Tel Aviv has withdrawn its ambassadors and evacuated embassies in multiple countries amid concerns over attacks that may take place as part of an Iranian retaliation for an Israeli strike against Tehran’s diplomatic mission in Syria's Damascus.
The Yedioth Ahronoth daily newspaper reported on Thursday that the evacuated Israeli embassies include those in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Turkey.
Israeli journalist and military commentator Itay Blumental also shared in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, “As part of the assessments for an Iranian response, we published this evening: the alert level in Israeli embassies around the world has been raised to the maximum level.
“A number of missions in several countries were evacuated after a situation assessment by the Shin Bet [Israel’s so-called internal security service] and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Some of the Israeli representatives abroad were moved to alternate locations and were also asked not to attend public events at this time.”
The Israeli news portal Ynet previously reported that Israeli authorities had given instructions to strengthen security measures at Israeli embassies around the world following the airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
“We ask you to continue to take preventive measures and pay more attention during routine operations,” a statement sent to Israeli diplomats, as quoted by the news portal, read.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced on Wednesday that it had boosted its air defense and called up reservists as fears of a retaliation rise in Tel Aviv.
On Monday, Israeli warplanes bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, located next to the embassy building in Damascus’s Mezzeh district.
The attack killed two senior Iranian military personnel who were on an advisory mission to Syria as well as five of their accompanying officers.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, and his deputy General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi were among the seven martyrs of the terrorist attack.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has vowed that Iran will “punish” Israel and make the evil regime “regret” its crime of assassinating the country’s military advisors in Syria.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has also stated Israel had resorted to indiscriminate assassinations after back-to-back failures in the face of the resistance, warning that the regime’s latest crime against Iranian military advisers in Syria “will not go unanswered”.
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