DUBAI: Iran said on Wednesday its military was ready to confront any attack by Israel, with the air force saying it was prepared for action.
Iran’s navy commander said also that it was escorting Iranian commercial vessels to the Red Sea.
Iran carried out its first-ever direct attack on Israel last weekend in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus on April 1.
Israel has said it will hit back and its war cabinet was meeting on Wednesday to discuss options.
“Any attack by the Zionist regime (Israel) on our soil will be dealt with a severe response,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Wednesday at a parade held for Army Day, state media reported.
The commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force warned at the same event that its warplanes, including Russian-made Sukhoi-24s, were in their “best state of preparedness” to counter any Israeli attack.
“We have full readiness in all fields, including our air coverage and bombers, and are prepared for any operation,” Brig. Gen. Amir Vahedi said.
A direct attack on Revolutionary Guards bases or nuclear research facilities within Iran is one of the options Israel has to strike back. Targets outside of Iran are also a possibility.
Admiral Shahram Irani said the Iran Navy was escorting Iranian commercial ships to the Red Sea, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
“The Navy is carrying out a mission to escort Iranian commercial ships to the Red Sea and our Jamaran frigate is present in the Gulf of Aden in this view,” Irani said.
Tehran was ready to escort vessels of other countries, he added.
The Red Sea has seen significant disruption to Israel-bound shipping due to attacks from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis.
On April 13, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized the MSC Aries, a Portuguese-flagged container ship in the Strait of Hormuz which Tehran says is linked to Israel.
Iranian military says it is ready to deal with any Israeli attack
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Iranian military says it is ready to deal with any Israeli attack
- Iran is bracing for a possible Israeli retaliation, with Israel’s war cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss a response
Egypt’s presence at Gaza talks highlights its ‘pivotal role’ in region, says analyst
- Meeting in Rome fuels hope amid concerns that Israel is sabotaging peace negotiations
CAIRO: The presence of Egyptian delegates at a scheduled meeting in Rome to discuss a ceasefire in Gaza underscores Cairo’s “pivotal role” in the region, political analyst and MP Osama Al-Ashmouni told Arab News on Saturday, adding that it also shows Egypt’s unquestionable commitment to the Palestinian cause.
Egypt — along with Qatar and the US — has been involved in months of mediation efforts aimed at ending the war that has raged in the Gaza Strip for more than nine months.
A senior source told the Cairo News Channel that a meeting involving Egyptian, US, and Qatari officials and the head of Israeli Intelligence will take place in Rome on Sunday, in the hopes of developing an agreement that would immediately halt military engagements and guarantee the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The source said Egyptian authorities have stressed the importance of reaching an agreement that ensures the free movement of Gaza’s citizens and a complete withdrawal from the Rafah crossing.
Al-Ashmouni told Arab News that Egypt “has been a stalwart supporter of the Palestinian cause throughout its history, offering tremendous support to defend the rights of the Palestinian people and their quest to reclaim their occupied land and establish a Palestinian state.”
Al-Ashmouni added that Israel “consistently disseminates falsehoods and continues its deceptive practices and lies, whether in distorting Egypt’s role in supporting the Palestinian cause or by trying to portray itself as the victim, thereby reversing the roles of victim and perpetrator.
“It is crucial for attendees at the Rome meeting to recognize this, as the conscience of the free world should not heed the fabrications spread by the Israeli propaganda machine, despite the international community’s passive stance on Israel’s actions, which include crimes against humanity and war crimes against the unarmed Palestinian people in Gaza.”
Al-Ashmouni expressed his hope that the negotiations in Rome would prove effective, although he anticipates that Israel will continue what he called its policy of sabotaging peace negotiations.
Journalist Mahmoud Mosalam, a member of the Egyptian Senate, told Arab News that Egypt plays a crucial role in mediation talks amid “intense accusations by Israel and other parties who would prefer Egypt to withdraw from the role.”
