Israel has hinted that it is plotting air strikes to topple the Iranian regime as it seeks retaliation for its rocket attack earlier this month.
Tel Aviv has limited its targets to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its volunteer paramilitary force while it consults the US on its response. The times has reported.
While it is unlikely that one round of missile strikes would topple the Iranian regime, one Western official has suggested that the force of the attack could encourage resistance from within.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement addressed to the Iranian people: “Do not let a small group of fanatical theocrats crush your hopes and dreams… The people of Iran must know: Israel is by your side.”
“When Iran is finally free – and that moment will come much sooner than people think – everything will be different.”
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 27
Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system intercepts rockets launched from Gaza
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves before the Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran
The statement was made in English just a few days before Iran launched 200 missiles at Israel on October 1.
Netanyahu hopes that any future airstrikes will help weaken the two pillars of Iran’s Islamic regime: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Basij paramilitary force.
While the IRGC is an elite military force, the Basij is a loyalist militia composed mostly of foot soldiers.
It comes as Israel warned that Iran “won’t know what hit them” if it retaliates.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a video from his office: “Whoever attacks us will be hurt and pay a price.
“Our attack will be deadly, precise and, above all, surprising. They won’t understand what happened and how it happened, they will see the results.’
Netanyahu has also promised that his arch-enemy will pay for his rocket attack that ultimately killed no one.
Washington labeled it ineffective and the Israeli government previously described it as a “failure.”
Missiles launched from Iran towards Israel are seen in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Iranian protesters wave a Palestinian flag and hold up a poster of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an anti-Israel rally
This photo shows projectiles intercepted by Israel over Jerusalem on October 1, 2024
Meanwhile, Iran warned Israel that the spirit of resistance will be “strengthened” after the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7 attack, was killed on Wednesday during an operation by Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian enclave.
Western leaders said his death offered an opportunity to end the conflict, but Netanyahu said the war would continue until hostages seized by Hamas militants were returned.
“Today we settled the score. Today evil has suffered a blow, but our task is still not completed,” Netanyahu said in a recorded video statement after the death was confirmed Thursday.
‘I say to the dear hostage families: this is an important moment in the war. We will continue at full speed until all your loved ones, our loved ones, are home.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (pictured) said: ‘Whoever attacks us will be hurt and pay a price’
Iran’s rocket attack on Israel on October 1 damaged several targets
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A missile breaks up in mid-air after being hit by an interceptor fired from one of Israel’s air defense systems
Sinwar, who was named as Hamas’s overall leader after the assassination of political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, is believed to have been hiding in the warren of tunnels that Hamas has built under Gaza over the past two decades.
He was killed Wednesday during a firefight in southern Gaza by Israeli forces who initially were unaware they had captured their country’s biggest enemy, Israeli officials said.
The military released a drone video of what they said was Sinwar sitting on an armchair and covered in dust in a destroyed building.
Hamas itself has not commented, but sources within the group have said that evidence they have seen indicates that Sinwar was indeed killed by Israeli forces.