MIDDLE EAST: The Gaza Health Ministry said 22 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday on several homes and buildings in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya
AFP and AP, TEHRAN
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday said Israel’s attack on Iran “should neither be exaggerated nor minimized.”
“The evil perpetrated by the Zionist regime [Israel] two nights ago must not be exaggerated or minimized,” he said in a post on X.
Without elaborating, he called the deadly attack a “miscalculation.”
Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate their neighborhoods flee amid an Israeli military operation in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, on Tuesday.
Photo: REUTERS
On Saturday, Israel carried out airstrikes against military sites in Iran in response to Tehran’s missile attack on Oct. 1, itself a retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed militant leaders and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Abbas Nilforoushan.
At least four Iranian soldiers were killed in the attack which Iran said caused “limited damage” to a few radar systems. The Israeli military has warned Tehran against responding.
Iranian officials and media have since downplayed the Israeli strikes, highlighting Iran’s defensive capabilities, but issued no vows of a direct response.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian paid tribute to the killed soldiers, hailing their efforts in “defending their land without fear.”
Separately, Israeli strikes on northern Gaza have killed at least 22 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said yesterday, as an Israeli offensive in the hard-hit and isolated north entered a third week, which aid groups described as a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel said it targeted militants.
In another development, a truck rammed into a bus stop near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, wounding 35 people, Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said.
The circumstances were not immediately clear, but Palestinians have carried out dozens of vehicle-ramming attacks over the years.
The attack occurred near the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
Asi Aharoni, an Israeli police spokesperson, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that the “attacker was neutralized,” indicating police were treating the incident as an attack.
Tensions have soared since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, as Israel has carried out regular military raids into the occupied West Bank that have left hundreds dead.
Most appear to have been militants killed during shootouts with Israeli forces, but Palestinians taking part in violent protests and civilian bystanders have also been killed.
The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service said 11 women and two children were among the 22 killed in the strikes late on Saturday on several homes and buildings in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.
It said a further 15 people were wounded and that the death toll could rise.
The Israeli military said it carried out a precise strike on militants in a structure in Beit Lahiya and took steps to avoid harming civilians.
