Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left no doubt in a statement on Wednesday, regarding what his Jewish country might do should current tensions with Iran escalate further.
“Israel will do whatever it needs to defend itself,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
The comment came after separate meetings with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Israel on Wednesday, where the ministers discussed actions Israel could pursue to retaliate for Iran’s unprecedented, direct attack on Israel over the weekend.
“They have all sorts of suggestions and advice. I appreciate that. But I want to be clear: Our decisions we will make ourselves,” the prime minister added.
During the meeting, Baerbock said escalation “would serve no one, not Israel’s security, not the many dozens of hostages still in the hands of Hamas, not the suffering population of Gaza, not the many people in Iran who are themselves suffering under the regime, and not the third countries in the region who simply want to live in peace,” Reuters reported.
Netanyahu’s comment also comes just hours after Iran’s president has vowed to completely destroy Israel, should it proceed with even the “tiniest invasion” of its country.
President Ebrahim Raisi vowed a “massive and harsh” response to potential Israeli retaliation, during a speech Wednesday at an annual army parade.
Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel on Saturday in response to an apparent strike on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria on April 1 that killed 12 people, including two Iranian generals. Iran blames Israel for the attack, although Israel has not claimed any involvement.
Raisi said Saturday’s attack was a limited one but that “nothing would remain from the Zionist regime,” should it escalate the current situation, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Israel and Iran have waged a shadow war for decades, with the war coming to a head over the past few months as Iran supports Hamas, which carried out the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history on Oct. 7.
The Jewish country then launched a massive ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, intending to secure their hostages from Hamas and to remove the terror group from governing the territory.
On Saturday, Israel, with help from the U.S., the United Kingdom, neighboring Jordan and other nations, successfully intercepted nearly every missile and drone that Iran launched. Israel boasted of a 99% success rate, through the use of its Iron Dome and David’s Sling systems.
Israel has said it will respond, although it has not provided additional details on how or when.
Its allies have urged any retaliation to be strikes in areas that would not result in human casualties and thus, likely avoiding further escalation.
Saturday’s attack was the first direct Iranian military attack on Israel.
