Photo: Collected
Israel has "every right" to respond to the recent attack by Iran, but London urges Israel not to take actions that may escalate the situation in the region, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Monday (15 April).
"Of course, if you are sitting in Israel this morning, you are thinking quite right ... 'We have every right to respond to this,' and they do, but we are urging that they should not escalate," Cameron said.
The UK foreign minister pointed to the "massive scale" of Iran's attack on Israel, saying that it was disproportionate in comparison to the Israeli bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, and risked "thousands" of civilian casualties, Sky News reported. Despite this fact, the top UK diplomat expressed hope that Israel would not launch a retaliatory response against Iran.
In addition, Cameron called on the global community to switch to the issue of hostages held by Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
"They (Hamas) have been offered a deal, the (Palestinian) prisoners could be released from Israeli jails in return for some of those hostages and there will be a pause in the fighting, that is what needs to happen next," Cameron told the broadcaster.
On Saturday night, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched over 300 drones and missiles at Israel in its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. The attack came in response to Israel's airstrike on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital in early April.
Iranian state media reported that Iran had fired at least seven hypersonic missiles at Israel, with none of them intercepted. Meanwhile, CNN reported, citing US officials, that the US military had intercepted more than 79 drones and at least three hypersonic missiles during the attack. IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel had intercepted 99% of the aerial targets fired by Iran, including all drones.
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