On June 8, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear that the strikes against Iran are on hold for now. But he didn’t mince words: if Israel gets hit again, the response will target both Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah directly.
In a video address that same day, he explained the pause, noting that Iran backed off after taking a hit. He laid out a straightforward warning: “We’ve held back because they stopped their attacks. But if they make the mistake of striking us again, we’ll answer with full force.”
“Both Iran and Hezbollah are weaker than they’ve ever been, and we’re stronger than ever,” he emphasized, making sure no one got the wrong idea. “This fight isn’t over yet.”
He also confirmed that ground operations in southern Lebanon are pressing forward. The goal? To wipe out every piece of Hezbollah infrastructure inside the security zone, including those massive underground networks buried under the Beaufort ridge.
Netanyahu called out the miscalculation right away: “They thought they could launch attacks from Lebanon and Iran while we’d sit on our hands. That didn’t happen, and it’s not going to happen. Not on my watch, ever.”
He drove home the point that Israel has every right to defend itself, and he made sure President Trump got the full picture on the line.
Earlier that day, after Trump publicly urged both sides to “cease fire immediately,” Iran’s Artesh Central Command announced a halt to its military strikes against Israel. But they didn’t leave the door open for complacency, warning that any further aggression would trigger even harsher, devastating countermeasures.
