Iran on Tuesday warned that it will “certainly” respond to Israel’s latest attack in a “well-measured” and “well-calculated” manner.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad on Monday for a two-day official visit that includes consultations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.

During today’s joint press briefing with Dar, Araghchi said, “Iran will certainly respond to the Oct 26 Israeli attack on appropriate time and manner, and in a well-measured and well-calculated way.”

Late last month, the Israeli military had launched strikes on military bases in Iran, targeting about 20 sites over several hours across Ilam, Khuzestan, and Tehran. Tel Aviv said the strikes were in response to attacks from “Iran and its proxies.”

Araghchi emphasised that Iran reserves its “inherent” right to “legitimately” respond to Israeli strikes in line with the United Nations charter.

He accused the “Zionist regime” of spreading terrorism from Gaza to Lebanon, adding that the international community has failed to halt Israel’s “genocide” of Palestinians.

Sharing a similar stance, Dar reiterated the two countries’ call for establishing an independent Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Calling the Israeli strikes a violation of Iran’s sovereignty and international law, Dar affirmed solidarity with the Iranian people.

He said, “We reject the propensity by occupying powers to equate the right of self-determination with terrorism, which is nothing but a ploy to prolong their occupation and apartheid policies,” according to APP.

“The long-standing Palestinian issue and the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, which are based on the denial of the right to self-determination, must be addressed through peaceful means, fully respecting the rights and aspirations of the affected populations, in line with relevant UN resolutions and the UN Charter.”

Joint strategy

Araghchi said the two nations are working on a joint strategy to present at the upcoming Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Tehran, aiming to address the ongoing Israeli aggression.

The two sides also agreed to collaborate in countering terrorism, which Araghchi described as a “common threat” to both nations.

He praised Islamabad’s “consistent” support for Gaza and the Palestinian cause.

Earlier, Dar received Araghchi and his delegation at the Foreign Ministry, where both ministers underscored the importance of strengthening ties through increased trade, energy cooperation, and enhanced border management, according to a statement by the Foreign Office.

They expressed commitment to exploring avenues for enhanced trade, investment, and people-to-people contacts.

Both officials also discussed the Middle East situation, “strongly” condemning the Israeli aggression against Palestinians and affirming their support for the Palestinian right to self-determination.

The Israeli military has pounded the Gaza Strip, killing dozens of people mainly in the north and again attacking the last partially functioning hospital in the area.

At least 33 people were killed in air raids across the enclave, including 20 in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, four in Gaza City, six in central areas and three in southern Khan Younis.

Eid Sabbah, the director of nursing at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern part of the Palestinian territory, said Israeli jets and quad-copter drones hit the children’s ward of the facility, injuring medics and patients.

“The upper floors were damaged and some of the children and newborn babies were injured,” Sabbah said.

“Journalists, nurses and other medical staff were also injured,” he said, adding this was the second day that the hospital came under Israeli fire.

A week back, Israeli forces violently raided Kamal Adwan Hospital and detained dozens of people, including nearly all of its medical staff. That left the facility with four doctors and 50 volunteers, medical workers and nurses.

The towns of Beit Lahiya, where the hospital is located, Jabalia and Beit Hanoon have been witnessing waves of attacks in the past month as the Israeli military has intensified its air and ground operations in the north.

Israel has officially notified the United Nations of its decision to cut ties with its agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) as another UN agency warns of an impending famine in genocide-ravaged Gaza.

In a statement on Monday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it cancelled a cooperation agreement from 1967 which provided the legal basis of the country’s relations with UNRWA.

“UNRWA – the organisation whose employees participated in the October 7 massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives – is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz was quoted as saying.

The Israeli parliament last week adopted two controversial bills banning UNRWA from operating on Israeli territory, closing its premises in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza.

Israel alleges fighters of Palestinian group Hamas have infiltrated UNRWA. The UN agency denies the allegations and says it takes measures to ensure its neutrality.

UNRWA on Monday said Israel’s ban on its operations would lead to the “collapse” of humanitarian work in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

“If this law is implemented, it would be likely to cause the collapse of the international humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip – an operation of which UNRWA is the backbone,” Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA spokesman, told the AFP news agency.

