Middle East on the brink of Israel-Iran war, US reinforces forces: 10 points

New Delhi:
Iran has said it hopes the Tehran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah group will reach deeper into Israel and no longer be confined to military targets after Israel killed the Hezbollah commander. Hezbollah has been exchanging fire almost daily with Israeli forces.

1. An Israeli-claimed attack on an overcrowded residential area south of Beirut changed the calculus, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said. “We expect… Hezbollah to choose more targets and strike deeper in its response,” the mission said, cited by the official IRNA news agency. “Second, it will not limit its response to military targets.”

2. Tuesday’s attack killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr. According to Lebanon’s health ministry, five civilians – three women and two children – also died.

3. Israel said Shukr was responsible for launching rockets that killed 12 young men in the annexed Golan Heights and has directed Hezbollah attacks against Israel since the start of the war in Gaza.

4. “Hezbollah and the (Israeli) regime observed certain lines,” including limiting attacks on border areas and military targets, the Iranian mission said. The Beirut strike crossed that line, it added.

5. Hours after Shukr’s assassination, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in a pre-dawn “attack” on his accommodation in Tehran, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said. Israel declined to comment.

6. The US will strengthen its military presence in the Middle East, sending additional warships and combat aircraft to the region to “mitigate the possibility of regional escalation by Iran” or its proxies, the Pentagon said.

7. Indian citizens in Israel have been asked to remain vigilant and adhere to security protocols following the escalation of tension in the region. The warning to Indian citizens in Israel comes a day after the Indian Embassy in Beirut strongly advised them not to travel to Lebanon until further notice. He also asked them to leave Lebanon.

8. The leader of Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels also promised a “military response” to Ismail’s murder. “There must be a military response to these crimes, which are shameful and dangerous, and constitute a major escalation by the Israeli enemy,” said Abdul Malik al-Huthi in a televised speech.

9. Yemeni rebels have been launching drones and missiles at ships in the Red Sea since November, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians during the Gaza war.

10. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah since October last year has killed at least 542 people on the Lebanese side, most of them combatants, but also 114 civilians, according to a report by the AFP news agency.

With information from AFP

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