend itself
TEHRAN: Iran warned on Saturday it would defend itself after Israeli air strikes killed at least two soldiers and further stoked fears of a full-scale regional war in the Middle East.
Israel warned Iran would “pay a heavy price” if it responded to the strikes, and the United States, Germany and Britain demanded Tehran not escalate the conflict further.
Other countries, including many of Iran’s neighbors, condemned Israel’s strikes and some, such as Russia, urged both sides to show restraint and avoid what Moscow dubbed a “catastrophic scenario.”
The Islamic republic insisted it had the “right and the duty” to defend itself, while its Lebanese ally Hezbollah said it had already launched rocket salvos targeting five residential areas in northern Israel.
The Israeli army said 80 projectiles were fired across the border on Saturday.
Confirming its own strikes after explosions and anti-aircraft fire echoed around Tehran, the Israel military said it had hit Iranian missile factories and military facilities in several regions.
The “retaliatory strike has been completed and the mission was fulfilled,” while Israeli aircraft “returned safely,” a military spokesman added.
Iran confirmed Israel had targeted military sites in Tehran province around the capital and other parts of the country, saying the raids caused “limited damage” but killed two soldiers.
Israel had vowed to retaliate after October 1, when Iran fired around 200 missiles in only the second ever direct attack against its arch-foe. Most of those missiles were intercepted but one person was killed.
The Israeli retaliation drew condemnation from Hamas, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, which warned against further escalation. Jordan stated that Israeli jets had not used its airspace. Turkiye was one of the most outspoken critics, calling for an end to “terror created by Israel.”
Israel is already engaged in combat on two fronts.
Since last month, it has been fighting a war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, including strikes that have killed the group’s senior leadership and ground incursions seeking to destroy missile sites.
And, for more than a year since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, Israel has been fighting a war in Gaza that has caused mass civilian casualties in the densely populated Palestinian territory.
The United Nations has warned the “darkest moment” of that conflict was unfolding, with Palestinians facing a dire humanitarian crisis and daily Israeli bombing.
Along with Hezbollah and Hamas, Iranian-allied groups in Yemen, Iraq and Syria, have carried out attacks during the fallout from the Gaza war.
At roughly the same time as Israel struck targets in Iran, the Syrian state news agency SANA said an Israeli air attack targeted military positions in central and southern Syria.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose network of pro-Iran factions, claimed responsibility before dawn Saturday for a drone attack against a “military target” in northern Israel.
On Friday, two people died from shrapnel wounds after a Hezbollah rocket barrage into Israel’s north, Israeli officials said.
In addition to the residential strikes, Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at Israeli soldiers near the village of Aita Al-Shaab in southern Lebanon and at an intelligence base as well as launching drones against Israel’s Tel Nof air base south of Tel Aviv.
On Saturday, Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike had killed a Hezbollah-affiliated medic in Bazuriyeh in the south of the country.
US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Israel’s response to Iran was “an exercise in self-defense.”
He urged Iran to “cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation.”
The Israeli military has blamed “Iran and its proxies” in the region for “relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7,” when Hamas’s attack against Israel triggered the Gaza war.
That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Dozens of hostages seized on that day are still held by militants in Gaza.
Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground war in Gaza has killed 42,924 people, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, figures the United Nations considers reliable.
In late September Israel turned its focus to Lebanon hitting, Hezbollah targets and leaders and then sending in ground troops.
Israel says the aim is to make the north of its country safe for tens of thousands of displaced civilians to return.
At least 1,580 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
In April, in its first-ever direct assault against Israeli territory, Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles.
Tehran said the barrage was retaliation for a strike on Iran’s consular annexe in Damascus that killed members of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Explosions later in April shook Iran’s Isfahan province in what US officials, cited by American media, said was Israeli retaliation.
Iran said its October 1 missile attack on Israel was retaliation for an Israeli air raid that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah as well as the assassination in Tehran of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
On Friday, Gaza’s health ministry accused Israeli forces of storming the last functioning hospital in the territory’s north in a raid it said left two children dead.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating around Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp but it was “not aware of live fire and strikes in the area of the hospital.”
The Israeli military says it is seeking to destroy operational capabilities Hamas is trying to rebuild in the north.
Also on Friday, Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli drone strikes killed 12 people waiting to receive aid near the Al-Shati refugee camp.
’Things will move on’: Israelis press ahead after strikes on Iran
- The army said its planes hit military bases, missile sites and other systems in several Iranian regions
- The strikes mark the latest phase in Israel’s ongoing fight on multiple fronts
TEL AVIV: Israelis reacted with mixed emotions to the country’s strikes Saturday on arch-foe Iran. While some hoped for de-escalation, others expressed confidence in the military’s ability to defend them.
The army said its planes hit military bases, missile sites and other systems in several Iranian regions in retaliation for a missile barrage against Israel earlier this month. Iran said two soldiers were killed.
The strikes mark the latest phase in Israel’s ongoing fight on multiple fronts.
For over a year, it has battled Hamas in the Gaza Strip since the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel.
Since last month, Israel has also been at war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, targeting its leadership and launching incursions aimed at weakening the Hamas ally.
Despite air raid sirens and sporadic evacuations, life has gone on as usual for many Israelis.
“We should not be afraid of anything,” said Sagi Kawaz, 55, from Tel Aviv. “We have a good army and we will have a good response for every attack.”
The Israeli military said it launched the strikes “in response to months of continuous attacks” from Iran.
Since October 7, it added, Israel has faced aggression on “seven fronts,” including attacks from Iranian territory.
Saturday’s strikes follow Israel’s vow to avenge Iran’s October 1 missile attack.
Iran had previously said that barrage was in retaliation for an Israeli air raid that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and a Revolutionary Guards general in Lebanon, as well as for the assassination in Tehran of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Some in Israel hope the tit-for-tat between the two countries has been settled for the time being.
“It won’t continue, the response was proportional, and things will move on,” said Yossi Yaish, 65, from Tel Aviv.
Yaish said his routine had gone on unchanged despite the strike on Iran.
“We heard in the morning about the attack and we continued as usual, as we do our bike ride every Saturday,” he added.
Israel and Iran continued a war of words on Saturday following the strikes.
The Israeli military warned the Islamic republic it would “pay a heavy price” if it begins a new round of escalation.
Iran’s foreign ministry fired back, saying the country “has the right and the duty to defend itself against foreign acts of aggression.”
For Tel Aviv resident Yaniv Chen, the latest escalation was “worrying” but “nothing more than that.”
“It’s hard to say what the future will bring,” Chen told AFP. “But I won’t agree to live in fear.”
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