Israeli PM vows retaliation against Iranian missile attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C, Front) attends a Security Cabinet meeting after Iran’s missile attack, in Jerusalem, on Oct. 1, 2024. (Avi Ohayon/GPO/Handout via Xinhua)
JERUSALEM, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday that Israel would retaliate against Iran’s missile attack earlier in the day, during which 180 missiles were fired toward Israel.
“Iran made a big mistake tonight, and it will pay for it,” said Netanyahu during a Security Cabinet meeting, which discussed Israel’s ground campaign in Lebanon and possible responses to Iran’s missile attack.
At a press briefing earlier, the Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari confirmed that several Iranian missiles hit central and southern Israel, and “quite a few” were intercepted by air defense systems.
A 38-year-old Palestinian was killed as one of the missiles exploded near Jericho city in the occupied West Bank, local Civil Defense said. There has been no immediate report of fatalities within Israel yet.
Earlier in the day, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) claimed that it had targeted Israel with dozens of ballistic missiles.
The IRGC said in a statement that the attacks were in retaliation for Israel’s assassinations of resistance leaders, including Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and senior IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan, as well as its intensification of “malicious acts” with the U.S. support in its offensives against Lebanese and Palestinian peoples. ■