Iran is expected to attack Israel in the next 24 to 48 hours following a major Hezbollah attack that left two IDF soldiers wounded, senior Western diplomats have warned.
US news outlet Axios reported that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the highest-ranking US diplomat, told the G7 yesterday that a strike was imminent in response to Israel’s killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Fuad Shukr in Beirut.
This would be the second time during the escalating Middle East crisis that Iran has directly attacked Israel, the first being in April, when it sent in a salvo of missiles and drones overnight.
But unlike the April attack, the US admitted in a private call with G7 members that it does not know what the expected retaliatory strike will look like.
Iran said today that it has the “legal right” to respond to Haniyeh’s assassination, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani telling a press conference: “No one has the right to doubt Iran’s legal right to punish the Zionist regime.”
Raw footage from the region showed the Iron Dome system firing defensive missiles to intercept the bombardment.
Israel expects an attack in the next 24 to 48 hours from Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured)
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (pictured) is preparing to attack Israel imminently
Meanwhile, the head of the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, General Hossein Salami, threatened Israel, warning that the state was “digging its own grave” by continuing its war against the Hamas terror group.
“They will see the result of their mistake. They will see when, how and where they will get their answer,” Salami said in a speech.
Iran’s threats come just hours after Hezbollah, backed by the Iranian regime, launched a silo of 30 missiles from Lebanon towards the Upper Galilee.
Shocking images from the region showed the Iron Dome system firing defensive missiles to intercept the bombing.
Two Israeli soldiers were wounded in the attack, which also caused a fire in northern Israel.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it attacked a military base in northern Israel in response to “attacks and assassinations” carried out by Israel in several villages in southern Lebanon.
Two Israeli soldiers were wounded in the attack, which also caused a fire in northern Israel.
Iron Dome intercepted many of the missiles sent by Hezbollah
A man holds Palestinian, Lebanese and Hezbollah flags next to a damaged site where top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed following an Israeli strike on July 30.
A view of the damaged site where top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed after an Israeli strike on July 30.
Rising tensions between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran have raised growing fears of an all-out war breaking out in the Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his nation is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran, adding at a Cabinet meeting on Sunday that Israel is ready for any scenario.
Netanyahu has also been accused of not being “sincerely interested in a ceasefire” as Hamas’ Haniyeh was the terror group’s chief ceasefire negotiator.
Middle East expert Andreas Krieg said his killing, as well as that of Shukur, undid months of work by US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
Despite increasingly war-focused rhetoric and fading hopes for a permanent ceasefire, many of Israel’s allies are working to reduce tensions in the region.
The United States said on Sunday during the G7 conference call that its decision to increase its military capacity in the region was to strengthen defense.
He also reportedly asked other members to apply diplomatic pressure on Israel, Iran and Hezbollah in an attempt to ease tensions.
A car drives past a poster depicting late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Iran’s Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, Lebanon
Yemenis wave flags and hold up posters of top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike, and slain Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh during a rally in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on August 2, 2024.
The G7 ministers said in a statement: ‘We express our deep concern about the rising level of tension in the Middle East which threatens to trigger a wider conflict in the region.
“We urge all parties involved to refrain from perpetuating the current destructive cycle of retaliatory violence, to reduce tensions and to engage constructively towards de-escalation. No country or nation will benefit from further escalation in the Middle East.”
Meanwhile, several countries have ordered their citizens to leave the region amid fears that diplomatic measures to counter rising tensions will fail.
Japan and Turkey asked their citizens to leave Lebanon today, while France and Italy asked their citizens to leave the country a day earlier.
Meanwhile, the UK has sent warships and military aircraft to the region to assist in a possible evacuation of British citizens.
Several Royal Air Force transport helicopters and two warships are on standby in the eastern Mediterranean, including the Type 45 air defence destroyer HMS Duncan and the RFA Cardigan Bay, a transport ship that can deploy landing craft.
The Ministry of Defence said it was deploying military personnel “to provide embassies with operational support to assist British nationals”.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The militants also captured 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 who the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 39,583 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not give details on civilian and militant deaths.
