Tehran/Jerusalem –Iran on Sunday called for an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting to condemn Israel’s air strikes on the Islamic Republic a day earlier.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sent a letter to the UN chief and the head of the Council “demanding an urgent meeting of the Security Council to take a decisive position in condemning this aggression”, a ministry statement said.
On Saturday, Israel conducted air strikes on military sites in Iran in response to Tehran’s October 1 attack on Israel, itself retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander.
In his letter, Araghchi said “most of the projectiles fired were intercepted by Iran’s defense systems” but the attack led to damage at “the target points”, as well as the death of four soldiers.
He said the Israeli attack was a “clear violation of the sovereignty” of Iran which “reserves the inherent right… to respond to this criminal aggression.”
The Israeli military said it hit Iranian missile factories, missile installations and other systems in several regions, and warned Tehran against responding.
Iran has downplayed the attack, saying it caused “limited damage” to a few radar systems, while media outlets dismissed the assault as “weak”, signaling what analysts say is the Islamic Republic’s reluctance to escalate further.
SHOCKING DESTRUCTION IN GAZA
UN chief Antonio Guterres has said Sunday he was “shocked by harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction” in north Gaza, where Israeli forces are carrying out attacks they say aim to prevent Hamas regrouping.
“The plight of Palestinian civilians trapped in North Gaza is unbearable,” Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
“The Secretary-General is shocked by the harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction in the north, with civilians trapped under rubble, the sick and wounded going without life-saving health care, and families lacking food and shelter.”
The spokesman said that according to Gaza’s health ministry, hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks and more than 60,000 others were forced to flee.
“Repeated efforts to deliver humanitarian supplies essential to survive — food, medicine and shelter — continue to be denied by the Israeli authorities, with few exceptions, putting countless lives in peril,” Dujarric said.
“In the name of humanity, the Secretary-General reiterates his calls for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and accountability for crimes under international law.”
DEATHS IN LEBANON
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least eight people were killed and 25 others wounded Sunday in an Israeli strike near the southern city of Sidon, where an AFP correspondent said a building was targeted.
The strike hit a densely-populated area in a Sidon suburb that saw an influx of families displaced from areas further south.
It was the first strike there since the Israel-Hezbollah war erupted last month.
“The Israeli enemy’s raid on Haret Saida resulted in a… toll of eight killed,” the health ministry said, revising an earlier toll of two dead.
The official National News Agency said a child was among the victims.
An AFP correspondent said one apartment was destroyed in the strike on a three-story residential complex.
Surrounding shops and buildings were also damaged, the correspondent said, as paramedics rushed to the site of the attack to search for survivors.
The Israeli army had issued an evacuation warning for several areas in south Lebanon on Sunday, but Haret Saida was not listed among the areas to be targeted.
The war since September 23 has left at least 1,615 people dead in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of nationwide health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.
At least 1.3 million people have been displaced, more than 800,000 of them within Lebanon’s borders, according to the UN’s migration agency.
More than half a million people have crossed into Syria, according to Lebanese authorities, most of them Syrians.
HOSTAGES’ KINS INTERRUPT NETANYAHU
Screaming relatives of Hamas attack victims interrupted a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday during October 7 commemorations.
Netanyahu stood motionless at a lectern during the ceremony in Jerusalem as audience members in the crowd shouted, interrupting him for more than a minute, according to a live broadcast of the speech.
One of the protesters repeatedly shouted, “My father was killed”.
Public and diplomatic pressure has been on Netanyahu’s administration to do more to strike a deal for securing the release of captives still held in Gaza.
Israeli spy chief David Barnea headed to Doha on Sunday for talks aimed at restarting negotiations toward reaching a Gaza hostage release deal.
Families of the remaining hostages along with several Western leaders have called on the Israeli government to broker an agreement after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar earlier this month.
Israeli and US officials as well as some analysts said Sinwar had been a key obstacle to a deal allowing for the release of 97 hostages still held by militants in Gaza, 34 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Critics in Israel have also accused Netanyahu of obstructing mediation for a truce and hostage-release deal.
Earlier Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said military action by itself will not achieve the country’s war aims, which include bringing home the hostages.
