Iran warns Israel retaliation would lead to escalation as conflict grows
Israel and Iran are trading threats about wider military action in the wake of an Iranian missile attack on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retaliation saying Iran would pay for the attack, which included nearly 200 missiles. An Iranian commander warned Israel not to retaliate saying there would be even wider strikes on Israel’s infrastructure if that happens.
Iran fired an estimated 181 fast-moving ballistic missiles toward Israel. The Israeli military said this attack was ineffective and failed in large part because their air defense systems were able to intercept the vast majority of them.
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Two U.S. warships in the region joined that defensive effort by firing off 12 interceptor missiles to help the Israelis. We still witnessed some impacts across Israel as alerts were sent out to 10 million cellphones just minutes before the missiles arrived. People were able to quickly take shelter and remarkably, there have been no casualties reported in Israel.
One man died in the occupied West Bank where the cellphone system was not set up when a missile fell there, but in Israel, officials are thanking citizens for listening to the warnings. The focus now is shifting to how Israel will respond.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Force, said a response is coming.
“The majority of the incoming missiles were intercepted by Israel and the defensive coalition led by the United States. Iran’s attack is a severe and dangerous escalation,” Hagari said. “There will be consequences.”
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Back in April, we saw a similar attack take place from Iran. Israeli authorities are saying Tuesday’s attack was around double the strength as the previous one.
Netanyahu is meeting with officials on Wednesday to discuss how to respond. Axios is reporting that oil infrastructure inside Iran is on the table as a potential target for a response. Iran says if oil infrastructure is hit, the response from them would be even harder than Tuesday’s attack.