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Iran warns Israel none of its embassies are safe after strike on Tehran consulate in Syrian capital which left 12 dead including top generals
Iran has warned Israeli that none of its embassies are safe following an IDF strike in Syria's capital last week that killed 12 people, including two elite generals.
Major General Rahim Safavi, who served as the chief commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said: 'None of the embassies of the [Israeli] regime are safe anymore.'
The comments to the Tasnim news agency by Safavi, a military advisor to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, come as regional tensions have threatened to draw the Middle East into a wider conflict as Israel's war against Hamas marks six months.
Israel has been preparing for an Iranian response to the strike without directly acknowledging its involvement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is prepared for any response.
'Whoever harms us or plans to harm us, we will harm them,' he told a Cabinet meeting. 'We follow that principle in practice, all the time as well as in recent days.'
Demonstrators burn a US and an Israeli flag during the funeral for seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members killed in a strike in Syria
Israel launched an attack against the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, last week
The airstrike killed 12 people, including two top commanders
Last week, Israel launched an airstrike against the consulate in Damascus which flattened the complex.
The airstrike killed General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. It also killed Zahedi’s deputy, Gen Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi, and five other officers.
The surging regional tensions came six months after the start of the war, which was sparked when Hamas militants charged from Gaza into Israel on October 7 last year, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 captive.
Israel retaliated with fierce bombardments and a ground offensive that have killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities.
Also on Sunday, Israel's military announced it is drawing back forces from the 98th paratroopers division who have been operating in the area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The Hamas stronghold has been the main focus of Israel's offensive in recent months.
A before and after shot of the Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria
The airstrike killed General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. It also killed Zahedi’s deputy, Gen Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi, and five other officers
That takes Israeli troop levels in Gaza to some of the lowest levels since the war began, raising questions about plans for the future course of the war, especially the fate of the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah.
Israel says Rafah is Hamas's last stronghold and the war will not be complete until Hamas is destroyed. But the area now shelters some 1.4 million people - more than half of Gaza's population.
The prospect of an Israel offensive has raised global alarm, including from top ally the US, which has demanded to see a credible plan to protect civilians.
It is not clear how the war's intensity might change. Israel maintains troops in devastated northern Gaza and can send them south when needed.
The war's six-month mark has been met with growing frustration in Israel, where anti-government protests have swelled and anger is mounting over what some Israelis see as government inaction to help free the remaining roughly 130 hostages, about a quarter of whom are said by Israel to be dead.
Israel has been preparing for an Iranian response to the strike without directly acknowledging its involvement
A rescuer works at the site of an Israeli missile attack targeting the Iranian embassy's consulate building in Damascus, Syria
Iran warned arch foe Israel that it will punish an air strike that killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals, at its consular annex in Damascus
Negotiations in pursuit of a ceasefire in exchange for the hostages' release were expected to resume in Cairo on Sunday, while pressure rose for action now.
'Humanity has been all but abandoned' in Gaza, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement marking six months of war.
The United Nations and partners now warn of 'imminent famine' for more than a million people in Gaza as humanitarian workers urge Israel to loosen restrictions on the delivery of aid overland, the only way to meet soaring needs as some Palestinians forage for weeds to eat.
Mothers who have given birth in Gaza since the war began are especially vulnerable.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said the bodies of 38 people killed in Israel's bombardment have been taken to the territory's remaining functional hospitals in the past 24 hours. Hospitals have also received 71 wounded, it said.
The ministry said 33,175 have been killed since the war began. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says two-thirds of the dead are children and women. Another 75,886 have been wounded.
Israel's military continued to suffer losses, including in Khan Younis, where the military said four soldiers were killed in a battle with militants.
More than 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7, including 260 in the Gaza ground operation, according to Israel's government.