The UN agency provides education, healthcare and other basic services to Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation and their descendants, who now number nearly six million. Refugee families make up the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.

Aid groups have warned that Israel’s ban on UNRWA could create further obstacles to addressing a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israel has said other UN agencies and aid groups can fill the gap, but those organisations insist UNRWA is essential.

Israel’s notification to the UN came as the World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza “could soon escalate into famine” as Israeli forces continue to severely restrict the entry of food and other supplies into the enclave.

On Saturday, a WFP official said the agency cannot serve as a replacement for UNRWA in Gaza. “We cannot replace the important functions of the UNRWA in Gaza, such as the administration of emergency shelters, schools and health centres,” Martin Frick, head of the WFP Berlin office, told German media group RND.

In January, Israel claimed that more than a dozen UNRWA members took part in a Hamas-led attack on Israel last year, in which Palestinian fighters killed more than 1,100 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 captives.

After the assault, the Israeli army waged a ferocious military campaign in Gaza, killing more than 43,000 people so far, displacing almost its entire 2.3 million population, and reducing large swaths of the Palestinian enclave into rubble.

The UN launched an investigation into Israel’s allegations which resulted in the termination of contracts of nine staff members against which “the evidence – if authenticated and corroborated – could indicate that the UNRWA staff members may have been involved” in the attack.

In July, Israel claimed that another 100 UNRWA employees were members of Hamas and other Palestinian groups. The agency asked Israel to provide more information to take action. UNRWA on Monday told Al Jazeera it had not received any response.

Meanwhile, UN officials say Israeli forces have killed more than 130 of their workers in a year in Gaza – the largest such toll in any conflict since the global body was founded.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell has said that the Israeli killing of more than 50 children in “deadly” 48 hours in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip is another “dark chapter” of the “terrible” Israeli war against the besieged territory.

In a statement published Saturday on the UN agency’s website, Russell said Israeli forces not only killed a large number of Palestinians, children included, but also, cut humanitarian aid and attacked UN staff.

“This has already been a deadly weekend of attacks in North Gaza. In the past 48 hours alone, over 50 children have reportedly been killed in Jabalia, where strikes leveled two residential buildings sheltering hundreds of people.

She also highlighted the dangers humanitarian workers face, especially those involved in sensitive campaigns such as polio vaccination.

“And this morning, the personal vehicle of a UNICEF staff member working on the polio vaccination campaign came under fire by what we believe to be a quadcopter while driving through Jabalia-Elnazla. The car was damaged. Fortunately, the staff member was not injured. But she has been left deeply shaken.

“Meanwhile, at least three children were reportedly injured by another attack in the proximity of a vaccination clinic in Sheikh Radwan, while a polio vaccination campaign was underway,” she added.

Russell condemned the attacks on Jabalia, the vaccination clinic, and UNICEF staff members as part of the broader Israeli genocidal tactic of indiscriminate strikes on civilians in the Gaza Strip.

“The attacks on Jabalia, the vaccination clinic, and the UNICEF staff member are yet further examples of the grave consequences of the indiscriminate strikes on civilians in the Gaza Strip.

“Taken alongside the horrific level of child deaths in North Gaza from other attacks, these most recent events combine to write yet another dark chapter in one of the darkest periods of this terrible war,” she warned.

She emphasized that international humanitarian law mandates the protection of civilians, civilian structures, humanitarian workers, and their vehicles during conflicts.

Displacement or evacuation orders do not excuse any party from their obligations to differentiate between military and civilian targets, ensure proportionality, and take all feasible precautions in attacks, according to Russell.

“Yet these principles are being flaunted over and over again, leaving tens of thousands of children killed, injured, and deprived of essential services needed for survival.,” she lamented.

She urged an end to attacks on civilians, humanitarian workers, and the remaining civilian facilities and infrastructure in Gaza, highlighting the dire situation in North Gaza, where the entire Palestinian population, particularly children, faces imminent threats of death from disease, starvation, and continued bombardment.

