The US will deploy an anti-missile system to ‘protect Israel’ from a possible conflict with Iran
The United States said on Sunday it would send an advanced anti-missile system to Israel – and the US military to use it – in a bid to bolster the country’s air defenses following a missile attack by Iran.
US President Joe Biden said he was sending the plan “to protect Israel.”
Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said the deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery would complement Israel’s integrated air defense system.
“It’s part of the broader changes the U.S. military has made in recent months, to support the defense of Israel and protect the American people from attacks by Iran and Iranian-allied forces,” Ryder said in a statement.
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, warned on Sunday that the US is putting the lives of its soldiers “at risk by sending them to use American missiles in Israel.”
“Although we have made great efforts in recent days to contain the endless war in our region, I say clearly that we do not have red lines in protecting people and our interests,” said Araghchi on X, formerly of Twitter.
Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon have been at loggerheads since October 8, 2023, when the Lebanese militant group began firing rockets over the border in support of its ally Hamas – the Palestinian terrorist group that led a deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures, and sparked an ongoing war in Gaza controlled by Hamas.
The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 42,000 people have been killed since Israel began the siege.
Late last month, Israel launched an attack on Lebanon.
The death toll in Lebanon over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has now reached 2,255 dead and more than 10,000 injured, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health.
More than 1,400 people have been killed since mid-September. It is not clear how many were soldiers.
Israel is widely believed to be preparing a military response to Iran’s attack on October 1, when it fired 180 missiles at Israel.
Israel disputes the UN account of the tank incursion
The United Nations said on Sunday that Israeli tanks breached the gates of its peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon, the latest case of Israeli violations and an attack condemned by Israel’s supporters.
The peacekeeping force, called the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), said two Israeli Merkava tanks destroyed the main gate of the center and forced their way in before dawn on Sunday morning. After the tanks left, the shells exploded at a distance of 100 meters, releasing smoke that blew into the base and sickened UN staff – 15 of whom needed medical treatment despite wearing gas masks, the statement said.
In its version of events, the Israeli military said soldiers from the Iran-backed Hezbollah group fired missiles fired at Israeli tanks, wounding 25 of them. The attack was very close to the UNIFIL position, and the tank that was helping to evacuate the wounded during the fire was pushed back to the UNIFIL position.
“It’s not an attack on the camp. It’s not trying to enter the camp. It was a tank that was on fire, an incident that killed many people, moving back to get out of the way,” the spokesman for the international forces, Nadav Shoshani, told the media.
In a statement, the military said they used a smoke screen to prevent the evacuation of wounded soldiers but their action did not pose a threat to the UN peacekeeping force.
Five peacekeepers have been injured in a series of strikes in recent days, most of which UNIFIL blames on Israeli forces.
The UN said any deliberate attack on peacekeepers was a “serious violation of international humanitarian law and Resolution 1701” which established the operation.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: “The time has come for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah’s strongholds and battlefields.
“The IDF has repeatedly requested this and met with repeated refusals, which has the effect of providing human shields to Hezbollah terrorists.”
Save the Children reported that one million people, including 350,000 children, have been displaced from their homes by Israel’s airstrikes in southern Lebanon. Fidel Saad, who works for Save the Children International in Beirut, says that the organization has been supporting families with access to food, mental health care for children and other important needs.
Hezbollah, which Israel has been fighting on the ground in southern Lebanon since launching an offensive earlier this month, denies Israeli allegations that it is using the military’s proximity to protect itself.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni, one of the most vocal supporters of Israel among Western European leaders, spoke to Netanyahu by phone on Sunday and condemned Israel’s “unacceptable” attack, his government said.
Netanyahu said he told Meloni he regretted “any harm done to UNIFIL personnel” in Lebanon.
Two Indonesian peacekeepers were injured on Friday after two explosions near a compound in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL said. This follows two injuries to peacekeepers after Israeli forces opened fire on UN posts on Wednesday and Thursday. France, Italy and UN Secretary General António Guterres condemned the attack. The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident.
“Israel will make every effort to stop UNIFIL casualties and will do everything possible to win the war,” he told X.
Italy has more than 1,000 soldiers in the UNIFIL force, making it one of the largest donors of personnel. France and Spain, each with nearly 700 soldiers in the force, also condemned the Israeli attack.
The presence of UNIFIL puts peacekeepers from 50 different countries at risk, in the force that was established in southern Lebanon in 1978.
The area has seen decades of turmoil, with Israel invading in 1982, occupying southern Lebanon until 2000 and fighting a major five-week war with Hezbollah in 2006, which ended with the end of the UNIFIL-led conflict.
Hezbollah is blamed for the strike in central Israel
The rescue service in Israel said that around 40 people were injured in a drone strike in the center of the city of Binyamina on Sunday, three of them seriously.
Hezbollah was blamed for the deadliest strike in Israel during the war.
Israel’s advanced air defense systems mean that it is rare for many people to be harmed by drones or missiles.
Israeli media reported that two drones were launched in Lebanon, while the Israeli military said one was captured.
It is not clear who was injured, soldiers or civilians, and what was hit.
It was the second drone strike in two days in Israel. On Saturday, during the Israeli holiday of Yom Kippur, a pilot plane crashed into a suburb of Tel Aviv, causing damage but no injuries.
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