Adedokun Waliyu 
Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel, alongside the United States, had dealt the “heaviest blow” Iran’s leadership had ever seen, as the country began observing its annual Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“We delivered the heaviest blow in that regime’s history. It stands weaker than ever before,” Netanyahu said during a state ceremony at the Yad Vashem.
Israel has been engaged in a multi-front conflict since October 7, 2023, when the Iran-backed group Hamas launched an attack that triggered a deadly war in Gaza and drew in other allies of Tehran.
“For two-and-a-half years, we have been systematically crushing the Iranian axis of evil” across Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu said.
He warned that without Israel’s actions, Iranian nuclear sites such as Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan, and Parchin could have become synonymous with horror, drawing comparisons to Nazi-era extermination camps like Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Sobibor.
Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day honours the six million Jews killed during World War II. The observance, held annually according to the Hebrew calendar, is separate from International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.
This year’s commemoration comes during a two-week ceasefire with Iran in a regional conflict that began on February 28 with joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to engage in clashes with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon.
