Middle East latest: Israel warns Iran it could end up like Gaza as it considers response to missile attack
Israel claims it is only targeting Hamas and Hezbollah military sites despite significant civilian casualties
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Israel’s defence minister has warned that Iran could end up like Gaza as it considers how to respond to Tehran’s unprecedented ballistic missile attack.
Yoav Gallant, a key ally of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Iranian attack, which involved 180 ballistic missiles, had failed to do significant damage.
But warning against further assaults, he added: “Whoever thinks that a mere attempt to harm us will deter us from taking action should take a look at Gaza and Beirut.”
It comes as Israel is considering how to respond to Iran’s missile attack. US president Joe Biden has urged Israel not to hit Iran’s oil facilities for fear of the knock-effect on global oil supplies.
Meanwhile, at least 26 people have been killed and 93 others wounded after Israeli airstrikes targeted a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.
The strikes on the mosque and the school, near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, came as the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in the enclave approaches its first anniversary tomorrow.
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Western nations have drafted contingency plans to evacuate citizens from Lebanon after a dramatic escalation in the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah, coupled with Iran's missile attack on Israel on Tuesday.
No country has launched a large-scale military evacuation yet, though some are chartering aircraft as Beirut airport stays open.
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Israeli bombardment kills 29 people in Gaza while militants renew rocket fire into Israel
Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 29 Palestinians on Friday, medics said, and sirens blared in southern Israel in response to renewed rocket fire from militants in the Palestinian enclave.
The new rocket salvoes indicated that Hamas-led militant factions in Gaza are still able to fire projectiles into Israel despite a year-long Israeli aerial and ground offensive that has turned wide areas of the enclave into wasteland.
On Friday, the Israeli military said sirens sounded in southern Israel for the first time in around two months.
"Almost a year after 7 October, Hamas is still threatening our civilians with their terrorism and we will continue operating against them," it added, referring to the anniversary of Hamas' cross-border attack that touched off the Gaza war.
In Gaza City in north Gaza, Palestinian health officials said one Israeli aerial strike on a house killed at least seven people. Four people including two women and a baby were killed in the bombing of a home in the southern city of Khan Younis.
The rest were killed in airstrikes on several areas across the densely populated coastal enclave. Residents said Israeli forces operating in Gaza City's Zeitoun suburb and in Rafah, near the southern border with Egypt, blew up clusters of homes.
Israel's military says Hamas combatants use crowded, built-up residential neighbourhoods as cover. Hamas denies this.
Israel media, reporting on the rocket fire, said one rocket was intercepted by air defence and another crashed in an open area. There were no reports of casualties or notable damage.
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