Region

TEHRAN — Pakistan launched deadly strikes against militant targets in Iran on Thursday in retaliation for Iranian strikes on its territory, further stoking tensions and prompting Iran to summon Pakistan’s envoy.

At least nine people were killed in the strikes in restive Sistan-Baluchistan province, most of them women or children, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.

They came just two days after Iran carried out raids on what it described as “terrorist” targets in Pakistan, killing at least two children. 

While Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan often accuse each other of allowing extremists to operate from the other’s territory, cross-border operations by government forces have been rare.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry described Thursday’s raids as a “series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts” in Sistan-Baluchistan.

The strikes took place at around 4:30am (0100 GMT), with three drones destroying four houses in a village near the city of Saravan, IRNA said, citing Alireza Marhamati, deputy governor of the province.

Iranian media carried images showing severely damaged homes, with one video showing people gathered around a crater.

All those killed were Pakistanis and investigations were under way to determine why they were in the Iranian village, Marhamati said.

The raids targeted Baluch separatists, according to the Pakistani army. The military has been waging a decades-long fight against separatist groups in its sparsely populated border region.

The foreign ministry said the strikes were carried out based on “credible intelligence of impending large-scale terrorist activities”, insisting it “fully respects” Iran’s sovereignty.

Iran condemned the action, and summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires “to protest and request an explanation from the Pakistani government”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said.

The ministry described Pakistan’s strikes as “unbalanced and unacceptable” and said Iran expects Pakistan “to adhere to its obligations in preventing the establishment of bases and armed terrorist groups in Pakistan”.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has defended Iran’s strikes in Pakistan as a response to recent deadly attacks on the security forces by the extremist group Jaish Al-Adl (Army of Justice). 

On Thursday, the ministry underlined that Iran understood that Pakistan’s “friendly and brotherly government is separate from armed terrorists”.

“Iran always adheres to its neighbourly policy and does not allow its enemies and terrorist allies to break these relations,” it said.

Formed in 2012, Jaish Al-Adl has carried out several attacks on Iranian soil in recent years.

Pakistan delivered a strong rebuke to Iran over the strikes, recalling its ambassador from Tehran and blocking Iran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad.

‘Spiral of violence’ 

China offered to mediate between the neighbouring countries, both close economic partners of Beijing.

The European Union expressed concern about the “spiral of violence in the Middle East and beyond”. 

Rising Iran-Pakistan tensions add to multiple crises in the region, with Israel waging a war against Hamas in Gaza and Houthi rebels in Yemen attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

Meanwhile Afghanistan — which borders both Iran and Pakistan, and is home to a small Baluch minority — said the violence between its neighbours was “alarming” and urged them to “exercise restraint”.

On Thursday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar would cut short his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “in view of the ongoing developments”.

Hours before the strike, Kakar had met the Iranian foreign minister on the sidelines of the forum and posed for photographs.

Earlier this week, IRNA reported that the Iranian and Pakistani navies had carried out joint exercises in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf. 

Sistan-Baluchistan province is one of the few mainly Sunni Muslim provinces in Shiite-dominated Iran and has seen persistent unrest involving cross-border drug-smuggling gangs and rebels from the Baluchi ethnic minority as well as extremists.

In January, Jaish al-Adl claimed an attack on a police station in the border town of Rask which killed one officer. The group carried out a similar attack in the same town in December which killed 11 police officers.

On Wednesday, the group said it had killed a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Sistan-Baluchistan, IRNA reported.

DAVOS, Switzerland — Tehran’s top diplomat said on Wednesday that his country’s armed forces targeted an “Iranian terrorist group” in Pakistan the day before, after Islamabad said the strike killed two children. “None of the nationals of the friendly and brotherly country of Pakistan were targeted by Iranian missiles and drones,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“The so-called Jaish Al Adl group, which is an Iranian terrorist group, was targeted,” he added.

The raid came late on Tuesday after Tehran also launched attacks in Iraq and Syria against what it called “anti-Iranian terrorist groups”.

Pakistan denounced the strike near the nations’ shared border, recalled its ambassador from Iran and blocked Tehran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad.

A few hours before the strike, Pakistani caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar met Amir-Abdollahian on the sidelines of the Davos Forum.

Amir-Abdollahian said Iran’s attack on “Pakistan’s soil” was a response to the Jaish Al Adl group’s recent deadly attacks on the Islamic republic, particularly on the city of Rask in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.

At attack on January 10 on a police station in the city killed a policeman, almost a month after 11 police officers were killed in a similar attack in the area.

