Iran is now a ‘legitimate target’ for missile strikes, a top Israeli minister has said, as fears grow of an all-out war between the countries.
Israel’s economy minister, Nir Barkat, told The Telegraph that Palestinians from the West Bank would never be permitted to work in the country again and imported foreign workers will take their place.
He also argued that the war against Hamas has not been aggressive enough.
Barkat, who is the favourite to take over from Benjamin Netanyahu as head of the ruling Likud party, said Israel has the means to pursue the conflict and open up a new front with Lebanon.
Western leaders are already worried about the prospect of the conflict spreading to Iran and Lebanon.
Nir Barkat, who is the favourite to take over from Bejamin Netanyahu as head of the ruling Likud party, said Israel has the means to pursue the conflict and open up a new front with Lebanon (File Photo)
Iran holds military drill amid rising tension in the Mideast, Nasr Abad, Isfahan – 27 Oct 2023
People gather near rubble in the aftermath of Pakistan’s military strike on an Iranian village near Saravan, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran, January 18, 2024 in a screen grab from social media video obtained by Reuters
Barkat said: ‘Iran is a legitimate target for Israel. They will not get away with it. The head of the snake is Tehran.
‘My recommendation is to adopt the strategy that President Kennedy used in the Cuban missile crisis. What he basically said then was a missile from Cuba will be answered by a missile from Moscow.
‘And we should very clearly make sure the Iranians understand that they will not get away with using proxies against Israel and sleep good at night if we don’t sleep good at night.
‘We believe them when they say they want to destroy Israel… we are not going to allow another Holocaust.’
Israel is pushing closer towards an all-put war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, after an evacuation in the north of the country.
Barkat argued a second war was within Israel’s means while ‘the threat of Hezbollah must be eliminated’.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he and Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi agreed at a meeting on Wednesday on the need to avoid steps that could further threaten Middle East stability three months into the Gaza war.
Turkey, which supports a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has harshly criticised Israel for its attacks on Gaza, called for an immediate ceasefire, and backed legal steps for Israel to be tried for genocide.
Unlike its Western allies and some Arab nations, NATO member Turkey does not consider Palestinian terror group Hamas, whose October 7 attack on Israel led to the retaliatory Israeli military campaign on Gaza.
Iran leads what it calls the Axis of Resistance, a loose coalition that includes Hamas and armed Shi’ite Muslim groups around the region that have militarily confronted Israel and its Western allies. It has voiced support for Hamas.
Speaking at a news conference after meeting Raisi in Ankara, Erdogan said the two leaders had discussed ending Israel’s ‘inhumane’ attacks on Gaza and the need to take steps for a fair and lasting peace in the region.
‘We agreed on the importance of refraining from steps that will further threaten the security and stability of our region,’ he said, adding the two neighbours had also agreed to continue cooperation against cross-border militant threats.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pictured in Tehran earlier this month
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, listens to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during a joint news conference in Turkey on Wednesday
In a sign of the conflict widening, U.S. and British strikes hit Iran-backed Houthi targets in Yemen this month, in response for attacks on Red Sea shipping. Erdogan slammed the strikes as a disproportionate use of force.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also said last week he had spoken to his Iranian and Pakistani counterparts after the neighbours traded cross-border fire, and called for calm.
Despite its harsh rhetoric, Ankara has maintained commercial ties with Israel, prompting criticism at home and in Iran.
Raisi accused the United States of supporting what he called Israel’s crimes against Palestinians in Gaza and repeated Tehran’s appeal for Muslim countries to cut their economic and political relations with the ‘Zionist regime’.
‘What is happening in Palestine and Gaza is a crime against humanity… and the United States and the West are supporting these crimes,’ he said. ‘Cutting economic and political ties with this regime can certainly have an impact on the Zionist regime to end its crimes.’
Turkey and Iran have usually had complicated ties, standing at odds over a host of issues, primarily the Syrian civil war.
Ankara has backed rebels looking to oust President Bashar al-Assad and mounted several incursions into northern Syria against militants, while Tehran supports his government. Turkey has recently taken steps to improve ties with Damascus.
Raisi had twice postponed his visit, initially planned for November, over scheduling issues and attacks in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman. On Wednesday, the two leaders chaired a meeting of a Turkish-Iranian business council and signed various agreements.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthis fired three missiles at two merchant ships in the Red Sea on Wednesday in their latest attack in the commercially vital waterway, the White House and the Iran-backed rebels said.
It came after the Houthis vowed to keep up their attacks despite repeated US and British strikes against them.
