Netanyahu Makes First Public Appearance Since Israeli Bombing Campaign Against Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise public appearance for the first time since Iran launched attacks on Tel Aviv. He immediately threatened to kill Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.

According to Reuters on Friday (13 March 2026), this was Netanyahu’s first appearance since the outbreak of conflict. He appeared standing between two Israeli flags and answered questions via video link.

Netanyahu stated that Iran “is no longer the same” following nearly two weeks of bombardment. He claimed that the Revolutionary Guards and Basij paramilitary forces have suffered significant losses.

During his press conference, he also vowed to continue attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon in response to Hezbollah’s attacks on Monday (2 March). When asked what actions Israel would take against Iran and Hezbollah, he refused to disclose specifics.

“I will not issue a life insurance policy for any terrorist organisation leader… I do not intend to provide a detailed report here about what we are planning or what we will do,” he said.

Netanyahu also spoke about air raid sirens sounding across much of central Israel warning of incoming missile attacks from Iran. He stated that the objective of his attacks on Iran was to eliminate what he considered an existential threat posed by Tehran’s nuclear programme and ballistic missiles.

Israel also stated it wished to precipitate the collapse of the Iranian government by encouraging the Iranian people to rise up.

When asked whether Israel was arming opponents of Iran’s rulers and whether this strategy might fail to achieve regime collapse, Netanyahu said that even if the government did not fall, it would nonetheless remain weakened.

“I will not detail the actions we are undertaking. We are creating optimal conditions to overthrow the regime, but I will not deny that I cannot state with certainty that the Iranian people will overthrow the regime—a regime is overthrown from within,” Netanyahu said.

“But we can certainly help and we indeed are helping,” he added.