JERUSALEM, Oct 5: Israel was preparing a military response to Iran's missile attack this week that heightened fears of a wider regional war, an Israeli official said Saturday, as fighting raged in Lebanon and in Gaza.
In its second-ever direct attack on its regional foe, the Islamic republic which backs armed groups across the Middle East on Tuesday launched some 200 missiles at Israel in revenge for a spate of Israeli killings of militant leaders.
The missile attack, which killed one person in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, caused some damage to an Israeli air base according to satellite images.
It came as Israeli ground forces began raids into Lebanon after days of intense strikes on Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon, transforming nearly a year of cross-border exchanges with the Iran-backed militants into full-blown war.
The Israeli military official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to discuss the issue publicly, said that the army "is preparing a response to the unprecedented and unlawful Iranian attack".
He did not elaborate on the nature or timing of the response, which analysts and Israeli media said was likely designed to deal an immense blow to Iran, despite international calls for de-escalation and warnings from Tehran it would retaliate if counterattacked.
Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, told AFP that both Israel and Iran were "taking huge gambles".
"Everything right now hinges on Israel's response," he said.
Rapidly escalating violence this week also included intensifying Hezbollah rocket fire and strikes on Israel claimed by allies of Iran from as far away as Yemen, just days before the first anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack.
Nearly a year into the war in the Gaza Strip triggered by the unprecedented Hamas attack, Israel has shifted its focus north, saying it aims to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah attacks to return home.
Hezbollah said Saturday its fighters were confronting Israeli troops in Lebanon's southern border region, where the Israeli military said it struck militants inside a mosque.
The Israeli military said its forces were engaged in "limited, localised" raids in southern Lebanon, though the scale of their operations was not immediately clear.
The army reported frequent rocket fire from Lebanon, some of which was intercepted by air defences, as Hezbollah claimed a rocket attack on northern Israel's Ramat David air base, some 45 kilometres (30 miles) from the frontier.
In the first reported Israeli air strike on the northern Tripoli region in the current flare-up, Palestinian militant group Hamas said "Zionist bombardment" of the Beddawi refugee camp killed one of its commanders, Saeed Attallah Ali, as well as his wife and two daughters on Saturday. —AFP
