Israel-Iran conflict: B-52 bombers arrive in Middle East, US military says

Washington: American B-52 bombers have arrived in the Middle East, the US military said Saturday, a day after Washington announced their deployment in a warning to Iran.

"B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers from Minot Air Force Base's 5th Bomb Wing arrived in the US Central Command area of responsibility," the military command for the Middle East and surrounding countries said in a post on social media.

The United States announced on Friday evening that it was sending the bombers, fighter and tanker aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the Middle East.

"Should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every measure necessary to defend our people," Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said in a statement on the deployment.

Iran vows a 'crushing response'

Iran's Supreme Leader escalated his rhetoric, warning of a "crushing response" to the country's enemies - including the US - following Israel's missile strike on the country a week ago.

"Enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States, will undoubtedly receive a crushing response for their actions against Iran and the Resistance Front," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech in Tehran on Saturday, state television reported.

Without offering more detail, Khamenei said hostile actions against the Islamic Republic "wouldn't be forgotten."

It was a possible reference to Israel's Oct. 26 attack on military targets across Iran that killed five people, including a civilian. Israeli defense forces struck with more than 100 fighter jets, although there was no confirmation of major damage to oil or nuclear facilities.

Saturday's remarks marked a shift from Khamenei's more measured tone shortly after Israel's strike, which he characterized as a "miscalculation." At the time he cautioned against exaggerating or underestimating the significance of the attack, without any explicit threat of retaliation.

Israel launched strikes against Iran on October 26, hitting military infrastructure while steering clear of critical nuclear and oil sites, and the country's supreme leader has vowed that Tehran will retaliate for Israeli attacks.

Iran has carried out two major attacks against Israel in 2024 - one in April after a strike on its consulate in Damascus that was blamed on Israel, and another in October that Tehran said was in response to the assassination of leaders of armed groups it backs in the Middle East.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard vows Israel attack

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the country will "certainly" launch a new attack against Israel, a day after its supreme leader vowed a harsh retaliation.

"Details cannot be discussed, but it will certainly be carried out," Ali Fadavi, IRGC's deputy commander in chief, was cited as saying by the semi-official Iranian Students' News Agency.

ISNA said the possible attack is expected to be named Operation True Promise 3, in line with the previous missile strikes on Israel in April and October.

B-52 bombers 

Analysts say Israel inflicted severe damage on Iranian air defences and missile capacities and could yet launch more wide-scale action against the Islamic republic.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have repeatedly attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea, are transforming themselves into a "powerful military organisation" due to "unprecedented" military support from outside sources, particularly Iran and Hezbollah, said a newly published UN report.

Ahead of the US election on Tuesday, officials in the United States have been pushing for a resolution of the Lebanon war.

On Friday the Pentagon announced deployment of ballistic missile defence destroyers, long-range B-52 bombers and other resources to the Middle East, serving as a warning to Iran.

US naval forces and heavy B-2 bombers have struck Houthi rebel targets in Yemen in response to the attacks by the rebels, who say they act in support of Palestinians.

Since October 6 Israeli forces have carried out a major air and ground assault on north Gaza, centred on the Jabalia area, vowing to stop attempts by Hamas militants from regrouping.

"The situation unfolding in north Gaza is apocalyptic," said a joint statement by UN agency heads.

"The area has been under siege for almost a month, denied basic aid and life-saving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue," they said.

"The entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence."

In the Gaza City area, medics administered polio vaccines to children. The World Health Organization had said the necessary second round would begin in the territory's north on Saturday, after Israeli bombing halted the drive. Witnesses said Israeli warplanes twice hit Beit Lahia, adjacent to Jabalia, overnight.

Deaths in Gaza 

Israel's military on Saturday said dozens of militants were killed around Jabalia "in aerial and ground activity". Troops were also operating in central Gaza and Rafah in the territory's far south, it added.

Medics and Gaza's civil defence rescuers on Saturday reported three people killed in a strike on Nuseirat, in central Gaza, a day after several people were killed in an Israeli strike.

After nearly a year of tit-for-tat exchanges over Israel's northern border, which Hezbollah said were in support of Hamas, Israel on September 23 escalated its bombing campaign against targets in Lebanon and later sent in ground troops. Hezbollah has since fired more deeply into Israel.

A strike in Israel's Sharon area north of Tel Aviv wounded 19 people, four of them moderately, police said on Saturday, after the army reported three projectiles fired from Lebanon into central Israel.

Israel's military says 37 soldiers have been killed in Lebanon since it began ground operations, and Israeli figures show at least 63 people have been killed on the Israeli side of the border over the past year.

Hezbollah said it had again launched rockets at Israel's Glilot intelligence base near Tel Aviv, and also claimed rocket fire against "military industries" in the Haifa area.

AFP images from Tira, a town northeast of Tel Aviv, showed the upper wall blown out in what appeared to be a residential building. Several cars below were crushed.

Since the war escalated, Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,911 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures.

Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed 43,314 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry which the UN considers reliable.