Netanyahu says Israel on high alert, US intensifies diplomatic efforts

Israel is in a state of “high readiness” against any scenario, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday as the United States intensified efforts to prevent an all-out war amid threats of a direct attack against the Jewish state by Iran and Hezbollah.

“Israel is in a state of very high readiness for any scenario – on both defense and offense. We will exact a very high price for any act of aggression against us from any quarter whatsoever,” Netanyahu said.

He spoke in the aftermath of the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, who was responsible for the Golan Heights rocket strike that killed 12 children. Israel has taken responsibility for that strike.

Netanyahu also announced on Thursday that there was final confirmation that the IDF had successfully assassinated the head of Hamas’s Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif, last month.

Israel has not taken responsibility for Wednesday’s killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. However, it is widely believed that the Jewish state was behind the hit.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken minced no words on Thursday in Mongolia when he said that the region was heading toward more “conflict, more violence, suffering, or insecurity, and it is crucial that we break the cycle.”

Blinken said, “It’s urgent that all parties make the right choices in the days ahead because those choices are the difference between staying on this path of violence, of insecurity, of suffering, or moving to something very different and much better for all parties concerned.”

No choice but to attack

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that “the resistance cannot but respond. This is definite.” He spoke during a televised address to mark the funeral of the slain commander, attended by mourners clad in black waving the group’s yellow-and-green flag.

“We are looking for a real response, not a performative one, and for real opportunities. A studied response,” Nasrallah punctuated.

Netanyahu, during a visit to the Home Front Command on Thursday, said, “Whoever harms us, we will harm them.”

The prime minister also held a meeting Thursday on hostage talks with his Military Secretary, Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, his Chief of Staff, Tzachi Braverman, and the Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing Brig.-Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch.

Netanyahu was set to speak later in the day with US President Joe Biden on the hostage deal and the potential military reactions to the Hezbollah and Hamas assassinations. He had just spoken on these issues with Biden when they met at the White House last week.

Blinken is also set to hold conversations with his regional counterparts.

Haniyeh had been involved in the ongoing hostage deal talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the US, and there has been wide speculation that his assassination has harmed, if not frozen, the talks.

Israeli and US officials, however, have said that the talks are ongoing.

Blinken told reporters in Mongolia that it was critical for both Hamas and Israel to finalize the three-phase hostage deal that Biden had unveiled on May 31, which would pause the war. The US believes that this agreement would lead to a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza war that began on October 7 with Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel.

Further, there is hope that this ceasefire will also end the cross-border war between the IDF and Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border.

A restoration of calm for Israel, Blinken told reporters, starts with the Gaza ceasefire and a deal for the return of the remaining 115 hostages in the enclave.

“I believe [that a hostage deal] is not only achievable, it also has to be achieved, and then building on that ceasefire [will] put an end to the conflict in Gaza [and] produce calm in the North between Israel and Lebanon,” he said.

Then, a broader, more enduring sense of peace and security can be worked on, Blinken added.

“To get there, it also first requires all parties to talk, to stop taking any escalatory actions. It also requires them to find reasons to come to an agreement, not to look for reasons to delay or say no to the agreement,” he stressed.

Hostage deak talks to resume

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters in Washington, “We continue to believe that a deal is not just urgent but also achievable.

“We’re going to continue to remain focused on working around the clock to narrow some of the gaps. Getting this deal done to bring the hostages home and end the violence in Gaza is incredibly important,” he said.

On the issue of a wider regional war, he stated, “We have been laser-focused on trying to prevent that wider war since October. There have been moments that have required intensive effort to keep a lid on things. The risk has always been there, and the risk remains today,” he said.

“We believe we do have to be engaging in intensive efforts now, through deterrence, through de-escalation, through diplomacy, to prevent a wider war and we will continue to do that,” Sullivan stressed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a phone call with Iran’s acting Foreign Minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, on Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

According to the ministry’s statement, both sides expressed their condemnation of the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran and pointed out “the extremely dangerous consequences of such actions.”

Separately, China hopes Palestinian factions can create an independent state as soon as possible, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday while addressing a query on the killing of the Hamas chief in Iran.

“China earnestly looks forward to all Palestinian factions on the basis of internal reconciliation and to the creation of an independent Palestinian state as soon as possible,” Lin Jian said during a regular press briefing.

Reuters contributed to this report.