Netanyahu praises significant setback for Iran on Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day

On March 19, 2026, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the media during a press conference in Jerusalem, where he asserted that Israel, in collaboration with the United States, had inflicted the most severe blow on Iran's leadership to date.

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Netanyahu made these remarks at a state ceremony held at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial centre in Jerusalem, which was broadcast on Monday, as the country began observing its annual Holocaust Remembrance Day.

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According to Netanyahu, the impact of this blow has left the Iranian regime weaker than ever before, with Israel having delivered the "heaviest blow" in the regime's history.

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Israel's multi-front conflict, which started on October 7, 2023, when Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked the country, has been ongoing, resulting in a deadly war in Gaza that drew in other allies of Tehran.

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Netanyahu stated that for two-and-a-half years, Israel has been systematically targeting the Iranian axis of evil in various locations, including Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and the occupied West Bank.

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In his address, Netanyahu drew a comparison between Iranian nuclear sites, such as Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan, and Parchin, and Nazi-era extermination camps, like Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Sobibor, suggesting that the former could have become synonymous with horror if Israel had not taken action.

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Israel's annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, which honors the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War II, will be observed from Monday evening to Tuesday evening, with various memorials taking place throughout the country.

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This year's commemoration falls within a two-week ceasefire with Iran in a regional war that began on February 28 with joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran, although fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon continues.

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The observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, which is separate from International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, is held annually in April or May according to the Hebrew calendar.