Israel asserts readiness to renew Iran fighting if necessary while monitoring US-Iran fire exchange

Israeli leaders on Thursday emphasized the country’s readiness to renew the fighting against the Iranian regime, if necessary, against the background of two day-long exchanges of strikes between the U.S. and Iranian forces.

Reports from Iran indicated that airstrikes hit the country for the third day in a row on Thursday night, though American sources later denied that the U.S. military had carried out any strikes that night.

Israeli forces were also not responsible for the strikes, leaving the possibility that they were conducted by Gulf states, some of which had been attacked by Iran in retaliation over the past days.

The U.S. had launched dozens of strikes in response to Iranian attacks on tankers in the Hormuz Strait. A regional source from one of the mediating countries told the news outlet Axios that the mediators believe the attacks were launched by elements within the regime trying to derail the peace talks with the U.S.

A U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jet takes off from a base in the Middle East. pic.twitter.com/O6eZXTY7uo

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 9, 2026

Despite the exchanges of fire, negotiations reportedly continued behind the scenes, with mediators claiming that progress was made over the past days.

Meanwhile, Israel is currently not identifying any interest from Iran to drag Israel into the exchanges of fire, two Israeli officials told i24 News on Thursday. They added that Israel would strike Iran if attacked, or if the Trump administration requested Israel’s support.

Jerusalem is preparing for the possibility that the Iranian regime will start hitting targets in Israel that are used by U.S. aircraft, after striking U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain in recent days, Channel 12 News reported.

Meanwhile, Kan News reported that some senior officials in Jerusalem are estimating that the limited fighting will continue for a few days, and are advocating for Israel to use the opportunity to further degrade the regime’s capabilities and are only waiting for approval from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Defense Minister Israel Katz says the IDF is "alert and prepared for the resumption of the campaign" in Iran.

Speaking at a pilots' graduation ceremony, he says the military is prepared to "regain air superiority and carry out 'blue-and-white' (independent) strikes in Iran to… pic.twitter.com/rTt05CR07E

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) July 9, 2026

“We’re willing to do it again, if needed,” an unnamed source told the New York Post on Wednesday. Israel is “not eager to go back to the day when people have to go to shelters,” the source emphasized, but added, “if that will be the price we’ll have to pay, we will bear with that situation.”

The Prime Minister’s Office said Thursday evening that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump had held another phone call “as part of the continuous contact” between them, and that it focused on “the continued coordination between the countries in various sectors,” including “American moves in the Gulf.”

The statement also noted that Netanyahu “raised the severity of the statements made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his people against the existence of the State of Israel, as well as the need for security zones along Israel's borders.”

Earlier Thursday, Netanyahu had addressed the Iran situation in a speech at the Graduation Ceremony of the Israeli Air Force’s Pilot’s Course. “The moment at the start of Operation Rising Lion, when I announced to the citizens of Israel that our daring pilots were flying in the skies of Iran, was one of the most moving moments of my life,” he began.

Speaking at a pilots' graduation ceremony, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says the campaign in Iran is "not over."

"On the drawing board are new plans. Major operations are still expected to lie ahead of us. Be prepared," he says in short remarks.

Zamir says he would… pic.twitter.com/VpOn3xWCvO

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) July 9, 2026

“If we had not acted when we did, and with the force that we did, Iran would have armed itself with nuclear weapons to destroy Israel… The Iranian terror regime has suffered a most crushing blow. We neutralized 20 senior Iranian nuclear experts. We decapitated their top leadership. We shattered their nuclear infrastructure. We shattered their production infrastructure for ballistic missiles. And our policy is clear: With an agreement or without an agreement, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu stressed.

He also noted that “the cooperation with the U.S. military was a major force multiplier. The American Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said that the integration between the two most powerful air forces in the world was unprecedented and invincible.”

In his speech at the event, Defense Minister Israel Katz declared that “The IDF is alert and prepared for a renewal of the campaign, to regain air superiority and carry out an Israeli strike in Iran to remove threats—even for a third time. If we have to return, we will return, with even greater force.”

IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir jokingly reassured the pilots that they would also get to fly in Iranian skies: “Graduates of the course, I look at you and think about your feelings. Yours is a course defined entirely by war. Your feeling, like that of every combat soldier, may be one of having missed out—that the great and heroic operations are already behind us… I would like to reassure you—have no fear. Our enemies continue to plot evil even at this very moment. The campaign is not over.“