France wants arms-sale embargo against Israel ::::: IDF planning ‘serious and significant’ response to Iranian ballistic missile attack ::::: Military plans will need to be approved by PM Netanyahu

The Israeli military is in the midst of planning a response to Iran’s Tuesday night ballistic missile attack, and warned on Saturday that it would be “serious and significant.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said that Iran’s attack of some 200 ballistic missiles on the country would “have consequences.” The attack caused damage in Israel, including in Israeli airbases, though the military has said that no aircraft or critical infrastructure were hit, and the Israeli Air Force was operating at full capacity.  

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut's southern suburbs
Times of Israel/ AFP

Israel ‘preparing response’ to Iran attack as 7 October anniversary looms  

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said that Israel would respond to the missile attack, vowing that the military could “reach and strike any point in the Middle East.”  

The military plans will need to be approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

At a security cabinet meeting in a secure bunker near Jerusalem in the aftermath of the attack, Netanyahu warned that Tehran had made a “big mistake tonight” and vowed that “it will pay for it.”

The comments on Saturday from the IDF come as the US has sought to dissuade Israel from hitting Iranian nuclear or oil infrastructure as part of the response.

Signs of imminent Israeli retaliation against Iran came as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, called for an international embargo on arms delivered to Israel for use against Gaza, where authorities say more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s year long assault.

“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” Macron told broadcaster France Inter, adding that France was not sending any arms to Israel.

Macron made his comments as the Israel Defense Forces said a major strike on Iran was imminent, as Israel hit targets in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza on Saturday.

However, on Saturday, Iran’s oil minister Mohsen Paknejad said that he was “not worried” about the escalating conflict in the region amid reports that Israel would strike Iran, the ministry’s Shana news site said.

Paknejad’s comments were made during a visit to Assaluyeh, the energy capital of Iran.   

The Israel Defense Forces continued its campaign to degrade Hezbollah in Lebanon on Saturday as it targeted command centers, weapons caches, tunnels and more, and as the military said it believed it had killed some 400 Hezbollah operatives since the start of ground operations on Monday.

The army said on Saturday said it had struck Hezbollah operatives overnight in a command center embedded in a mosque in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil, located within the Martyr Salah Ghandour Hospital compound.

According to the military, the operatives were using the command room “to plan and carry out acts of terror against IDF troops and the State of Israel.”

The IDF said the drone strike was “precise” and based on intelligence.  Before carrying out the strike, the IDF said it sent text messages to residents and called up officials in the nearby villages “demanding that all acts of terror carried out at the hospital cease immediately.”

Amid the worsening violence, speculation was hardening that a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs had killed Hashem Safieddine, who had been widely expected to succeed Hezbollah’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah. According to Lebanese security sources, Safieddine has been unreachable since Friday.

Assessments suggest that Safieddine was killed with aides and Iranian advisers in a powerful strike that has made reaching any bodies difficult. In the aftermath of the strike the IDF said it had hit Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters without disclosing who was present.

The fighting comes as Israel prepares to mark the first anniversary on Monday of the devastating 7 October Hamas attack that prompted the current war in Gaza, which has now engulfed neighbouring Lebanon, creating a dangerous regional crisis.