Mosalam added: “They allege that Egypt is facilitating arms smuggling to the resistance, and some American media outlets falsely claim that Egypt has altered texts from previous negotiations.”
He hopes the negotiations in Rome, which will also include Palestinian and Italian officials, “will be fruitful and help Gaza emerge from its severe crisis, a situation akin to actual genocide.”
He added that the recent outpouring of global support for the Palestinian people gives them an opportunity that they must seize and said it is inevitable the war will end, which would present the Palestinian leaders with “significant responsibilities,” including the reconstruction of Gaza and the reorganization of the Palestinian administration in preparation for a “comprehensive resolution” of the Palestinian issue.
Heat wave forces Iran to shutter government offices and banks. Electricity consumption soars
- Banks, offices, and public institutions across the country close to protect people’s health and conserve energy, due to extreme temperatures
TEHRAN: A heat wave blanketing Iran has forced authorities to cut operating hours at various facilities Saturday and order all government and commercial institutions to shutter on Sunday.
The temperature ranged from 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) to 42 C (about 107 F) in the capital, Tehran on Saturday, according to weather reports.
State-run IRNA news agency said banks, offices, and public institutions across the country would close on Sunday to protect people’s health and conserve energy, due to extreme temperatures and that only emergency services and medical agencies would be excluded.
Authorities also cut working hours on Saturday in many provinces due to the sweltering heat, IRNA reported, adding that high temperatures, over 40 C (104 F), have been registered in Tehran since Friday.
Iranian media warned people to stay indoors until 5 p.m. local time.
Authorities also said electricity consumption reached record levels of 78,106 megawatts on Tuesday.
Nournews, close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reported Wednesday that Iran’s temperature is rising at twice the pace of the global temperature which has increased by more than one degree compared to the long-term average. Meanwhile, Iran has become warmer by 2 degrees over the past 50 years, the agency said.
Last year, Iran ordered a two-day nationwide holiday due to increasing temperatures.
170 killed in days-long Israeli operation, says Gaza civil defense
- Deir Al-Balah is one of the areas most populated with displaced families, and said over 100 others were wounded
GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Saturday that Israel’s military operation around Khan Yunis has killed about 170 people and wounded hundreds since it started on Monday.
“Since the beginning of the Israeli military operation in the Khan Yunis area, we are talking of approximately 170 martyrs and hundreds of wounded,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
He said many people had been displaced again on Saturday as the Israeli operation continued.
“The questions is where will these residents go?” Basal said.
“Anyone who sees the situation in Khan Yunis will witness thousands of people spread out on the ground, on the roads, in areas that unfortunately are not suitable for living.
“With no other options available, they are exposing themselves to death.”
Earlier on Saturday the military issued new evacuation orders for residents of the southern city, after retrieving the bodies of five Israelis and warning of new operations.
The United Nations said more than 180,000 Palestinians have fled Khan Yunis since the Israeli operation began on Monday.
The evacuation orders and “intensified hostilities” have “significantly destabilized aid operations,” it added, reporting “dire water, hygiene and sanitation conditions” across the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military said it launched the operation to halt rocket fire from the area, which already saw heavy fighting earlier this year.
On Wednesday, it said troops had retrieved the bodies of five Israelis from the area.
They had been killed during the Hamas attacks of October 7 and their bodies taken back to Gaza, the military said.
On Saturday, it ordered residents from more parts of Khan Yunis “to temporarily evacuate to the adjusted humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi” — the second such adjustment made to the safe zone within a week.
Israel orders the evacuation of an area designated as a humanitarian zone in Gaza
- The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry
KHAN YOUNIS: Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.
The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It’s the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel’s punishing air and ground campaign.
On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.
The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel’s estimates. That’s more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.
The war began with an assault by Hamas militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.
WHO sends over 1 mln polio vaccines to Gaza to protect children
- Israel’s military said it would start offering the vaccine to soldiers in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples
- Besides polio, the UN has reported an increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza
GENEVA: The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.
“While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper.
He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.
Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99 percent worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.
Israel’s military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.
Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.
