Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet issued a warning against those who are “hostile towards Israel,” making a thinly veiled threat against Iran during a Memorial Day speech in Jerusalem on 4 May.

“[Enemies of Israel] will encounter more and more initiative, attacks and innovation. If we will have to fight a new conflict, we are determined to arrive ready, trained, surprising our enemies and not being surprised, and to strike the enemy with a powerful, decisive blow,” the Israeli prime minister said.

“Violence and terror are not a natural phenomenon or a predestined faith that the State of Israel will come to terms with … We’ll strike back not just at those who directly harm us, but also at those who send them … a regime that funds and arms terror cannot hide any longer,” Bennet added.

According to an unnamed Iranian source, Tehran informed Tel Aviv on 21 April that the locations of all of Israel’s nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons sites were known to Iran, and that, in the event of any aggression, Iran will strike these targets.

On 18 April, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi also issued a general warning that any Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic would result in Iran striking into the heart of Israeli occupied lands and military bases.

“Just know that if the slightest move on your part occurs against our nation, our armed forces will target the center of the Zionist regime, and the power of our armed forces will not leave you at rest,” the Iranian president warned.

During a Quds Day parade in Tehran on 29 April, a commander of the elite Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Major General Hossein Salami, issued a warning to Israel, to stop their “vicious deeds,” to understand that Iran will act and respond to aggression, and that Israel is creating the conditions for its own destruction.

The US military website Breaking Defense reported on 14 January that Israel is compiling a comprehensive list of weaponry that it seeks to ask the US to add to its inventory, in preparation for upcoming regional conflicts, particularly with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Iran.

A month later, Hezbollah launched a drone deep into occupied Israeli territory on a reconnaissance mission, with the drone making its way back into Lebanon unscathed.

The operation served as evidence that Israel’s air defenses are vulnerable and not as secure as Tel Aviv wants the world to think, a senior Hezbollah member said at the time.

Bennet’s speech comes as tensions are mounting in Jerusalem, with recent Palestinian retaliatory attacks in the occupied territories and violent incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque by right-wing settlers supported by Israeli forces.