A controversial Israeli politician blasted Israel’s strike at Iran on Thursday night as “lame” after the Jewish state reportedly launched missiles at the rogue Islamic republic.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted one word in Hebrew that was best translated as “lame” on X shortly after news broke that Israel struck a military base near Isfahan in central Iran, the Times of Israel reported.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid quickly denounced the bombastic far-right leader’s statement.
“Never before has a minister in the security cabinet done such heavy damage to the country’s security, its image and its international status,” Mr Lapid wrote on X.
“In an unforgivable one-word tweet, Ben Gvir managed to mock and shame Israel from Tehran to Washington.”
Mr Ben Gvir’s comment also drew criticism from officials in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner circle, who claimed he had compromised national security, Israel Channel 12 reported.
Mr Ben Gvir “was and remains childish and irrelevant to any discussion”, officials reportedly said.
Though the strike was supposedly meant to signal to Tehran that Israel could reach Iran with its weapons, the Iranian government immediately moved to downplay the incident.
The state media dismissed the small number of explosions, which it claimed were from Iran’s air defense system hitting three drones over Isfahan.
They also referred to the attack as the work of “infiltrators” instead of Israel.
“Three drones were observed in the sky over Isfahan. The air defense system became active and destroyed these drones in the sky,” Iranian state TV alleged.
There are currently no plans to respond, an Iranian official told Reuters — averting anxieties about an all-out regional war.
“The foreign source of the incident has not been confirmed. We have not received any external attack, and the discussion leans more towards infiltration than attack,” the official said.
Iranian officials had reopened the country’s airports and airspace shortly after the attacks.
Israel for several days had said it was planning to hit back at Iran after the latter launched its first-ever direct attack on the Jewish state on Saturday.
The Iranians launched more than 300 suicide drones and missiles at Israel, 99 per cent of which were shot down by the country’s air defense systems and allied forces, including the US.
Israeli media previously reported that the war cabinet was divided on how hard to strike — whether to execute a significant airstrike on Iran’s nuclear facilities or to limit its retaliation.
President Joe Biden reportedly told Mr Netanyahu that the US would not back Israel on any retaliatory strikes against Iran.
The two enemies had been hurtling toward a direct confrontation since a presumed Israeli strike on April 1 destroyed a building at Iran’s embassy compound in Damascus and killed several Iranian officers.
On Friday, EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen cautioned that “it is absolutely necessary that the region remains stable and that all sides restrain from further action”.
This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission