‘Will respond to Iran at time we choose’

Demonstrators in Los Angeles rally during a ‘Strike for Gaza’ protest calling for a permanent ceasefire. Pic/AP

Israel's military chief that his country will respond to Iran's weekend attack, but he did not elaborate on when and how as world leaders urged against retaliation, trying to avoid a spiral of violence in West Asia.

The Iranian attack on Saturday came in response to a suspected Israeli strike two weeks earlier on an Iranian consular building in the Syrian capital of Damascus that killed two Iranian generals. It marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel despite decades of enmity dating back to the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles at Israel in the attack. The Israeli military said that 99 per cent of the drones and missiles were intercepted, by Israel's own air defences and warplanes and in coordination with a US-led coalition of partners. Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Monday that Israel is considering its next steps but that the Iranian strike "will be met with a response".

Demonstrators in Los Angeles rally during a ‘Strike for Gaza' protest calling for a permanent ceasefire. Pic/AP

Halevi gave no details. The army's spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Israel will respond "at the time that we choose". Both men spoke at the Nevatim air base in southern Israel, which Hagari said suffered only light damage in the Iranian attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been huddling with top officials to discuss a possible response.

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Pro-Palestinian protests shut airport highways, bridges in US

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York and the Pacific Northwest on Monday, temporarily shutting down travel into some of the nation's most heavily used airports, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and on a busy West Coast highway. In Chicago, protesters linked arms and blocked lanes of Interstate 190 leading into O'Hare International Airport around 7 am in a demonstration they said was part of a global "economic blockade to free Palestine," according to Rifqa Falaneh, one of the organisers.

Traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area was snarled for hours as demonstrators shut down all vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and chained themselves to 55-gallon drums filled with cement across Interstate 880 in Oakland. Protesters marching into Brooklyn blocked Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. In Eugene, Oregon, protesters blocked Interstate 5, shutting down traffic on the major highway for about 45 minutes.

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