Netanyahu and Biden talk despite promises of ‘surprising’ response to Iran

Jerusalem: Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said an Israeli strike on Iran in response to its recent missile attack would be “lethal and surprising”.

“Our attack will be lethal, precise and above all surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened,” Gallant said during a speech to Israeli troops.

Iran fired dozens of missiles at Israel last week in an escalation of the conflict between the two countries. Israel has vowed to respond to the missile attack but has not outlined what this retaliation would entail.

The possible response was discussed in a 30-minute phone call between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday (AEDT). It was their first call in seven weeks – a conversation that comes as Israel expands its ground incursion into Lebanon, continues to pound Gaza and kills another Hezbollah member, this time in Syria.

The two leaders discussed Israel’s plans and Biden urged Netanyahu to minimise civilian harm in Lebanon, the White House said. Vice President Kamala Harris joined the call.

Israel has promised that arch-foe Iran would pay for its missile attack, which caused little damage, while Tehran has said any retaliation would be met with vast destruction, raising concerns of broader fighting in the oil-producing region.

Biden last week made comments discouraging Israel from striking Iranian oil fields and said he would not support Israel striking Iranian nuclear sites.

Netanyahu’s office confirmed he had also recently spoken with former president Donald Trump.

The Republican called Netanyahu last week and “congratulated him on the intense and determined operations that Israel carried out against Hezbollah”, according to Netanyahu’s office.

The ballistic missile attack came weeks after Israel’s military intensified its airstrikes across Lebanon wiping out the majority of Hezbollah’s high-ranking commanders including its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. In July, a strike in Tehran assassinated Hamas’ political leader, Ismael Haniyeh, and Iran blamed Israel. Iran is the main sponsor of the Lebanese militant group and Hamas in Gaza.

Netanyahu has repeatedly looked past the Biden administration’s calls for ceasefires, but their discussion was “direct and very productive”, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, while acknowledging the two leaders have disagreements.

On Thursday the Israel Defence Force said it had eliminated Adham Jahout, a member of Hezbollah’s “Golan Terrorist Network” in the area of Quneitra in Syria.

The IDF said Jahout’s role was to relay information from Syrian regime sources to Hezbollah and transmit intelligence gathered on the Syrian front to facilitate operations against Israel in the Golan Heights.

Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed the area, a move not recognised by most countries.

Syrian state TV said early Israel had carried out airstrikes targeting an industrial site in the Syrian city of Homs and a military site in the countryside near the city of Hama, causing “some material damage”. Explosions were also heard in Daraa.

Meanwhile, Israel’s bombardment of central and northern Gaza killed dozens of people and trapped thousands in their homes, Palestinian officials said, as the death toll in the year-long war passed 42,000.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said it recovered 40 bodies from Jabaliya from Sunday until Tuesday and another 14 from communities further north. The toll was probably higher as there were bodies buried under the rubble and in areas that could not be accessed, it said.

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces were operating in Jabaliya to prevent Hamas from regrouping and had killed about 100 militants, without providing evidence.

A year ago, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel is at war with Hamas in Gaza and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, which began firing rockets at Israel on October 8, 2023.

An Israeli airstrike hit a Lebanese Civil Defence centre in the town of Dardghaya in southern Lebanon, killing five paramedics, civil defence spokesperson Elie Khairallah said.

The Lebanese Health Ministry also confirmed the news in a statement, saying Israel has “renewed its targeting of rescue and ambulance crews tonight, disregarding international laws, norms and humanitarian conventions”.

There was no immediate statement from the Israeli military.

Among victims was Abdullah al-Moussawi, head of the Tyre regional civil defence centre, Khairallah said. The ministry said teams continued to search for survivors in the rubble.

As of last Thursday, the ministry reported more than 100 paramedics had been killed by Israeli airstrikes since last October and 225 wounded, with significant damage to emergency infrastructure, including 128 ambulances and fire trucks destroyed, as well as damage to nine hospitals and 45 medical centres in Lebanon. Israel’s operation in Lebanon has killed more than 2100 people, most of them in the past few weeks, and forced 1.2 million from their homes.

The IDF said it had intercepted a drone that approached Israel over the Red Sea but did not cross into Israeli territory, minutes after the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it had targeted Israel’s Eilat with drones.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is on a tour of the region to drum up support for opposing Israel’s actions in Lebanon and Gaza. He met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Wednesday, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.

AP, Reuters, Bloomberg

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