Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a tempered response to recent Israeli airstrikes on Iran, saying the attack should neither be “exaggerated nor downplayed.” He declined to promise immediate retaliation, making it clear that the job of Iranian authorities is to decide what best protects their nation’s interests.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would “respond appropriately,” but also asserted that while Tehran doesn’t want war, “it will not hesitate to stand up for the country in defense after the incident.” The attacks, which Israel stated targeted military infrastructure throughout the Iranian provinces, are due to a series of attacks by Iran, such as about 200 missiles launched on October 1 towards Israel.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the strikes seriously degraded Iran’s air defense and missile production capabilities, declaring that the operation “achieved its goals” and weakened Iran’s defensive potential. Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s stance: “Whoever hurts us, we hurt him.”
Iranian officials downplayed the extent of damage caused by saying that most of Israeli missiles were intercepted by Iran’s defense forces, only the smallest number reached landfall, causing minimal damage to the country’s air defense structure. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran had received warnings hours ahead of the attack that such a strike could occur but would not elaborate on what he knows.
As tensions continue to be on the rise, both sides have been called out by Western governments to draw back and not let it get any worse, afraid that continued hostilities would lead to a wider conflict in the region. Meanwhile, the fighting continues between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah inside Lebanon and between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
On Sunday, it was reported that Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed 21 people, including eight in the city of Sidon. In Gaza, nine people were killed when Israeli forces attacked a school that housed displaced residents in the al-Shati refugee camp, among them three journalists.
As the clashes continue, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has proposed a truce in Gaza, with at least two days before the fighting resumes, it is hoped that this can be used as a path to exchange four Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners, and he also said, by the end of ten days, negotiations should commence that will lead to an enduring truce. A senior Hamas official reiterated the conditions for a ceasefire by saying that any agreement short of a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a prisoner exchange is unacceptable.
The ongoing war is a result of an attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, where nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed, and 251 people taken as hostages. Since then, the retaliatory campaign in Gaza by Israel has claimed more than 42,924 lives, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
