Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a stark warning to Israel, with a promise of a “tooth-breaking” response to the continuing Israeli military strikes. This comes after an Israeli commando raid in Lebanon amid heightened tensions and days before the U.S. presidential election, in which the United States takes a leading position as Israel’s key military ally.
The enemies should know that a harsh response will be given to them, a tooth-breaking response,” Khamenei said in remarks that appeared to signal backing for Iran-aligned groups throughout the Middle East, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and various factions in Yemen and Syria.
Further inflaming the rhetoric, Kamal Kharrazi, a close adviser to Khamenei, insinuated that Iran was already a nuclear power. He said that if there is a threat to its existence, Iran might change its nuclear policy. “If an existential threat appears, Iran will change its nuclear doctrine. We can produce weapons and are not troubled about that,” Kharrazi said in an interview with Lebanese media outlets.
The present round of hostilities has its roots in an October 1 missile strike from Iran, which prompted Israel’s bombing campaign on October 26 against Iranian military facilities, reportedly killing four Iranian soldiers. Israel says the airstrikes have significantly impaired Iran’s missile and air defense systems, and Iran has threatened to retaliate.
In a related but separate operation, Israeli naval commandos captured a high-ranking Hezbollah operative in Batroun, Lebanon. The operative was said to be an expert in training on the sea and is currently in Israeli custody. “A senior operative of Hezbollah who serves as an expert in his field was apprehended,” the Israeli military said, according to AFP. The operative has been taken onto Israeli soil for interrogation.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the raid and ordered the foreign ministry to file a complaint with the UN. The Lebanese army and the UN peacekeepers have also investigated the incident.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is growing unabated. A World Health Organization spokesman said six people were injured, four of them children, in a missile strike on a polio vaccination center in northern Gaza on 17 August. The World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus condemned the Sheikh Radwan health center attack as “extremely concerning.”
Whereas the continuous Israeli military operations take place, reports emerge on the death of many militants in the Jabalia area. The civilian casualties have increased aggressively, which the health ministry in Gaza has claimed as 43,000-plus since hostilities have been provoked again, a figure disputed by Israeli sources.
The Israeli airstrikes have been ramped up across Lebanon, where the conflict has killed close to 2,000 people and forced many to become homeless. Meanwhile, in Israel, it has fired rockets into military targets near Haifa and Tel Aviv. The U.S. has sent B-52 bombers to the region as a cold warning against further escalation by Iran.
One U.S. official recently warned Tehran that Washington may not be able to hold Israel back should there be another Iranian attack. “We told the Iranians: We won’t be able to hold Israel back,” the official reportedly said.
