Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes the aid bill (file photo)
Iran and Israel appeared to step back from the brink of a wider conflict as U.S. lawmakers approved new Israeli military aid on Saturday despite growing criticism of their ally’s war in Gaza.
Iran has played down reports of Israeli retaliation against its unprecedented drone and missile attacks, quelling fears that escalating attacks between the two bitter foes could turn into a wider war in the Middle East.
However, a deadly explosion at an Iraqi military base highlighted ongoing tensions in the region, as did deadly Israeli attacks in Gaza and an intensification of conflict in the West Bank.
To bolster Israel’s defenses, including the Iron Dome air defense system, the U.S. House of Representatives approved $13 billion in new military aid to the country.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the aid bill, writing on X (formerly Twitter) that it “demonstrates strong bipartisan support for Israel and defends Western civilization.”
But the Palestinian president condemned it as an “aggression against the Palestinian people” and a “dangerous escalation.”
Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the money would “result in thousands of Palestinian casualties in Gaza and the West Bank.”
Iran downplays Israeli attack
A week ago, Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones in Tehran’s first direct attack on Israeli territory, and Israel has warned it will fight back.
Iran’s attack itself was retaliation for an April 1 airstrike that leveled the Iranian consulate in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards personnel, and was widely blamed on Israel.
Israel’s retaliation appeared to come on Friday, when Iranian media reported bombings in the central province of Isfahan.
The Fars news agency reported that “three explosions” occurred near Kajavarestan, Isfahan Airport and the 8th Shekari Army Air Base.
“What happened last night was not an attack,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told NBC News.
“This is a flight of two to three quadcopters, equivalent to the toys our children use in Iran,” he added.
“As long as the Israeli regime does not engage in new adventures that harm Iran’s interests, we will not respond.”
Israel has no comments
Israeli officials have not commented publicly on Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Iran, according to a senior US congressional source who spoke to AFP.
While tensions rose after the attack on the Iranian consulate, violence involving Iran-backed groups has surged across the Middle East since the war in Gaza began.
An explosion rocked a military base south of Baghdad housing pro-Iran armed groups, killing one person and injuring eight others, Iraqi officials said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah group said three of its militants were killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon on Saturday.
Hamas allies have been engaged in almost daily cross-border fighting with Israeli forces since the war in Gaza began.
Violence also broke out in the West Bank, another occupied Palestinian territory.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said at least 14 people were killed in a 40-hour Israeli attack on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
The Israeli army said it killed 10 militants during an attack on the Noor Shams refugee camp. The Palestinian Health Ministry said 11 people were injured, including a paramedic who was shot while trying to rescue earlier casualties.
A family of nine was killed
Israel faces growing global backlash over its military offensive in Gaza, which has reduced large swaths of the besieged Palestinian territory to rubble.
Iranian political expert Hamid Gholamzadeh said Netanyahu, who is under pressure over civilian casualties, needs “further escalation and another war to distract the world from the suffering in Gaza”.
There are particular concerns about Israel’s plans to send troops to the southernmost city of Rafah, where the majority of the population is currently taking refuge as they flee violence elsewhere.
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven advanced economies meeting in Italy on Friday said they opposed “a full-scale military action in Rafah” because it would have “catastrophic consequences” for civilians.
But even without a full-scale operation, the city was bombed regularly.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said on Saturday that several areas of Rafah came under attack overnight, including an Israeli strike that killed nine members of a family, including six children.
The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 that killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to AFP statistics based on official Israeli data.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed at least 34,049 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled region’s health ministry.
famine fear
The Israeli military said it struck dozens of armed targets over the past day, including from northern Gaza where rockets were fired into the Israeli city of Sderot.
Witnesses in a refugee camp in central Nuserat said Israeli forces told them to evacuate a house before several were destroyed.
“They instructed us to evacuate and return later, but where should we go back? To the ruins?” asked resident Abu Ibrahim.
A United Nations report on Friday said “multiple obstacles” continue to hinder the delivery of much-needed aid.
Although some aid convoys have recently arrived in Gaza, the World Food Program noted that famine is “a real possibility” in the north.
Mediator Qatar says efforts to reach a long-sought truce have stalled.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a staunch critic of Israel’s Gaza war, met with Qatari Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday to call for Palestinian unity.
President Mahmoud Abbas said his West Bank Palestinian Authority would “reconsider” its relationship with the United States after Washington earlier this week rejected Palestine’s bid to become a full member of the United Nations.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it was summoning ambassadors from the 12 countries that voted in favor of the Palestinian bid on Sunday “for protest talks.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
