Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israeli airstrikes had “hit hard” Iran’s defenses and missile production, but Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the damage caused by Saturday’s attack should not be exaggerated.
With wars raging in Gaza and Lebanon, a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran risks escalating the regional conflict. But a day after the airstrikes, there was no sign they would lead to another round of escalation.
However, fierce fighting between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has escalated sharply in recent weeks, continued on Sunday, with an Israeli airstrike killing eight people at a residential block in Sidon, medics said.
“The air force struck all of Iran. We struck hard at Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles against us,” Netanyahu said in a speech. He described the attack as “precise and powerful” and said it met all its objectives.
The Islamic Republic has not indicated how it will respond to Saturday’s long-awaited strikes, in which multiple fighter jets bombed targets near the capital Tehran and in the western provinces of Ilam and Khuzestan.
The heavily armed arch-enemies have been carrying out retaliatory strikes against each other for months, with Saturday’s attack coming after Iran launched a missile attack on October 1, most of which Israel said were shot down by its air defense forces.
Khamenei said Israel’s calculations “must be disrupted”. He said Iran’s attack, which killed four soldiers and caused some damage, “should neither be underestimated nor exaggerated”.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Iran was entitled to self-defence and its response “will be certain to be in compliance with the requirements”.
US President Joe Biden called for de-escalation of tensions, which have sparked fears of a wider Middle East war triggered by the years-old Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza and Israel’s attack in southern Lebanon to stop Hezbollah’s rocket attack on northern Israel.
In addition, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Galant said Iran could no longer use its allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel. He said in a speech that both groups “are no longer effective tools” of Tehran.
Galant said Hamas was no longer operating as a military network in Gaza and that Hezbollah’s senior command and most of its missile capabilities had been eliminated.
Hamas has repeatedly said it is still capable of operating militarily, and Israel has recently launched major new operations against regrouping Hamas militants in devastated northern Gaza.
Hezbollah has said its command structure remains intact and it retains missile capabilities.
Fighting in Lebanon
On Sunday, the Israeli military urged residents of 14 villages in southern Lebanon to immediately evacuate and move north of the Awali river.
At least eight people were killed and 25 wounded on Sunday in an Israeli attack on the coastal south Lebanese city of Sidon, the country’s health ministry said.
Elsewhere in the south, three people were killed in an attack on Zawtar al-Sharqiya and five people were killed in a bombing in Marjayoun on Saturday, the ministry said.
Israel said four of its soldiers were killed in fighting in south Lebanon.
Hezbollah also said it had fired a large missile at the Zevulon military industries facility north of Haifa in northern Israel. Hezbollah rockets fell on a house and cars and rescuers responded to put out the fire.
One woman was seriously injured, according to the Israeli ambulance service.
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