Israel's war cabinet begins discussing response to Iran

CNN quoted an Israeli official as saying that the country's war cabinet had just started meeting at 4 p.m. (local time, or 8 p.m. in Vietnam).

This war cabinet includes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, former Deputy Prime Minister and former Defense Minister Benny Gantz.

Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and two politicians Gadi Eisenkot and Aryeh Deri attended the meeting as observers.

The war cabinet meeting was to decide Israel's response to Iran's attack on the country on the night of April 13 and early morning of April 14.

"We will build a regional coalition and make Iran pay in a way and at a time that suits us," Mr Gantz said just before the meeting began.

Mr. Gantz also affirmed: "Faced with the threat from Iran, we will build a regional alliance and make Iran pay in a way and at a time that suits us. More importantly, in the face of the enemy's ambition to harm us, we will unite and become stronger."

There is no information yet on the content of the war cabinet meeting. However, just outside, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir both called on the Israeli government to take tough measures to respond to Iran.

Both men are leaders of far-right parties in the Israeli parliament, are not part of the war cabinet and did not attend the meeting.

Speaking in a video, Mr. Smotrich asserted that if Tel Aviv hesitates, "the government will put itself and the children of Israel in existential danger." In addition, this minister also affirmed that this is "the moment of truth."

“If our response reverberates across the Middle East for generations to come, we will have won,” Mr. Smotrich declared.

For his part, Mr. Ben-Gvir said that Israel cannot afford to react “weakly.” The official said that “the idea of ​​a restrained and proportionate response has been lost since October 7, 2023,” the date of Hamas’ attack on Israel that led to the current Middle East crisis.

Tehran said the attack was a legitimate response to Tel Aviv's April 1 airstrike on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, the capital of Syria.

The focus of the attack was the Nevatim military base - the starting point of the above airstrike.

After the Iranian attack ended, the Israeli military announced that it and its allies had intercepted "99%" of the more than 300 weapons launched by Iran.

Tel Aviv admitted that several missiles had hit the Nevatim base, but only caused minor damage and did not affect the facility's operations.