Paris (France) (AFP) – Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war on Sunday:
– **Netanyahu vow** – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to pursue senior commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards “personally,” during a visit to an Israeli town struck by an Iranian missile the previous day. “We’re going after the regime. We’re going after the IRGC, this criminal gang,” Netanyahu said as he inspected the damage in the southern town of Arad.
– **WHO warning** – The World Health Organization warned that strikes around nuclear sites in Iran and Israel had pushed the Middle East war to a “perilous stage.” “I urgently call on all parties to exercise maximum military restraint and avoid any actions that could trigger nuclear incidents,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
– **Iran threat** – Iran’s powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf threatened to irreversibly destroy vital infrastructure across the region, which he said would cause oil prices to rise “for a long time,” if the United States and Israel attacked Tehran. “Immediately after power plants and infrastructure in our country are targeted, vital infrastructure as well as energy and oil infrastructure across the entire region will be considered legitimate targets and will be irreversibly destroyed,” Ghalibaf said in a social media post.
– **Israel threat** – Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said his country’s military had been ordered to destroy more bridges over the Litani river in south Lebanon he alleged were used by Hezbollah. He said the military was also instructed to “accelerate the demolition of Lebanese houses in the contact villages in order to thwart threats to Israeli communities.”
– **Intercepted missiles** – Israel’s military said that Iran had fired more than 400 ballistic missiles at Israel since the start of the Middle East war, with around 92 percent of them intercepted.
– **Qatar chopper crash** – Three Turkish nationals, including a serviceman, and three Qatari military personnel were killed when a helicopter crashed in Qatar’s territorial waters, the Gulf country’s defence ministry said. While Qatar has been targeted by several Iranian strikes since the start of the Middle East war, no connection has been made between the chopper and the conflict triggered by US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
– **Iran attack ‘fell short’** – British minister Steve Reed said one missile launched by Iran targeting a joint UK-US military base in the Indian Ocean “fell short” while another missile was “intercepted.” Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Islands, is one of two bases that the UK has allowed the United States to use for what the British government calls “defensive operations” in the war against Iran.
– **Iran facilities damaged** – Iran’s critical water and energy infrastructure have suffered extensive damage due to US and Israeli strikes, the country’s energy minister Abbas Aliabadi said. “The attacks targeted dozens of water transmission and treatment facilities and destroyed parts of critical water supply networks,” he said, adding that repairs were under way.
– **US facility attacked** – At least six overnight attacks targeted a US diplomatic and logistics centre at Baghdad’s International Airport, two Iraqi security officials told AFP. “Eight separate attacks, carried out until dawn with rockets and drones targeted the US centre,” a senior security official told AFP, while a second security official said there had been six strikes.
– **Fatality in north Israel** – Israel said rocket fire from Lebanon killed one person as Hezbollah said it attacked soldiers in northern Israel, marking the first fatality there from fire from Lebanon since the latest war erupted. Local firefighters reported flames engulfing two vehicles after a “direct hit” in the northern Israeli kibbutz community of Misgav Am.
– **Jerusalem blasts** – Blasts were heard and air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem early Sunday, AFP journalists said, after the Israeli military warned of incoming missile fire from Iran. Israel’s emergency medical service reported no immediate casualties.
– **Saudi, UAE targeted** – Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said three ballistic missiles were detected around the capital Riyadh, while the UAE stated it responded to Iranian missile and drone attacks.
– **Israel strikes Tehran** – The Israeli military reported that its forces launched a wave of strikes on Tehran, hours after Iranian missile fire hit two cities in southern Israel.
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© 2024 AFP
