Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a sharp warning to Iran on Monday, vowing an unprecedented military response should Tehran attack Israel.
“If it makes a mistake and attacks us, we will
act with a force it has not yet known,” Netanyahu told a session of the Knesset (parliament), reported Xinhua.
He said Israel is “closely” monitoring Iran, warning that “no one can predict what the future holds for Iran, but it will not return to what it once was,” implying irreversible consequences for Tehran in any conflict.
The remarks came as the United States is reportedly moving the nuclear-powered USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group toward the Middle East amid rising tensions with Iran.
Separately, Netanyahu addressed U.S.-led plans for Gaza’s postwar governance, in which Turkish and Qatari officials have been mentioned as possible participants in the US President Donald Trump-chaired “Board of Peace.”
“We have a certain disagreement with our friends in the United States over the composition of the advisory board that will accompany the processes in Gaza,” Netanyahu said, adding that neither Turkish nor Qatari soldiers would be allowed in the enclave.
Israel has repeatedly opposed any Turkish role in Gaza and has uneasy ties with Qatar, although Türkiye and Qatar are among the mediators between Israel and Hamas.
Over 4,029 Dead In Iran Protest
A crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed at least 4,029 people, according to activists, with fears that the toll could be higher.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said more than 26,000 people have also been detained during the crackdown. Of those killed, the group said 3,786 were demonstrators, 180 were members of the security forces, 28 were children, and 35 were people who were not taking part in protests.
The organisation warned that additional deaths may not yet have been confirmed. It has been considered reliable in previous periods of unrest in Iran and says it verifies each fatality through a network of activists on the ground.
The Associated Press said it has not been able to independently verify the figures, in part because Iranian authorities have restricted internet access, limiting the flow of information.
Iranian officials have not released an official death toll. However, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that the protests had left “several thousand” people dead, marking the first public acknowledgment by an Iranian leader of the scale of casualties since demonstrations began on December 28 over the country’s worsening economic conditions. Khamenei blamed the United States for the deaths.
The activists’ group also said mass arrests during the crackdown have raised fears that some detainees could face execution, as Iran remains one of the world’s leading executioners.