“UNICEF is asking Israel for an immediate investigation into the circumstances surrounding the attack on its staff member, and that actions to be taken to hold accountable those found responsible,” she said.

The Israeli regime launched its genocidal war on the defenseless people of the Gaza Strip in October 2023 following a retaliatory operation by the Hamas resistance movement.

Last month, Israeli forces intensified their attacks launching a sweeping air and land assault on northern Gaza, killing and wounding more Palestinians, many of them innocent children.

The overall death toll caused by the relentless Israeli attacks has reached 43,314 so far, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

It said, that since October 7, 2023, more than 102,000 Palestinians have been injured in the Israeli onslaught.

Most of the helpless Palestinian victims have been women and children.

The BBC has been accused by more than 100 of its staff of giving Israel favourable coverage in its reporting of the war on Gaza and criticised its lack of “accurate evidence-based journalism”.

A letter sent to the broadcaster’s director general, Tim Davie, and CEO Deborah Turness on Friday said: “Basic journalistic tenets have been lacking when it comes to holding Israel to account for its actions.”

First reported by The Independent newspaper on Friday, the signatories included more than 100 anonymous BBC staff and more than 200 from the media industry, as well as historians, actors, academics and politicians.

“The consequences of inadequate coverage are significant. Every television report, article and radio interview that has failed to robustly challenge Israeli claims has systematically dehumanised Palestinians,” the letter said.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 43,259 Palestinians and wounded 101,827 since October 7, 2023. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks that day and more than 200 were taken captive.

The signatories called on the BBC to implement editorial commitments including “reiterating that Israel does not give external journalists access to Gaza; making it clear when there is insufficient evidence to back up Israeli claims; making clear where Israel is the perpetrator in article headlines; including regular historical context predating October 2023; and robustly challenging Israeli government and military representatives in all interviews”.

The letter said British media organisations such as the BBC, ITV and Sky “enjoy high levels of public trust” and have a “duty to fearlessly follow the evidence”.

It also noted that the BBC “is licence fee funded, and the erosion of its own editorial standards has put its impartiality and independence at serious risk”.

Last November, more than a month after Israel began its war in Gaza, eight United Kingdom-based journalists employed by the BBC wrote a letter to Al Jazeera and said the BBC is guilty of a “double standard in how civilians are seen”, given that it is “unflinching” in its reporting of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

“This organisation doesn’t represent us,” one of the co-writers told Al Jazeera.

“For me, and definitely for other people of colour, we can see blatantly that certain civilian lives are considered more worthy than others – that there is some sort of hierarchy at play.”

Israel’s war has now expanded to Lebanon, where at least 2,897 people have been killed and 13,150 wounded in Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began.

The BBC has defended its coverage of the war in Gaza.

According to UK media reports on Friday, a BBC spokesperson said: “When we make mistakes or have made changes to the way we report, we are transparent.

“We are also very clear with our audiences on the limitations put on our reporting – including the lack of access into Gaza and restricted access to parts of Lebanon, and our continued efforts to get reporters into those areas,” the spokesperson added.

Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem has been elected as the new chief of the Lebanese resistance movement after his predecessor Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, was martyred in an Israeli strike on southern Beirut last month.

In a statement, Hezbollah expressed its commitment to upholding the legacy of Sheikh Qassem’s predecessor, describing the election as part of a sacred mission. “We pledge to God Almighty, to the soul of our beloved martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (may God be pleased with him), to the martyrs, to the Islamic resistance fighters, and to our resilient and loyal people, to work together to fulfill Hezbollah’s principles and goals.”

Hezbollah emphasized the organization’s dedication to carrying forward the cause of resistance. The Shura Council expressed its hope for Sheikh Qassem’s success in leading Hezbollah, entrusting him with the responsibility of preserving the movement’s resistance and raising its banner until victory.

On September 28, Hezbollah released a statement announcing the martyrdom of its Secretary-General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, joining a handful of Resistance leaders who dedicated their lives for the sake of fighting against the Israeli occupation.

