Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has vowed that Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza will re-emerge strongly with new leaders, as an Israeli airstrike cut Lebanon’s main route to Syria.
In a rare public sermon in front of tens of thousands in Tehran on Friday, Khamenei defended the “legal and legitimate” ballistic missile attack on Israel this week that Iran has said was in retaliation for the deaths of the Hezbollah secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, and the Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh.
Iran fired more than 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday, hitting a number of Israeli bases and causing the region to brace for Israel’s imminent anticipated response against Tehran.
As evening fell on Friday in the region, the media in Yemen reported a new round of airstrikes, including on the capital, Sana’a, and near the airport at the port of Hodeidah, and Israeli strikes continued in Gaza and Lebanon.
Four more strikes hit the Seiyana area in Sana’a and two strikes hit Dhamar province, according to Houthi reports. The Houthi media office also reported three air raids in Bayda province, southeast of Sana’a.
The US military confirmed it had carried out strikes on 15 targets in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi rebels. The Guardian understands there was no UK involvement in Friday’s airstrikes, despite earlier reports.
The northern regions of Israel, which is now prosecuting its almost year-long war on several fronts, were targeted by Hezbollah rockets almost continuously throughout Friday.
Just days before the first anniversary of Hamas’s surprise attack on southern Israeli communities on 7 October, which sparked the conflict, there appeared minimal prospect of an end to the escalating violence that has displaced well over 2 million people and killed tens of thousands.
Khamenei, speaking predominantly in Arabic but also in Farsi, urged Muslims from “Afghanistan to Yemen, and from Iran to Gaza” to be ready to take action, and praised those who had died doing so.
It was the first time the 85-year-old had led Friday prayers since the US killed the Revolutionary Guards leader Qassem Suleimani in Baghdad in January 2020.
The Iranian leadership aimed to show, through the size of the crowd attending the Grand Mosque, that ordinary Iranians supported the decision to attack Israel over the killings of its two allies and the Revolutionary Guards brigadier general Abbas Nilforoushan.
Despite Khamenei’s appeal for Muslim unity, the speech made little effort to build unity with moderate Arab leaders. Instead, he praised the Hamas attack on 7 October last year in which 1,200 people were killed and that triggered the Gaza war, describing it as a “legitimate act”, and insisted the root of the region’s problems lay solely in foreign interference and the actions of Israel.
He did little to prepare Iranians for an imminent Israeli attack or for what Iran would do in response. He said: “We need not procrastinate nor rush, but to do what is logical and correct.”
In Lebanon, which has borne the most intense Israeli assaults in the past fortnight – including airstrikes, assassinations and a large southern ground incursion – Israeli forces carried out a series of airstrikes overnight. Southern suburbs of Beirut were hit and the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, used by for tens of thousands of people fleeing Israeli bombardment, was cut off.
The suburban blasts sent plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky and shook buildings miles away in the capital. The Israeli military did not comment on its intended target, and there was no information available yet on casualties. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported there were more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in the area.
Four hospitals – three in southern Lebanon and one in southern Beirut – announced they were suspending services amid the ongoing Israeli bombardment. Late on Friday Israel ordered residents in the capital’s southern suburbs to evacuate immediately ahead of more expected airstrikes.
The government in Beirut released figures showing more than 2,000 people had been killed in Lebanon in nearly a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Responding to the figures, the spokesperson for António Guterres, the UN secretary general, condemned the “totally unacceptable” loss of civilian life in Lebanon.
Another flight has been chartered by the UK government to leave Beirut, the Foreign Office said as it urged any remaining British nationals wanting to return home to register their presence immediately. It will leave Beirut on Sunday 6 October.
The Israel Defense Forces said Hezbollah had launched about 100 rockets into Israel on Friday. The IDF has claimed to have killed more than 250 Hezbollah fighters since ground operations began earlier this week.
Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli troops in southern Lebanon on Friday.
It said in a statement that fighters had targeted “an Israeli enemy troop force during its advance” towards an area west of the border village of Yarun “with artillery shells and a rocket salvo”, and it claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Israeli soldiers across the border earlier in the day.
The Guardian was unable to verify either Israeli or Hezbollah statements over the casualties they claimed to have inflicted.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, this week made what he called a direct appeal to ordinary Iranians to rise up and overthrow their leadership. He said that if the regime truly cared about their future it would stop wasting billions of dollars on futile wars across the Middle East and spend more on public services.
He laced his appeal with a warning that there was nowhere in the Middle East that Israel could not reach.
The aim of the Iranian officials, by contrast, was to underline that Iranians feel inextricably intertwined with resistance to Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, and are even willing to sacrifice their lives if a war breaks out.
At a meeting on Thursday in Doha, Gulf state leaders insisted they would not support a US attack on Iran but would remain neutral.
Linking the fate of Iran so closely with the Palestinian resistance carries risks given Iran’s economy remains racked by 31% inflation, low growth and reduced living standards. Iranian defence spending is about 2.9% of GDP.
