Israel is on high alert, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today, as concerns grow that Iran or its allies will retaliate for the killing of top Hezbollah and Hamas figures this week.
“Israel is well prepared for any eventuality, both defensively and offensively”Netanyahu said after visiting the headquarters of the military’s Home Front Command, which is responsible for civilian protection. “We will exact a heavy price for any aggression against us, wherever it comes from”he repeated.
According to the website Axios, citing a source close to the prime minister’s office, Netanyahu will later speak by phone with US President Joe Biden and the subject of their discussion will be the escalating tension in the Middle East.
The war with Israel entered a new phase
The leader of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah said today that the war with Israel has entered a new phase, warning that the group will surely respond to the killing of a top Hezbollah commander by an Israeli strike.
Nasrallah reiterated that the group was not responsible for Saturday’s deadly rocket attack that killed children in the Israeli-occupied and annexed Golan Heights. As he said Hezbollah would admit if it was wrong and killed civilians.
The leader of the Shiite organization spoke for the first time after the assassination of the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniya and the death of the commander of the Shiite organization, Fouad Shukr, who was killed by an Israeli strike on Tuesday night in a southern suburb of Beirut.
Israel blamed Shukr for the attack that killed 12 children and teenagers on Saturday in Majdal Shams, a Druze town in the occupied and annexed Golan.
Iran prepares – Barrage of contacts between its allies
Senior Iranian officials will meet today with representatives of Iran’s regional allies from Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen to discuss possible retaliation against Israel after the assassination of the Hamas leader in Tehran, five sources told Reuters.
Representatives of the Palestinian organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad allied to Iran as well as Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi movement, Lebanon’s Hezbollah group and Iraqi resistance groups will attend the meeting in Tehran, said the sources, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
“Iran and the members of the resistance will carry out a thorough assessment after the meeting in Tehran in order to find the best and most effective way to respond to the Zionist regime [Ισραήλ]»said a senior Iranian official with direct knowledge of the meeting.
Another Iranian official said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and high-ranking members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps would take part. “How Iran and the resistance front will respond is under consideration… This will definitely happen and the Zionist regime (Israel) will undoubtedly regret it,” General Mohammad Baqeri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, said on state television today. .
Israel is a “pariah state” according to the Jordanian Foreign Minister
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi today called Israel a “pariah state” that must be prevented from “causing more war and destruction” in the Middle East, as Jordan’s foreign minister reacted to the killing of the Hamas leader.
“The UN Security Council must not allow a state that has become a pariah state to impose more wars and destruction on the region”Safadi said during a joint press conference with his Luxembourg counterpart Javier Bettel in Amman.
Urging the international community to act to “put a stop to Israel’s blatant aggression”, the Jordanian foreign minister called on the SA to “protect the right of this region to live in peace and security”.
“The situation is sliding into the abyss and the responsibility lies with Israel,” he warned, accusing Israel of “murdering” Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, “the man who negotiated a deal to exchange Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages held in Gaza.”
In order to de-escalate the situation, it would be necessary “to put an end to the cause of the escalation, namely the aggression against Gaza”, concluded the Jordanian Foreign Minister.
SOURCE: APE-MPE, Reuters,
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