Defense minister warns Hezbollah to stay out of Israel-Iran war – The Times of Israel
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Israel warns Hezbollah to stay out of its fight against Iran: ‘Leader hasn’t learned from his predecessors’
“I suggest that the Lebanese proxy be careful, and understand that Israel has lost patience with the terrorists who threaten it,” Israel’s defense minister said. “Threats to assassinate [Khamenei] are foolish and reckless, and will have disastrous consequences,’ he added. � “I can say on behalf of President (Donald) Trump, which he has been very clear in expressing as has Special Envoy (Barry) Boudreau, that it would be a very, very bad decision’, he said of a possible strike on Iran. ‘We are standing in full solidarity with Iran and that threats against us will not go unanswered,’ he said. The U.N. Security Council is considering a resolution to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The resolution would require the U.S. Congress to vote on whether or not to approve a nuclear deal with Iran. Iran has threatened to use its nuclear program to attack Israel if it doesn’t back down.
“I suggest that the Lebanese proxy be careful, and understand that Israel has lost patience with the terrorists who threaten it,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said after Hezbollah leadership condemned Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, according to the Times of Israel.
“The Hezbollah leader hasn’t learned from his predecessors and is threatening to act against Israel,” he said about the Iranian proxy groups’ former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israeli airstrikes in September.
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5 Lebanon’s Hezbollah deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem, speaks during a rally supporting Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 13, 2023. REUTERS
Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, who succeeded Nasrallah in October, said Thursday that the terror group would “act as we see fit” reading the conflict between Israel and Iran.
The group declared it was standing in full solidarity with Iran and that threats against Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would lead to “disastrous consequences.”
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“Threats to assassinate [Khamenei] are foolish and reckless, and will have disastrous consequences… Merely uttering them is an offense to hundreds of millions of believers and those connected to Islam, and it is utterly reprehensible. Today, we are more determined and united around him,” Hezbollah declared.
Israel began to conduct airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites and its missile capabilities on June 13 after fears that their longtime enemy, which has repeatedly called for the destruction of the Jewish state, was close to creating a nuclear weapon.
Iran retaliated with a barrage of missiles and drone strikes on Israel — fully igniting the deadly conflict between the two Middle Eastern nations.
5 Israel’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Israel Katz, listens during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the war in Gaza, on March 11, 2024. AP
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On Thursday, Iran launched a missile barrage that damaged the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba and hit a high-rise and several other residential buildings near Tel Aviv.
At least 240 people were wounded by the Iranian missiles, four of them seriously, Israel’s Health Ministry said.
Early Friday morning, Israeli officials warned of an incoming barrage of missiles from Iran, with at least one making a strike on the nation’s largest southern city, Beersheba.
In Iran, Israeli air attacks have killed 639 people, including some of the nation’s top military commanders and nuclear scientists.
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5 Smoke billows from a building at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba in southern Israel following an Iranian missile attack on June 19, 2025. AFP via Getty Images
5 Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi lays a wreath of flowers at the grave of slain Lebanese Hezbollah’s Leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air strike in September 2024, at his mausoleum in Beirut’s southern suburbs on June 3, 2025. AFP via Getty Images
Fears that the fighting between Iran and Israel will continue to escalate prompted US special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack to fly to Beirut on Thursday and meet with Lebanese officials.
Barrack told Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament and ally of Hezbollah, Nabih Berri, it would be a “very bad decision” if the terror that if the terror organization were to attack Israel.
“I can say on behalf of President (Donald) Trump, which he has been very clear in expressing as has Special Envoy (Steve) Witkoff: that would be a very, very, very bad decision,” Barrack said.
President Trump said Thursday he would make his final decision on whether to strike Iran in the “next two weeks,” because he’s still hoping for negotiations.
5 Demonstrators wave Iranian and Hezbollah flags as one holds up a poster of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally marking the Muslim Shiite holiday of Eid al-Ghadir, which commemorates the Prophet Muhammad naming his successor, Ali, who is revered as the first Shiite imam, in Tehran, Iran, on June 14, 2025. AP
“Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, reading a statement directly from Trump during her daily briefing.
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Leavitt also stressed that Iran currently has the capability of creating a nuclear weapon.
“Iran has all that it needs to keep a nuclear weapon,” Leavitt said. “All they need is a decision from the Supreme Leader to do that.”
Iran said Friday it would refuse to discuss its nuclear program while under Israeli attack.
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Israel has asked for US involvement, particularly to use its bunker-busting bombs on the Fordow nuclear facility hidden deep in an Iranian mountain.
On Friday, foreign ministers from the European Union, including Britain, France, and Germany, are set to meet with Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Geneva in hopes of de-escalating the conflict.
with Post wires
Israel Iran war live: No nuclear radiation detected in Iran but ‘danger’ exists, says IAEA
Iranian missiles struck Soroka hospital, southern Israel’s largest medical facility, and hit residential buildings in Tel Aviv on Thursday. Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, blamed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and has given the army instructions to achieve their goals in Iran at any cost. The White House says President Donald Trump will decide within the next two weeks whether to strike Iran.
