The growing and dangerous escalation between Israel and Iran took its latest step towards an open warfare last night, when Iran launched a new wave of strikes in the early hours of the morning – in retaliation for bombings hours earlier against military and civilian targets in Tehran– that left eight dead and dozens wounded in Tel Aviv.
Israeli officials say that so far at least 24 people have been killed and hundreds injured as a result of retaliatory strikes launched by Iran since Israel bombed hundreds of targets on Iranian territory on Friday, killing the leaders of Iran’s armed forces and its Revolutionary Guard, as well as a dozen scientists working on Iran’s nuclear programme. For its part, the Iranian government puts the number of people killed to date at 224 and more than 1,000 wounded due to the Israeli attacks. In both cases, most of the victims are civilians.
In a controversial statement following this morning’s bombardment of Tel Aviv, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that it will be the residents of Tehran who will ‘pay the price’ for civilians killed in Israel: ‘The blustering dictator in Tehran has turned into a cowardly murderer, deliberately shooting at Israeli civilians in an attempt to dissuade the Israeli army from continuing the offensive that is crippling its capabilities,’ Katz said via Telegram. ‘The residents of Tehran will pay the price, and soon,’ he added.
Katz was referring to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whom Israel’s own military intelligence initially planned to assassinate, though the plan was aborted because US President Donald Trump objected. Later, softening his initial statements, Katz said he meant forcing the people of Tehran to evacuate their homes, not killing them.
‘I wish to clarify the obvious: There is no intention to physically harm the residents of Tehran, as the murderous dictator does to the citizens of Israel,’ the minister was quoted as saying by Israeli media. ‘The residents of Tehran will be forced to bear the cost of the dictatorship and evacuate their homes from areas where it will be necessary to strike regime targets and security infrastructure in Tehran’ Katz added.
‘Iran has not yet used its most advanced weapons against Israel’.
Meanwhile, and despite efforts by countries such as Turkey to bring about a ceasefire and a negotiated solution to the conflict before it escalates and spreads across the Middle East, for now both Israel and Iran refuse to negotiate with the other side, which they consider illegitimate.
Israel accuses Iran of supporting terrorism in the region and concealing its nuclear ambitions, while the Iranian regime accuses the Israeli government of sowing chaos in the region and practising a policy of ‘apartheid’ and genocide towards the Palestinians. In fact, Israel and Iran have warned civilians to leave areas close to military and strategic targets in Tehran and Tel Aviv respectively, anticipating new attacks that will bring more destruction and casualties.
Some analysts have claimed in media outlets such as Al-Jazeera that Iran has not yet used its full military and ballistic capabilities – which were apparently not seriously diminished after the initial Israeli strike on Friday – noting that the current Iranian strategy is to gradually increase the intensity of missile strikes if Israel does not stop its actions against Iran.
‘They haven’t used some of their most advanced weapons,’ said Foad Izadi, a professor of international relations at Tehran University. ‘If that doesn’t happen (if the Israelis don’t stop the attacks), the missiles are going to get bigger in terms of size and more in terms of quantity – until you have the other side stopping’ insisted Izadi, who argues that the Iranian leadership’s view is that ‘if there is no cost to attacking Iran, Tehran would look like Gaza’.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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