While Iran’s consular building was levelled in the attack, according to Syria’s state news agency, its main embassy building remained intact. Still, the Iranian ambassador’s residence was inside the consular building.

Iran’s ambassador, Hossein Akbari, vowed revenge for the strike “at the same magnitude and harshness”.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad – another Palestinian militant group backed by Iran – accused Israel of seeking to widen the conflict in Gaza.

Experts said there was no doubt that Iran would retaliate. The strike was a “major escalation,” Charles Lister, a Syria expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said on the social media platform X.

A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Nasser Kanaani, called on other countries to condemn the strike.

Israel has attacked scores of Iranian-linked targets in Syria over the years with the apparent intent of disrupting arms transfers and other cooperation with Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

An Israeli airstrike in a Damascus neighbourhood in December killed a longtime Iranian Revolutionary Guard adviser to Syria, Seyed Razi Mousavi.

A similar strike on a building in Damascus in January killed at least five Iranian advisers. Last week, an Iranian adviser was killed in airstrikes over the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour, near the Iraqi border.

The chief spokesman for Israel’s army, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said a drone attack on a naval base in southern Israel was “directed by Iran” and caused no injuries.

Early on Tuesday, the Israeli military said some kind of weapon fired from Syria towards Israel crashed before reaching its intended target.

Shifa hospital

Meanwhile, the Israeli military withdrew from Gaza’s largest hospital after a two-week raid that engulfed the facility and surrounding districts in fighting. Footage showed widespread devastation, with the facility’s main buildings reduced to burnt husks.

The military has described the raid on Al Shifa Hospital as a major battlefield victory in the war, and officials said Israeli troops killed 200 militants in the operation, though the claim that they were all militants could not be confirmed.

The raid came at a time of mounting frustration in Israel, with tens of thousands protesting for a third day against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demanding that he do more to bring home dozens of hostages held in Gaza. It was the largest anti-government demonstration since the start of the war.

Move to close Al Jazeera

Netanyahu, in turn, moved to shutter Qatari satellite television station Al Jazeera in Israel, to close the station’s local office while the war in Gaza continues.

The Knesset then approved the bill allowing the temporary closure in Israel of foreign broadcasters considered to be a threat to national security.

The law will allow Netanyahu and the security cabinet to shut the station for 45 days, is renewable, and will stay in force until the end of July or until the end of major military operations in Gaza.

Netanyahu said he planned to act immediately under the authorities of the newly passed law. “The terror channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel,” he said.

Al Jazeera rejected accusations that it harmed Israel’s security as a “dangerous and ridiculous lie”. The station, which has been fiercely critical of Israel’s war in Gaza, from where it has reported around the clock, has previously accused Israel of systematically targeting its offices and personnel.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karai accused Al Jazeera of encouraging hostilities against Israel. “It is impossible to tolerate a media outlet, with press credentials from the government press office and with offices in Israel, acting from within against us, certainly in wartime,” he said.

Israeli officials have long complained about Al Jazeera’s coverage, but stopped short of acting, mindful of Qatar’s bankrolling of Palestinian construction projects in the Gaza Strip – seen by all sides as a means of staving off conflict.

However the move to allow the government to close down the local offices of foreign media groups drew concern from the United States, Israel’s main ally, which said it was critical to maintain freedom of the press.

“If it is true, a move like this is concerning,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing.

AP, Reuters

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