Israeli Defense Minister Says Mission Against Iran Is Not Finished

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that the country's mission regarding Iran is not yet complete, and warned Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, an ally of Tehran, to stay out if fighting resumes. The statement comes as Israel undergoes a political transition and it is unclear whether the country will escalate its confrontation with Iran.

Katz repeated the claim that Iran is trying to rebuild its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons and pursue other serious plans that endanger Israel. Tehran denies this. According to the source, Israeli and US bombing campaigns have struck Iran twice since last year.

The minister said Israel will not pull back from security zones in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria. If Hezbollah, which he described as a terrorist organization, chooses to join Iran in attacking Israel, it will suffer extremely heavy blows.

Political background

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened new strikes on Iran in recent weeks. It is unclear whether he has the backing of US President Donald Trump, whose Republicans lost in Tuesday's US midterm elections, partly because of voter anger over the war. Israel's Channel 12 reported on Friday that Netanyahu and the Mossad intelligence service tried to stage an operation against Iran before the late-October elections in Israel, but the US found out and stopped it.

Netanyahu lost the election on 27 October, and opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot has been given the first chance to form a governing coalition. Eisenkot, a former army chief, has warned the Israeli military that Netanyahu has no mandate and that it should not fight for his "political needs", although he has largely supported Netanyahu's war decisions.

War background

Netanyahu secured the involvement of several countries in the war after the Palestinian group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, carried out a massacre in Israel in October 2023. Israel attacked the Gaza Strip and invaded Lebanon after Hezbollah, in solidarity with Iran, fired on Israel. Israel also crossed the former ceasefire line to occupy part of Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in 2024.

Katz spoke at a ceremony dedicated to Israeli soldiers killed in the 1956 attack on Egypt. He said that, when national security is at stake, people must be able to rise above their disputes.