In addition to the recent stationing of an additional battery of the THAAD missile defense system in Israel and the reinforcement of US forces in the Eastern Mediterranean, the measures are intended to strengthen security in the region and signal deterrence.
Iran had previously announced that it wanted to respond to Israel’s latest retaliatory strike. “Israeli attacks will not go unanswered,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s foreign policy adviser said on television. Israel attacked several military installations and the air defense system in Iran last week. This was in response to an attack by Iran with around 200 missiles at the beginning of October.
Iran: Could also revise nuclear doctrine
If Iran sees its existence threatened by Israel, the government in Tehran could also abandon its current nuclear doctrine. The country is technically capable of producing nuclear weapons, Khamenei advisor Kamal Charrasi told the Arabic news channel Al-Majadin, as reported by the Iranian state news agency Irna. “The only obstacle is the religious ban.”
The Iranian government has consistently maintained that nuclear weapons have no place in its defense strategy and that the nuclear program is peaceful and in accordance with international regulations. There is also a religious legal opinion that prohibits both the construction and use of weapons of mass destruction.
Injured after rocket attack on central Israel
According to Israeli military reports, three rockets were fired from Lebanon into the center of Israel during the night. Some were intercepted, and a fallen projectile was identified in the affected area according to initial findings, the armed forces said. An air alarm had previously been triggered in the region.
Videos were shared on social media that appeared to show a rocket hitting the town of Tira, northeast of Tel Aviv. The rescue service said seven people were injured in the attack.
Just on Thursday, seven people were killed in rocket attacks from Lebanon in northern Israel. The Iran-allied Shiite militia Hezbollah has repeatedly fired rockets at Israel since the Gaza war began more than a year ago.
Lebanon: Dozens dead after Israeli attacks
According to official figures, at least 52 people were killed in Israeli attacks in eastern Lebanon. At least 72 other people were injured, the Ministry of Health said. Lebanese security sources said the Israeli military had carried out 16 air strikes on several locations in the Baalbek-Hermel governorate in the northeast of the country. The Hezbollah militia has a particularly strong presence in the impoverished eastern region. The Israeli armed forces had already carried out massive attacks there in the past few days.
UN organizations: North Gaza population at risk of death
Meanwhile, more than a year after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, the humanitarian situation continues to worsen. The heads of 15 UN aid organizations and private groups said the situation was particularly dramatic in the north of the coastal strip, where Israeli forces launched a new ground offensive against the Islamist Hamas at the beginning of October. “The entire Palestinian population in northern Gaza is at acute risk of death from disease, hunger and violence,” it said in a joint statement. “The entire region is on the edge of the abyss,” warn the signatories. A permanent ceasefire is long overdue.
World Food Program: Cannot replace UNRWA
After the UN Palestinian Relief Agency was banned from working in Israel, the World Food Program (WFP) has warned that it cannot serve as a replacement for UNRWA in the Gaza Strip. “We cannot replace the important functions of UNRWA in Gaza, such as the management of emergency shelters, schools and health centers,” said the director of the WFP office for Germany, Martin Frick, to the editorial network Germany (RND) with a view to the UNRWA- Ban by Israel.
UNRWA is the backbone of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip and ensures “food, protection and medical care for a population that is experiencing inhumane conditions”. Israel accuses the UN Palestinian Relief Agency that some of its employees were involved in terrorist activities on October 7, 2023.
The massacre carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on October 7th was the trigger for the Gaza war.
Polio vaccination in the Gaza Strip to continue
After an interruption due to heavy fighting, the second round of polio vaccinations is scheduled to start again today in the north of the Gaza Strip. “We have been assured of the necessary humanitarian pause in the city of Gaza to carry out the campaign,” wrote the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on X.
He called on the warring parties to respect the pause in fighting. When asked, the Israeli army did not initially comment on whether and to what extent it had agreed to interrupt hostilities in the area.
