Israel Resumes Operations Against Hamas, Considers Retaliation Against Iran in Coordination with United States

Israel continued its operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Monday with attacks on terrorist units in the center of the region, while the international community awaits its response to the unprecedented attack by Iran which stoked fears of a regional escalation.

Iran launched an attack with drones and missiles on the night of Saturday to Sunday, in response to a bombing against its consulate in Damascus, on April 1, which it attributed to the Jewish State.

Israel assured that the attack “was thwarted,” while Iran considered “the matter settled,” warning its archenemy against any “reckless behavior” that could trigger a “much stronger” reaction.

On the question of Israeli retaliation, the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his war cabinet on Monday, after a meeting the day before in which, according to local media, no decision was made.

The first comments do not indicate a specific action, but tend to evaluate what the cabinet intends to carry out, a retaliation agreed with the United States.

The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken stressed that Washington will continue to defend Israel, but that it does not want an escalation with Iran.

“We do not support a retaliatory attack,” the British Chancellor declared on Monday. David Cameron to the BBC.

And the French president, Emmanuel Macron called for a “conflagration” to be avoided, a call shared by much of the international community.

For now, the Israeli military affirmed that the weekend’s Iranian attack will not divert it from its goal of eliminating the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, an ally of Iran, in the Gaza Strip.

The war broke out following the Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, when they killed about 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli data.

They also took 250 hostages, of whom 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 who are believed to have died, according to Israeli authorities.

In response, Israel promised to “annihilate” Hamas and launched an offensive that has already left tens of thousands of people dead in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian territory, governed by the Islamist group.

“Despite Iran’s attacks, we have not lost sight – not even for a moment – of our essential mission in Gaza, which is to save our hostages in the hands of Hamas,” he declared. Daniel Hagari the spokesman for the Israeli army.

Before dawn, dozens of bombings hit the sector of Khan Younis, in the south of the Strip. Netanyahu remains determined to launch a ground offensive against Rafah, a city in the far south of Gaza marked as the last stronghold of Hamas, despite warnings from the United States and other countries, which fear a bloodbath.

According to the UN, nearly a million and a half Gazans displaced by the war are overcrowded in Rafah, mostly in makeshift camps.

Several analysts considered that It is almost inevitable that Israel will respond to the Iranian attack.

“The big question is not only whether Israel will act, but also what it will decide to do,” a US authority told AFP.

At the session of the UN Security Council, urgently convened on Sunday, Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that “neither the region nor the world can afford more wars” and warned that “the Middle East is on the brink of the abyss.”

The Israeli ambassador, From Gilead demanded at the meeting that the Security Council impose “all possible sanctions on Iran before it is too late.”

For his part, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Nasser Canaan declared on Monday that Western powers should “appreciate Iran’s restraint in recent months,” “rather than leveling accusations.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran calls for the destruction of Israel, State that it does not recognize, but until Saturday it had refrained from attacking it directly.

Its allies, Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, have carried out numerous attacks against Israel since the start of the war in Gaza.

On Monday, Hezbollah said it set off “explosive devices” as Israeli soldiers crossed the border into Lebanon, it said.

A military spokesman confirmed to AFP that several soldiers were wounded and “that the incident occurred in Lebanon.”

With information from AFP