Netanyahu: Israel ‘prepared for any scenario’ on Iran; IDF expands Gaza foothold

“Our eyes are wide open on Iran,” says Prime Minister Netanyahu after confirming that Israel has expanded its control of the Gaza Strip from 53% of the enclave to 64%.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel was monitoring Iran closely and was “prepared for any scenario,” as he credited Israeli forces with operations in Gaza, Lebanon and “the skies of Tehran.”

Speaking at a special government meeting for Jerusalem Day at the Knesset Museum, Netanyahu said he would speak later in the day with President Donald Trump and expected to hear about Trump’s recent trip to China, as well as “perhaps other matters.”

“Our eyes are also wide open regarding Iran,” Netanyahu said. “There are certainly many possibilities; we are prepared for any scenario.”

The remarks came at the end of a wide-ranging statement in which Netanyahu praised Israeli soldiers and pilots operating on multiple fronts, including Lebanon, Gaza and Iran. He said Israeli “fighters, our pilots, our female combatants, and our female pilots” were acting as “heroes and heroines.”

Netanyahu did not elaborate on Israel’s current activity over Tehran, but his comments appeared to place Iran alongside Gaza and Lebanon as active fronts in Israel’s ongoing security campaign.

The prime minister opened the meeting by paying tribute to Capt. Maoz Israel Recanati, who he said had fallen in battle in Lebanon after leaving behind a fiancée he was due to marry in about a month.

“I want to say a few things about the campaign in Lebanon,” Netanyahu said. “We are doing a lot there; holding territory, clearing territory, protecting Israel’s communities, but also fighting an enemy that is trying to outsmart us.”

He said Israel was working to counter new drone threats, including FPV drones, and had assembled a special team from the Defense Ministry, defense industries and the civilian sector to develop solutions.

“I told them something that surprised them a bit: ‘You have no budgetary constraint,’” Netanyahu said. “Whatever it costs, it costs.”

Netanyahu said he believed Israel would be “the first country” to provide a comprehensive answer to the threat.

The prime minister also announced that Israel had killed Iz al-Din al-Haddad, whom he described as the top figure in Hamas’ military wing.

“We eliminated Hamas’ number one, the master murderer al-Haddad,” Netanyahu said.

He accused al-Haddad of responsibility for the killing, wounding and kidnapping of thousands of Israelis and IDF soldiers and said he had used hostages as human shields.

“I promised that we would return all of our hostages, down to the very last one,” Netanyahu said. “And we returned them.”

He said Israel was close to fulfilling a second pledge: killing those responsible for the Oct. 7 massacre and the hostage-taking.

“Every single architect of the massacre and the hostage-taking will be eliminated down to the last one, and we are very close to completing this mission as well,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu confirmed reports that Israel has expanded its control OF Gaza from 53% to roughly 64% of the coastal enclave and said Hamas was now “in our grip.”

“Our mission is one: To ensure that Gaza will never again pose a threat to Israel,” he said.

The government meeting was held at Froumine House, the former home of the Knesset, as part of Jerusalem Day events. Netanyahu described the restored building as a symbol of “the revival of our people’s sovereignty in our land after thousands of years” and invited Israelis to visit the site.