Israel’s defence minister said on Wednesday his country was prepared to respond “with great force” if attacked by Iran, after Iranian forces targeted U.S. military positions across the region. Israel Katz said Israeli forces were prepared for a possible attack over the Jewish high holiday season, which begins in mid-September. “For now, they are striking throughout the region except us,” he told a conference hosted by Israeli news site Ynet and newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. “But there is a possibility that they will attack us. We are prepared for that defensively.” If Iran did attack, Israel would “respond with great force, independently of anyone else”, Katz said, adding that “our planes are ready to take off”. Israel launched the Middle East war alongside the United States in late February, but has stayed on the sidelines militarily since U.S. President Donald Trump sealed a ceasefire deal in April -- even after that truce later fell apart. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that would likely remain the case, while echoing Katz’s remarks in an interview with the broadcaster France 24 that aired on Wednesday. “If we will be attacked by Iran, we will surely respond heavily, but I’m not sure that Iran will do that mistake,” he said. “We don’t have the plans to join the war right now.” Iran launched a wave of retaliatory overnight attacks on US sites across the Middle East following extensive American bombardment on Tuesday night. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced attacks on U.S. bases in Jordan, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, in the six-month conflict’s heaviest exchange in weeks. “They like to attack on Jewish holidays because they hate Jews,” Katz said. “But we are prepared both defensively and offensively, in co-ordination with the United States in this regard.” Iran’s Islamic republic, whose leaders are virulently anti-Israel and support likeminded armed groups such as Hamas, constitutionally recognizes its own Jewish community, which is estimated to number in the thousands. Israel in the opening salvo of the war killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
