Iran president says not seeking war with Israel, vows response to strikes
President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday that Iran did not seek war with Israel but was ready to deliver “an appropriate response” to strikes this week on Iranian military sites.
“We do not seek war but we will defend the rights of our nation and country,” Pezeshkian told a cabinet meeting, adding that Iran “will give an appropriate response to the aggression of the Zionist regime.”
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.
Israel has warned Tehran against responding.
Pezeshkian blamed the soaring regional tensions on Israel’s “aggression” and US support for the country, which Tehran does not recognise.
Sisi says Egypt has proposed two-day Gaza ceasefire to exchange four Israeli hostages with Palestinian prisoners
Egypt’s president announced Sunday his country has proposed a two-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas during which four hostages held in Gaza would be freed.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, speaking in Cairo, said the proposal also includes the release of some Palestinian prisoners and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip.
Egypt has been a key mediator along with Qatar and the United States. This is the first time Egypt’s president has publicly proposed such a plan. There was no immediate response from Israel or Hamas.
El-Sissi said the proposal aims to “move the situation forward,” adding that once the two-day cease-fire goes into effect, negotiations would continue to make it permanent.
UN Security Council emergency meeting Monday after Iran request
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Monday at Iran’s request following Israel’s deadly missile strikes in retaliation for an October 1 attack by Tehran.
The Swiss presidency of the UNSC said Sunday that the meeting would take place following the request by Iran, supported by Algeria, China and Russia.
Iran mulls over its response to Israeli strikes
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday said Israel’s attack on the Islamic republic “should neither be exaggerated nor minimised”. More information from FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Tehran Saeed Azimi.
UN Security Council expected to meet Monday over Israel’s strike on Iran, diplomats say
The United Nations Security Council is expected to meet on Monday to discuss Israel’s attack on Iran, diplomats said on Sunday.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi called on the Security Council to meet over the attack and diplomats said the council was likely to discuss the situation on Monday.
“Israeli regime’s actions constitute a grave threat to international peace and security and further destabilize an already fragile region,” Araqchi said in a letter to the 15-member council on Saturday.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, in alignment with the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and under international law, reserves its inherent right to legal and legitimate response to these criminal attacks at the appropriate time,” he wrote.
One killed, dozens injured in truck ramming at Israeli bus stop
A driver rammed his truck into a crowd at a bus stop in central Israel on Sunday, killing a man and injuring more than two dozen people, medics and police said.
In a separate incident, Israeli soldiers killed a man who tried to stab them during a “counterterrorism” operation near Jerusalem, the military said, describing it as a “terror attack”.
The truck ramming happened on Ahron Yariv Boulevard in Ramat HaSharon near Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub.
Preliminary police findings showed the truck driver also hit a bus that had stopped at the same station to drop off passengers, the police said in a statement.
At least 29 people were injured, including several in serious condition, emergency service providers Magen David Adom said in a statement.
Police did not say whether it was an attack, but added that civilians at the scene “shot the truck driver and neutralised him”.
© Oded Balilty, AP
Israeli strikes kill dozens in north Gaza, medics say, as ceasefire talks resume
Israeli military strikes killed at least 45 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, most of them in the north of the enclave, Palestinian health officials said, as efforts to secure a ceasefire in the more than year-long war resumed in Qatar.
The directors of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency will meet with Qatar’s prime minister on Sunday in Doha, an official briefed on the talks told Reuters.
The negotiations will seek a short-term ceasefire and the release of some hostages being held by Hamas in exchange for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners, the official said.
The talks aim to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a halt in fighting for less than a month in the hope it would lead to a more permanent ceasefire.
UN chief ‘shocked by harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction’ in north Gaza
UN chief Antonio Guterres 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 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.
Eight killed in Israel strike near coastal city of Sidon, Lebanon says
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.
Protesters in Israel disrupt Netanyahu speech
Protesters disrupted a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at a ceremony Sunday remembering the victims of Hamas’s attack on southern Israel last year.
People shouted “Shame on you” and made a commotion, forcing Netanyahu to stop his speech shortly after it began. The major commemorative event is being broadcast live around the country.
Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for the failures that led to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack and hold him responsible for not yet bringing home the remaining hostages held by the militant group in Gaza.
Iran calls on UN Security Council to condemn Israeli strikes
Iran on Sunday called for an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting to condemn the recent Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic.
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 foreign ministry statement said, referring to the Israeli strikes on Saturday.
Hezbollah says it fired rockets at military base north of Israel’s Haifa
Hezbollah said it fired rockets at a military base in northern Israel on Sunday, a day after it declared several areas in the region a “legitimate target” due to the presence of Israeli troops.
The Iran-backed group said it targeted a “military industries base north of Haifa … with a large rocket salvo”, after it issued an evacuation warning on Saturday for large swathes of northern Israel.
Lebanon says 2 killed in Israel strike near coastal city of Sidon
At least two people were killed and 11 wounded in an Israeli strike on Sidon in southern Lebanon, the country’s health ministry said on Sunday in an initial toll.
Israel defence minister says ‘painful concessions’ needed to free Gaza hostages
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday said “painful concessions” were needed to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza, saying military operations alone could not achieve the country’s war goals.
“Not all objectives can be achieved through military operations alone … to realise our moral duty to bring our hostages home, we will have to make painful concessions,” said Gallant in a speech marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year.
Israeli defence minister says Hamas, Hezbollah no longer effective proxies for Iran
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that Iran is no longer able to effectively use its proxies Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel.
“Over the past year, the security establishment led by the Israel Defence Forces turned the tide of the war and had unprecedented achievements in all arenas of fighting,” he said in remarks to a memorial ceremony in Jerusalem.
Gallant said Hamas was no longer functioning as a military network in Gaza, while Hezbollah’s senior command and most of its missile capabilities had been wiped out. He said both groups “are no longer an effective tool” to be used by Iran.
Israel urges residents of 14 Lebanese villages to move north of Awali River
The Israeli military urged residents of 14 villages in southern Lebanon on Sunday to evacuate immediately and move north of the Awali river.
Netanyahu says ‘precise and powerful’ attack on Iran achieved Israel’s objectives
Israel hit hard Iran’s ability to defend itself and to produce missiles when its air force struck two nights ago, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
“The air force attacked throughout Iran. We hit hard Iran’s defence capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed at us,” Netanyahu said in a speech.
“The attack in Iran was precise and powerful, and it achieved all its objectives,” he said.
Three killed in Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon, ministry says
At least three people were killed in an Israeli air strike on Zawtar Al Sharkiya in southern Lebanon, the country’s health ministry said on Sunday, adding that an air strike on Marjayoun the previous day resulted in five fatalities and one injury.
Four Israeli soldiers killed in south Lebanon, Israeli military says
The Israeli military on Sunday said four soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon, bringing to 36 the total number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of ground operations on September 30.
The soldiers “fell during combat in southern Lebanon”, the army said in a statement, adding that they were killed on Saturday.
Iran’s supreme leader says Israel’s attack ‘should not be exaggerated nor downplayed’
Iran’s supreme leader said Sunday that Israel’s attack on Iran this weekend “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed”, though he stopped short of calling for retaliation.
“The miscalculations of the Israeli regime must be disrupted. It is essential to make them understand the strength, will, and initiative of the Iranian nation and its youth”, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.
He added: “It is up to the authorities to determine how to convey the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime and to take actions that serve the interests of this nation and country.”
Khamenei’s remarks are the latest suggesting Iran is carefully weighing its response to the attack. Already, Iran’s military has said a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip or Lebanon trumps any retaliatory attack on Israel, though Iranian officials also have said they reserve the right to respond.
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