Israel is holding its fire after responding to the Iranian attack but will bring “overwhelming force” to bear on the Islamic Republic if the regime resumes its attacks, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“After Iran attacked Israel, I instructed the IDF to attack military and economic targets throughout Iran. We did that, too,” the prime minister said in a brief address to the nation on Monday evening. “At the moment, we are holding our fire, because after we struck the terror regime in Tehran, it ceased attacking us. In the event that the terror regime in Iran makes the mistake of resuming attacks on us, we will respond with overwhelming force.”
“Israel has a full right to self-defense, and we are exercising it to the extent necessary,” he said.
Netanyahu added that he has had “good conversations” with his “friend” U.S. President Donald Trump. That statement came after some reports, which Israel denied, claiming that the U.S. president had spoken harshly to the Israeli premier.
In his address, Netanyahu reviewed the Jewish state’s successes in defanging Iran and its terror proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“A year ago, we launched a historic preemptive attack against Iran’s intention to destroy us with atomic bombs” and “thwarted this immediate threat, and we also eliminated the dictator Khamenei,” he said, of Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Iranian regime who was assassinated on Feb. 28.
“If we hadn’t acted on time and with intensity, we wouldn’t be here today,” Netanyahu said. “I pledge again: Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”
The Jewish state is acting with the same determination against Hezbollah, a terror group that planned to invade the Galilee with thousands of terrorists while simultaneously launching 150,000 missiles and rockets, according to the prime minister.
“We thwarted this threat as well, and we eliminated Nasrallah,” Netanyahu said of the assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. “I would like to tell you: our heroic fighters are tearing Hezbollah to pieces. We continue to destroy all of their terror infrastructure in the security zone, including massive underground facilities in the Beaufort Ridge.”
“So massive that they are unlike anything I have ever seen,” he said. “Iran and Hezbollah are weaker than ever, and we are stronger than ever, but our battle against them is still not finished.”
In the past 24 hours, Iran and Hezbollah have tried to impose a “new equation” on Israel that is “intolerable and unacceptable,” according to the Israeli prime minister.
“They thought they would fire at Israel from Lebanese territory and from Iran, and we would not act. That did not happen, and it will not happen,” Netanyahu said. “Not on my watch.”
Israel has a right to act against its enemies, the premier said.
“After Hezbollah fired into Israel on Sunday, I ordered the IDF to attack terrorist targets in Beirut and eliminate Hezbollah operatives there,” he said.
