The White House has warned of an imminent Iranian attack on Israel as tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate. Israel’s military has said it is on “peak alert.” Iran, meanwhile, has rejected calls for restraint.
Iran could carry out “significant” attacks on Israel as early as “this week,” United States National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Monday.
“We have to be prepared for what could be a significant set of attacks,” he told reporters, adding that Washington shared Israeli assessments that such a move “could be this week.”
Kirby was speaking after US President Joe Biden held talks with the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy in which he discussed the prospect of a cease-fire in Gaza and ways to de-escalate tensions across the Middle East.
The call, Kirby said, was “largely for all the leaders to repeat what they have said before in terms of reaffirming Israel’s defense” and to “send a strong message that we don’t want to see any rise in violence, any attacks by Iran or its proxies.”
On Monday, a joint statement issued by President Biden and the four European leaders read: “We called on Iran to stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack against Israel and discussed the serious consequences for regional security should such an attack take place.”
Israel has been preparing for a major attack after Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran last month, drawing vows of “punishment” from Iran. A day prior, an Israeli strike in Beirut killed a senior commander of Hezbollah.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it was behind the killing of Haniyeh, but the Israeli government had previously pledged to kill him and other top Hamas officials for their role in the group’s October 7th terrorist attacks. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the US, EU, and others.