The United States continues to state that the threat of attack against Israel by Iran and many of its proxy groups still exists, the Pentagon stated yesterday, this after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel in retaliation for the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander. “I would point you to some of the public comments that have been made by Iranian leaders and others … we continue to assess that there is a threat of attack,” Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder told reporters.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had said earlier that Iran’s aggressive activities towards Israel had never been higher, he went on to add that Israel and the U.S. must be prepared to prevent the Islamic Republic from gaining nuclear weapons.
Gallant was meeting with top U.S. military officer General C.Q. Brown, who is on a trip to the region. The aim of the visit is to prevent Israel’s conflict with the Palestinian terror group Hamas in Gaza from spreading to the region.
In one of the biggest clashes in more than 10 months of border warfare, Israel on Sunday struck Iran’s Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah with around 100 jets in what it said was a pre-emptive strike aimed at thwarting a much larger attack.
Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also met with the Israeli military’s Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi.
“We are very determined to continue degrading Hezbollah’s capabilities, eliminating more commanders. We are not stopping. Our mission is to return the residents of the north to their homes in safety,” Halevi told Brown.
With three deaths confirmed in Lebanon and one in Israel following Sunday’s missile exchange, both sides indicated they did not seek further escalation, but warned that there could be more strikes to come in the near future.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
