Nir Barkat, Israel’s Minister of Economy, warned Israel’s enemies — namely Iran — that they will pay dearly if they decide to join Hamas’ war against Israel.

Barkat’s remarks come as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have pounded northern Gaza with precision airstrikes targeting terrorist infrastructure — after warning civilians repeatedly to evacuate the areas — after Palestinian terrorists with Hamas murdered more than 1,400 Israelis two weeks ago.

Fear has risen that as Israel prepares to enter Gaza for its ground offensive against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad that Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group based in Lebanon, could enter the war by attacking Israel from the north.

Speaking with The Mail on Sunday, Barkat, who said last week that Israel’s military has been given the “green light” to launch the offensive, warned Iran that Israel will strike back if Hezbollah enters the war. He said that not only will Israel “eliminate Hezbollah”, Israel will “actually target Iran” and will “wipe them out.”

“The plan of Iran is to attack Israel on all fronts. If we find they intend to target Israel, we will not just retaliate to those fronts, but we will go to the head of the snake, which is Iran,” he said. “The Ayatollahs in Iran are not going to sleep good at night, we are going to make sure they pay a heavy price if, God forbid, they open the northern front.”

He said that Hezbollah and Lebanon will pay “a heavy price” if they dare join the war, “similar to what Hamas is going to pay,” but warned “that’s not enough.”

“The very clear message is that we are going to be going after the heads of Iran as well. When will we do that? When we decide,” he added. “Israel has a very clear message to our enemies. We are saying to them, look what’s happening in Gaza – you are going to get the same treatment if you attack us. We are going to wipe you off the face of the Earth.'”

A new poll released late last week found that the majority of Muslim Americans believes that Hamas was “justified” in committing terrorist attacks against Israel.

The poll from Cygnal surveyed over 2,000 people from October 16-18 to gauge the public’s overall awareness and attitudes about what was happening in Israel.

A majority overall, 50.6%, have a positive opinion of Israel compared to only 12% who have a negative opinion while 37% were neutral. The two groups that had the highest negative views of Israel were Muslim Americans at 36.5% and Democrats at 15.7%. The groups that had the largest positive views of Israel were Jewish Americans at 85.1% (vs less than 5% negative) and Republicans at 64.9% (vs less than 9% negative).

The results showed that Muslim Americans were far less educated about numerous aspects of the atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists than Jewish Americans. For example, only 10.8% of Jewish Americans were “not aware” of the fact that Hamas had decapitated babies compared to 34.1% of Muslim Americans who were “not aware.”

Overall, the overwhelming majority of Americans strongly — about 84% — said that Israel had the right to defend themselves against Hamas terror attacks. About 75% of Americans said that Hamas was not justified in attacking Israel.

The survey found that Hamas is viewed by the majority of Americans as the same as Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and ISIS. Muslim Americans mostly agreed but “they slightly over-index for saying Hamas is not as bad as each of the other three terrorist organizations,” the report said.

One concerning finding was that the majority of Muslim Americans, 57.5%, said that they agreed that “Hamas was justified in attacking Israel as part of their struggle for a Palestinian State.”

More than 1,400 Israelis were murdered during the attacks, entire families were wiped out, dozens of babies were decapitated or burned so badly they could not be identified, and women were raped so violently that examiners found that many of their pelvises had been broken.

Despite these atrocities, a plurality of Muslim Americans still had a positive view of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, 38.6% viewed him positively vs. only 34.5% viewed him negatively.

New Cygnal poll has some terrifying results.

Hamas just massacred 1400+ people, including 31+ Americans, in the most brutal way possible. They burned people alive.

9.5% of Americans, including 38.6% of American Muslims, still have a favorable view of their leader. pic.twitter.com/M3wkn4hQot

— AG (@AGHamilton29) October 22, 2023