Iran makes ‘chilling’ threats against US over Israel

Iran has issued a chilling threat to the United States, telling it it will “suffer greatly” if a ceasefire in Gaza fails, amid fresh fears that Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza could escalate, the Daily Mail writes.

Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, Iran’s defense minister, stressed the urgency, saying: “Our advice to the Americans is to immediately end the war in Gaza and respect the ceasefire, otherwise they will be dealt a serious blow.”

But US Secretary of State Blinken rejected the ceasefire, insisting it would only give Iran-backed Hamas a chance to regroup after its October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,400 civilians and took more than 240 hostage.

Instead, Blinken is pushing for a “pause” in fighting to allow civilians to evacuate the battlefield in Gaza City and the northern enclave, which are under heavy Israeli artillery fire as the war drags on for a month.

The uncompromising tone was echoed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who promised at the air force base: “There will be no ceasefire without the return of our hostages, we say this to both our enemies and our friends. We will continue until we defeat them.”

Another senior Iranian government figure has further raised tensions with the West. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, deputy leader of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said: “If Israel’s crimes continue, we must strike at American interests,” without specifying how.

Iran considers the United States, Israel’s main ally, to be “militarily involved in the conflict.” The United States has consistently defended Israel’s right to self-defense and offered military support, in addition to sending its warships and 2,000 marines to the region.

Iranian officials have continually warned Israel of a potential escalation if attacks on Gaza do not stop, with the death toll in the strip rising to more than 9,700, according to local sources.

Yemen’s Houthi group has already sent missiles towards Israel, which were intercepted by Israel, the US and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, attacks on Israel’s borders by Iranian-backed forces in Syria and Lebanon, as well as by its militia in Iraq, continue to intensify.

Tensions have risen amid fears the fighting will escalate into a regional conflict, just a day after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened an escalation of war against Israel, warning of a “real battle.”

The powerful group’s leader praised the “Al-Aqsa Flood” – the name used by Hamas for its brutal attack on Israel on October 7 – and said the “glorious operation of jihad” had led to an “earthquake” in the Jewish state, exposing the weakness of Israel and its army and marked the beginning of a new historical stage in the battle.

“Your fleet in the Mediterranean does not scare us… We are ready to meet face to face with the fleet that you threaten us with,” Nasrallah said, addressing the United States. “Whoever wants to prevent a regional war must quickly stop the aggression against Gaza.”

The United States “is preventing a ceasefire and a cessation of aggression,” he added.

His heavily armed Hezbollah group, backed by Iran, carried out simultaneous attacks on Israeli positions along the Lebanese border, and residents of southern Lebanon reported the heaviest Israeli strikes to date.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its planes struck Hezbollah targets in retaliation for their attack and combined airstrikes with artillery and tank fire.

Tehran-backed Iraqi Shiite groups have also fired at US troops in Iraq and Syria.

But after 30 days of war, Israel continued its brutal attack on Hamas, writes the Daily Mail: IDF planes struck a “terrorist base”, troops fought militants “in close combat” and destroyed part of the group’s network of tunnels in northern Gaza.

Nearly a month after the worst attack in the country’s history, Israel, which sent troops into the tiny Palestinian sector last month, has managed to strike “more than 2,500 terrorist targets” with “ground, air and naval forces,” the army said on Sunday.

The statement said soldiers on the ground were engaged in “close combat” and Israeli planes were striking targets including a “Hamas military compound” at an undisclosed location overnight.

A video posted on IDF social media also showed that they had discovered the hidden tunnels of one of the terrorist groups, which had long been seen as a serious security problem, had been used in the past for smuggling and incursions into Israel, and had also been a major obstacle to Israeli forces trying to operate in Gaza.

“While Hamas is preventing its civilians from reaching safety in southern Gaza, Hamas is hiding in its complex network of terrorist tunnels. IDF troops discovered several access points during operations in northern Gaza,” they reported on social media X.

More than 240 Israeli and foreign hostages were kidnapped by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack, officials said, and Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected offers of a truce until the Islamist group releases them all.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Israel’s war in Gaza as “genocide” and the Hamas-led health ministry said more than 9,770 people had died in the strip.

Blinken told a Senate hearing last week that Abbas’ Palestinian Authority must regain control of Gaza after the war. It currently exercises only limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank, and Netanyahu has long sought to sideline it. Abbas said on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority could return to power in Gaza in the future only if a “comprehensive political solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is found.

Washington has said it supports the creation of a Palestinian state side by side with Israel, but Netanyahu’s far-right government has emerged as a bitter opponent.

The latest war has only worsened tensions in the West Bank, where more than 150 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces and in settler attacks, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Israel on Thursday said it had struck 12,000 targets across Gaza during the war, one of the worst bombing campaigns in recent memory.

In the latest attack in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry said an Israeli bombing of the al-Maghazi refugee camp late Saturday killed 30 people.