{"id":604280,"date":"2026-09-03T04:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T04:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/604280\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T04:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T04:14:13","slug":"israel-says-prepared-to-respond-with-great-force-if-iran-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/604280\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel says prepared to \u2018respond with great force\u2019 if Iran attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text-primary article-summary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">JERUSALEM &#8211; Israel\u2019s defence minister said on Sept 2 his country was prepared to respond \u201cwith great force\u201d if attacked by Iran, after Iranian forces targeted US military positions across the region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Israel Katz said Israeli forces were prepared for a possible attack over the Jewish high holiday season, which begins in mid-September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cFor now, they are striking throughout the region except us,\u201d he told a conference hosted by Israeli news site Ynet and newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cBut there is a possibility that they will attack us. We are prepared for that defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">If Iran did attack, Israel would \u201crespond with great force, independently of anyone else\u201d, Katz said, adding that \u201cour planes are ready to take off\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/world\/middle-east\/israel-and-us-launch-attack-on-iran-targeting-its-leadership?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\">Israel launched the Middle East war<\/a> alongside the United States in late February, but has stayed on the sidelines militarily since President Donald Trump sealed a ceasefire deal in April \u2013 even after that truce later fell apart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that would likely remain the case, while echoing Katz\u2019s remarks in an interview with the broadcaster France 24 that aired on Sept 2.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cIf we will be attacked by Iran, we will surely respond heavily, but I\u2019m not sure that Iran will do that mistake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cWe don\u2019t have the plans to join the war right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Iran launched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/world\/middle-east\/us-iran-strikes-raise-fears-of-renewed-war-across-the-middle-east?ref=top-stories&amp;ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\">a wave of retaliatory overnight attacks on US sites<\/a> across the Middle East following extensive American bombardment on the night of Sept 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards announced attacks on US bases in Jordan, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq\u2019s autonomous Kurdistan region, in the six-month conflict\u2019s heaviest exchange in weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cThey like to attack on Jewish holidays because they hate Jews,\u201d Katz said. \u201cBut we are prepared both defensively and offensively, in coordination with the United States in this regard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Iran\u2019s Islamic republic, whose leaders are virulently anti-Israel and support like-minded armed groups such as Hamas, constitutionally recognises its own Jewish community, which is estimated to number in the thousands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Israel in the opening salvo of the war killed Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JERUSALEM &#8211; Israel\u2019s defence minister said on Sept 2 his country was prepared to respond \u201cwith great force\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-604280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604280","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=604280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}