As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to expand his war in Gaza by invading southern Lebanon, Iran has fired about 400 ballistic missiles into southern and central Israel. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement that if Israel responds to the attack, it would be followed by more destructive strikes.

On Tuesday, Iran said its supreme leader made the decision to fire dozens of missiles into Israel as a retaliation for Israel’s invasion of Lebanon as well as the assassinations of top Hezbollah and Hamas leaders, The Guardian reported.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the attack was a “decisive response to the aggression of the Zionist regime”, and warned Netanyahu that Iran is “not belligerent” but stands “firmly against any threat”.

Hamas welcomed Iran’s missile launch and deemed it “heroic” while urging others to join in the confrontation against the “Zionist enemy and its fascist government” that will “deter and rein in their terrorism”, Al Jazeera reported.

“…Israel might be able to bamboozle the world by show[ing] off its operations that don’t have significant strategic value and are mostly for the public opinion, for the amusement of public opinion and in order to restore faith in their crumbling regime. But, that doesn’t scare the Iranians nor does it scare the Lebanese, most certainly not Hamas and the Palestinians who are fighting for liberation from this apartheid ethno-state,” said Ehsan Safarnejad, an Iranian-based journalist who joined Sputnik’s Fault Lines on Tuesday.

“But after the initial contact [Israel] had with Hezbollah, they were quick to understand and actually to an extent be surprised about how well the Hezbollah fighters were able to coordinate and basically perform different formations which showed that the core of the leadership is still in place, the protocols, the strategies have been solidified in the group itself,” Safarnejad said.

“But, moving past that, Iran doesn’t rely on this strategy that people like to talk about with very particular rhetoric calling Iranian allies as proxies. Iran doesn’t rely on that. Iran fights its own wars. Iran retaliates for the murder of its own generals itself,” the journalist explained.

“…but there is always that sense of camaraderie and brotherhood between Iranians and particularly people in Lebanon. We are very much close to them,” he added. “That feeling is mutual between the people in the Axis of Resistance, but again, that sense of brotherhood and camaraderie is the strongest between the Iranians and the Lebanese.”

President Pezeshkian accused the US of their complicity in the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hasan Nasrallah who died in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut, Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday.

The report also showed images of Netanyahu allegedly issuing the order for the airstrike while in New York. Following the attack, Iran vowed to continue to support Hezbollah’s efforts against Israel.

“The international community will not forget that the order for this terrorist attack was issued from New York and the Americans cannot absolve themselves from collaborating with the Zionists,” Pezeshkian said.

“…if you ask me or many other Iranian analysts, this is not the opinion of the majority, but they would consider US policies to remain roughly the same, no matter whether the red party is in power or the blue party is in power. And that comes from the fact that the US has a very strong bureaucracy. You have these unelected officials in different groups, like FBI and CIA, they’re letter agencies, I’m not going to name them, not to really agitate anybody,” Safarnejad said.

“But, when you talk about them, when you talk about the power that the National Security Council has in the US, the power that the think tanks like Rand Corporations or like other think tanks that have a strong influence over the US foreign policy, when you consider everything, you see that the establishment in the US is very strong. You know, that you have many of these pieces that are pinned down on a board, you don’t really move them. The president just can’t come into power and then start waging war on the intelligence agencies.”

Iranian First Vice President of Iran Mohammad Reza Aref said on Monday that the country intends to “seriously strengthen” relations with Moscow, as well as resolve controversial issues in cooperation with each other, Sputnik reported on Monday.

“In the new government, we insist on a pragmatic approach and aim to introduce negotiations and ensure that the concluded agreements would be implemented in practice in the near future,” Aref said.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin added that Russia is interested in taking cooperation with Iran to a “higher level”.

“The relations between Iran and Russia are of a complicated nature… But, I can say for certain that the US’ aggression to both countries has driven them very, very close to one another. To the point that I would say that Iran and Russia are now on the verge of becoming strategic partners.”

At least two people were wounded by shrapnel in Tel Aviv following Iran’s missile strike, Sputnik reported, citing Israeli medics. Iran’s Fars News also claimed that 80% of missiles in Iran’s first wave of attacks hit their intended targets including gas platforms in Israel’s Ashkelon.

On Monday, a US official said the White House was attempting to develop a defense plan with Israel against a possible retaliatory attack from Iran.

“[Iranians] are very patient,” Safarnejad explained. “But I think that even the patience of Iranians who basically had become like an integral part of our identity is running out now,” the journalist said.