Israel’s airstrikes have significantly impacted Iran’s defenses and missile production, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Sunday.
In response, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei indicated that the country is contemplating its reaction.
As fighting continues in Gaza and Lebanon, a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran could potentially escalate into a broader regional conflict. However, a day after the airstrikes, there were no indications that they would lead to further escalation.
Meanwhile, intense fighting persisted in Lebanon between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, which has intensified sharply in recent weeks. On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike in a residential area of Sidon resulted in the deaths of eight people, according to medical sources.
“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.
Israel’s army chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said the strike on Iran had showed what the Israeli response to its enemies would be. “We struck strategic systems in Iran, which carries great importance, and we will now see how things develop. We are prepared for all scenarios in every arena.”
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 U.N. Security Council will likely convene to discuss the attack on Monday, diplomats said.
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.
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