Iran warns Israel against retaliation for missile attack

By Elwely Elwelly and Maya Gebeily

DUBAI/BEIRUT (Reuters) -The commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards warned Israel on Thursday against attacking the Islamic Republic in retaliation for a missile barrage as its arch-foe stepped up its offensive in Lebanon against Tehran-backed Hezbollah.

Fears of a wider Middle East conflict have grown as Israel plans its response to the Oct. 1 missile attack carried out by Iran after Israeli airstrikes on Iranian-allied militants.

"We tell you (Israel) that if you commit any aggression against any point we will painfully attack the same point of yours," Hossein Salami said in a televised speech, adding that Iran can penetrate Israel's defences.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday about Israel's operations in Lebanon and Gaza, aiming to avert a regional war. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi landed in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials as part of a Middle Eastern tour as tension builds.

The European Union held its first summit with Gulf states and issued a statement calling for calm: "We underscore the importance of diplomatic engagement with Iran –– to pursue regional de-escalation," it said.

Israel shows no signs of easing its military campaigns against Hezbollah in Lebanon after assassinating several of its leaders, and Hamas in Gaza and it has vowed to punish Iran for its Oct. 1 attack.

Qatar, which has mediated in talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza, said there had been no engagement with any parties for the last three to four weeks on the issue.

Israeli airstrikes killed 11 Palestinians in Gaza City on Thursday, medics said, while Israeli forces sent tanks into Jabalia in the north, where Palestinians and United Nations officials expressed alarm over shortages of food and medicine.

Residents of Jabalia said Israeli forces blew up clusters of houses from air, by tank shells and by placing bombs in buildings before blowing them up remotely.

On its northern front in Lebanon, Israel has said it will not stop fighting a now weakened Hezbollah before it can safely return its citizens to their homes near the Lebanese border and said any ceasefire negotiations will be held "under fire".

The Israeli military said on Thursday that over the past 24 hours it had killed 45 Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, including a battalion commander, and seized many weapons.

ATTACK ON MUNICIPAL HEADQUARTERS

The mayor of a major town in south Lebanon was among 16 people killed on Wednesday when an Israeli airstrike destroyed its municipal headquarters in the biggest attack on an official Lebanese state building since the Israeli air campaign began.

Lebanese officials denounced the incident, which also wounded more than 50 people in Nabatieh, a provincial capital, saying it was proof that Israel's campaign against the Hezbollah armed group was now shifting to target the Lebanese state.

The Israelis "intentionally targeted a meeting of the municipal council to discuss the city's service and relief situation" to aid people displaced by the Israeli campaign, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said.

Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting since the militant group began firing missiles at its arch-foe a year ago in support of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza and the conflict has sharply escalated in recent weeks.

Israeli operations in Lebanon have killed at least 2,350 people over the last year, according to the health ministry, and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced. The death toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but includes hundreds of women and children.

Around 50 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in the same period, according to Israel.

Abdelnaser, a man displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, which Israel has repeatedly bombed, was on the waterfront early on Thursday morning.

"War has become normal for us. We know that every 10 years Lebanon gets built, and every 10 years it gets destroyed again," he said.

(Reporting by Laila Bassam and Timour Azhar in Beirut, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Stephen Coates, Philippa Fletcher and Ros Russell)