Prime minister addresses Israelis only after Trump pressed him to halt major strikes in Iran, saying Tehran and Hezbollah tried to impose a new equation, but Israel would keep striking in Lebanon and respond forcefully if Iran attacks againFor most of the day, Israelis received updates from IDF statements, unnamed officials, messages from Tehran and posts from the White House. Only after U.S. President Donald Trump intervened and, according to Israeli officials, effectively halted planned major strikes in Iran, did Netanyahu address the public in a video of roughly two minutes. He did not take questions from reporters.1 View gallery Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump (Photo: Lev Radin/ Shutterstock, REUTERS/Nathan Howard, KAWANT HAJU/AFP, shutterstock)In his first public remarks since renewed fighting against Iran erupted Sunday night, Netanyahu confirmed that fire on the Iranian front had been halted “for now,” while warning that Israel would respond “with force” if Tehran attacked again.“At present, the fire on this front has been halted, because after the terrorist regime in Tehran was struck, it stopped attacking us,” Netanyahu said. “If that terrorist regime in Iran makes the mistake of attacking us again, we will respond with force.”Netanyahu opened his remarks by referring to past operations, saying that “a year ago, we launched a historic preemptive strike against Iran’s intention to destroy us with atomic bombs. We thwarted that immediate threat, and we also eliminated the tyrant Khamenei.” He again vowed that “Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”He then turned to Hezbollah, saying the terror group had planned to invade the Galilee with thousands of terrorists while also preparing to destroy Israeli cities with 150,000 missiles and rockets. “We thwarted that threat as well, and we eliminated Nasrallah,” he said.“Our fighters are dismantling Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said. “They continue to destroy all of its terrorist infrastructure in the security zone, including massive underground facilities in the Beaufort Ridge, so large that I have never seen anything like them.”“Today, Iran and Hezbollah are weaker than ever, and we are stronger than ever. But our struggle against them is not yet over,” he added.Netanyahu said Iran and Hezbollah had tried over the past day to impose a new equation on Israel.“That equation is intolerable and completely unacceptable to me,” he said. “They thought they could launch attacks from Lebanon and Iran against Israel and that we would not act. That did not happen, and it will not happen. Not on my watch.”“I firmly insist on our right to act against our enemies,” Netanyahu said. “That is how we acted now as well. After Hezbollah fired into Israeli territory, I ordered the IDF to strike terrorist targets in Beirut. After Iran attacked Israel, I directed the IDF to strike military and economic targets throughout Iran.”Netanyahu said Israel’s right to self-defense remained unchanged, including in his conversations with Trump.“Israel has every right to self-defense, and we will exercise that right whenever necessary,” he said. “I say this to you, dear citizens of Israel, just as I say it with appreciation and respect in my good conversations with my friend President Trump.”“With unity, determination and wisdom, we will defend the State of Israel, and with God’s help, we will restore security to the north,” Netanyahu said.Earlier Monday, Netanyahu spoke with Trump. After the call, a senior Israeli official confirmed that “at Trump’s request, we are stopping the strikes in Iran.” The conversation came after Trump posted twice on Truth Social, saying “Israel and Iran must stop shooting immediately.” In a later post, Trump wrote that “both sides, Israel and Iran, want an immediate ceasefire,” and said final negotiations on “peace” were moving forward, provided “ignorance or stupidity” did not get in the way.An Israeli source familiar with the current state of affairs said Israel had wanted to strike Iran as early as Thursday, but that Trump had pressed for the attack not to go ahead and the plan was shelved.According to the source, after Hezbollah fire toward the Galilee and the IDF strike in Beirut’s Dahieh district, which drew an Iranian response, officials in Israel expected to have justification for strikes in Iran. But then, the source said, “the problem is that Trump ultimately folded Netanyahu and stopped the attack plans in Iran.”Meanwhile, although Iran announced that it was ending operations against Israel for the time being, it threatened to resume missile fire if Israel struck in Lebanon, including in southern Lebanon. In the hours since, reports emerged of strikes in southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah fired rockets toward IDF forces in Lebanon, triggering alerts in the Galilee Panhandle and western Galilee.Before Netanyahu’s statement, Defense Minister Israel Katz also broke his silence and warned that “the fate of Dahieh in Beirut is the fate of the northern communities.”“Any attack on northern communities will lead to a strike in Dahieh,” Katz said. “The IDF will continue to operate in Lebanon against Hezbollah.”Rejecting the new equation presented by Iran, Katz added: “We reject Iran’s threats outright. Any Iranian attempt to link Lebanon and Iran and attack Israel will be met with great force, as happened yesterday.”