From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, April 7, 2026
Netanyahu ahead of Trump’s deadline: We are crushing Iranian regime ‘with increasing intensity’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleLazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Israel is “crushing” the regime in Iran with growing force, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says shortly after US President Donald Trump threatened that “a whole civilization could die tonight.”
Trump’s latest deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz is set to expire later tonight at 8 p.m. EST.
“We are crushing the terrorist regime in Iran with increasing intensity,” says Netanyahu in a video statement. “Yesterday we destroyed transport aircraft and dozens of helicopters, and today we struck the railways and bridges used by the Revolutionary Guards.”
Netanyahu says the rails and bridges were used to transport “raw materials for weapons, weapons themselves, and operatives who attack us, the United States, and countries in the region — those same operatives who also oppress the Iranian people.”
Netanyahu stresses that Israel is not targeting the Iranian people, but are meant “to weaken and crush the regime of terror that has oppressed them for 47 years.”
The Times of Israel Community.