Yemen’s Houthi followers lift their rifles and shout slogans as they attend a tribal rally and parade held against the United States-led aerial attacks launched on sites in Yemen, and solidarity with Palestinians on January 22
Houthi supporters demonstrate against the US and UK attacks in the Bani Hushaish area in Sanaa, Yemen on January 22
Houthi supporters gather as they carry heavy weapons and chanting slogans to stage a parade and demonstrate against the US and UK attacks in the Bani Hushaish area in Sanaa, Yemen on January 22, 2024.
A view of the Houthi supporters gather while carrying heavy weapons and chant slogans to stage a parade and demonstration against the US and UK attacks while carrying Palestinian flags at the Bani Hushaish area in Sanaa, Yemen on January 22, 2024.
Yemen’s Houthi followers rally and parade against the United States-led aerial attacks launched on sites in Yemen, and solidarity with Palestinians, on January 22, 2024, near Sana’a, Yemen
A view of the Houthi supporters gather while carrying heavy weapons and chant slogans to stage a parade and demonstration against the US and UK attacks while carrying Palestinian flags at the Bani Hushaish area in Sanaa, Yemen on January 22, 2024
One missile missed its target and a US Navy destroyer shot down the other two, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
The continuing Houthi action ‘means we’re obviously still going to have to do what we have to do to protect that shipping,’ he added.
US Central Command said the missiles were fired ‘toward the US-flagged, owned, and operated container ship M/V Maersk Detroit’ without mentioning a second vessel being targeted.
No injuries or damage to the ship were reported, CENTCOM added.
Fighting intensified Wednesday in Gaza’s Khan Yunis, the focus of Israel’s war against Hamas, with the UN saying nine people were killed in tank shelling at one of its shelters, sparking international condemnation.
The United Nations slammed a ‘blatant disregard’ for the rules of war while the United States deplored the attack at the shelter housing displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza’s biggest city.
It came after the Israeli army said it had encircled Khan Yunis, the birthplace of Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, accused of being the mastermind of the October 7 attacks that sparked the war.
Footage released by the military showed Israeli soldiers engaged in urban combat in the city amid ruined buildings. Large clouds of black smoke billowed over Khan Yunis during Israeli bombardments.
The attack on the UN shelter, housing 800 people, saw the site hit by two tank rounds, killing nine and injuring 75, said Thomas White, the Gaza head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the agency, UNRWA, condemned the attack and said the number of dead was likely to rise.
‘Once again a blatant disregard of basic rules of war,’ Lazzarini said on X, formerly Twitter, adding that the compound had been clearly marked as a UN facility, and its coordinates had been shared with Israeli authorities.
A picture taken from Rafah shows smoke billowing over Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip during Israeli bombardment on January 24, 2024
An Israeli tank moves along the border with the Gaza Strip on January 24, 2024 in Southern Israel
Palestinians look at a mosque destroyed in an Israeli strike in Rafah, Gaza Strip Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024
Heavy rain floods Palestinian migrants’ tents in Deir al Balah, Gaza on January 24, 2024
Palestinians displaced by the Israel air and ground offensive on the Gaza Striptake shelter near the border fence with Egypt in Rafah, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024
Injured Palestinians, including children are brought to al-Najjar hospital for treatment following the Israeli attack on Omar Ibn Abdul Aziz mosque in Rafah, Gaza on January 24, 2024
The United States deplored the attack, with State Department spokesman Vedant Patel saying ‘civilians must be protected and the protected nature of UN facilities must be respected’.
Heavy fighting was meanwhile reported close to hospitals in Khan Yunis, including Al-Aqsa, Nasser and Al-Amal, with reports of Palestinians trying to flee, said UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
‘No-one can enter or exit (Nasser Hospital) due to ongoing bombardments,’ OCHA said, citing medics who also reported that staff were digging graves on the grounds of the facility ‘due to the large numbers of fatalities anticipated’.
OCHA said about 18,000 people uprooted from their homes were reported to be at Nasser Hospital alone.
The Gaza war began with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Terrorists also seized 250 hostages, and Israel says around 132 remain in Gaza. That number includes the bodies of at least 28 dead hostages, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
In response, Israel has carried out a relentless military offensive that has killed at least 25,700 people in Gaza, about 70 per cent of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under mounting pressure to end the war, with the UN’s top court expected to hand down a landmark ruling over genocide allegations on Friday.
Domestic pressure intensified after 24 soldiers were killed Monday in the army’s deadliest single day since it launched ground operations in Gaza.
Citing Israeli officials, the New York Times said 21 were killed in an operation to demolish part of a Palestinian neighbourhood as part of a plan to create a ‘buffer zone’ inside Gaza along the Israeli border.
But in an address to the Israeli parliament Wednesday, Netanyahu pledged the conflict would continue until the ‘aggression and evil’ of Hamas were destroyed.
‘This is a war for our home,’ he said.
‘It must end, and it will end, with the eradication of the aggression and evil of the new Nazis,’ he added.