Iran’s Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Islamic Revolutionary Guards Commander General Mohammad Pakpour. File
| Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened to carry out “crushing attacks” against regional foe Israel if it retaliated for a missile attack under way on Tuesday.

“If the Zionist regime reacts to Iranian operations, it will face crushing attacks,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement carried by the Fars news agency.

On Tuesday evening, Iran launched a missile attack targeting Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, state media reported.

The United States had spoken of an imminent Iranian ballistic missile attack against Israel and warned it would have “severe” consequences for Tehran.

Iranian media carried online footage of what they said were missiles being launched against Israel.

State television played joyful songs over the footage and its anchor congratulated “the brave Iranian people”.

Tuesday’s attack was Iran’s second on Israel after a a missile and drone attack in April in retaliation for a deadly Israeli air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

Nearly all the munitions fired in that attack were intercepted by Israel or its allies.

An Israeli strike on Beirut on Friday killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, whose Lebanese militant group has been armed and financed by the Islamic republic for years.

Nasrallah was killed alongside General Abbas Nilforoushan, a top commander of the Quds Force, the Guards’ foreign operations arm.

Iran vowed Nilforoushan’s killing “will not go unanswered”.

At the UN General Assembly in New York last month, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused Israel of warmongering while Iran had exercised restraint.

He suggested Iran had held back retaliation for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, fearing it could derail US-backed efforts for a Gaza ceasefire.

“We tried to not respond. They kept telling us we were within reach of peace, perhaps in a week or so,” he said.

On Sunday, Pezeshkian said promises by the US and its allies of a “ceasefire in exchange for Iran’s non-reaction to Haniyeh’s killing were completely false”.

He added that “giving these criminals (Israel) a chance would only encourage them to commit more crimes.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

General Abbas Nilforoushan was the deputy commander of Guards operations. (Representational)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah meets Jihad Secretary General Ziyad al-Nakhalah and deputy leader of Hamas, Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri at an unidentified location in this handout image released on October 25, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“Senior officials of Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have held talks with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah about achieving “real victory” in their war with Israel,” the Lebanese group said on October 25.

The Hezbollah statement did not specify when or where Nasrallah met with Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri and Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh beyong saying that it was at a undisclosed location in Lebanon.

News of the meeting comes as Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions exchange daily fire with the Israeli Army across the Lebanon-Israel border, raising fears of a new front in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

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The three groups are part of the “axis of resistance” — Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian and other Iran-backed armed groups opposed to Israel.

They discussed what “the axis of resistance must do at this critical stage to achieve real victory… in Gaza and Palestine and stop” Israel’s “brutal aggression”, the statement said.

They also discussed “recent events in the Gaza Strip since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” — the unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in Israel.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza says 5,791 people have been killed, again mostly civilians, as Israel has bombarded the territory. Hassan Nasrallah and the Palestinian militant leaders “agreed to keep coordinating and daily following up on developments,” the statement added.

Hezbollah and Hamas have long been part of a “joint operations room” with the Quds Force — the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards — a source close to Hezbollah previously told AFP on condition of anonymity.

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“The meeting also touched upon the cross-border fire on the Lebanon-Israel border,” the statement said.

At least 52 people have been killed in Lebanon according to an AFP tally, mostly Hezbollah combatants but also four civilians, including Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah. Four people have been killed in Israel, including one civilian.