Israel puts civilians on high alert as Iranian leaders vow response to US strikes

by Philissa Cramer

(JTA) — Israelis have been barred from gathering and most businesses have been ordered closed following the U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear sites.

Schools were already closed and the civilian alert level was already high following Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear program that began June 13, triggering waves of missile attacks from Iran that have sent Israelis racing to bomb shelters multiple times a day. Nearly two dozen Israelis have been killed by Iranian missiles since the war’s start.

But the threat level was raised again early Sunday Israel time as Iranian officials began to indicate their planned response to the U.S. attack, which targeted three nuclear sites. The officials and their proxies suggested that they plan to take aim primarily at U.S. targets.

“It is now our turn to act without delay,” a representative of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Iranian state media. Khamenei himself has retreated and cut off public communication amid fears that he is being targeted.

The representative said Khamenei wanted to attack the United States’ position in Bahrain, the hub of the U.S. Navy in the Middle East, and to close the Strait of Hormuz, a shipping corridor, to ships flown under the flags of the United States and its allies.

The U.S. strike also threatened to undo the deal President Donald Trump struck last month with the Houthis, an Iranian proxy based in Yemen. The group agreed to stop attacking U.S. ships without promising to withhold fire against Israel.

After the U.S. attack on the Iranian sites, Hizam al-Assad, a senior Houthi official, tweeted, “Washington must bear the consequences.”

Earlier in the day President Trump said he hoped there would be no need for more strikes like the ones he ordered late Saturday on Iran’s nuclear sites — but he said he was prepared to act again if needed.

In a four-minute address broadcast from the White House, Trump called the U.S. bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran “a spectacular military success” and said they were essential for curbing the danger posed by the Iranian regime. He also said now was the time for Iran to accept conditions for peace or risk further attacks.

“Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,” Trump said. “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.”

Trump delivered the speech — with Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth behind him — about two hours after he announced the strikes on Iran. They came nine days after Israel initiated an offensive against Iran’s nuclear program and just over a day after Trump said he would decide whether to join the conflict “within two weeks.”

Trump praised the Israeli military and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that the pair had worked together “like perhaps no team has ever worked before” — a potential dig at those who feared there was growing daylight between the two world leaders.

“We’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel,” Trump said.

“I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they’ve done, and most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades,” he added. “Hopefully we will no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope that’s so.”

But then he said again that he would be prepared to act if he deemed it necessary — and indicated that a next attack would be more substantial.

“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left,” Trump said.

“Tonight’s was the most difficult of them all, by far and perhaps the most lethal, but if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill,” he added. “Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes.”