The Israeli military has vowed to retaliate to a missile attack from Iran, which Iran said was a “rational and legitimate response” to previous Israeli fire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate against Iran for its missile attack on Israel on Tuesday evening, which he called a “big mistake.”
He added that Iran would pay for the attack, in which the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said 180 missiles hit Israel causing air raid sirens to sound across the country.
“Whoever attacks us. We attack them,” Netanyahu said as he gathered his Security Cabinet for a late-night meeting.
He called the attack a “failure” and suggested that Iran could face the same fate as Gaza and Lebanon.
Iran issues warnings against retaliation
Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations argued the strike was “legal, rational and legitimate” indicating it was in response to Israeli strikes on the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The country’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, is warning Israel that its response to any acts of aggression against Tehran “will be swift, decisive and stronger than before.”
He pointed to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on 31 July, the detonation of pagers in Lebanon in September, and the assassinations of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian General Abbas Nilforoushan in Beirut.
Iravani said the Security Council’s inaction “has allowed Israel to flagrantly breach all red lines and violate the core principles of international law.”
He reiterated Iran’s calls for the council “to urgently and decisively intervene to halt Israel’s continued aggression and war crimes against Lebanon, Gaza and Syria and to prevent the situation from escalating into a full-scale regional war.”
The UN Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting on the escalating situation in the Middle East for Wednesday, at the request of France and Israel.
World leaders express widespread condemnation
US President Joe Biden said that the US had anticipated Iran’s “brazen” missile attack on Israel in a statement given to reporters at the White House.
Biden added that “intensive planning” had gone into anticipating and defending against the attack, adding that the US and Israel had worked together to defend Israel from the missile barrage which occurred on Tuesday evening.
He reiterated his support for Israel and said that the US was in “constant contact” with its Israeli counterparts.
Biden joins other figures around the world in condemning Iran’s actions. The EU’S foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said “an immediate ceasefire across the region is needed,” in a post on X.
The UK’s prime minister Keir Starmer also had harsh words for Iran over the incident, saying he condemned the attack during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, echoing the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who urged Iran against escalating the conflict further.
The IDF said the missiles led to air raid sirens sounding across Israel before concluding that very few citizens had been injured in the attack, with multiple missiles intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system.