The commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, warned Israel on Thursday against attacking the Islamic Republic in retaliation for a missile strike as its arch-enemy stepped up an offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah.
Fears of a wider conflict have grown as Israel plans its response to the October 1 rocket attack by Iran following Israeli air strikes on Iran-aligned militias.
"We're telling you (Israel), that if you commit aggression against any point, we will painfully attack your same point," Hossein Salami said in a televised speech, adding that Iran can penetrate Israel's defenses.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday about Israeli operations in Lebanon and the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araqchi landed in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials as part of his Middle East tour at a time when tensions are escalating.
The EU holds its first summit with the Gulf States and issues a statement calling for calm: "We stress the importance of diplomatic cooperation with Iran - to seek de-escalation in the region," she said.
Israel has shown no sign of easing its military campaigns against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian Gaza Strip despite repeated calls for a ceasefire and has vowed to punish Iran for the October 1 attack.
Iran and its Middle East allies - Lebanon's Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemen's Houthis and armed groups in Iraq - say they will not back down in the face of relentless pressure from the region's most advanced and powerful military.
The mayor of a major city in southern Lebanon was among 16 people killed in an Israeli airstrike on the municipal government headquarters on Wednesday, the largest attack on an official Lebanese state building since the start of the Israeli air campaign.
Lebanese officials condemned the incident, which injured more than 50 people in the provincial capital Nabatieh, saying it was proof that Israel's campaign against Hezbollah was now shifting to the Lebanese state.
The Israelis are "deliberately focused on a city council meeting that was discussing the state of services and assistance to the city" to help people displaced by the Israeli campaign, the interim prime minister said Najib Mikati.
Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting each other since the Lebanese group opened a new front, claiming solidarity with the besieged Palestinians in Gaza.
EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič said Israel's "brutal response" to last year's Hamas attack has resulted in a devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza that is now continuing in Lebanon.
"Aid workers have been targeted and killed, hundreds of them. There is no security for the satisfactory organisation of humanitarian work," told Reuters on the sidelines of an ASEAN event in Jakarta, describing the provision of humanitarian supplies as "grossly inadequate".
CGTN/ gnews - RoZ
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