Iran renews threat to strike Israel as US attack fears grow

Arsalan Shahla, Bloomberg News on Jan 31, 2026

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Iran’s army chief renewed warnings that Tehran could strike Israel, as speculation about a possible U.S. military attack on the Islamic Republic intensifies.

“If the enemy makes a mistake, it will without doubt endanger its own security, the security of the region, and the security of the Zionist regime,” Major General Amir Hatami said, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency on Saturday.

Tehran is closely monitoring hostile movements across the region, Hatami said, adding that “our finger is on the trigger,” according to the report.

A day earlier, Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Beirut-based Al Mayadeen that Tehran was prepared to deliver a “proportionate, effective, and deterrent response,” including strikes deep inside Israel, if it detected “hostile intent.”

Fears of a potential U.S. strike have intensified after President Donald Trump ordered military hardware to the Middle East this month following Tehran’s brutal crackdown on protesters. On Friday, Trump said he had persuaded Iran’s leadership to delay executing demonstrators and again urged the country to negotiate a nuclear agreement.

Iranian officials signaled they’re taking steps to prepare for a potential attack. Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani said the city is in the process of converting underground parking lots into shelters, while the semi-official Mehr news reported that a burial site with 5,000 graves near Tehran’s main cemetery has been prepared for “the temporary burial of potential casualties among invading U.S. soldiers.”

Separately, local media reported several incidents near Iran’s southern waters, where the country is set to hold naval drills on Sunday. The U.S. has warned Iran to avoid “escalatory behavior” during the exercises.

At least one person was killed in the port city of Bandar Abbas, near the Strait of Hormuz, and more than a dozen were injured in an explosion that destroyed multiple floors of an eight-story residential building and damaged nearby vehicles, state television reported. In a separate incident, officials said five people died in a household gas explosion in Ahvaz in southwestern Khuzestan province.

Although officials didn’t report these as security incidents or make any correlations, they have contributed to the heightened tension that has prevailed since the U.S. carried out airstrikes on three of Iran’s nuclear sites last June.

Earlier on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an X post that Tehran was ready to “embrace a fair and equitable nuclear deal” that would ensure “‘No Nuclear Weapons’ and guaranteeing the lifting of sanctions.”