Israel bombs Damascus, hits the area of the Iranian embassy in Syria and kills a Pasdaran commander. On a day of very high tension, Tehran announces a “harsh” response to the attack carried out by Tel Aviv fighters.
The Iranian media spread the news in the Italian afternoon, initially referring to an Israeli raid against a site adjacent to the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, according to the Tasnim agency report. The complex includes the consulate and the residence of the Iranian ambassador. The first toll is at least 7 dead, among the victims also the high-ranking officer of the Revolutionary Guards Mohammad Reza Zahedi. The target of the Israeli raid was, according to the Iranian public broadcaster al-Alam, the consulate which was “completely destroyed”.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps then announces that “Israel committed a crime in Damascus, which led to the martyrdom of Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, Brigadier General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi and 5 of the officers who accompanied”. The attack, according to the Pasdaran, “comes after the failure” of Israel “in the face of the Palestinian resistance and the fighters of the Islamic Resistance Front in the region”.
The Iranian ambassador to Syria and his family are not among the victims. It is the diplomat, Hossein Akbari, who promises that Tehran’s response “will be tough”. “We will respond to the attack in the same way, at the right time and in the right place,” he says.
“Targeting the Iranian consulate is a violation of international norms and Israel will have to bear the repercussions,” says Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian. “The international community must take a firm stand against such criminal acts,” he says.
Israel leaves al-Shifa hospital, the complaint: “Deaths everywhere”
The attack on Damascus almost overshadows the other news of the day, in the Gaza Strip, with the withdrawal of the Israeli Defense Forces from the al-Shifa hospital. Residents denounce the “total destruction” of the structure. Israeli soldiers “razed every sign of life to the ground”, testifies a civilian. Several buildings were set on fire. There are still bodies on the ground, two of them right in the hospital courtyard. But some patients and doctors and paramedics, as well as evacuees, are still in the complex.
According to Israel, those detained in the hospital during the military raid were “treated in accordance with international law”. Faced with protests from al-Shifa doctors that the staff would be forced to strip naked, the IDF responds that “it is often necessary for suspected terrorists to hand over their clothes so that their clothes can be searched and to ensure that they do not hide explosive vests or other weapons.” The IDF adds that staff members had their clothes returned “when it was possible to do so”. In the operations, which lasted a total of 14 days, Hamas militants were killed and weapons and intelligence documents seized.
Gaza Civil Defense previously reported that at least 300 bodies have been found at the hospital so far. The organization added that it was difficult to determine the exact number of people killed, as Israeli forces reportedly buried the bodies in and around the compound by demolishing nearby roads.
The reaction of the USA and Iran
If confirmed, the news about the bodies “would be very worrying”, says White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, responding to a question from a journalist during the press briefing. “We will ask for further information” from Israel. The White House spokeswoman recalls “Israel’s right to defend itself but at the same time underlines that we do not want to see shootings inside hospitals even if we know that Hamas uses civilian facilities”.
The spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign Ministry at the same time calls for an urgent international investigation. Nasser Kanaani in a post on ‘X’, as reported by the Iranian press agency ‘Tasnim’, states that the images of the al-Shifa hospital, the testimonies and media reports on the extent of the destruction “of the massacre and the number of Palestinians detained there are appalling and terrible.” Kanaani highlights “the urgent need for an international investigation into Israeli atrocities at the hospital.”
“Will international institutions fulfill their duties? Will well-known human rights defenders support an international investigation into aspects of this blatant war crime or will selective and discriminatory human rights behavior continue?” Kanaani asks sarcastically.
