Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir welcomed Saturday’s strikes against military targets in Iran, but said a “historic obligation” remained to remove the threat posed by Tehran.
In the early hours of Saturday, Israeli warplanes struck several military and missiles manufacturing facilities of across Iran.
“The attack on Iran is important as an opening blow to damage Iran’s strategic assets,” Ben Gvir wrote on X, adding: “We have a historic obligation to remove the Iranian threat to destroy Israel.”
Israel’s strikes were in retaliation for an October 1 attack by Iran, which fired about 200 missiles at Israel, though most were intercepted by the country’s air defenses.
Following Saturday’s strikes, Israeli President Isaac Herzog highlighted the role of the United States, calling Israel’s staunchest backer a “true ally.”
“I especially wish to thank our great friend the USA for being a true ally, and for the overt and covert cooperation,” he said in a statement without elaborating.
A US defense official said there was “no US involvement” in the Israeli strikes although Washington confirmed it had been told in advance.
Leading opposition figure Benny Gantz, a former war cabinet member, also hailed Saturday’s pre-dawn operation.
“It marks a new stage in our war against the Iranian regime, inflicting significant damage in response to their failed attempts to harm Israel while also importantly paving the way for future operations,” Gantz said in a statement.
He stressed that the strikes are “nothing more than a fraction of the harm Israel can inflict on the regime, should it choose to continue its aggression.”
Gantz quit Netanyahu’s government in June over its lack of a post-war plan for Gaza, where the Israeli military has been locked in a sweeping military campaign against Hamas militants since their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Another opposition leader, Yair Lapid, also praised the attack but said the “decision not to strike strategic and economic targets in Iran was wrong.”
“We could and should have made Iran pay a much heavier price,” he said.
For weeks, the country’s former prime minister Naftali Bennett took to the airways and social media to call for a decisive strike to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities but was silent in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
“We have the justification. We have the tools. Now that Hezbollah and Hamas are paralyzed, Iran stands exposed,” wrote Bennett a day after the October 1 barrage fired by Tehran.
