Netanyahu: “I’m Alive” – Iran’s Nuclear & Missile Capabilities “Crushed” in Roaring Lion Campaign

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began his March 19 press conference with international journalists with a pointed dismissal of online rumours claiming he had been killed, before delivering a forceful assessment of the military campaign against Iran now in its third week.

“I just want to say I’m alive, and you’re all witnesses,” Netanyahu said, addressing the speculation head-on. “Now that I dispatched this piece of fake news, I want to give you an update on Operation Roaring Lion.”

In the roughly eight-minute English-language statement released via the official

@IsraeliPM account on X, Netanyahu credited the operation’s progress to close coordination with the United States under President Donald Trump’s “visionary leadership.” He described the joint effort as a decisive response to 47 years of hostility from what he called the “Ayatollah regime,” which he accused of waging war against America, Israel, its own citizens, and multiple countries across the Middle East and beyond.

The prime minister outlined three explicit objectives:
Completely removing Iran’s nuclear threat,
Eliminating its ballistic missile programme before facilities can be buried underground and rendered invulnerable to air attack,
Creating conditions that allow the Iranian people to seize control of their own future and achieve freedom.

Netanyahu accused Iran of recent attacks on American and civilian targets in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Oman, and — via proxies — Cyprus. He singled out Tehran’s disruption of the Strait of Hormuz as an attempt to blackmail the world through control of a vital energy artery, stating that Israel is providing intelligence and other support to help the United States reopen the strait.

Nethanyahu repeatedly warned of the catastrophic global consequences if Iran succeeded in pairing nuclear warheads with long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching cities in America, Europe, and elsewhere. “Look at what they’re doing now and imagine what they would do” with such weapons, he said.

Netanyahu claimed substantial military gains:

Hundreds of missile launchers destroyed,
Large stockpiles of missiles and drones heavily damaged,
Production factories for missile components and nuclear-related equipment systematically targeted — a deeper industrial-level degradation than achieved in the earlier Operation Rising Lion,
Iran’s air defences rendered ineffective,
Much of its navy sunk (including recent strikes in the Caspian Sea),
Its air force nearly eliminated,
Command-and-control structures in “utter chaos.”

He asserted that “despite the fake news that has unfortunately been spread since the start of the war 20 days ago, we are winning, and Iran is being decimated.”

Netanyahu firmly rejected accusations that Israel had pulled the United States into the conflict, insisting President Trump acts independently and in America’s long-term interest. He recalled Trump’s consistent opposition to Iran’s nuclear ambitions – from terminating the 2015 nuclear deal in his first term to private assurances of resolve during meetings ahead of the second term – and described the partnership as protecting not only Israel and the United States but the entire region and the wider world.

The briefing was delivered amid continued Iranian missile and drone barrages targeting Israel and energy infrastructure in Gulf states, which have driven sharp increases in global oil prices and heightened regional tensions.