Israel is prepared to rejoin the war against Iran if Tehran retaliates against the new round of American strikes, according to Israeli reports, raising the risk that a fragile regional ceasefire could give way to full-scale war.

Israel’s leaders are expecting and preparing to rejoin fresh U.S. strikes on Iran, Channel 12 reported, pointing to multiple signs of heightened Israeli readiness and saying Jerusalem would likely coordinate any action with Washington. The reporting reflects an assessment in Israel that unless Iran presents a dramatically improved offer to permanently end the war, which officials view as unlikely, military escalation is the more probable path.

The warning is not hypothetical. After Israel and Iran traded fire this week for the first time since the April truce, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled the round of fighting was over but warned that if Iran returns to attacking Israel, “we will respond with force.” Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had struck two Israeli military bases in that exchange, retaliation it launched after Israel hit radar sites inside Iran, with both countries also reporting an Israeli strike on an Iranian petrochemical plant.

US forces launched a fresh wave of strikes on multiple targets in Iran on Wednesday evening, the second round in two days, after the downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has already claimed it struck back at U.S. targets across the region, and has vowed that no attack will go unanswered. Whether Tehran escalates further is the variable that could pull Israel back in.

Beneath the surface lies a tense dynamic between Jerusalem and Washington. Israel was preparing a significant attack in Tehran on Monday when President Trump intervened by phone and pressed Netanyahu to hold off, an effort that appeared to work. Trump warned the Israeli leader that he risked isolating himself if he kept striking Iran. Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, has said the army had planned a much more significant and severe blow against the Iranian regime. Some Israeli officials have privately bristled that Washington demanded Israeli restraint even as Trump ordered his own strikes.

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