• According to Israeli media, the attack will be designed to inflict a decisive blow on Tehran
• Hezbollah fires rockets at an air base in Israel’s north
• Tel Aviv says it ‘struck at fighters inside a mosque’ in southern Lebanon

BEIRUT: Israel was preparing a military response to Iran’s missile attack this week that heightened fears of a wider regional war, an official said on Saturday, as fighting raged in Lebanon and in Gaza.

In its second-ever direct attack on its regional foe, Iran launched about 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday in revenge for a spate of killings of leaders from outfits like Hezbollah and Hamas.

The missile attack, which killed one person in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, caused damage to an Israeli air base, according to satellite images.

The Israeli military official said the army “is preparing a response to the unprecedented Iranian attack”. He did not elaborate on the nature or timing of the response, which analysts and Israeli media said would likely be designed to deal an immense blow to Iran, despite international calls for de-escalation and warnings from Tehran that it would retaliate.

Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, said both Israel and Iran were “taking huge gambles”. “Everything right now hinges on Israel’s response,” he said.

`Our homes are gone’

Hezbollah said on Saturday its fighters were confronting Israeli troops in Lebanon’s southern border region, where the Israeli military said it struck fighters inside a mosque in Bint Jbeil, a focus of this week’s fighting.

The Israeli military said its forces were engaged in “limited, localised” raids in southern Lebanon, though the scale of their operations was not immediately clear.

The army reported frequent rocket fire from Lebanon, some of which was intercepted by air defences, as Hezbollah claimed a rocket attack on northern Israel’s Ramat David air base, 45 kilometres from the border.

The Lebanese group also said it had fired rockets at a “military industries company” near Israel’s coastal city of Acre.

In the first reported Israeli air strike on northern Leb­anon’s Tripoli region during the current escalation, Hamas said bombardment of the Beddawi refugee camp killed one of its top fighters, Saeed Attallah Ali, as well as his wife and two daughters, on Saturday.

In downtown Beirut, Ibrahim Nazzal, who is among hundreds of thousands displaced by the violence, said: “We want the war to stop… all our homes are gone.” Across Lebanon, an intensified wave of strikes on Hezbollah strongholds has killed more than 1,110 people since Sept 23, according to the health ministry.

Lebanon’s state-run Natio­nal News Agency said about a dozen strikes hit the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs overnight, with a fresh raid on Saturday around mid-day.

It also reported more Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s south and east.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2024