Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu said that while Israel and the United States are taking steps intended to weaken Iran’s ruling regime and create conditions for change, it remains uncertain whether the Iranian public will ultimately overthrow the Islamic Republic. “You can lead someone to water; you cannot make him drink,” Netanyahu said during a press conference, his first since Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran on February 28, triggering an expanding regional war.

Addressing mounting anger in Israel’s northern communities after renewed attacks from Hezbollah, Netanyahu also delivered a warning to Lebanon’s leadership. He said the Lebanese government must “take your fate into your own hands” and dismantle the Iranian-backed terror organization itself, or Israel may be forced to act.

The prime minister also turned to the issue of his ongoing corruption trial, urging President Isaac Herzog to intervene. Netanyahu said US President Donald Trump “speaks from the heart” when criticizing Herzog for not granting him a pardon.

Speaking about the possibility that Iran’s regime could collapse, Netanyahu told reporters during the televised briefing that Israel and the United States are working to weaken Tehran’s leadership and give the Iranian population the opportunity to challenge it. “We will create optimal conditions to do this, including airstrikes as we did yesterday, as we are doing these days, to try to give [the Iranian people] the space needed to take to the streets.

“We are delivering crushing blows to the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij, their street forces, their checkpoints – and more is yet to come,” he went on.

Even so, Netanyahu acknowledged that outside forces cannot guarantee such an outcome. “I do not deny it: I cannot say for certain that the Iranian people will bring down the regime.”

Directly addressing citizens of Iran, he added: “We told you, ‘Help is on the way,’” he said, addressing the Iranian public. “Well, the help has come and more will follow.”

Netanyahu said many people hope the regime will ultimately collapse but emphasized that such a development must come from within Iran itself. “We all are hoping for the result of this regime falling,” said Netanyahu, but “ultimately, a regime is ousted from within.”

Regardless of how the war concludes, Netanyahu argued that Iran has already suffered significant damage. “It’s simply a different Iran — it no longer threatens as it did before,” he said. “It is not the same power. It’s not the giant bully that nothing can be done against and that no one can unite against.”

Because of security concerns surrounding the ongoing conflict, Netanyahu addressed reporters over Zoom. During the call, he repeated his assertion that the military campaign became necessary after Iran resumed work on nuclear weapons and ballistic missile capabilities following the 12-day Israel-Iran war last June.

Netanyahu said Iran’s previous supreme leader, Ali Khamenei — killed during the opening stage of the joint US-Israeli offensive nearly two weeks earlier — had been warned not to rebuild what he described as Iran’s dangerous weapons infrastructure. Instead, Netanyahu said Khamenei pushed ahead with those efforts and moved them deeper underground, ultimately prompting the strike that killed him.

“If we had not acted immediately, within a few months Iran’s industries of death would have become immune to any strike. Therefore, we went out together to battle — the United States and Israel — to continue what we began and to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. To prevent Iran from developing ballistic missiles that threaten Israel, the United States, and the entire world. That is our objective,” he said.

Netanyahu said that since the start of the current war, Israeli forces have struck Iran’s nuclear facilities and eliminated what he described as a key nuclear scientist. He also said the campaign has additional elements yet to be revealed.

Israel and the United States, he said, are acting together to prevent a regime that openly seeks Israel’s destruction from achieving that goal. “Our enemies are not disappearing in an instant, but look at our amazing successes.”

When asked whether Israel might target Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ali Khamenei who has been named the new supreme leader, Netanyahu responded: “I wouldn’t take out a life insurance policy on any of the leaders of the terror organizations.”

He dismissed Mojtaba Khamenei as a “puppet” controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps who “cannot show his face in public.”

The newly installed leader has not appeared publicly since the war began and is believed to have been injured in an airstrike. Iranian state media broadcast a defiant statement attributed to him on Thursday — believed to be his first message since becoming supreme leader on Sunday — but he has not been seen or heard directly since the fighting started.

Netanyahu also said that Israel is receiving support from a number of countries in its confrontation with Iran, though some of that cooperation remains undisclosed.

“In these days, my team and I are weaving additional alliances with countries in the region – alliances that only a few weeks ago would have seemed unimaginable,” said Netanyahu, without elaborating.

The prime minister argued that Israel has emerged stronger despite the devastating Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. According to Netanyahu, the country is now at least a regional power and has eliminated a dangerous adversary in Ali Khamenei. He described the Iranian leader as “a kind of Hitler” who had pursued Israel’s destruction for decades.

“We are crushing the terror regime in Iran. We are striking and defeating its proxies – Hezbollah in Lebanon,” he said. “Hezbollah is feeling our force, and it will feel it even more so. It will pay a very heavy price for its aggression.”

Earlier this month Hezbollah resumed firing rockets toward Israel, marking its first such attacks since a November 2024 ceasefire agreement between Israel and the group. That agreement required Lebanon’s government to dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

On Wednesday night, Hezbollah fired roughly 200 rockets toward northern Israel, renewing concerns about how much of its arsenal remains intact and whether its supply networks are still functioning.

Israel has responded by sending troops deeper into Lebanese territory and carrying out large-scale airstrikes targeting Hezbollah-controlled areas. Those attacks have killed hundreds of people and forced large numbers of residents to flee neighborhoods in southern Beirut as well as parts of southern and eastern Lebanon.

While Netanyahu did not rule out a major ground operation in Lebanon, he indicated that Israel might avoid such a move if Beirut acts against Hezbollah. However, he warned that a significant offensive could become unavoidable if Lebanon’s government “continues to let Hezbollah act in violation of your commitment to disarm it.”

The November 2024 ceasefire ended more than a year of fighting that began when Hezbollah started attacking Israel on October 8, 2023 — one day after the Hamas invasion of southern Israel that ignited the war in Gaza.

Those attacks forced roughly 60,000 residents of northern Israel to evacuate their homes. In an effort to enable their return, Israel escalated its military operations against Hezbollah in September 2024, severely damaging the group’s leadership structure.

When asked whether he had overstated Hezbollah’s weakness at the time, Netanyahu acknowledged that the organization still retains some capabilities but maintained that it has suffered heavy losses.

“They have certain remaining capacities,” he said, but insisted the group had been greatly diminished.

“We’ll deal with it,” he said, promising not to “abandon the residents of the north.”

Netanyahu added that before Israel’s intensified operations in Lebanon in 2024, Hezbollah possessed around 150,000 rockets and missiles and had the potential to inflict catastrophic damage across Israel.

He said the arsenal could have been capable of destroying buildings in Tel Aviv and causing mass casualties. “bring down the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv and cause devastation in central Israel and beyond, with 15,000-20,000 fatalities.”

“That did not happen, because we hit them with a massive blow,” he said.