Following a Hamas call on Iran to unleash “overwhelming anger” on Israel in response to the death of its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, France has formally advised its citizens to avoid traveling to Iran and has urged those currently in the country to leave as soon as possible.
In addition, several international airlines also said they were avoiding Middle East airspace for fear of Iran’s retaliation.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon revealed that the US is deploying additional warships and fighter jets to Israel to help defend the country from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies after Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khamenei vowed “harsh punishment” against Israel for the assassination of Haniyeh.
While Israel has not commented directly on the killing of Haniyeh, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they had delivered “crushing blows” to its enemies in recent days, including the killing of the top military commander of Iran’s proxy Fuad Shukr in Beirut.
Netanyahu warned Israelis that “challenging days lie ahead” for Israel amid threats from all sides. “We are prepared for any scenario,” he said.
According to the Pentagon, the new deployments, which include additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers, would “improve US force protection… increase support for the defence of Israel, and… ensure the US is prepared to respond to various contingencies”.
Meanwhile, the circumstances surrounding Haniyeh’s death are still opaque. On Saturday, the Daily Telegraph reported that Iranian agents hired by Israel’s Mossad spy agency had placed bombs in an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp guesthouse where Haniyeh was staying in Tehran and then detonated from abroad.
An earlier report by the New York Times said the bombs had been planted into the building two months earlier.
However, these claims are yet to be verified.
Since the October 7 attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people, almost 40,000 people has been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
