ISRAEL VOWS TO RESPOND WITH ‘GREAT FORCE’ IF IRAN ATTACKS

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Agency report

Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, said on Wednesday that Israel was prepared to respond “with great force” if attacked by Iran, following Iranian strikes on United States military positions across the region.

Katz said Israeli forces were on alert for a possible Iranian attack during the Jewish high holiday season, which begins in mid-September.

“For now, they are striking throughout the region except us,” he told a conference hosted by Israeli news site Ynet and newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

“But there is a possibility that they will attack us. We are prepared for that defensively.”

Should Iran launch an attack, Israel would “respond with great force, independently of anyone else,” Katz said, adding that “our planes are ready to take off.”

Israel launched the Middle East war alongside the US in late February but has remained militarily on the sidelines since President Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire deal in April, even after the truce later collapsed.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel would likely maintain that position while echoing Katz’s comments in an interview with broadcaster France 24 aired on Wednesday.

“If we will be attacked by Iran, we will surely respond heavily, but I’m not sure that Iran will do that mistake,” he said.

“We don’t have the plans to join the war right now.”

Iran launched a wave of retaliatory overnight attacks against US sites across the Middle East following extensive American bombardment on Tuesday night.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked US bases in Jordan, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, in what was described as the heaviest exchange in weeks in the six-month conflict.

“They like to attack on Jewish holidays because they hate Jews,” Katz said. “But we are prepared both defensively and offensively, in coordination with the United States in this regard.”

Iran’s Islamic Republic, whose leaders are virulently anti-Israel and support armed groups such as Hamas, constitutionally recognises its Jewish community, which is estimated to number in the thousands.

Israel, in the opening salvo of the war, killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.