Iran is expected to attack Israel within 24 to 48 hours, following a major attack by Hezbollah that wounded two IDF soldiers, top Western diplomats have warned.
The US news agency Axios reported that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the US’s top diplomat, told the G7 yesterday that an attack was imminent in response to the killings of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Fuad Shukr in Beirut by Israel.
This would be the second time Iran has directly attacked Israel during the growing Middle East crisis. The first was in April, when the country fired a salvo of missiles and drones overnight.
But unlike the April attack, the US admitted in a private conversation with G7 members that it does not know what the expected retaliatory strike will look like.
Nevertheless, Iran has made it clear that it plans to attack its enemy.
Iran today claimed it had the “legal right” to respond to Haniyeh’s killing. Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told a news conference: “No one has the right to question Iran’s legal right to punish the Zionist regime.”
Shocking footage from the region showed the Iron Dome system firing defensive missiles to intercept the barrage attack
The Israeli army of Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) expects an attack within 24 to 48 hours
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (pictured) is poised to attack Israel soon
Meanwhile, the leader of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, General Hossein Salami, threatened Israel, warning that the state was “digging its own grave” by continuing the war against the terror group Hamas.
“They will see the result of their mistake. They will see when, how and where they will get their response,” Salami said in a speech.
The threats from Iran came just hours after Hezbollah, backed by the Iranian regime, fired a silo containing 30 rockets from Lebanon toward the Upper Galilee.
Shocking footage from the region showed Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system firing missiles to intercept the barrage.
Despite this, two Israeli soldiers were wounded in the attack, which also caused fires in northern Israel.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it struck a military base in northern Israel in response to “attacks and killings” carried out by Israel in several villages in southern Lebanon.
The attack injured two Israeli soldiers and also caused a fire in northern Israel
The Iron Dome intercepted many of the rockets fired by Hezbollah
A man holds Palestinian, Lebanese and Hezbollah flags next to a damaged site where top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed after 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 led to growing fears of an all-out war in the Middle East between Israel and Tehran’s allies.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was already engaged in a “multi-front war” with Iran, adding during a cabinet meeting on Sunday that Israel was ready for any scenario.
Netanyahu is also accused of not being “genuinely interested in a ceasefire,” as Hamas’ Haniyeh was the terror group’s lead negotiator on the ceasefire.
Middle East expert Andreas Krieg said his killing, and that of Shukur, undone months of work by American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
Despite increasingly pro-war rhetoric and fading hopes for a permanent ceasefire, many of Israel’s allies are doing everything they can to ease tensions in the region.
The US said during the G7 meeting on Sunday that it decided to increase its military capacity in the region to strengthen its defense.
The party is also said to have asked other members to exert diplomatic pressure on Israel, Iran and Hezbollah in an attempt to reduce tensions.
A car drives past a poster showing deceased Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Iranian Quds Force top commander Qassem Soleimani and Hezbollah top commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, Lebanon
Yemenis wave flags and hold up placards of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike, and Hamas leader 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 increased tensions in the Middle East, which threaten to spark a broader conflict in the region.
‘We urge all parties involved to stop perpetuating the current destructive cycle of retaliatory violence, to reduce tensions and work constructively towards de-escalation. No country or nation benefits from further escalation in the Middle East.’
Meanwhile, several countries have urged their citizens to leave the region, fearing that diplomatic measures to stem the rising tensions will fail.
Japan and Turkey today called on their citizens to leave Lebanon, while France and Italy called on their citizens to leave a day earlier.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom sent warships and military aircraft to the region to assist with a possible evacuation of British citizens.
Several Royal Air Force transport helicopters and two naval vessels are on standby in the eastern Mediterranean, including the Type 45 air defence destroyer HMS Duncan and the RFA Cardigan Bay, a transport ship capable of deploying landing craft.
The Ministry of Defence said it was deploying military personnel “to provide operational support to embassies to help British nationals”.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also captured 251 hostages, 111 of whom remain in Gaza. The army says 39 are dead.
At least 39,583 people have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli retaliation, according to the territory’s Ministry of Health. The ministry did not provide details on the number of civilians and militants killed.
