Lebanon scarred by 'deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence'

Israel and Hezbollah have clashed in intense ground battles in southern Lebanon for the first time in nearly two decades as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Iran "will pay" for its huge missile attack.

- BEL TREW TOM WATLING

Mr Netanyahu held two security meetings in the immediate wake of Iran firing 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, the first of which was in a bunker in Jerusalem late on Tuesday night and the second was at the defence ministry’s Tel Aviv headquarters yesterday, to work out a response.

“Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it,” he said, immediately after the attack. “The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies.”

Yesterday afternoon, Israel’s army chief said Israel would definitely strike back.

“We will respond. We can locate important targets and we can hit them precisely and powerfully,” said the chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi, in a video from an air force base in central Israel. “We have the capability to reach and strike every location in the Middle East and those of our enemies who have not yet understood this will understand this soon.”

Speaking to Axios and NBC News, Israeli officials vowed they were readying a swift and “significant retaliation” within days, possibly targeting Iranian oil facilities.

The US said it would help Israel ensure that Iran suffers “severe consequences” for its attack, one that Israel revealed caused minor damage to military facilities. US president Joe Biden said that he does not support an attack on Iran's nuclear sites as part of any Israeli response but told reporters that there would be more sanctions imposed on Iran.

International efforts to put a stop to the conflict nevertheless went into overdrive as Antonio Guterres, United Nations secretary general, warned that “the raging fires in the Middle East are fast becoming an inferno”.

Just hours earlier, Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz announced that he had barred Mr Guterres from entering the country, alleging that the secretary general had failed to unequivocally condemn the Iranian attack.