Netanyahu says Israel hit Iran hard; Khamenei says damage should not be exaggerated
Israeli PM says airstrikes pounded Iranian defences, missile production sites
Iran's Khamenei says not to exaggerate or downplay attack
Airstrike on south Lebanon's Sidon kills 8 as Israeli-Hezbollah fighting rages in region
By Ari Rabinovitch and Adam Makary
JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Oct 27 (Reuters) -Israel's airstrikes "hit hard" Iran's defences and missile production, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, but Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the damage from Saturday's attack should not be exaggerated.
With warfare raging in Gaza and Lebanon, direct confrontation between Israel and Iran risks spiralling into a regional conflagration. But a day after the airstrikes, there was no sign they would spark another round of escalation.
However, heavy fighting in Lebanon between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which sharply intensified over recent weeks, continued on Sunday with an Israeli airstrike killing eight people in a residential block in Sidon, medics said.
"The air force attacked throughout Iran. We hit hard Iran's defence capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed at us," Netanyahu said in a speech, calling the attack "precise and powerful" and saying it met all its objectives.
The Islamic Republic has not signalled how it will respond to Saturday's long-anticipated strikes, which involved scores of fighter jets bombing targets near the capital Tehran and in the western provinces of Ilam and Khuzestan.
The heavily armed arch-enemies have engaged in a cycle of retaliatory moves against each other for months, with Saturday's strike coming after an Iranian missile barrage on Oct. 1, much of which Israel said was downed by itsair defences.
Khamenei said Israel's calculations "should be disrupted". The attack on Iran, which killed four soldiers and caused some damage, "should neither be downplayed nor exaggerated", he said.
The Iranian parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said Iran was entitled to self-defence and its response "will be definite, in compliance with the requirements".
U.S. President Joe Biden called for a halt to escalation that has raised fears of a wider Middle East war arising from the year-old Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza and Israel's thrust into south Lebanon to stop Hezbollah rocketing northern Israel.
Separately, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Iran was no longer able to use its allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel. The two groups "are no longer an effective tool" of Tehran, he said in a speech.
Gallant added that Hamas was no longer functioning as a military network in Gaza and that Hezbollah's senior command and most of its missile capabilities had been eliminated.
Hamas has repeatedly said it is still able to function militarily, and Israel has recently conducted major new operations in devastated north Gaza against what it calls regrouping Hamas militants.
Hezbollah has said its command structure remains intact and that it retains significant missile capabilities.
LEBANON FIGHTING
On Sunday, the Israeli military urged residents of 14 villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately and move north of the Awali river.
An Israeli strike on Sidon, a city in coastal south Lebanon, killed at least eight people and wounded 25 on Sunday, the country's health ministry said.
Elsewhere in the south, a strike on Zawtar al-Sharkiya killed three people and a Saturday bombing of Marjayoun killed five, it said.
Israel said four of its soldiers were killed in south Lebanon fighting.
Hezbollah also said it had fired a large missile salvo at the Zevulon military industries facility north of Haifa in northern Israel. Hezbollah rockets hit a house and cars and rescue crews responded to put out the fire.
One woman was seriously injured, according to Israel's ambulance service.
Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Elwely Elwelly in Dubai and Adam Makary in Cairo; writing by Angus McDowall; editing by Mark Heinrich
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
