Iran yesterday rejected Western calls to stand down its threat to retaliate against Israel for the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month.
The Islamic republic and its allies have blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s killing on July 31 during a visit to the Iranian capital for the swearing-in of President Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel has not commented.
Iran has vowed to avenge the death, which came hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed a senior commander of Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon.
Western diplomats have scrambled to avert a major conflagration in the Middle East, where tensions were already high due to the Israel’s offensive in Gaza. In a statement on Monday, the United States and its European allies urged Iran to de-escalate.
The White House warned that a “significant set of attacks” by Iran and its allies was possible as soon as this week, saying Israel shared the same assessment.
The United States has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group and a guided missile submarine to the region in support of Israel.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani criticised the Western call for it to de-escalate.
“The declaration by France, Germany and Britain, which raised no objection to the international crimes of the Zionist regime, brazenly asks Iran to take no deterrent action against a regime which has violated its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said in a statement.
“Such a request lacks political logic, flies in the face of the principles and rules of international law, and constitutes public and practical support” for Israel.
The United States and its European allies also called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with difficult talks set for tomorrow on halting the conflict. They also called for the “unfettered” delivery of aid to devastated Gaza.
Hamas is sticking to its demand that truce talks focus on a deal already discussed with Israel and mediators rather than starting anew, an official said.
Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 39,929 Palestinians and wounded 92,240 since October 7, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said yesterday. A total of 32 Palestinians have been killed and 88 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Hamas fired two rockets at Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv yesterday for the first time in months. There were no reports of casualties in Israel.
In the latest Gaza violence, Palestinian fighters clashed overnight with the Israeli army near Netzarim, south of Gaza City, an AFP correspondent reported.
Paramedics said one person was killed and others were wounded in Israeli bombing of the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza. They were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir el-Balah.
At least 10 people were killed and several wounded in an overnight Israeli strike on a home in the Abasan al-Kabira area of eastern Khan Younis, reports Al Jazeera online.
In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man near the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya, yesterday.