Both attacks were claimed by Jaish Al Adl (Army of Justice), a Sunni Muslim extremist group that was formed in 2012 and is blacklisted by Iran as a “terrorist” group.

“The group has taken shelter in some parts of Pakistan’s Balochistan province,” Amir-Abdollahian said, adding that “we’ve talked with Pakistani officials several times on this matter”.

The foreign minister said Iran respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan but would not “allow the country’s national security to be compromised or played with”.

TULKAREM, Palestinian Territories — Israeli forces killed 10 people in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry and the Israeli forces said, as violence in the territory sees no let-up.

Five people were killed inside Tulkarem refugee camp, the ministry said.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society and an official at the camp said Israeli strikes had killed multiple people.

"The camp is besieged by aircraft and heavy numbers of the Israeli forces and tanks," Faisal Salama told AFP.

Explosions and gunfire were heard in the camp as thick smoke billowed into the sky and Israeli vehicles patrolled the area, an AFP correspondent reported.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the June War of 1967 and its troops regularly carry out incursions into Palestinian communities.

Woken by an explosion 

A separate incident near Balata refugee camp, east of the city of Nablus, killed five fighters with the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas's Fateh Party, it said in a statement.

The group and the Israeli forces said Ahmed Abdullah Abu Shalal, a Palestinian fighter, had been killed.

Abu Shalal had been responsible for a "number of attacks" over the past year, including one in occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces said.

Camp resident Sajed Hazeem said he was awoken at dawn by a loud explosion.

Minutes after the blast, an ambulance arrived at the scene but its access to the car was blocked by Israeli forces who arrived at the same time, Hazeem said.

"The army pulled out the bodies and after about half-an-hour it withdrew," he told AFP.

The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said the body of an "unidentified martyr killed by the occupation [Israel] in a bombing of a vehicle" had been received by a hospital in Nablus.

An AFP correspondent saw a pile of debris and the mangled remains of a car that was hit.

Since the start of the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza on October 7, the West Bank has experienced a level of violence not seen since the second Palestinian uprising, or intifada, between 2000 and 2005.

Israeli forces and attacks by settlers have killed at least 365 people in the territory, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Excluding occupied East Jerusalem, the territory is home to some 3 million Palestinians.

They live alongside around 490,000 Israelis, who reside in settlements which are illegal under international law.

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Israel stepped up strikes on the south of war-torn Gaza on Wednesday, ahead of the expected delivery of medicines for hostages in exchange for humanitarian aid under a newly brokered deal.

Air strikes and artillery fire targeted Khan Yunis throughout the night, said an AFP correspondent in the southern Gaza Strip's biggest city.

"It was the most difficult and intense night in Khan Yunis since the start of the war," said Gaza's Hamas government, whose health ministry reported 81 deaths across the Palestinian territory.

At least 24,448 Palestinians, about 70 per cent of them women, young children and adolescents, have been killed in Israeli bombardments and ground assaults, according to the Gaza health ministry's latest figures.

Hamas and other fighters seized about 250 hostages surprlse during the October 7 attacks, and around 132 remain in Gaza, including at least 27 believed to have been killed.

The fate of those still in captivity has gripped Israeli society, while a broader humanitarian crisis in Gaza marked by the threat of famine and disease has fuelled international calls for a ceasefire.

The agreement announced on Tuesday allowing medicines to reach the hostages and aid to enter the besieged Palestinian territory was brokered by Qatar and France.

Under the deal, “medicine along with other humanitarian aid is to be delivered to civilians in Gaza... in exchange for delivering medication needed for Israeli captives in Gaza”, Qatar’s foreign ministry said.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the deal, under which 45 hostages are expected to receive medication.

The International Committee of the Red Cross welcomed the deal, saying it was “a much-needed moment of relief”.

A security source in Egypt said a Qatari plane carrying medicines had arrived on Wednesday at El Arish near the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.

France said the drugs would be sent to a hospital in Rafah where they would be handed over to the Red Cross and divided into batches before being transferred to the hostages.

Hamas released dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a November ceasefire mediated by Qatar, which hosts the group’s political office.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he was hopeful Qatar-brokered talks could lead to another such deal “soon”.

‘Why are they

doing this?’ 

At the Abu Yussef Al Najjar hospital in Rafah, Palestinians stood in front of bodies wrapped in shrouds, mourning the loss of loved ones killed in an overnight Israeli strike.

“Why are they doing this? They are destroying us,” Umm Muhammad Abu Odeh, a woman displaced from the north Gaza town of Beit Hanun, told AFP.

