Israeli military vows to respond to unprecedented Iranian attack

AP news agency reported that on April 15, Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi visited Nevatim air base in southern Israel, which suffered some minor damage in an Iranian attack on the evening of April 13.

Here, Lieutenant General Halevi said Israel is still considering its steps. However, he stressed that Iran's missile and drone attacks "will be met with a response", Israel will choose the appropriate response.

In a related development, Reuters news agency quoted an Israeli government source as saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his war cabinet for the second time in less than 24 hours to consider how to respond to Iran's unprecedented direct attack on Israel.

On the evening of April 13, Iran launched the first attack in history from its own territory against Israel with the participation of more than 300 drones and cruise missiles.

According to Israel, 99% of the weapons used by Iran in the attack were shot down by Israel with the help of the US, UK, and Jordan, and the attack caused only modest damage in Israel, injuring a 7-year-old girl, causing a crater at the Nevatim air base in southern Israel and damaging a road in Hermon.

Iranian officials said the attack on the evening of April 13 was in retaliation for an airstrike that destroyed the consular building of the Iranian Embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus on April 1, killing seven officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, including two senior commanders - an action Tehran accused Israel of carrying out, but Tel Aviv has neither admitted nor denied.

Iran's unprecedented attack on the evening of April 13 raised concerns about an open war between the country and Israel, which could then develop into a regional war.

Wary of the dangers, US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington would not participate in any Israeli retaliation against Iran.

A White House official told Axios that in a phone call with Netanyahu on April 14, President Biden said that the joint defense efforts of the US and other countries in the region had caused Iran's attack to fail.

According to the above source, in response, Prime Minister Netanyahu said he understood this.

Then on April 15, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also announced in a brief press conference that the US "does not want to see a war with Iran" nor "does not want to see a regional conflict".

In a similar view to Washington, many other allies and partners of Israel also spoke out calling on Tel Aviv to exercise restraint.

“We are at the edge of the cliff and we have to get away from it,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told Spanish radio station Onda Cero. “We have to put the brakes on and put it in reverse.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron also made similar calls.

France, Belgium and Germany have summoned Iran's ambassador. The French foreign ministry said France was working with its partners to de-escalate the situation.

For its part, Russia has refrained from publicly criticizing Iran over the attacks but expressed concern about the risk of escalation and also called for restraint.

“Further escalation is not in anyone's interest,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.