Israel finalizing decision to strike Iran: Media report

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) – Israel has decided to strike Iran following last week’s missile attack on Tel Aviv, Israeli Channel 12 said on Sunday.

“The discussions on the method and timing of the attack are still ongoing,” the broadcaster added.

According to the media outlet, the potential targets in the planned attack could include critical oil and gas facilities, the presidential complex, and the headquarters of both Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Tehran.

“The discussions within Israel's security establishment are focused on coordinating the best time and method for launching the strike,” the channel said.

Iran launched at least 180 ballistic missiles on Israel on Oct. 1 in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Haniyeh was assassinated in an attack in Tehran last July, while Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese capital Beirut last month.

The escalation came amid massive Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon that have killed more than 1,180 victims since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The aerial campaign was an escalation in a yearlong conflict between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 41,800 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

At least 2,036 people have since been killed, over 9,600 injured, and 1.2 million others displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.

The international community has warned that Israeli attacks in Lebanon could escalate the Gaza conflict into a wider regional war.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi