“We will make our own decisions,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, ignoring calls from European diplomats for him to hold back.
European diplomats traveled to Israel on Wednesday to call for more restraint in response to the airstrike Iran launched this weekend, but the British foreign secretary acknowledged that an Israeli retaliation seemed inevitable.
“It is clear that the Israelis are making the decision to act,” British Foreign Secretary David Cameron told the BBC, just before meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We hope they do so in a way that contributes as little as possible to an escalation of the situation.”
Israel’s allies, including the United States, Britain and Germany, have joined other world leaders in pressuring Netanyahu to avoid taking any steps that could raise tensions with Iran, which launched more than 300 missiles and aircraft. drones against Israel on Saturday night, Tehran’s first direct attack against Israel.
But Netanyahu, after meeting Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, said Israel “will do whatever is necessary to defend itself.”
Speaking before a cabinet meeting, he thanked Israel’s allies for their “support in words and support in actions,” according to his office. But he added: “They also have all kinds of suggestions and advice. I thank you all. But I want to make it clear: we will make our own decisions.”
Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesman, said at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday that the United States was pushing for a “unified diplomatic response” to the Iranian attack and was urging Israel to avoid “further escalation.” But he added: “These decisions have to be made by Israel as a sovereign and democratic country.”
Israel’s war cabinet has met several times since the weekend to discuss when and how to respond to Iran’s ballistic missile and explosive drone attack, which were almost entirely intercepted by Israel’s US-backed air defenses. United States, United Kingdom, France and Jordan.
Israeli officials are said to be considering a number of options, from a direct attack on Iran to an attack on an Iranian target, such as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base in another country, a cyber attack or assassinations, to try to send a clear message to Tehran without triggering a further escalation.
“Israel will respond when it sees fit,” an Israeli official said Wednesday, adding that it had “multiple ways” to do so. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military strategy.
Iranian leaders have warned that their country will react forcefully to any Israeli attack. “We will respond with deadlier weapons,” Abdolrahim Mousavi, major general and commander in chief of the Iranian army, said Wednesday.
Iran said it attacked Israel in response to the April 1 airstrike on a diplomatic compound in Syria, which killed at least three senior Iranian commanders and four officers overseeing Iran’s covert operations in the Middle East.
Baerbock stated that it is essential to prevent “the very dangerous situation in the Middle East from becoming a regional conflagration,” according to the German media Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
“As the G7, we speak with one voice,” Baerbock declared after arriving in Italy on Wednesday to attend a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven countries. “All actors in the region are called to exercise maximum restraint.”
Cameron said the Group of Seven, which includes the United States as well as Britain and Germany, must work together to punish Iran with sanctions. U.S. and European officials said Tuesday they were studying the possibility of imposing additional sanctions on Iran that could affect its oil revenues and weapons programs.
Although Iran’s attack has diverted international attention from the war in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has continued to bomb some parts of the territory and many Gazans remain desperate for food.
This week, crowds of Palestinians lined up to buy bread at two bakeries that had reopened in Gaza City. The Israeli military said the opening of the bakeries was a sign of improving conditions for civilians in northern Gaza, where residents face the most serious hunger crisis.
But some Gazans said bakeries were not producing enough bread to meet overwhelming demand.
“People line up for about three hours to get a single bag of bread,” said Mazen Harazeen, a 39-year-old paramedic in Gaza City who has nine children and had to walk almost three kilometers to reach one of the bakeries. . His impact, he said, will be “very small.”
Fuel for the bakeries was delivered by the United Nations last Sunday and was scheduled to run out on Friday, said Abeer Etefa, a spokeswoman for the U.N. World Food Program. It was unclear when more fuel would arrive.
On social media, the World Food Program posted a message saying: “We need safe and sustained access to avoid famine.”
As Israel fights Hamas, on Wednesday the country was hit again by another Iranian-backed group, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, which claimed responsibility for a drone and missile attack in northern Israel.
The Israeli military said 14 soldiers were wounded, six of them seriously, making it one of the most damaging attacks in recent months by Hezbollah, which has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces on the Lebanese border. and Israel.
Hezbollah stated that the attack was a response to Israeli airstrikes the previous day, which the Israeli military said had killed two Hezbollah commanders.
The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border, and in recent months Israeli attacks inside Lebanon have begun to move deeper into the country.
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