Netanyahu: Iran targets civilians, Israel targets regime to protect them

Speaking at the site of an Iranian missile strike that took the lives of Israeli civilians on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu contrasted Iran’s targeting of civilians with Israel’s military objectives.

“When I stand here in a place that was bombarded by the terrorists in Tehran against innocent civilians, you see the difference. The tyrants of Tehran target civilians. We target the tyrants of Tehran to protect civilians,” the prime minister said while visiting the site where an Iranian missile made a direct hit on a public bomb shelter, killing nine.

Netanyahu warned that Iran’s leadership threatens not only Israel and the United States, but also Europe and the broader international community, noting its rhetoric and missile capabilities.

“If this regime, this terrorist regime of the kind we’ve never seen in the world, if they get nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them—ballistic missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles, they will threaten all of humanity,” Netanyahu said. “So we set out to protect ourselves. But in so doing, we protect many others.”

He praised U.S. President Donald Trump for supporting the campaign. “I want to say special thanks to our great friend and a great leader of the world, Donald Trump, for joining us in this crucial effort to save the world,” he said.

In addition to the nine deaths, more than 20 were wounded when the Iranian missile slammed into the shelter.

“We know from past incidents that where a shelter or reinforced room sustained a direct hit, it did not withstand the force of the missile,” Israel Police Jerusalem District Cmdr. Avshalom Peled said to the media. “However, anyone who is inside a protected space and the impact is not direct (which is in the majority of cases) is protected.”

Video of the strike shows that Israeli interceptors were launched at the missile though but failed to knock it down.

“We’ve made a lot of progress defensively, but we’re not 100%. There were attempts to intercept the missile that fell in Beit Shemesh, which were unsuccessful,” security sources said on Sunday.