Politics

Israel vows to respond to Iranian attack heedless of lack of U.S. support

IDF chief of staff said on Monday that Israel will respond to Iran’s weekend missile and drone attack on its territory, the military chief of staff said. This in spite of the pressure the Jewish state faced from allies, who wanted it to show restraint and avoid an escalation of conflict in the Middle East.

“This launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles, and drones into Israeli territory will be met with a response,” Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said, speaking from the Nevatim air base in southern Israel, which sustained some damage in the attack.

Israel’s military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing later on Monday that Israel sustained only light damage to infrastructure, including to the Nevatim airbase. He also said that the international coalition that aided Israel in thwarting the attack was a strategic achievement in itself, adding that Israel now had a wider range of options when determining its response to the attack, which he said would happen “in a timing of our choosing,” reiterating what War Cabinet Minister Genny Gantz said on Sunday.

Iran’s attack, made in retaliation for an allegedly Israeli April 1 attack on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus in which seven officers of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard were killed, has increased fears of open warfare between Israel and Iran and heightened concerns that violence rooted in the Gaza war is spreading further in the region.

Other than striking the Nevatim air base, which did not interrupt its operations, the only other serious success the theocratic regime in Tehran can boast of in the aftermath of the massive but overwhelmingly futile attack, was a 7-year-old Bedouin girl being seriously wounded when a piece of shrapnel struck her home after Israeli air defenses intercepted an incoming missile. Several other people in the household sustained less serious injuries.

Although schools remained open, TVP World’s correspondent in Tel Aviv, Diana Skaya, reports that at a daycare she went to, all the staff were present but the parents did not bring their children in for fear of another Iranian barrage.
Israeli announcement of a retaliatory strike came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned his war cabinet for the second time in less than 24 hours. The day prior, two senior Israeli officials signaled that retaliation was not imminent and Israel would not act alone but the results of Monday’s talks were not yet officially fully known.

According to the source of Israel’s Channel 12, however, the war cabinet discussed a range of options at its meeting on Monday, with the intention of hurting Iran for its drone and missile attack on Israel but without causing an all-out war.
Without revealing its source, the broadcaster said Israel’s intention was to embark on action coordinated with the United States. The White House has, however, said already on Sunday it would not join Israel in any direct attack on Iran.

Wary of the dangers, President Joe Biden has told Netanyahu the United States will not take part in any Israeli counter-offensive against Iran.
Source: Reuters
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