{"id":556156,"date":"2026-07-23T19:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T19:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/556156\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T19:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T19:05:10","slug":"katz-iran-will-face-a-crushing-blow-if-it-strikes-israel-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/556156\/","title":{"rendered":"Katz: Iran will face a &#8216;crushing blow&#8217; if it strikes Israel first"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Iran on Thursday that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/article-903421\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">any attack on Israel<\/a> would draw a devastating response, following a high-level security consultation attended by Israel\u2019s senior military and defense leadership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">\u201cWe are preparing for every possibility. If Iran attacks Israel, it will suffer a crushing blow,\u201d Katz said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The consultation included IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, Defense Ministry Director-General Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, the Israel Air Force commander, senior intelligence officials, the head of the Home Front Command, and other senior defense officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The broad composition of the meeting brought together the officials responsible for Israel\u2019s offensive capabilities, air defenses, military intelligence, and civilian preparedness. Katz did not disclose whether the consultation followed a specific warning or intelligence alert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Ynet reported that assessments among Western intelligence agencies suggest Iran may seek to draw Israel into a confrontation and could even choose to act first.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">According to the report, the assessment is based partly on what intelligence officials perceive as Jerusalem\u2019s reluctance to return to war, along with strains in Israeli-American relations that Tehran may seek to exploit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The report did not identify the Western intelligence agencies involved or disclose the evidence underlying their assessments. The possibility of an Iranian first strike therefore remained an intelligence assessment rather than a confirmed operational warning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Thursday\u2019s consultation came as Israel\u2019s defense leadership continued to emphasize preparedness for both defensive and offensive scenarios, including the interception of Iranian missiles and drones, protection of the home front, and a possible retaliatory strike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Iran on Thursday that any attack on Israel would draw a devastating response,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2464,1031,85,70687,91,12157,46,2723,43,157283],"class_list":["post-556156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-eyal-zamir","tag-idf","tag-il","tag-iran-israel","tag-iran-israel-war","tag-iran-missiles","tag-israel","tag-israel-katz","tag-news","tag-operation-roaring-lion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}