JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said yesterday that Israel – and not the United States — will decide how it will strike back after Iran fired around 200 missiles at his country earlier this month.

The comments came as a top Iranian commander, whose absence sparked rumours that he could have been killed in an Israeli strike, appeared in public for the first time in weeks.

Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah also exchanged fire as fighting raged in Lebanon, while humanitarian groups sounded the alarm about a dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

On 1 October, Iran launched a volley of about 200 missiles at Israel in response to an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s capital Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian general Abbas Nilforoushan.

Israel has vowed to respond to the attack. Biden — whose government is Israel’s top arms supplier — has warned against striking Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities in order to avoid broader war.

According to a Washington Post report on Monday citing unnamed US officials, Netanyahu reassured the White House that Israel was only contemplating targeting military sites.

A statement from Netanyahu’s office yesterday took a different tone.

“We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest,” the statement said.

Also yesterday, Esmail Qaani, the head of Iran’s powerful Quds Force, attended the funeral for Nilforoushan, dispelling rumours he had been killed.

Israel’s military launched several strikes on eastern Lebanon yesterday, a day after Netanyahu vowed to “mercilessly strike Hezbollah in all parts of Lebanon — including Beirut”.

Multiple Israeli air strikes hit the eastern Bekaa Valley, putting a hospital in Baalbek city out of service, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

“It was a violent night in Baalbek, we have not witnessed a similar one since” the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon, 50-year-old resident Nidal al-Solh told AFP.

Israeli strikes have targeted Hezbollah strongholds as well as other parts of Lebanon, including a northern Christian-majority village where at least 21 people were killed on Monday, according to the health ministry.

Anis Abla, civil defence chief in the southern border town of Marjayoun, said “our rescue missions are becoming more and more difficult because the strikes are never-ending, and target us”.

At least 1 315 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel last month escalated its bombing there, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

The war in Lebanon has displaced at least 690 000 people, according to verified figures last week from the International Organisation for Migration.

Unicef and the World Food Programme yesterday called for more funding to address “increasing” needs in Lebanon. – Nampa/AFP