Netanyahu Warns Iran It is Within Range of Israeli Warplanes

Referring to Tehran's threats to destroy Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Iran that it is within range of Israeli warplanes.

"Iran recently has been threatening Israel's destruction. It should remember that these planes can reach anywhere in the Middle East, including Iran, and certainly Syria", Netanyahu said during his public remarks at an Israeli Air Force base on Tuesday.

“Our planes can reach any area in the Middle East, including both Iran and Syria”, the tweet reads.

The remarks come after Mojtaba Zolnour, the chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, warned in last week's interview with the Tehran-based Arabic language news TV network al-Alam that if the US attacks Iran, “only half an hour will remain of Israel's lifespan”.

Earlier, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told the Herzliya Conference that the Jewish state is bracing itself for its possible military involvement in the event of an escalation in the political standoff between Iran and the US.

He singled out “mistaken calculations by the [Iranian] regime” that he claimed may bring about a “military conflagration” in the Middle East region.

“We must be prepared for this, and thus the State of Israel continues to devote itself to building up its military might for the event that it will have to respond to escalation scenarios”, Katz pointed out.

This comes amid frozen relations between Israel and Iran, with the Jewish state repeatedly accusing Iran of establishing a permanent military presence in Syria.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have been conducting airstrikes against what they have claimed were Iranian military targets in Syria, while Tehran argues that it has only been sending military advisers to Damascus to help it fight terrorism.

Iran, which denies Israel's right to exist, has also ramped up its stern rhetoric against Israel, promising to wipe it off the political map.