Iran issued yet another chilling warning to Israel and the world as Tel Aviv is expected to launch a ground operation in Gaza.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian bluntly said new fronts may open in the war between Hamas and Israel in what appeared to be an ultimatum to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The Iranian official told Al Jazeera: “If the measures aimed at immediately stopping the Israeli attacks that are killing children in the Gaza Strip end in a deadlock, it is highly probable that many other fronts will be opened.
“This option is not ruled out and this is becoming increasingly more probable.”
He added: “If the Zionist entity [Israel] decides to enter Gaza, the resistance leaders will turn it into a graveyard of the occupation soldiers.”
This comes as the number of skirmishes between Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and Israeli soldiers has grown in recent days.
On Sunday, the Lebanese fighters attacked Israeli army posts and the border village of Shtula – which prompted a retaliatory attack by Tel Aviv.
Amid an increase in clashes, Israel ordered on Monday the evacuation of residents living in 28 towns within two kilometres of the border with Lebanon.
International observers and Israeli forces are also keeping a close eye on the border with Syria, which has been considering Tel Aviv an enemy since the birth of the Israeli state in 1948.
During its massacre on October 7, Hamas killed at least 1,400 Israelis and took more than 130 hostages – including babies, women and elderly people.
The retaliatory air strikes launched by Israel on the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million people as well as Hamas’ base, have killed 2,750 people according to Gaza’s health ministry, a quarter of them believed to be children.
While Hamas continues to fire rockets into the Israeli territory, Tel Aviv has enforced a siege on Gaza, barring the delivery of water, power and food to the territory, and issued an evacuation order which asked 1.1 million people to leave the northern part of the strip.
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said on Sunday an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe” is unfolding and that the organisation doesn’t have the means to provide all the support needed to civilians.
Also on Sunday, Tel Aviv announced an agreement between US President Joe Biden and Mr Netanyahu regarding the return of water supply to some areas in southern Gaza.
