‘An attack tonight’: Donald Trump predicts imminent attack on Israel as US scrambles to defuse tensions

Former US president Donald Trump has predicted that an attack on Israel is hours away, with US officials scrambling to stop it.

Former US president Donald Trump has predicted an imminent attack on Israel by Iran, as US government officials scramble to defuse the threat of an all-out war in the Middle East.

“I’m hearing there’s going to be an attack tonight by Iran on Israel. There’s going to be an attack tonight, I’m telling you right now,” Mr Trump said today, during an interview with the controversial internet streamer Adin Ross at Mar-a-Lago.

He stressed that his prediction was not based on confidential information.

“I hear it just through the same ways, there’s no top secret information or anything, but I hear that Israel is going to be attacked tonight,” he said.

The man interviewing him, Mr Ross, is the most popular streamer on a platform called Kick. He was banned from the larger, rival platform Twitch after using homophobic slurs, showing pornographic material and highlighting racist messages during his streams.

Mr Trump will receive intelligence briefings in the lead-up to November’s presidential election in his capacity as the Republican Party’s nominee.

Former president Donald Trump speaking to internet streamer Adin Ross at Mar-a-Lago.

Speaking earlier in the day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the world was facing a “critical moment”.

“We are engaged in intense diplomacy pretty much around the clock, with a very simple message: all parties must refrain from escalation. All parties must take steps to ease tensions,” Mr Blinken said.

“Escalation is not in anyone’s interests. It will only lead to more conflict, more violence, and more insecurity.”

He called for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza to help “break this cycle”.

“That will unlock opportunities for more enduring calm, not just in Gaza, but in other areas where the conflict could spread,” he said.

“It is urgent that all parties make the right choices in the hours and days ahead.”

Attack expected within ‘24-48 hours’

Behind closed doors, in a conference call with his counterparts from the G7 nations, Mr Blinken reportedly warned that Iran and Hezbollah were set to attack Israel within 24-48 hours. The expected attack would be in response to the Israeli military’s assassination of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.

“The sources said Blinken stressed that the US believes Iran and Hezbollah will both retaliate,” wrote Axios, which revealed Mr Blinken’s private remarks, citing three unnamed sources with knowledge of them.

These sources said the US “doesn’t know the exact timing of the attacks”, nor does it know the exact form they will take.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Picture: Ting Shen/AFP

The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran last Wednesday, hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shuk, the military leader of Hezbollah.

Late on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was “determined to stand against” Iran and its allied groups “on all fronts”.

Iran’s government, in turn, said “no one has the right to doubt Iran’s legal right to punish the Zionist regime”.

US President Joe Biden, whose country has sent extra warships and fighter jets to the region in support of Israel, held crisis talks on Monday with his national security team.

The head of the US military command covering the Middle East, General Michael Kurilla, arrived in Israel and met its military chief, Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, for a security assessment, an Israeli military statement said.

Meanwhile, multiple American military personnel were injured in a suspected rocket attack on a base in Iraq.

“There was a suspected rocket attack today against US and coalition forces at Al-Asad Airbase, Iraq,” said a Pentagon spokesoman.

“Initial indications are that several US personnel were injured.”

‘Playing with fire’

A European diplomat in Tel Aviv said “a co-ordinated response” from Iran and its proxies was expected, but added that de-escalation efforts would persist.

“We’re telling them they have to stop playing with fire, because the risk of flare-ups is higher than at any time since October 7,” he said, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak on the issue.

The Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is set to meet on Wednesday at the request of “Palestine and Iran” to discuss developments in the region, an OIC official said.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said his country is “preparing for any scenario both offensively and defensively”.

In the northern port city of Haifa, shop owner Yehuda Levi, 45, told AFP that Israelis are used to conflict, but facing a multi-pronged attack “is a little tricky”.

“It’s difficult, but we believe we’re a strong country. We’re going to win this war.”

Turkey on Monday joined multiple nations calling on their citizens to leave Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based.

Numerous airlines have suspended flights to the country or limited them to daylight hours.

Germany’s Lufthansa, which has already suspended flights to the region including Tel Aviv, said its planes would avoid Iraqi and Iranian airspace until at least Wednesday.

Royal Jordanian Airlines said it would be operating three flights this week to transport nationals out of Beirut.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Picture: Naama Grynbaum/AFP

‘Act urgently’

The United Nations’ rights chief Volker Turk called on “all parties, along with those states with influence, to act urgently to de-escalate what has become a very precarious situation”.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein, in a joint statement, “agreed to make every effort to avoid a regional escalation”. Italy currently holds the rotating presidency of the G7.

French President Emmanuel Macron also appealed for “restraint” in the Middle East, during conversations with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the Palestinian group’s October 7 attack on Israel, has already drawn in Iran-backed militants in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

In Tel Aviv on Monday thousands of Israelis gathered to mark the fifth birthday of child hostage Ariel Bibas, and to call for the liberation of him and his family.

Mr Netanyahu repeatedly promises to bring the hostages home but is facing a growing chorus of sceptics who worry he’s not interested in a ceasefire and hostage-release deal with Hamas, which US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators have for months been trying to reach.

“The hostages have no time and it seems like some people in Israel, including the Prime Minister, are taking their time,” said Gil Dickman, whose cousin Carmel Gat is among the captives.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,623 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.

– with AFP