Netanyahu Says Israel Has Halted Attacks Against Iran ‘For Now’ But Will Respond To Attacks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel will halt strikes against Iran “for now” but will resume them if its territory is attacked.

Netanyahu released a statement noting that “after Iran attacked Israel” he “directed the IDF to strike military and economic targets throughout Iran.”

He noted that, at the moment, “the fire on this front has been halted, because after the terrorist regime in Tehran was struck, it stopped attacking us,” but warned that “if that terrorist regime makes the mistake of attacking us again, we will respond with force.”

“Today, Iran and Hezbollah are weaker than ever, and we are stronger than ever. But our struggle against them is not yet over,” he added.

The development took place shortly after Iran said it had ended the most recent military operations against Israel following an exchange of strikes on Sunday.

Tehran’s central military headquarters, Khatam al-Anbiya Central HQ, said in a statement that the “suspension of Armed Forces operations is announced,” claiming it “delivered a painful response to the regime in support of the oppressed people of Lebanon.”

Tehran went on to claim that the attack, which followed Israeli strikes against a Beirut suburb considered a Hezbollah stronghold, “is a response from which the illegitimate Zionist regime and its supporters should have learned a lesson.”

“If aggressions and hostile actions continue, including in southern Lebanon, far more severe and crushing measures than before will follow,” the statement added, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

Elsewhere in the statement, Netanyahu claimed that “Iran and Hezbollah tried to impose a new equation” on Israel, which he described as “intolerable and completely unacceptable.”

“They thought they could launch attacks from Lebanon and Iran against Israel and that we would not act. That did not happen, and it will not happen. Not on my watch,” he added, in an apparent reference to U.S. President Donald Trump’s public message on Sunday saying he was directing Netanyahu to not retaliate to Iran’s strikes.

“Israel has every right to self-defense, and we will exercise that right whenever necessary. I say this to you, dear citizens of Israel, just as I say it in my good conversations with my friend President Trump,” Netanyahu added.