Israeli Officials, Opposition Call for Major Military Strike on Iran

(MENAFN) Israeli officials and opposition politicians dramatically intensified their calls Sunday for sweeping military escalation against Iran, following a wave of missile attacks targeting northern Israel that has brought the two adversaries to the sharpest edge of direct confrontation in recent memory.

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett framed the moment in stark, historic terms, warning that anything short of a decisive response would carry dangerous long-term consequences for Israel's deterrence.

"Any containment or symbolic response would send a message that Israeli blood is cheap," Bennett said in a post on the US social media platform X, urging Israel to act "forcefully and effectively."

Bennett leads the Together party — a joint political alliance founded in April alongside opposition figure Yair Lapid — which recent Israeli polls place among the foremost challengers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.

Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar echoed the call for an aggressive shift in Israel's military posture, signaling growing impatience within the political establishment with a defensive-first approach.

"The era of old concepts is over. We must move from defense to offense," he said on X.

Former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, leader of the opposition Yisrael Beiteinu party, went further still, demanding immediate and targeted retaliation against Iranian infrastructure.

"Enough containment. Israel must respond immediately and strike Iran's strategic infrastructure," Liberman said.

The chorus of hawkish voices grew louder as Israeli officials simultaneously signaled that Tel Aviv was actively preparing a military response to the Iranian missile assault.

Iran launched several successive missile barrages toward northern Israel late Sunday, retaliating for an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs — a strike Tel Aviv claimed had targeted a Hezbollah command and planning center. That attack killed two people and injured 11 others in a preliminary toll.

Sunday's Iranian missile bombardment marked the first such assault on Israel since a fragile ceasefire took effect in early April. That truce, reached on April 8, subsequently collapsed as negotiations stalled over implementation disputes and a series of escalating regional developments — leaving the two countries now teetering on the edge of an open and potentially devastating conflict.

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