Tel Aviv, Oct. 4, (dpa/GNA) – Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has defended the recent rocket attack his country launched on Israel and encouraged Iran’s allies in the region.
“The glorious action of our armed forces … was an entirely legal and legitimate act. In fulfilling our duty, we do not hesitate and do not act hastily,” the head of state said during a closely watched sermon at Friday prayers in the capital Tehran.
As is customary in these sermons, a sniper rifle stood next to the lectern as a symbol of fighting spirit.
Khamenei, who under the constitution has the final say on all strategic matters of the Islamic Republic, also issued a threat against Iran’s arch-enemy: “Every blow against the Zionist regime [Israel] is a service to all of humanity.”
The 85-year-old described the Jewish state as a tool of the United States. “This cursed regime is rootless, artificial and unstable, and it struggles to maintain itself only with the support of the US.” Khamenei said the resistance of the militias it supports – the Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas movements – would prevail.
Khamenei said that Iran wouldn’t hesitate to launch fresh attacks on Israel in the future “if necessary.”
Later the deputy commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it would target Israeli infrastructure in the event of a war.
Ali Fadavi named refineries and “energy sources” as possible targets, the Mehr news agency and state television reported.
Iranian foreign minister in Beirut
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Lebanon for talks on Friday, in a visit that demonstrates Iran’s solidarity with the Lebanese people, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a post on X.
Observers suspect that the talks may focus on who will succeed the slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike a week ago.
Iran is the closest ally of Hezbollah, which has been severely weakened by the death of its leader.
The minister was accompanied by two lawmakers and the head of the Iranian Crescent, a sister organization of the Red Cross.
Lebanon is to receive a delivery of 10 tons of food and medicine during the visit, Baghaei said.
Beirut shaken by more strikes
The Israeli military attacked targets in the Lebanese capital Beirut overnight, eyewitnesses reported on Friday. A dpa reporter said there were severe explosions in the city.
Unconfirmed Lebanese reports suggest the attack was aimed at Hashem Safieddine, head of Hezbollah’s executive council, who is considered the most likely candidate to succeed Nasrallah as leader of the militia.
Renewed air raids in northern Israel
Towns and villages in northern Israel have again been attacked with rockets from Lebanon, the Israeli army reported on Friday as the situation along the border continued to escalate.
Twenty incoming missiles were registered in the greater Haifa area, the military said.
Air alerts were also sounded in numerous towns further north and east in Galilee. Some of the rockets were intercepted, the rest hit open terrain, the army said. There were no initial reports of casualties or major damage.
Hezbollah has been attacking Israel with rockets and grenades out of “solidarity” with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since the militants and other extremist groups attacked southern Israel almost a year ago.
Israel is trying to drive the militia from the border area by carrying out massive airstrikes in Lebanon, accompanied by a ground offensive, with the stated aim of allowing 60,000 evacuated Israelis to safely return to their homes in the north of the country.
Israeli army urges Lebanese to flee
The Israeli army warned the inhabitants of 37 further locations in southern Lebanon of planned attacks, and called on them to flee immediately.
“For your safety, you must leave your homes immediately” and head north, an Israeli military spokesman wrote in Arabic on the platform X on Friday. “Save your lives,” the spokesman added.
Anyone in the vicinity of Hezbollah members, facilities and weapons is endangering their lives, the spokesman emphasized. It is to be expected that any house used by Hezbollah for military purposes will be attacked.
Almost all of the locations mentioned by the spokesman are south of the Litani River, which flows from east to west about 30 kilometres north of the Israeli-Lebanese border.
A UN resolution stipulates that Hezbollah should withdraw behind the Litani.
Israeli bombardments also on border with Syria
Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike early on Friday near the Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, forcing its closure, security and border guards told dpa.
The Israeli military said on Friday it had destroyed a 3.5-kilometre tunnel running under the border. Fighter planes bombed the tunnel near the Masnaa border crossing on Thursday, the army said.
The tunnel was spacious enough for large quantities of weapons to be smuggled through it and it also served as a storage room for war materiel, the army said.
Muhammad Ja’far Qasir, the commander of Hezbollah Unit 4400, which was responsible for the arms smuggling, was killed in the past few days.
Since the escalation of the conflict, at least 180,000 people have fled towards Syria, according to the UN, primarily Syrians but also Lebanese and, occasionally, individuals of other nationalities. This information was based, among other sources, on data from the Lebanese Red Cross.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) referred to reports from the government, stating that 235,000 people have already fled to Syria.
GNA