Tensions escalated in the Middle East on Sunday as Israel launched a series of missile strikes across western Iran, prompting Iranian officials to threaten the life of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) posted an online warning, reported by the state-run IRNA news agency and cited by the Associated Press, stating: “If this child-killing criminal is alive, we will continue to pursue and kill him with full force.”
The threat follows Netanyahu’s recent declaration that the United States and Israel are actively reshaping the region by targeting Iran. In a national address Thursday, the 76-year-old Israeli leader described ongoing operations as historic.
“We are in historic days, days that will be recorded in the annals of Israel,” Netanyahu said. “In ‘Operation Roaring Lion,’ our roar is growing stronger. We are striking the terrorist regime in Iran and dismantling its proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon.”
The conflict between Iran, Israel, and the United States entered its third week on Saturday. The current phase began with a joint US-Israel military operation that struck Iranian military installations and resulted in the deaths of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and 40 senior officials inside a fortified Tehran compound.
Despite ongoing threats from Iran, including missile and drone attacks, Netanyahu emphasized Israel’s resilience and growing power in the region.
“Threats come and go—but as we rise as a regional power, and in certain areas a global power, we gain the ability to defend ourselves and secure our future,” he said. He recalled a 1993 article he wrote, stating that Iran posed the greatest long-term danger to Israel—a warning that he says has been borne out over the past three decades.
On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out an extensive series of strikes targeting what they described as the infrastructure of Iran’s “terror regime” in the west of the country.
Meanwhile, President Trump commented on the ongoing conflict, saying Iran is seeking an end to the war but that he is not prepared to negotiate until Tehran demonstrates a serious commitment to proposed conditions.
“Iran wants to make a deal, and I don’t want to make it because the terms aren’t good enough yet,” Trump told NBC News on Saturday. Any agreement would require Iran to abandon all nuclear ambitions. Trump stressed that the terms must be “very solid” for him to consider ending military operations.