Netanyahu says Israel hit Iran hard; Khamenei says damage should not be exaggerated

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Netanyahu says ******* hit Iran hard; Khamenei says damage should not be exaggerated

By Ari Rabinovitch and Adam Makary

JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -*******’s airstrikes “hit hard” Iran’s defences and missile production, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the country was considering its response.

With warfare raging in Gaza and Lebanon, direct confrontation between ******* and Iran risks spiralling into a regional conflagration. But a day after the airstrikes, there was no sign they would spark another round of escalation.

However, heavy fighting in Lebanon between ******** forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which sharply intensified over recent weeks, continued on Sunday with an ******** airstrike ******** eight people in a residential block in Sidon, medics said.

“The air force attacked throughout Iran. We hit hard Iran’s defence capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed at us,” Netanyahu said in a speech, calling the ******* “precise and powerful” and saying it met all its objectives.

The Islamic Republic has not signalled how it will respond to Saturday’s long-anticipated strikes, which involved scores of fighter jets ******** targets near the capital Tehran and in the western provinces of Ilam and Khuzestan.

The U.N. Security Council will likely meet to discuss the ******* on Monday, diplomats said.

The heavily armed arch-enemies have engaged in a cycle of retaliatory moves against each other for months, with Saturday’s strike coming after an Iranian missile barrage on Oct. 1, much of which ******* said was downed by its air defences.

Khamenei said *******’s calculations “should be disrupted”. The ******* on Iran, which ******* four soldiers and caused some damage, “should neither be downplayed nor exaggerated”, he said.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran was not looking for war but would give an “appropriate response”.

U.S. President Joe Biden called for a halt to escalation that has raised fears of a wider Middle East war arising from the year-old ********-****** conflict in Gaza and *******’s thrust into south Lebanon to stop Hezbollah rocketing northern *******.

Separately, ******** Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Iran was no longer able to use its allies ****** in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon against *******. The two groups “are no longer an effective tool” of Tehran, he said in a speech.

Gallant added that ****** was no longer functioning as a military network in Gaza and that Hezbollah’s senior command and most of its missile capabilities had been eliminated.

****** has repeatedly said it is still able to function militarily, and ******* has recently conducted major new operations in devastated north Gaza against what it calls regrouping ****** militants.

Hezbollah has said its command structure ******** intact and that it retains significant missile capabilities.

LEBANON FIGHTING

On Sunday, the ******** military urged residents of 14 villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately and move north of the Awali river.

An ******** strike on Sidon, a city in coastal south Lebanon, ******* at least eight people and wounded 25 on Sunday, the country’s health ministry said.

Elsewhere in the south, a strike on Zawtar al-Sharkiya ******* three people and a Saturday ******** of Marjayoun ******* five, it said.

******* said four of its soldiers were ******* in south Lebanon fighting.

Hezbollah also said it had fired a large missile salvo at the Zevulon military industries facility north of Haifa in northern *******. Hezbollah rockets hit a house and cars and rescue crews responded to put out the *****.

One woman was seriously injured, according to *******’s ambulance service.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Elwely Elwelly in Dubai and Adam Makary in CairoWriting by Angus McDowallEditing by Mark Heinrich and Frances Kerry)

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Netanyahu #******* #hit #Iran #hard #Khamenei #damage #exaggerated

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up