Israel ‘prepares response’ to Iran attack as October 7 anniversary approaches | Israel

The Israeli military has announced it will expand its operations on several fronts around the anniversary of the October 7 attacks on Monday, including a “significant and serious” retaliation against Iran for the large-scale ballistic missile attack on Israel in the last week.

“The IDF (Israeli military) is preparing a response to the unprecedented and unlawful Iranian attack on Israeli civilians and Israel,” the military official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the issue .

While Israel said it was planning its response to Iranian missile strikes on Tuesday that hit a number of key Israeli bases or near them, US President Joe Biden warned against attacks on Iranian oil facilities, a day after he said Washington was “discussing” one such action.

“If I were them, I would think about alternatives other than attacking oil fields,” Biden said in a rare appearance at the daily White House press briefing. The Biden administration has already indicated that it opposes an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

Amid the rising violence, speculation grew that an attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs had killed Hashem Safieddine, who had been widely expected to succeed slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. According to Lebanese security sources, Safieddine has not been reachable since Friday.

Estimates suggest that Safieddine was killed along with aid workers and Iranian advisers in a fierce attack that made it difficult to reach any bodies. After the attack, the IDF said it had attacked Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters, without revealing who was present.

The fighting comes as Israel prepares to mark the first anniversary on Monday of the devastating Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the current war in Gaza that has now gripped neighboring Lebanon and sparked a dangerous regional crisis .

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will lead a memorial service in Sderot, one of the towns hardest hit by the attack by Hamas militants, amid fears the anniversary could lead to new attacks on Israeli citizens.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that it was also ordering Palestinian civilians in some areas of the Gaza Strip – including Nuseirat and Bureij, where large camps for internally displaced people are located – to evacuate, saying that the IDF planned “with great force.” To combat this with violence, Hamas operates there.

Israel also appeared to be stepping up operations over the weekend in southern Lebanon, where its ground troops entered earlier this week.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it rejected Israeli attempts to enter the southern town of Odaisseh, adding that clashes continued.

As Hezbollah continued to fire rockets into northern Israel, there were direct hits on two buildings in Karmiel and near Acre. There were reports that casualties were caused by an impact in an apartment block in the Israeli Arab village of Deir al-Asad.

Israel, which began ground operations in southern Lebanon this week, says it is focusing on villages near the border and Beirut is “not at stake,” but has not indicated how long the ground assault will last.

The aim of the operation is to enable tens of thousands of its citizens to return home after Hezbollah bombings that began on October 8, 2023 forced them to evacuate from the north.

Rapidly escalating violence in recent days has led to fierce Israeli attacks on Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon, while ground troops conducted raids near the border, turning the nearly year-long cross-border exchanges into a full-scale war.

In the first reported Israeli airstrike on the northern Tripoli region in the current flare-up, Hamas said Saturday’s “Zionist bombing” of the Beddawi refugee camp killed a commander, Saeed Atallah Ali, as well as his wife and two daughters.

Amid growing fears over the deepening regional crisis, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi renewed his call for ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon on Saturday.

“The most important issue today is the ceasefire, especially in Lebanon and Gaza,” he told reporters. “There are initiatives in this regard, there have been consultations that we hope will be successful.”