Israel vowed Tuesday to make Iran pay the price for its unprecedented attack on Israeli territory, despite international calls for restraint in a region already reeling from the war in the Gaza Strip.
In Tehran, President Ebrahim Raïssi warned that “the slightest action” by Israel against “Iran’s interests” would provoke “a severe, widespread and painful response” from his country.
An Israeli army soldier stands next to an Iranian ballistic missile that fell in Israel during last weekend’s Iranian attack, during a media visit to the Julis military base in southern Israel Israel, April 16, 2024 / GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP
In this context which reinforces fears of a conflagration in the Middle East, the offensive of the Israeli army in the besieged Gaza Strip and threatened by famine, shows no sign of respite, with 46 Palestinians killed in the last 24 hours , according to the Ministry of Health of the Islamist movement Hamas.
i
NewsletterThe essentials this evening
A clear update on the day’s news, with the view of La Croix.
EVERY EVENING 7 P.M.
Twelve days after a deadly strike against its consulate in Damascus on April 1 blamed on Israel, Iran launched a drone and missile attack on Israeli territory on Saturday evening, the first ever carried out from Iranian soil.
Almost all of the 350 projectiles were intercepted with the help of the United States and other allied countries, Israel said, reporting injuries.
Motorists pass in front of a billboard depicting Iranian ballistic missiles, in central Tehran, April 15, 2024 / ATTA KENARE / AFP
“We cannot remain idly faced with such aggression, Iran will not emerge unscathed” from its attack, said army spokesperson Daniel Hagari, during a visit organized for the media on a base in southern Israel.
“Firing 110 missiles directly at Israel will not go unpunished. We will respond when, where and how we choose,” said Rear Admiral Hagari, whose country is the sworn enemy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran.
“In no one’s interest”
Israel, Palestinian territories and Iran / Jonathan WALTER, Anibal MAIZ CACERES / AFP
Just after its attack, Iran claimed to have acted “by exercising its right to self-defense” following the strike which destroyed its consulate in Damascus and cost the lives of two senior Iranian officers in particular, and said it was considering ” case closed.”
The Israeli army claimed that the victims of the strike in the Syrian capital were “terrorists” acting against Israel, without confirming or denying its involvement.
Fearing an explosion in the region, the United States, Israel’s unwavering ally, quickly made it known that it did not want “an extended war with Iran” and warned that it would not participate in a Israeli retaliation operation.
Iranians carrying the portrait of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei celebrate the attack on Israel, April 15, 2024 in Tehran / ATTA KENARE / AFP
The United Kingdom and France have also distanced themselves. Russia called on both parties to “restraint”, assuring that a “further escalation is in no one’s interest”.
“We do not need additional conflict in our region,” said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhane.
After the support of several allies in the interception of the missiles, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the international community to “remain united” in the face of “Iranian aggression, which threatens world peace”.
“Without mercy”
Iran, which calls for the destruction of Israel, has until now refrained from attacking it head-on and confronts it via its allies such as the Lebanese Hezbollah.
In the ruins of the town of Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip, destroyed by Israeli bombings, April 16, 2024 / – / AFP
On Tuesday, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching two explosive drones from Lebanon on Israeli positions in the north. The army later claimed to have killed a Lebanese movement commander in a strike.
Despite the twists and turns linked to Iran, Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed his determination to continue the war against Hamas in Gaza.
“You are joining the IDF in glorious fighting units to repel a cruel enemy, the monsters who attacked us,” he told new recruits at the Tel Hashomer base (center). “We strike them back mercilessly and we will defeat them.”
The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel, which left 1,170 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report established from official Israeli data. More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain held in Gaza, 34 of whom have died according to Israeli officials.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union.
33,843 dead in Gaza according to Hamas
The devastating offensive in the Gaza Strip has left 33,843 dead since October 7, according to the Hamas health ministry, and has caused a humanitarian catastrophe with most of the 2.4 million residents at risk of starvation according to the UN.
Palestinians mourn their loved ones killed in an Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, April 16, 2024 / – / AFP
In front of a bakery that has just reopened in Gaza City, Palestinians queue for hours to buy bread.
“I waited six hours to get a loaf of bread,” said one man, Khaled al-Ghoula. “It’s very difficult, it’s unfair to only have one bakery to feed the entire Gaza Strip.”
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the volume of humanitarian aid authorized by Israel to enter Gaza remains well below the target of 500 trucks per day, with “181 trucks” every day since the beginning of April.
Destructions in the Palestinian camp of Maghazi, in the center of the Gaza Strip, after an Israeli bombardment on April 15, 2024 / – / AFP
Hamas continues to demand a definitive ceasefire with a view to a truce in the war. But Benjamin Netanyahu maintains his plan for a ground offensive against the city of Rafah, in the south, which he presents as the last great bastion of the Islamist movement.
The international community fears a bloodbath in this city which has become a refuge for 1.5 million Palestinians, most of them displaced.
