Khamenei vows response to Israel, US after attacks

TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday vowed retaliation for attacks by Israel and its US ally, as a pro-Iran coalition in Iraq claimed a drone strike on the Israeli resort of Eilat.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq is among pro-Iran groups drawn into more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Days before the presidential election in Israel’s main military supplier the United States, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran’s response would cover attacks on both the Islamic republic and its allies.

Israel’s military said it intercepted three drones over the Red Sea, after late Friday reporting seven drones launched from “several fronts”. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for four drone strikes on Eilat.

Since late September Israel has been engaged in full-scale war against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon while fighting continues against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which triggered the Gaza war by attacking Israel on October 7 last year.

On Saturday, Israel again carried out deadly air strikes on north Gaza, where the UN calls conditions “apocalyptic”, and Hezbollah intensified rocket fire around Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv. “The enemies, both the USA and the Zionist regime, should know that they will definitely receive a tooth-breaking response,” Khamenei said, referring to Iran-aligned groups including those in Yemen and Syria. On October 26, Israel bombed military sites in Iran, killing four servicemen, in response to an October 1 barrage of about 200 missiles that Tehran called a reprisal.

Israel has warned Iran against responding to the October 26 attack.

On Friday, the Pentagon announced deployment of ballistic missile defence destroyers, long-range B-52 bombers and other resources to the Middle East, serving as a warning to Iran.

The capabilities would begin arriving “in coming months”, a Pentagon spokesman said.

US naval forces and heavy B-2 bombers have struck Huthi rebel targets in Yemen in response to the attacks by the rebels.

Since October 6, Israeli forces have carried out a major air and ground assault in north Gaza, centred on the Jabalia area, vowing to stop Hamas from regrouping.

“The situation unfolding in north Gaza is apocalyptic,” said a joint statement by UN agency chiefs. They described the area as “under siege” and “denied basic aid and life-saving supplies”.

After nearly a year of tit-for-tat exchanges across Israel’s northern border, Israel escalated its bombing campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on September 23 and later sent in ground troops.

AFP images from Tira, northeast of Tel Aviv, showed the upper wall blown out in what appeared to be a residential building. Several cars below were crushed.