Israel Iran War: Iran launched a fresh barrage of missile on Israel as the two countries continued to fiercely trade fire for an eighth consecutive day on Friday. Meanwhile, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities are “grave war crimes”….Read More
The Israeli military said that it hit multiple military targets across Iran in a series of strikes overnight. Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that over 100 “combat and suicide” drones were launched at Israel on Thursday, a day after the strike on city’s Soroka hospital.
Top European leaders are also meeting with Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Friday to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme. A senior Iranian official expressed the country’s readiness to discuss limitations on nuclear enrichment, Reuters reported.
Iranian missiles struck Soroka hospital, southern Israel’s largest medical facility, and hit residential buildings in Tel Aviv on Thursday, injuring 240 people and causing widespread damage.
Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, blamed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and has given the army instructions to achieve their goals in Iran at any cost.
“Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist,” Katz said in a post on X.
The White House says President Donald Trump will decide within the next two weeks whether to strike Iran. It says Trump still sees a “substantial” chance that negotiations can achieve US and Israeli demands on Iran’s nuclear program.
What is the latest in Israel-Iran conflict
Israel-Iran War LIVE: Trump gives 2 weeks to diplomacy, Netanyahu says will hit all nuke sites – Firstpost
Iranian missiles breached Israel’s sophisticated air defence systems again on Thursday, striking a major hospital in the south and residential areas in densely populated central regions. Israel depends heavily on its multilayered missile defence architecture to shield cities and infrastructure from frequent rocket attacks originating from Gaza and Lebanon. But since Middle East tensions escalated dramatically in 2023, threats now also come from Iranian and Yemeni rebel missile launches, AP reported. Israel’s defensive array strategically identifies incoming threats, intercepting only missiles targeting population centres or vital infrastructure, allowing those headed for open terrain to pass.
Israel depends heavily on its multilayered missile defence architecture to shield cities and infrastructure from frequent rocket attacks originating from militants in Gaza and Lebanon. However, since Middle East tensions escalated dramatically in 2023, threats now also come from Iranian and Yemeni rebel missile launches, AP reported.
Developed over decades with significant assistance from the United States, Israel’s defensive array strategically identifies incoming threats, intercepting only missiles targeting population centres or vital infrastructure, allowing those headed for open terrain to pass.
This multilayered network includes systems capable of intercepting short-range rockets, medium-range missiles, attack drones, and ballistic missiles, including sophisticated long-range projectiles frequently launched by Iran.
Yet, Israeli military officials consistently emphasise that no air defence is entirely infallible. High interception rates notwithstanding, simultaneous missile barrages can overwhelm the sophisticated combination of technology and human oversight.
Since hostilities intensified on June 13, Iranian missile strikes have claimed at least 24 lives, leaving extensive damage across multiple Israeli towns and cities.
Israel’s air-defence system comprises:
The Arrow, a joint US-Israeli system designed specifically to counter long-range ballistic missiles, like those launched recently by Iran. Operating outside Earth’s atmosphere, the Arrow has also successfully intercepted missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels during this conflict.
David’s Sling, also developed in partnership with the US, targets medium-range threats such as those employed by Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia. It has been activated multiple times during the current conflict.
The Iron Dome, renowned for intercepting short-range rockets, was developed by Israel with US backing and has neutralised thousands of rockets since deployment, boasting a success rate exceeding 90 percent.
Additionally, Israel is testing the Iron Beam, an innovative laser-based interception system, hailed by authorities as a potential breakthrough due to its significantly lower operational costs. While each Iron Dome interception reportedly costs approximately $50,000, and other systems upwards of $2 million per missile, Iron Beam interceptions may cost merely a few dollars each. Despite promising results in recent testing, this technology has yet to become operational.
As it happened: Iran rejects Trump’s demand for surrender as US weighs military options
US President Donald Trump calls on Iran’s supreme leader to give up his nuclear program. Iranian President Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says he will not do so. The US has threatened to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.
As Israeli strikes target Iran’s nuclear facilities and other sites, and Iranian missiles light up the skies over Israeli cities, a chilling new dimension has been added to the crisis: a demand from Trump to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for an “unconditional surrender”.
Trump’s demand on Tuesday was accompanied by another social media post from him threatening Khamenei, stating the United States knows his location but will not kill him “for now”.
Khamenei and Iranian officials have issued defiant responses to Israel and the US, warning that Iran will respond firmly to attacks.
Follow developments and reactions here as the world grapples with an unprecedented level of direct confrontation between Israel and Iran, and fears of an all-out war grow.
Reporting by Robert Delaney, Khushboo Razdan and Mark Magnier with agencies