JERUSALEM — A top Iranian military adviser warned Israel on Sunday that none of its embassies were safe after a strike in Damascus last week blamed on Israel killed 12 people, including two elite Iranian generals. Regional tensions threaten to drag the Middle East into wider conflict as Israel’s war against Hamas drags on for six months.
Israel is preparing for an Iranian response to this strike without directly acknowledging its involvement. Gen. Rahim Safavi’s remarks indicated that the attack on a diplomatic mission could prompt a similar response.
“None of the (Israeli) regime’s embassies are safe anymore,” said Safavi, military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, quoted by the semi-official Tasnim agency.
Safavi spoke at a memorial ceremony in Tehran for Iranian Revolutionary Guard generals killed in the strike that leveled an Iranian consular building in Damascus.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready for any response. “Anyone who harms us or plans to harm us, we will harm them,” he told a Cabinet meeting.
The rise in regional tensions came after six months of war, sparked when Hamas militants charged from Gaza toward Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 prisoners. Israel responded with heavy bombings and a ground offensive that killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities.
Also on Sunday, the Israeli army announced that it was withdrawing forces from the 98th Parachute Division that had been operating in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza. The Hamas stronghold has been the main target of the Israeli offensive in recent months.
This brings Israeli troop numbers in Gaza to their lowest levels since the start of the war, raising questions about future war plans, particularly the fate of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town.
Israel says Rafah is Hamas’ last bastion and that the war will not be complete until Hamas is destroyed. But the area is now home to some 1.4 million people, more than half of Gaza’s population. The prospect of an Israeli offensive has sparked concern around the world, including from its main ally, the United States, which has demanded a credible plan to protect civilians.
It was unclear how the intensity of the war might change. Israel maintains troops in Gaza’s devastated north and can send them south if needed.
The six months of war have led to growing frustration in Israel, where anti-government protests have increased and anger is mounting over what some Israelis see as government inaction to help free the roughly 130 remaining hostages, including about a quarter would be by Israel to have died.
Negotiations for a ceasefire in exchange for the release of the hostages are expected to resume on Sunday in Cairo. An Israeli delegation led by the head of Mossad intelligence was expected to leave for Cairo, according to an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.
“Israel is ready for a deal; Israel is not ready to surrender,” Netanyahu said. “Instead of international pressure being directed against Israel, which only causes Hamas to harden its positions, pressure from the international community must be directed against Hamas.”
The pressure is on to act now.
“Humanity has been virtually abandoned” in Gaza, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement marking six months of war.
The UN and partners are now warning of “looming famine” for more than a million people in Gaza as aid workers urge Israel to ease restrictions on the delivery of aid by land, the only way to meet growing needs as some Palestinians seek grass for food.
Mothers who have given birth in Gaza since the start of the war are particularly vulnerable.
Gaza’s health ministry said the bodies of 38 people killed in Israeli bombings had been transported to the territory’s still functioning hospitals in the past 24 hours. Hospitals also received 71 injured people, the press release said.
The ministry said 33,175 people had been killed since the start of the war. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says that two thirds of the dead are children and women. Another 75,886 were injured.
The Israeli army continued to suffer losses, notably in Khan Younis, where the army said four soldiers were killed in a battle with militants.
More than 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7, including 260 during the Gaza ground operation, according to the Israeli government.
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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
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See more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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