Iran says it has ‘right and duty’ to defend itself after Israeli attacks

“IRANIAN PROxies”

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose network of pro-Iranian factions, claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a “military target” in northern Israel before dawn on Saturday.

On Friday, two people died from shrapnel after a Hezbollah rocket attack on northern Israel, Israeli officials said.

In addition to the attacks on homes, Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at Israeli soldiers near the village of Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon and at an intelligence base, and also launched drones against Israel’s Tel Nof air base south of Tel Aviv.

On Saturday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said an Israeli strike had killed a Hezbollah-linked doctor in Bazuriyeh, in the south of the country.

US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Israel’s response to Iran was “an exercise in self-defense”.

He urged Iran to “cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation.”

The Israeli military has blamed “Iran and its allies” in the region for “relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7,” when Hamas’ attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.

That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Dozens of hostages seized that day are still held by militants in Gaza.

Israel’s retaliatory bombing and ground war in Gaza has killed 42,924 people, the majority of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run Health Ministry, figures the United Nations considers reliable.

In late September, Israel turned its attention to attacking Lebanon, Hezbollah’s targets and leaders, and sending in ground troops.

Israel says the goal is to make the north of its country safe for the return of tens of thousands of displaced civilians.

At least 1,580 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, according to figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

In April, Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles in its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory.

Tehran said the barrage was in retaliation for an attack on Iran’s consular building in Damascus that killed members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Explosions later in April rocked Iran’s Isfahan province, in what U.S. officials said was Israeli retaliation.