“Not all objectives can be achieved through military operations alone… To realize our moral duty to bring our hostages home, we will have to make painful concessions,” Gallant said in a separate speech marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack, which on October 7 last triggered the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory.
Gallant went on to name the country’s military accomplishments in over a year of fighting.
“In the south, Hamas has ceased to act as a military structure, in the north, Hezbollah continues to suffer blows and its leadership has been eliminated, the majority of its rocket arsenal has been destroyed and its forces have retreated from the borderline,” he added.
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
At least 42,924 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have since been killed in the Israeli offensive on Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.
The war has also drawn in Iran-backed groups across the region, most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon, where Israel has launched a major aerial campaign and ground incursions since late September.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR IRAN
After Israel’s deadly strikes, Iran lauded its defenses while media outlets dismissed the assault as “weak”, signaling what analysts say is the Islamic Republic’s reluctance to escalate further.
Saturday’s Israeli attack on military sites followed an October 1 missile barrage by Iran — its response to the killing of militant leaders it backs, especially Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, and a Revolutionary Guards commander.
Iran said the strikes around Tehran and in the provinces of Khuzestan and Ilam killed at least four soldiers and caused “limited damage” to radar systems.
Officials and the media have largely downplayed the strikes, highlighting Iran’s air defenses without promising a direct response.
“At least for now, Iran may be reluctant to respond directly and escalate tensions,” said political analyst Hamidreza Azizi in a post on X.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the Israeli strikes “evil” and a “miscalculation” that “should neither be exaggerated nor minimized”.
“It is up to officials to determine how best to demonstrate the strength and resolve of the Iranian nation (to Israel),” he said.
President Masoud Pezeshkian praised the fallen soldiers for their commitment to “defend their land without fear”, while Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi commended Iranians’ “determination to defend” themselves.
Iran’s military has refrained from public comment so far.
“Senior Iranian officials simply do not want to increase tensions,” said Fayyaz Zahed, international relations professor at the University of Tehran.
Ahead of Saturday’s strikes, Iran warned any attack on its “infrastructure” would provoke a “stronger response”, with Revolutionary Guards general Rassul Sanairad warning any attacks on nuclear or energy sites would cross a red line.
Iranian media highlighted comments from United Nations nuclear chief Rafael Grossi, who said atomic sites were untouched. They also noted key oil refineries in targeted provinces were unharmed.
Iran intensified diplomatic efforts before the attack, with Araghchi visiting regional countries to push ways to contain the conflict.
“Araghchi conveyed Iran’s serious will to Arab governments… that Iran would attack Israel with more missiles (if Israel attacked its infrastructure),” said Zahed.
Azizi said “it remains to be seen whether this round of conflict is now over or if Israel will continue with direct or indirect military actions in the coming days and weeks.”
The tit-for-tat moves unfold amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas, which has expanded in recent weeks to include Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Both groups are part of the “axis of resistance” aligned with Iran against Israel.
Israel’s military said it struck missile factories and military facilities across several provinces and cautioned Iran against retaliation.
Iran confirmed the strikes but said loud blasts in Tehran were its own defenses intercepting missiles.
Michael Horowitz, an expert at the Middle East-based security consultancy Le Beck, said Israel’s attack showed it was “not escalating to the highest level”.
“But it still might if Iran responds,” he told AFP.
On Sunday, ultraconservative Iranian daily Javan dismissed Israel’s attack as “weak”, saying it did not “even wake up” Iranians.
“The United States and Israel did not dare to give a firm response to Iran, and we consider this a victory,” it said.
Meanwhile, the hardline Kayhan newspaper criticized calls to “avoid a severe response”.
In contrast, reformist media supporting Pezeshkian’s government advocated for diplomacy to ease regional tensions, while the main reformist coalition urged authorities to “reduce tensions and prevent an all-out regional war”.
Saturday’s Israeli strikes drew condemnation from neighboring Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Azizi described the Arab response as “significant”, underscoring their “wish to avoid being drawn into this conflict”.
The reformist Etemad newspaper supported “Iran’s right” to respond but stressed its “responsibility to its neighbors who want to avoid war.”
Horowitz said Tehran now holds some “leeway to de-escalate”.
But, he warned, “the Pandora’s box has been opened, and the bar has now been set for any future escalation between Israel and Iran”.