Iran warns of "preemptive" action against Israel amid Gaza conflict

Iran has warned of a possible "preemptive" action against Israel "in the coming hours," as Israel gears for a ground offensive on the Gaza strip.

The Iran-backed, Lebanese group Hezbollah have been exchanging fire for days, in a series of skirmishes across the Lebanese-Israeli frontier; further raising tensions, following a surprise attack by Palestinian group Hamas in Israel last week.

“All possible options and scenarios are there for Hezbollah … Naturally, resistance leaders will not allow the Zionist regime to take any action in Gaza, and when it feels reassured about Gaza, move on to other resistance areas in the region,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said in a live broadcast to state TV late on Monday.

“Therefore, any preemptive measure is imaginable in the coming hours..."

Amirabdollahian added that "resistance leaders” will not allow Israel “to do whatever it wants in Gaza."

Referring to the alleged Israel use of phosphorus bombs in the aerial bombardment of Gaza, Amirabdollahian said: “If we don’t defend Gaza today, tomorrow we have to defend against these [phosphorus] bombs in the children’s hospital of our own country."

Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian, 19th May 2020. Credit: Ali Khamenei

Israel have adamantly denied allegations made by Human Rights organisations, regarding their use of unethical munitions in retaliatory strikes across the Gaza strip.

Reporting for Al Jazeera, Zeina Khodr expressed concerns that the cross-border exchange of fire could see escalating conflicts spill across borders; “People are worrying and bracing for the possibility of this conflict, which is now confined to the south of the country, to spread elsewhere.”

Amirabdollahian also warned israel of regional escalation if IDF forces entered Gaza for a full-scale ground offensive, in an Al Jazeera interview on Sunday.

“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,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

Israel has declared war on Hamas, after waves of its armed fighters broke through Gaza’s heavily militarised border with Israel on October 7 and killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

In response, Israel have attacked the territory in non-stop aerial and artillery strikes, bombarding Gaza's densely populated civilian areas, flattening residential blocks and killing at least 2,750 people in Gaza; mostly civilians, according to Palestinian officials.

Residential damage in Gaza following Israeli airstrikes, 7th October 2023. Wafa/APA

One of the most populated areas in the world, Gaza is usually inhabited by some 2.3 million people, about half of which are under the age of 18. Comparatively, Gaza is about half the size of Co. Louth, with a population almost one and a half times the size of Dublin.

Iran celebrated the Hamas assault but insisted it was not involved.

Monday’s remarks come as Israel prepares for a ground invasion into the Gaza Strip, where global fears of a rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis are growing; with fears for Palestinians trapped in the heavily bombarded enclave and those in hospitals, since Israel launched its aerial campaign.