IRAN RETALIATION
After the Yom Kippur holiday, attention is likely to turn again to the expected retaliation against Iran, which launched around 200 missiles at Israel on Oct 1.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant vowed this week that his country’s response would be “deadly, precise and surprising”, with Biden’s administration pushing for a “proportionate” response that would not tip the region into a wider war.
Biden has urged Israel to avoid striking Iranian nuclear facilities or energy infrastructure.
Iran-funded Hezbollah began firing on Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following the Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s military campaign has wrought devastation on Gaza immediately after the attack and, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, killed 42,126 people, mostly civilians.
Israeli operations in Gaza continue, with the army laying siege to an area around Jabalia in northern Gaza last weekend, causing fresh suffering for hundreds of thousands of people trapped there, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
“The bombardment has not stopped. Every minute there are shells, rockets and fire on the buildings and everything that moves”, Areej Nasr, 35, told AFP after fleeing from Jabalia camp to Gaza City on Thursday.
On Friday, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported 30 people killed in Israeli strikes in the area, including on schools being used as shelter by displaced people.
An AFP journalist in Gaza reported heavy artillery shelling, explosions and gunfire Saturday further south in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood.
