The situation in Middle East becomes tenser and tenser. Iran has decided to attack Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said, in the context of an intense diplomatic effort to avoid any further military action that could trigger a direct war between the Islamic Republic and the Israeli state, writes the Jerusalem Post. Iran’s message was relayed to Israel through Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, who called Katz directly to explain that he had received this information from acting Iranian foreign minister Ali Bagheri.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had also warned the G7 allies that an Iranian attack against Israel could begin in the next 24 to 48 hours, according to a report published by the website Axios and cited by Israeli television I24. Iran wants to avenge the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which Israel is suspected of.
Blinken spoke by phone with his G7 counterparts to pressure Iran and Hezbollah so that the retaliation announced Haniyeh was killed in Tehran, would be minimal. This is the only chance “to prevent total war,” says a G7 statement.
“We are deeply concerned about the heightened level of tension in the Middle East, which threatens to trigger a wider conflict in the region,” the G7 countries said.
“We urge all parties involved to refrain from perpetuating the current destructive cycle of retaliatory violence, reduce tensions and engage constructively towards de-escalation. No country or nation stands to gain from further escalation in the Middle East.”
“Tehran is not interested in the escalation of regional conflicts, but it is necessary to punish Israel,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said at a press conference on Monday.
Jerusalem has not officially commented on the killing of the Hamas leader.
The attack came a day after Israel said it had killed Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in an airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon.
According to I24, Blinken also said that if with regard to the April 13 attack on Israel, after the assassination of members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Syria, the moment of its launch was announced by Tehran, now we are talking about an imminent attack that is not there are details.
Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon
On Monday morning, Israeli air defense systems intercepted several drones launched by the Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, one of which managed to fall in the vicinity of the Ayelet HaShahar kibbutz, approximately ten kilometers from the border. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his G7 counterparts on Sunday that an attack by Iran and Hezbollah against Israel could begin as early as Monday.
According to a press release from the Israeli army, “following the fall in the area (of a drone – n.r.), an officer and a soldier of the armed forces were slightly injured”. The two were transported to a hospital to receive treatment, and the firemen went to the site of the impact to try to extinguish the fire caused by the fall of the drone.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said targeted the “new headquarters of the army’s 91st Division” in Ayelet. The pro-Iranian Shiite group claimed the drone launch was in response to Israeli strikes on Bazouriye and Deir Seryan, in which two fighters were killed, while on Sunday night Hezbollah announced the death of two more fighters in Israeli strikes further afield. border, one of them at Louaizeh, just 12 kilometers from Beirut.
Since October, constant exchanges of fire have taken place between the Israeli army and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, bringing relations between the two countries to their highest point of tension since 2006. Tensions risk turning into a multi-front war, with the involvement of Iran , after the Israeli bombing of Beirut last week, which killed a military leader of Hezbollah, and the assassination in Tehran of the political leader of Hamas.
Tarom no longer flies to Israel
The Romanian flag carrier, Tarom has announced that it is suspending flights to Tel Aviv, Amman and Beirut from August 6-12, for security reasons. The decision was taken in the context of worsening tensions in the Middle East region, after flights to Lebanon were suspended last week. The urgent decisions come amid fears that hostilities between the Lebanese Hezbollah group and Israel, which have remained at a low level in recent months, located mainly in the border area, could escalate into a full-fledged conflict. Numerous countries urged their citizens to leave Lebanon, as planes from major airlines began avoiding Beirut amid fears the conflict could widen in the Middle East. More and more flights have been canceled or suspended in recent days at Lebanon’s only commercial airport, Beirut, as the US, UK, Australia, France, Canada, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Romania, Turkey and Jordan and other countries urged their citizens to leave Lebanon as soon as possible.