Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday spoke to US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as Israel reportedly prepares for retaliation against Iran‘s strikes.
After Netanyahu spoke to Biden, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack will be “lethal, precise and surprising”.
On October 1, in an apparent bid to avenge Israeli military action against its proxies, Iran launched above 180 rockets, including ballistic missiles, near Tel Aviv.
After describing Iran’s October 1 missile attack as a failure, Gallant said: “Whoever attacks us will be hurt and will pay a price. Our attack will be deadly, precise and above all surprising, they will not understand what happened and how it happened, they will see the results,” he said.
Last month, in a rare move, Netanyahu addressed Iranians amid Israel’s massive aerial onslaught on Lebanon territory with the aim to wipe out Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has played an active role in the Gaza war since Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Addressing citizens of the Shiite theocratic state, Netanyahu called them “noble Persian people” while admonishing the Khamenei regime for plunging the Middle East “deeper into darkness” and not doing enough for Iranians in health, education and infrastructure.
Netanyahu further claimed, “When Iran is finally free — and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think – everything will be different”.
“Every day, you see a regime that subjugates you, make fiery speeches about defending Lebanon, defending Gaza. Yet every day, that regime plunges our region deeper into darkness and deeper into war,” Netanyahu said in an English statement, going on to boast of Israel’s military might and recent assassinations of terror leaders.
The Israeli PM said that when the day of Iranian independence comes the “terror network that the regime built in five continents will be bankrupt, dismantled”. Netanyahu, concluding his speech, urged the Iranians not be let small groups of “fanatic theocrats crush their hopes and dreams”.