This morning, around 7:30 O’clock, a terrorist attempted to commit a
stabbing attack against our forces. The moment I identified the terrorist,
I opened fire toward him, for the purpose of neutralizing
him and remove the threat. We are glad that this incident
concluded without harm to our civilians or forces.
We will continue to protect our citizens in this sector
to the best of our abilities.
I have just concluded a visit to the Efraim Brigade with the Chief of
General Staff and the senior officers of Central Command.
My directive is clear: Strike at the terrorists wherever they
are with every kind of weaponry. We are giving full backing to the IDF
and Israel Police to strike at every terrorist ― in Jerusalem, in Judea
and Samaria, and anywhere else in the country.
Whoever raises a hand to an Israeli civilian
or IDF soldier ― will pay the price.
We find ourselves in a situation in which all states worldwide,
with emphasis on European and NATO member states,
are waking up to the natural assertion that wars may occur.
The war in Ukraine is in-fact a regional war; Nevertheless,
it is one that causes global and bi-polar impact.
We see that it brings about the strengthening
and tightening of the NATO alliance, as well as additional countries
that see value in (increasing) their defense spending.
We can see that it impacts China’s posture within the bi-polar structure
and it (also impacts) relations between Russia and Iran
in our immediate neighborhood.
The price of this future war (with Iran) which we hope will not arrive we can
avert or diminish by activating a multi-dimensional pressure
campaign of the entire world that includes global
and regional coordination as one. In relation to Iran I determine
that the price to contend with the Iranian challenge from global
and regional perspectives today are higher than what they were
a year ago and lower than what those will be in a year from today.
As you can see, Iran breaches the terms of the nuclear deal
with world powers in a rude manner all the while it persists
with developing its military’ nuclear program.
Iran continues to accumulate irreversible knowledge
and experience in development, research, manufacturing and
operating of advanced centrifuges. It finds itself a mere number of weeks
from gaining enough fissile material for a first bomb; It obtained 60kg of
material enriched up to 60 percent. It produces uranium metals of
enrichment levels of 20 percent; It denies the IAEA access
to its manufacturing systems. And also, these days, Iran is
engaged in efforts to complete manufacturing and installing of 1,000
advanced IR-6 centrifuges in its nuclear installations ― among others,
also new installations that are being constructed
underground near Natanz. In parallel to its nuclear advances,
Iran continues to broaden its aggressive activity
throughout the region.
Its proxies attack oil reservoirs, airports and civilian installations,
and (Iran) operates via its (IRGC) Quds Force in the region.
It develops throughout the region operational arrays with precision
capabilities of cruise missiles, surface-to-surface missiles,
Unmanned Aerial Systems with ranges of thousands of Kilometers.
The quantity of arms that Iran’s proxies possess increased
significantly over the past year. In Iraq, there are hundreds of
(offensive) tools, dozens of which were added this past year, alone.
In Yemen, this past year the number of (offensive) tools which are in
passion of the (Iranian-proxy) Houthis substantively increased
― in contravention of an international embargo that was imposed on them.
And in Syria, also during these days, attempts of smuggling and
manufacturing of precision munitions persists. Israel will do everything
possible to prevent these attempts for the purpose of thwarting
a future threat against our citizens and the citizens of this region.
In the face of Iran’s aggression we will employ all of our tools,
including by assisting additional countries in the region.
This is a global and regional interest and Israel will continue to develop
its capabilities and will coordinate, with the one that has a similar
interest of maintaining quiet and stability in this region,
in all actions when deemed possible. We will do so with regional states
as much as possible and together with CENTCOM and the U.S. Military
which operates with success for the purpose of synchronizing
as much as possible those systems throughout the region.