The Middle East conflict continues to escalate, with Israel delivering a stern warning to Iran and intensifying its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon. In a stark message, Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi has declared that any retaliatory action by Iran for the recent Israeli strikes on Tehran will be met with a “very, very hard” strike.
“If Iran makes the mistake and launches another barrage of missiles at Israel, we will once again know how to reach Iran, reach even with capabilities that we did not use this time, and hit very, very hard both the capabilities and places that we spared this time,” Halevi told military personnel who was part in the weekend Israeli strike on Iran.
He further emphasised that certain targets in Iran have been deliberately spared for future operations, signalling a continuous threat against Tehran. “This event is not over; we are still in the midst of it,” he warned.
This escalating war of words comes after Israeli fighter jets targeted Iranian military facilities and missile production sites in retaliation for a ballistic missile attack earlier this month.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, Israel’s ground operation against Hezbollah has reached a new level with Israeli tanks pushing deep into the outskirts of Khiam, marking their deepest incursion yet.
Adding to the escalating tensions, Hezbollah announced that Naim Qassem, the group’s deputy leader, has been chosen to succeed Hassan Nasrallah as the group’s chief following Nasrallah’s death in an Israeli strike last month.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that Qassem was a “temporary appointment” who would not last for long. In a post on X in Hebrew, he said that the “countdown has begun”. However, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant dismissed Qassem’s appointment as a “temporary” measure, adding a chilling message, “The countdown has begun”.
The conflict has now spilled across the Lebanese border, with fighting intensifying in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israeli towns on October 7th.
Continuing its war on Gaza, an Israeli airstrike on a residential block in Gaza killed nearly 100 people on Tuesday. This follows Israel’s recent ban on UNRWA, the primary UN agency providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the region.