Hezbollah began its statement with the verse: Let those fight in the way of Allah, who sell the life of this world for the Hereafter; and whoever fights in the way of Allah, and then is slain, or he subdues [the enemy], soon We shall give him a great reward. [Surah al-Nisa’, verse 74]

“His eminence, the leader of the Resistance, the pious servant of God, has passed on to God as a great leader, a brave martyr, joining the martyrs of Karbala…on the path of prophets,” the statement read.

Israel struck military sites in Iran early on Saturday, saying it was retaliating against Tehran’s strikes on Israel this month, the latest attack in the escalating conflict between the heavily armed rivals.

Hours later the Israeli military said its strikes had been completed and its objectives achieved, but a semi-official Iranian news agency vowed a “proportional reaction” to Israeli moves against Tehran.

Iranian media reported multiple explosions over several hours in the capital and at nearby military bases, starting shortly after 2am (2230 GMT on Friday).

Before dawn, Israel’s public broadcaster said three waves of strikes had been completed and that the operation was over.

Iran said its air defence system successfully countered Israel’s attacks on military targets in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam with “limited damage” to some locations.

The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel’s retaliation for a ballistic-missile barrage carried out by Iran on Oct 1, in which around 200 missiles were fired at Israel and one person was killed in the West Bank.

Tensions between arch rivals Israel and Iran have escalated since Hamas, the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group based in Gaza, attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023. Hamas has been supported by Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants, also backed by Iran.

Fears that Iran and the US would be drawn into a regional war have risen with Israel’s intensifying assault on Hezbollah since last month, including airstrikes on the Lebanese capital Beirut and a ground operation, as well as its year-old war in Gaza.

“In response to months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the State of Israel – right now the Israel Defense Forces is conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran,” Israel’s military said in a statement announcing the attack.

‘Obligated to respond’

The military said later it had completed its “targeted” attacks in Iran, striking truck missile manufacturing facilities and surface-to-aerial equipment, adding its planes had safely returned home.

“If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond,” the military said.

Targets did not include energy infrastructure or Iran’s nuclear facilities, a U.S. official said.

US President Joe Biden had warned that Washington, Israel’s main backer and supplier of arms, would not support a strike on Tehran’s nuclear sites and has said Israel should consider alternatives to attacking Iran’s oil fields.

Iranian authorities have repeatedly warned Israel against any attack.

“Iran reserves the right to respond to any aggression, and there is no doubt that Israel will face a proportional reaction for any action it takes,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency said on Saturday, citing sources.

A senior Biden official said Israel’s “targeted and proportional strikes” should be the end of direct exchange of fire between the two countries, but the US was fully prepared to once again defend Israel if Iran should choose to respond.

The US has multiple direct and indirect channels of communication with Iran where it has made its position clear, the official said on condition of anonymity.

US informed ahead of strikes

Videos carried by Iranian media showed air defences continuously firing at apparently incoming projectiles in central Tehran, without saying which sites were coming under attack.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency said Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps bases that were attacked were not damaged.

A spokesperson for Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization said flights on all routes were cancelled until further notice, state news agency IRNA reported. Neighbouring Iraq also suspended all flights until further notice, its state news agency said.

Israel targeted some military sites in Syria’s central and southern parts with airstrikes early on Saturday, Syrian state news agency SANA reported. Israel has not confirmed striking Syria.

Israel said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other security officials had closely followed the operation at the military’s command and control centre in Tel Aviv.

Gallant spoke to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin shortly after Israel’s strikes began.

Austin emphasized the enhanced force posture of the United States to defend US personnel, Israel and its partners across the region, the Pentagon said.

Israel notified the United States before its strikes, but Washington was not involved in the operation, a US official told Reuters.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in the Middle East for another attempt to broker a peace deal, said on Wednesday Israel’s retaliation should not lead to greater escalation.

Even as it sought to convince Israel to calibrate its strikes, the United States moved to reassure its closest ally in the Middle East that it would aid in its defence should Tehran decide to stage a counter-attack.

This included Biden’s decision to move the US military’s THAAD anti-missile defences to Israel, along with about 100 US soldiers to operate them.