JERUSALEM — Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday, November 8, that his country's military mission against Iran is "not complete", accusing Tehran of trying to renew its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons, and warned Iran's Lebanese ally Hezbollah against joining any renewed fighting. The Straits Times and Hindustan Times both reported the remarks, which Katz made at a memorial ceremony for Israeli soldiers killed in the 1956 military campaign against Egypt, known as Operation Kadesh.

Source: The Straits Times

"With regard to Iran, the mission is still not complete. Iran is trying to renew its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons — alongside other grave efforts that place the State of Israel in real danger," Katz said. Iran has consistently denied seeking nuclear weapons and says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. Israel's latest allegation has not been independently established, and concerns about enrichment capacity do not by themselves prove that Iran is currently building a weapon.

Hezbollah warned, and Israel says it will hold its security zones

Katz also warned Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group, against taking part in any renewed confrontation between Israel and Tehran. "We will not withdraw from the security zones in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, and if the terrorist organisation Hezbollah chooses to join Iran in an attack on Israel, it will suffer extremely severe blows," he said. The remarks confirm that Israel intends to keep its forces in the zones it holds in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria while the Iran confrontation remains unresolved.

Iranian officials answered with a warning of their own. An adviser to the commander of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace force said Iran's armed forces were on high alert and warned of a severe response to any new attack, according to live reporting on Sunday that cited AFP via Arab News and Al Jazeera Arabic. Tehran has repeatedly said it retains control of the Strait of Hormuz and has linked any reopening of normal shipping to Washington accepting its conditions.

A reported pre-election operation, and a nuclear proposal through Qatar

According to a report by Israel's Channel 12 television on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Mossad intelligence agency had planned an operation against Iran ahead of Israel's October 27 election, and the United States intervened to stop it. That report has not been independently confirmed, and Awaaz Punjab reports it only as a Channel 12 claim. Separately, Reuters reported on November 5 that Iran had submitted a nuclear proposal to the United States through Qatar, while Tehran maintained that negotiations would depend on Washington meeting its conditions.

The political setting matters. Netanyahu's standing weakened in the October 27 election, and his rival Gadi Eisenkot — a former military chief who lost a son and two nephews in the Gaza war — has been tasked with forming a government and is set to receive the formal mandate on Sunday. Eisenkot has warned against the military being drawn into another conflict for what he described as Netanyahu's political interests, while broadly backing several of Netanyahu's earlier military decisions. Katz, a senior figure in Netanyahu's Likud party, called for national unity on security: "We may argue and we may disagree, but when the security of the state is at stake, we must know how to rise above our disputes."

Why this matters beyond Israel and Iran: any renewed Israel-Iran fighting would again threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices and the safety of the lakhs of Punjabi and Indian workers who live and work across the Gulf states — the same workers whose remittances support families across Punjab. What happens next: watch whether Eisenkot's coalition talks change Israel's Iran posture, whether Washington backs or restrains another Israeli campaign after the US midterm results, and whether the Qatar-channel nuclear proposal moves towards actual talks. (Sources: The Straits Times, Nov 8; Hindustan Times via Fact, Nov 8; AFP via Arab News and Al Jazeera Arabic via The Levant Files live reporting, Nov 8; Reuters, Nov 5, as cited in reporting.)