At the time when end-of-war talks between the United States and Iran were underway in Islamabad, Pakistan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that the military offensive against Iran was not over, asserting that “there is still more to be done.”

Issuing a video statement late on the 11th (local time), Netanyahu said, “They (Iran) tried to tighten our noose, but we are tightening theirs.”

He then claimed that “internal strife has broken out within the Iranian leadership and they are now pleading for a ceasefire.” Referring to attacks on Iranian soil carried out last June and this February based on intelligence on nuclear weapons production by Iran, Netanyahu emphasized, “we have already achieved historic results.”

Despite the United States and Iran having declared a ‘two-week temporary ceasefire’ on the 7th, Israel has not halted military actions targeting Hezbollah, the Iran-aligned armed faction in Lebanon. Regarding this, Netanyahu said, “we are still fighting them, and the war is ongoing.”

Amid this tense phase, Israel and the Lebanese government are set to hold their first face-to-face talks in Washington, United States, on the 14th, with Hezbollah’s disarmament as the core agenda. Netanyahu said, “I approved this meeting,” arguing that what is needed is a “genuine peace agreement,” not a merely formal ceasefire.

These remarks came on the very day that high-level delegations from the United States and Iran were holding marathon end-of-war negotiations in Islamabad. While trying to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump to continue the war, Netanyahu also reaffirmed via X his resolve “to fight to the end against the terrorist regime of Iran and its proxy forces” during his term in office. Iran, for its part, is demanding an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon as a precondition for concluding an end-of-war plan with the United States.

In fact, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued their offensive that day, striking more than 200 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. The Lebanese Ministry of Health counted at least 97 people killed by Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours. Hezbollah also retaliated by firing rockets at military infrastructure in the northern Israeli settlement of Adamit and by conducting an airstrike with unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) on an Israeli military assembly area in the Metula region.

The trial of Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has been indicted on corruption charges, will also resume. With the wartime state of emergency lifted, an Israeli court has decided to conduct defendant questioning of Netanyahu on the 12th. Facing three counts including fraud, bribery, and breach of trust, he is the first sitting prime minister to face a criminal trial, and proceedings had repeatedly been suspended due to the war. Netanyahu denies all charges and calls them “political persecution.”