Iran's threat to retaliate against Israel for the attack on its consulate in Damascus is further raising tensions in the Middle East, prompting calls for restraint, while it remains to be seen whether progress will be made in trying to quell the protests. weapons in the Gaza Strip, at least temporarily.
While mediating countries await responses from Israel and Hamas to the latest ceasefire proposal, the ongoing war in the coastal Palestinian enclave continues to raise the stakes in the region.
Iran is "threatening to launch a major attack on Israel," US President Joe Biden said earlier this week, reaffirming US support for its close ally despite tensions between the two governments over the way Israeli military operations are conducted. in the Gaza Strip.
"As a precaution, US government employees and their family members are not allowed to travel outside of the Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beersheba areas until further notice," according to a directive released by the US embassy in Jerusalem.
US officials tell @CBSnews that Iran is preparing to deploy a swarm of drones and missiles around the end of Ramadan in retaliation for Israel's strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. pic.twitter.com/RaJN147r9h
- CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) April 5, 2024
American General Michael "Eric" Kurila, the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff responsible for the Middle East region (CENTCOM, "Central Command"), is in Israel for talks with the country's military leadership the "current security threats".
The German airline Lufthansa has announced that it is extending the suspension of its flights to and from Tehran, possibly "until tomorrow Saturday", due to the tension in the region.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared earlier in the day that Israel would be "punished" for the April 1 attack on the Syrian capital.
The bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus killed 16 people, including seven members of the Revolutionary Guards, an elite body of the Islamic Republic's armed forces, according to NGOs.
Israeli PM says 'whoever hurts us, we hurt them'
His comments came after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei again promised to retaliate against Israel over the killings of Iranian generals in a strike on its consulate in Syria.https://t.co/3S3ger3wyc pic.twitter.com/NRNpSTjr47
- Sky News (@SkyNews) April 11, 2024
"Terrorist attack"
"If Iran launches an attack from its territory, Israel will retaliate and attack Iran," Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.
After telephone conversations with his counterparts in Germany, Australia and Britain, the head of Iranian diplomacy, Hossein Amirabdolahian, described through X that it was "necessary" for Tehran to retaliate for the deadly blow against the Iranian consulate in Damascus, although he assured that Iran " it does not seek escalation'.
The purpose is not to "expand the field of war", according to him.
The White House said yesterday it had issued a "warning" to Iran, while Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke by phone with his counterparts in China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, urging them to pressure Tehran not to launch any attack against it. Israel, according to his services at the State Department.
Russia and Germany have called for "restraint" to avoid an escalation in the Middle East, where tensions are running high between Iran, Israel and their allies respectively after the war in the Gaza Strip began.
"We are in the midst of a war in Gaza, which continues (…) but we are also preparing to face challenges in other theaters" of operations, Mr Netanyahu said yesterday.
"Panic in children"
The war broke out on October 7, when Hamas's military arm launched an unprecedented raid from the Gaza Strip into southern parts of the Israeli territory, killing 1.170 people, most of them civilians, according to a French tally. Agency based on official Israeli data.
Another 250-plus people were kidnapped, of whom 129 are still in the Palestinian enclave — but at least 34 of them are believed to have been killed, according to Israeli sources.
In retaliation, Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which it labels a "terrorist" organization like the US and the EU, and its military operations have so far killed at least 33.545 people in the Gaza Strip, the majority of them women and children, according to the Palestinian Islamic Movement's Ministry of Health.
More than 250 non-governmental organisations, including Amnesty International and Oxfam, have signed an open letter drawn up in January by 16 NGOs calling for an "immediate" halt to all arms deliveries "to Israel and Palestinian armed organisations".
"The situation is catastrophic and getting worse, the shelling has not stopped, it is continuing," Imad Abu Shawis, 39, told AFP in Nuseirat sector, in the central part of the enclave. "We hear the crackle of the rockets coming close to us before they explode, it panics the children," he added.
"Very reasonable offer"
Mediation efforts have so far failed to reach a compromise. Yesterday, Thursday, Israel accused Hamas of "turning its back" on a "very reasonable offer".
The most recent proposal made by Qatar, Egypt and the US calls for a ceasefire in principle for six weeks, the release of 42 Israeli hostages held in Gaza and in exchange for 800 to 900 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, the entry of 400 to 500 trucks of food into the enclave every day and the return home of residents of northern Gaza who were forced to leave because of the war, according to an AFP source in Hamas.
Hamas is demanding a permanent cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the entire Gaza Strip, a large increase in aid distributed to the civilian population threatened by famine throughout the enclave, the return of the displaced to their homes and a "serious" deal exchange of hostages with Palestinian prisoners.
And its leader, Ismail Haniya, said that the death this week of three of his sons and four of his grandchildren in an Israeli aerial bombardment in the Gaza Strip is not going to bend it, make it change positions or stand in negotiations.
The Palestinian Islamist movement wants to have "enough time and security" to be able to locate the hostages, who are "in different locations", in the hands of "different groups", Bassem Naim, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, explained yesterday Thursday.
Source: protothema.gr