Israel's military campaign against Iran remains unfinished, Defence Minister Israel Katz declared on Sunday, threatening fresh strikes against Tehran while warning Lebanese militant faction Hezbollah against any retaliatory barrages.
Katz accused Tehran of actively rebuilding capabilities to construct atomic warheads despite absorbing two waves of major Israeli-US aerial bombardments over the past year. Tehran insists its nuclear infrastructure serves peaceful civil needs. Katz dismissed those denials during a memorial ceremony commemorating Israeli troops killed in the 1956 assault on Egypt.
"With regard to Iran, the mission is still not complete," Katz stated. "Iran is trying to renew its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons — alongside other grave efforts that place the State of Israel in real danger."
Halting the drive will take force. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spent weeks preparing ground for a decisive pre-emptive assault on Iranian nuclear installations. But domestic political turmoil and diplomatic pressure have narrowed his operational window. An attempt by Netanyahu and intelligence service Mossad to launch a covert military strike against Iranian soil on the eve of Israel's October 27 election was halted after United States officials detected and intervened in the operation.
Since the October 7, 2023 offensive spearheaded by Hamas, Netanyahu has committed the military to sweeping combat across multiple borders. Israeli troops have leveled swathes of Gaza, advanced into southern Lebanon to confront Hezbollah, and pushed past long-standing ceasefire lines to seize defensive perimeters in Syria following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's administration in 2024.
Katz drew an absolute boundary around those territorial gains. Israeli soldiers will stay put.
"We will not withdraw from the security zones in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria," Katz said. "And if the terrorist organisation Hezbollah chooses to join Iran in an attack on Israel, it will suffer extremely severe blows."
The fiery rhetoric lands amid acute fragility inside Israel's ruling corridors. Netanyahu's grip on the premiership collapsed during the October 27 general election, stripping him of a parliamentary majority. Former army chief Gadi Eisenkot now holds the official mandate to cobble together a governing coalition. Eisenkot has publicly told military commanders that Netanyahu lacks the legitimate political authority to drag the nation into an expanded regional conflagration to rescue his own premiership.
Katz pushed back against political factionalism disrupting wartime strategy. "We may argue and we may disagree, but when the security of the state is at stake, we must know how to rise above our disputes," he argued.
Further complicating any strike calculations is Washington. While President Donald Trump has historically aligned closely with Netanyahu, Tuesday's domestic election results dealt the White House a sharp voter rebuke tied closely to anti-war public sentiment. With Eisenkot's coalition negotiations entering a decisive phase in the Knesset, defense officials face an imminent deadline to determine whether command orders will be dictated by an outgoing prime minister or a fractured transitional cabinet.