Netanyahu: Israel changing ‘balance of power in north,’ has ‘duty’ to strike back at Iran and ‘will do so’
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Speaking from his office at the Kirya in Tel Aviv after the Rosh Hashanah weekend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promises to strike back against Iran for its ballistic missile attack on Tuesday.
“Iran has twice fired hundreds of missiles at our territory and our cities — ballistic missile attacks among the largest in history,” says Netanyahu in a video statement.
“No country in the world would accept such an attack on its cities and citizens, and the State of Israel will not either,” he says. “Israel has the duty and the right to defend itself and respond to these attacks — and we will do so.”
Most of Netanyahu’s remarks focus on the fighting in Lebanon, where he says Israel is changing “the balance of power in the north.”
“About a month ago, toward the end of the destruction of the Hamas battalions in Gaza, we started fulfilling the promise I gave to the residents of the north,” says the premier, referring to the recently approved war aim of returning northern residents to their homes, a year after they were evacuated from the Lebanese border.
“We eliminated [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah and the Hezbollah leadership, we eliminated the commanders of the Radwan force who planned to invade the Galilee and carry out a greater and more terrible massacre of our citizens than that of October 7th,” he declares.
Netanyahu insists that Israel has destroyed “a large part” of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket stockpile.
“And these days, our heroic soldiers are destroying the array of terror tunnels that Hezbollah secretly prepared, close to our borders,” he says, adding that “although we have not yet completed the removal of the threat, we have clearly changed the course of the war and the balance of the war, and our arms are still outstretched [for more action].”
Netanyahu mocks the late Hezbollah leader for calling Israeli society a “spider web” in a famous speech years ago.
“He and the whole world discovered the iron sinews of Israel — a strong country with a strong, daring and moral army,” he says. “A country determined to defend itself against any threat.”
“That includes the threat from Iran, which is behind all the attacks on us — from Gaza, from Lebanon, from Yemen, from Iraq and Syria — and of course, from Iran itself,” says Netanyahu.