Israel’s airstrikes “hit hard” Iran’s defences and missile production, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, but Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the damage from Saturday’s attack should not be exaggerated.

With warfare raging in Gaza and Lebanon, direct confrontation between Israel 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 Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which sharply intensified over recent weeks, continued on Sunday with an Israeli airstrike killing 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 attack “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 bombing targets near the capital Tehran and in the western provinces of Ilam and Khuzestan.

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 Israel said was downed by its air defences.

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

The Iranian parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said Iran was entitled to self-defence and its response “will be definite, in compliance with the requirements”.

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 Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza and Israel’s thrust into south Lebanon to stop Hezbollah rocketing northern Israel.

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

Gallant added that Hamas 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.

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

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

LEBANON FIGHTING

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

An Israeli strike on Sidon, a city in coastal south Lebanon, killed 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 killed three people and a Saturday bombing of Marjayoun killed five, it said.

Israel said four of its soldiers were killed 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 Israel. Hezbollah rockets hit a house and cars and rescue crews responded to put out the fire.

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

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A general view of Tehran on October 26, 2024. Israel announced the launch of “precise strikes” on military targets in Iran on October 26, 2024, in retaliation for attacks against it, as Iranian state media reported several explosions around the capital.
| Photo Credit: AFP

India expressed deep concern about the unfolding situation in West Asia after Israel launched fresh attacks against Iran on Saturday (October 26, 2024), with the Ministry of External Affairs saying that the hostile situation does not help anyone.

“We are deeply concerned by the evolving escalation in West Asia and its ramifications for peace and stability in the region and beyond. We reiterate our call to all concerned to exercise restraint and return to the path of dialogue and diplomacy,” the MEA said, in a statement that came hours after Israel confirmed that it had carried out strikes against Iranian military targets.

The current situation in Gaza and Lebanon featured in India’s recent diplomatic outreaches, at the BRICS summit as well as during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday (October 25, 2024).

Expat safety concerns

“The ongoing hostilities are to nobody’s benefit, even as innocent hostages and civilian populations continue to suffer. Our Missions in the region are in contact with the Indian community,” the MEA said. The Gulf region is home to around nine million expatriate Indian workers and professionals. They are largely based in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries but Iran too has a prosperous Indian community based mostly in Tehran and Bandar Abbas. The safety and security of these expat workers will be a major issue in case wider hostilities break out between Iran and Israel.

The Israeli attack has drawn stronger condemnation from Turkey and Saudi Arabia. In a strongly-worded statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry accused Israel of “committing genocide in Gaza”, saying, “We condemn Israel’s attack on Iran in the strongest terms.” Saudi Arabia also expressed its “condemnation and denunciation of the military targeting of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”