Israel vows to put 'national interest' first in response to Iran attack

Israel vows to put 'national interest' first in response to Iran attack

Palestinian children receive drops as part of a polio vaccination campaign in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Tuesday that Israel -- and not the United States -- will decide how it will strike back after Iran fired around 200 missiles at his country earlier this month.

The comments came as a top Iranian commander, whose absence sparked rumours that he could have been killed in an Israeli strike, appeared in public for the first time in weeks.

Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah also exchanged fire as fighting raged in Lebanon, while humanitarian groups sounded the alarm about a dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

On October 1, Iran launched a volley of about 200 missiles at Israel in response to an Israeli strike in Lebanon's capital Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian general Abbas Nilforoushan.

Israel has vowed to respond to the attack. Biden -- whose government is Israel's top arms supplier -- has warned against striking Iran's nuclear or oil facilities in order to avoid broader war.

According to a Washington Post report on Monday citing unnamed US officials, Netanyahu reassured the White House that Israel was only contemplating targeting military sites.

A statement from Netanyahu's office on Tuesday took a different tone.

"We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest," the statement said.

Also on Tuesday, Esmail Qaani, the head of Iran's powerful Quds Force, attended the funeral for Nilforoushan, dispelling rumours he had been killed.

- Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire -

Israel's military launched several strikes on eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, a day after Netanyahu vowed to "mercilessly strike Hezbollah in all parts of Lebanon –- including Beirut".

Multiple Israeli air strikes hit the eastern Bekaa Valley, putting a hospital in Baalbek city out of service, Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

"It was a violent night in Baalbek, we have not witnessed a similar one since" the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon, 50-year-old resident Nidal al-Solh told AFP. 

Israeli strikes have targeted Hezbollah strongholds as well as other parts of Lebanon, including a northern Christian-majority village where at least 21 people were killed on Monday, according to the health ministry.

Anis Abla, civil defence chief in the southern border town of Marjayoun, said that "our rescue missions are becoming more and more difficult, because the strikes are never-ending and target us".

At least 1,315 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel last month escalated its bombing there, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

The war in Lebanon has displaced at least 690,000 people, according to verified figures last week from the International Organization for Migration.

UNICEF and the World Food Programme on Tuesday called for more funding to address "increasing" needs in Lebanon.

- 'Entirely unjustified' -

Israel says it wants to push back Hezbollah in order to secure its northern boundary and allow tens of thousands of people displaced by rocket fire since last year to return home safely.

Hezbollah claimed several attacks early Tuesday, including targeting Israeli troops in northern Israel with a salvo of rockets.

It also said it downed an Israeli Hermes 450 drone overnight, without specifying where.

Fighters from Hezbollah also clashed with Israeli troops in a Lebanese border village, and sent rockets towards the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, the group said.

Hezbollah says its strikes are also in support of Palestinian militants Hamas who attacked Israel on October 7 last year, triggering the ongoing war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has faced new criticism over injuries and damage sustained by UNIFIL, the United Nations peacekeeping force which has been deployed in Lebanon since 1978, after a previous Israeli invasion. 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose country is the second-biggest contributor of UNIFIL peacekeepers, lashed out at the Israeli attacks. The attitude of the Israeli forces was "entirely unjustified," she told the Italian Senate.

The UN Security Council for the first time on Monday expressed "strong concerns" over peacekeepers being wounded in Lebanon.

UNIFIL has refused Netanyahu's request for peacekeepers to "get out of harm's way", with UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix saying the blue helmets will stay in their positions.

- 'Unimaginable fear' in Gaza -

While deploying troops into Lebanon, Israel has kept up its bombardment of Gaza where it has been at war since the Hamas attack on southern Israel.

That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures, including hostages killed in captivity.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed 42,344 people, the majority civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

At a school-turned-shelter hit by an Israeli strike in the central Nuseirat camp, Fatima al-Azab said "there is no safety anywhere" in Gaza.

"They are all children, sleeping in the covers, all burned and cut up," she said.

In northern Gaza, the Israeli military announced it had effectively laid siege to the Jabalia area as it seeks to rout out Hamas fighters.

The International Committee for the Red Cross warned that "northern Gaza families are facing unimaginable fear, loss of loved ones, confusion, and exhaustion".

"People must be able to flee safely," the ICRC's Adrian Zimmerman said.

burs-dl/jsa