Key Points
- A bombing in Iran has raised fears that Israel's war in Gaza could spiral across the Middle East.
- Violence between Israel and Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen has spiked during the Gaza war.
- Tensions are already high after a Beirut strike, widely blamed on Israel, killed Hamas number two Saleh al-Arouri.
Fears that Israel's war in Gaza could spiral across the Middle East mounted after , claiming at least 103 lives following a strike in Lebanon that
More than 200 other people were wounded when the blasts about 15 minutes apart struck mourners commemorating slain Revolutionary Guards General Qasem Soleimani on the fourth anniversary of his killing in a United States drone strike, Iran's state media reported.
No group claimed responsibility for the blasts, which were the country's deadliest since 1978.
State-run TV labelled them a "terrorist attack", and they came with regional tensions already soaring a day after a Beirut strike, widely blamed on Israel, killed Hamas number two Saleh al-Arouri.
Following Tuesday's , Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military was "highly prepared for any scenario".
Israel and Iran have long been bitter enemies. Violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen has spiked during the Gaza war sparked by the unprecedented
The war between Hamas and Israel is the latest escalation in a long-standing conflict.
There have been repeated, deadly exchanges of fireRed Sea area vital for global trade, and strikes against US-led coalition forces in Iraq and Syria.
More intense wider warfare has so far been avoided, but the Iran blasts rattled global markets, sending oil prices up by more than 3 per cent.
Following the Arouri killing, Germany warned its citizens to leave Lebanon quickly.
"A further deterioration of the situation and expansion of the conflict cannot be ruled out," Berlin's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
Cross-border fire
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war started after the Hamas attack on Israel resulted in the death of around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants took around 250 hostages back to Hamas-ruled Gaza, 129 of whom remain in captivity, according to Israel.
In response to the deadliest attack in its history, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, launching a relentless bombardment and ground invasion that has reduced swathes of Gaza to rubble and claimed at least 22,313 lives, according to the territory's health ministry.
The United Nations estimates 1.9 million Gazans are displaced, and the World Health Organisation has warned of the risk of famine and disease, with only a minimal amount of aid entering.
After Tuesday's killing of Arouri, Lebanon's vowed retaliation against its foe Israel, which it blamed for the strike in its Shiite Muslim stronghold of southern Beirut.
Although Israel did not claim the assassination, Hamas and Lebanese security sources accused it of killing Arouri, 57, a founder of the Hamas military wing.
Hezbollah vowed the killing of Arouri and six other Hamas operatives would not go unpunished, labelling it "a serious assault on Lebanon... and a dangerous development".
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah group which is a powerful force in Lebanon, warned Israel against all-out war on the country to its north. In a televised speech Nasrallah, who has lived for years in hiding, vowed "we will fight without restraint, without rules".
During the Israel-Hamas war, Israel has traded almost daily cross-border fire with Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the Beirut strike proved Israel "has not achieved any of its goals after weeks of war crimes, genocide and destruction in Gaza and the West Bank of Palestine, despite the direct support of the White House".
A few hours after those remarks, blasts in Soleimani's hometown of Kerman, Iran, tore through crowds near a mosque. They had come to honour Soleimani, the commander killed in a 2020 Baghdad drone strike by Israel's top ally the US.
Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, setting Iran's political and military agenda across the region.
Iran declared Thursday a day of mourning. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed "evil and criminal enemies of the Iranian nation" and said: "This disaster will have a harsh response, God willing."
'Settling the score'
Israel has vowed to kill commanders of the , which is considered a "terrorist" group by the United States and European Union.
The head of Mossad, David Barnea, said Israel's spy agency "is committed to settling the score with the murderers" who carried out the 7 October attack, and with Hamas' leadership.
"Every Arab mother ought to know that if her son participated, directly or indirectly, in the slaughter of October 7, his blood shall be upon his own head," Barnea said.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned the strike that killed Arouri was "an additional factor that can cause an escalation of the conflict". He said peace will only come if the international community "imposes a solution."
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian territory where Arouri was born, the Palestinian Authority called a general strike to mourn his death.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh warned of "risks and consequences" of the killing.
During the Israel-Hamas war, violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has surged to levels unseen in nearly two decades, with at least 321 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops or settlers, the Palestinian health ministry said.
At a protest in Ramallah on Wednesday against Arouri's killing, one resident, Hala Abu Gharbiyeh, said the Hamas leader's death would not affect "the resistance."
"These people carry messages of eternal freedom until the occupation is defeated. The message cannot stop with the martyrdom of the leader," she said, holding a Palestinian flag.
In Israel's northern coastal city of Nahariya, near the border with Lebanon, many people are carrying weapons. Residents said they feared Arouri's killing could spark war in their region.
"We're scared," said Lee Zorviv, a clothing store owner.
