Israel says it will not respond to Iranian offensive for now, but warns it is ‘considering all options’

The Israeli authorities On Sunday there will be discussions about what response to give to the Iranian attack with drones and missiles that last night set off alarm bells across the country, causing only minor damage to an air force base and injuring a girl who was hit by shrapnel.

Although some far-right members of the governing coalition have called for a forceful response from the Jewish state, the truth is that Israel’s main military ally, the United States, has made clear that it will not support an escalation in the Middle East.

“At the moment we have no intention of prolonging our military operations”Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said this, responding in a press conference to the question of whether or not they wanted to react to Iran’s attack.

“We are prepared, we are monitoring all theaters in the region and evaluating every scenario, but for the moment we do not intend to prolong our military operations. Our role is to safeguard the Israelis”, explained the spokesperson.

“We remain on alert, we have approved offensive and defensive plans, we will continue to protect the State of Israel and build a more stable future for the region. Iran is not only a threat to Israel but to the entire region,” Hagari added . .

“We don’t want a wider war with Iran”One of the White House spokesmen, John Kirby, said this in an interview, insisting on the fact that American President Joe Biden does not want Washington to become even more involved in the conflict.

The support of the US Air Force last night was one of the key points that allowed Israel and its allies to neutralize the vast majority of the more than 300 drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles launched by Iran in retaliation for a bombing in Syria in which several members of the Revolutionary Guard and which Tehran attributes to the Jewish State.

Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi thanked the US military for its cooperation in intercepting the drones in a message this Sunday and told the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), Erik Kurilla, that both forces showed their strength.

A strong response

Despite calls for containment, several Israeli ministers today called for a strong response from their country to the attack.

The Minister of Finance, the settler and radical Bezalel Smotrich, said this in a speech recorded on the social network formulate a response that will “echo throughout the Middle East for generations to come.”

That way “we will win,” Smotrich said, but “if we ignore it, God forbid, we will put ourselves and our children in immediate existential threat,” he added.

For his part, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, also anti-Arab and an inhabitant of a settlement in the occupied West Bank, said that Israel “he must be going crazy” to “create deterrence in the Middle East”.

Ben Gvir said that after the Hamas attack on October 7, which caused 1,200 deaths on Israeli soil, the country applies new doctrines of containment and proportionality, and that Israel’s response cannot be “weak, bombing-style of the dunes that we saw in Gaza in previous years.

This was also stated by the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miki Zohar “a lax response” it would only serve to maintain the “outdated concept of reasonable logic in the face of brutal terrorists” and noted that this concept had already “failed” against Hamas before October 7 and against Hezbollah, which continues its attacks in northern Israel, and has warned that “it will fail against Iran, which has not hesitated to attack Israel directly.

For his part, Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated in an interview with Sky News that Israel is “consider all options”“At the moment we have no intention of prolonging our military operations,” Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said.no” to respond to Iran’s attack, which he described as a “declaration of war.”

“This is a declaration of war,” he said of the attack. “Now, because we are moderate and because we know the repercussions, and because we are discussing with our partners, we are considering all options and I am quite confident that we will take the necessary measures to protect and defend our people. “We are not war seekers.”

“It’s time for the world to confront this evil empire of Tehran and make it clear to the Iranian regime that this cannot be ignored, that this is unacceptable,” adds Herzog.

Iran warns

Iranian authorities, who have ended attacks on Israeli territory, have warned that Israeli action against Iran would be met with a stronger response.

“The sky above Iran is not safe for aggressors and if the enemy makes a mistake in his calculations and violates our country’s airspace, will encounter deadly, fiery hits from the country’s air defense systems“, warned the deputy commander of the Khatam al Anbiya air defense base, Brigadier General Qader Rahimzadeh, according to the state agency IRNA.

These statements come just hours after the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran announced the suspension of flights from several airports across the country, including Imam Khomeini International in the Iranian capital, until the early hours of Monday morning.