The Israelis “told us to go south, and we came here... but there is no safe place in Gaza, neither in the north, nor in the south, nor the middle”.

“Everything is being struck. Everywhere is dangerous.”

The United Nations says the war has displaced roughly 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people, many of whom have been forced to crowd into shelters and struggle to get food, water, fuel and medical care.

n Tel Aviv, anti-war protesters scuffled with police on Tuesday night, as some held up signs reading “End the siege” and “Stop the genocide”.

“Civilians are getting killed by the Israeli bombings,” said protester Michal Sapri. “It leads to nothing. Our hostages are still there. We’re not going to release them [through] more military power.”

The Israeli public has kept up intense pressure on Netanyahu’s government to secure the return of the hostages, with officials repeatedly insisting military pressure is necessary to bring about any kind of deal.

West Bank violence 

Violence has also surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since October 7 to a level not seen since the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, between 2000 and 2005.

On Wednesday the Palestinian Red Crescent said an Israeli strike killed four people in the city of Tulkarem, in the north of the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli forces said separately it killed a top Palestinian fighter  in an air strike in the West Bank.

An AFP correspondent saw a pile of debris and mangled remains of a car that was hit in the strike near the Balata camp in the northern city of Nablus.

Israeli forces raid and attacks by settlers have killed around 350 people in the territory, according to an AFP tally based on sources from both sides.

Fears are mounting that the Hamas-Israel  conflict will trigger an all-out war across the Middle East.

The US military said it carried out fresh strikes in Yemen on Tuesday after the country’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed another missile attack on a cargo ship in the Red Sea.

It came just days after the United States and Britain bombed scores of targets inside Houthi-controlled Yemen in response to attacks by the rebels, who say they are targeting Israeli-linked shipping in the Red Sea in solidarity with Gaza.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli forces hit Hizbollah targets inside Lebanon, with a security source saying the strikes were “the most intense” on a single area since the Hamas-aligned militants first began exchanging cross-border fire with Israel after the start of the war in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Iran — which backs both the Houthis and Hizbollah — carried out a missile attack in Iraq’s Kurdistan region against what its Revolutionary Guards alleged was an Israeli spy headquarters and a “gathering of anti-Iranian terrorist groups”.

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Israel pummelled southern Gaza on Tuesday, killing dozens, even as authorities announced the winding down of the intense phase of the war that has inflamed tensions across the Middle East.

The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under mounting international pressure to end its offensive in Gaza launched in response to Hamas' sudden October 7 attacks.

But fears are mounting the war could be widening, with Iran and its proxies stepping up attacks across the region in solidarity with Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Palestinian territory.

Overnight, a wave of Israeli strikes killed at least 78 people in the Gaza Strip, Hamas' press office said. An AFP correspondent said the southern city of Khan Yunis was hit hard.

On Tuesday morning, the army said a barrage of 50 rockets was fired towards Netivot in southern Israel, without causing any casualties. Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack.

More than 24,000 Palestinians, around 70 per cent of them women, young children and adolescents, have been killed in Gaza in Israeli bombardments and ground operations since October 7, according to the Hamas government's health ministry.

'Tamp down flames' 

AFPTV live footage showed trails of smoke and explosions ring out as Israel's air defences intercepted rockets near the Gaza border.

Khan Yunis has been the focus of Israeli operations since January 6.

The health ministry said on Tuesday that the war had claimed the lives of at least 24,285 people in the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli forces also announced Tuesday the death of two more soldiers in Gaza, bringing the total number killed since its ground invasion began to 190.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday reiterated calls for a stop to the fighting.

"We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to ensure sufficient aid gets to where it is needed, to facilitate the release of the hostages, to tamp down the flames of wider war — because the longer the conflict in Gaza continues, the greater the risk of escalation and miscalculation," he said.

Israeli officials, including Netanyahu over the weekend, have repeatedly warned the fighting in Gaza will go on for months.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who say they act in solidarity with Gaza, claimed a missile strike on a US-owned cargo ship on Monday, just days after the United States and Britain bombed scores of targets inside the country in response to repeated attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

The United Nations says the Hamas-Israel war has displaced roughly 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.4 million population, many of whom have been forced to crowd into shelters and struggle to get food, water, fuel and medical care.

As temperatures plunge, families living in makeshift tents in Rafah have resorted to burning plastic to ward off the chill, despite the noxious fumes.

“I pray every day that we will all be martyred. Death is better than this life,” said Adbul Karim Muhammad, a 29-year-old father of three whose family fled Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza to Rafah in the south.