TEHRAN, Iran: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, issued an ominous threat on social media shortly after the drone attack on Israel.
Iran’s drone strike on Israel on Saturday followed an Israeli strike that killed two Iranian generals and five other officers in Syria earlier this month.
Tensions between Israel and Iran have been high since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023, when a Palestinian group carried out a surprise attack in Israel, killing 1,200 people. Israel then launched an operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip that killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Iran launched an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) into Israel from inside its territory.
The IDF spokesman said the purpose of the operation was to intercept drones and other possible incoming targets.
Both US and Israeli officials have said that Iran is targeting not only Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but other militias and groups abroad, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Ansarullah (also known as the Houthis). It also gives material support to the armed forces of Iraq and Syria.
On Saturday, Khamenei promised to punish Israel for the deadly attack on the embassy of the Islamic Republic in Syria.
In a post on X, Khamenei shared a nearly one-minute video of his speech on Wednesday and wrote: “The malicious Zionist regime will be punished.”
In his words, he said: “The very malicious, evil and wrong regime has added to its mistakes by attacking the Iranian consulate in Syria.” “In this case, a malevolent regime acted wrongly. It must and will be punished.”
Meanwhile, two Israeli officials said Iran’s attack on Israel would not go unanswered, as Israeli, British, American and Jordanian air forces shot down dozens of Iranian drones.
However, Israeli officials did not specify the nature or timing of the response.
After broadcasting several warnings on Iran Radio International live from Israel, the Israeli army announced that early Sunday, danger sirens sounded in different parts of the country.
The sources said the drones were brought down in the air on the Jordanian side of the Jordan Valley and were heading in the direction of Jerusalem. Others were intercepted close to the Iraqi-Syrian border. They gave no further details.
