Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium must be “taken out” before the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran can be considered over, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told an American broadcaster Sunday (May 10, 2026).

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“It’s not over, because there’s still nuclear material — enriched uranium — that has to be taken out of Iran. There are still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled,” Mr. Netanyahu said in an interview that aired Sunday (May 10, 2026) on the CBS News program “60 Minutes.”

“You go in and you take it out,” the Israeli leader said when asked how the uranium could be removed.

Mr. Netanyahu said U.S. President Donald Trump had a similar position.

“I’m not going to talk about military means, but the president, what President Trump has said to me — ‘I want to go in there.’”

However, Mr. Netanyahu’s statement was in contrast to Mr. Trump’s public position.

The 79-year-old Republican is under increasing domestic pressure to end the Iran war and he insists that Tehran’s nuclear program has been contained.

In an interview aired Sunday (May 10, 2026) but apparently recorded earlier, Mr. Trump said Iran was “militarily defeated” and he insisted the uranium could be removed “whenever we want.”

“We’ll get that at some point, whenever we want. We’ll have it surveilled,” he told independent television journalist Sharyl Attkisson.

“If anybody got near the place we will know about it and we’ll blow them up.”

Asked by CBS how the uranium stockpiles could be removed from Iran, Mr. Netanyahu said he would prefer an agreement.

“I think it can be done physically. That’s not the problem. If you have an agreement and you go in and you take it out, why not? That’s the best way.”

Pressed on whether there are military options to seize the hidden uranium, Mr. Netanyahu said he would not discuss such possibilities — or a timetable.

‘Wean ourselves’ off U.S. aid

Israel remains a dedicated American ally, but Mr. Netanyahu said he has told Mr. Trump that he wants U.S. tax dollars committed to Israel, currently at $3.8 billion annually, to drop to “zero” — and sooner rather than later.

“I think that it’s time that we wean ourselves from the remaining military support” from the Pentagon, he added. “Let’s start now, and do it over the next decade.”

In addition to the unresolved uranium stockpile issue, Mr. Netanyahu said there were several other war aims that had yet to be accomplished.

“There’s still proxies that Iran supports, their ballistic missiles that they still want to produce. Now, we’ve degraded a lot of it, but all that is still there and there’s work to be done.”

Mr. Netanyahu also acknowledged that he knew Beijing was assisting Iran.

“China gives a certain amount of support (to Iran), and particular components of missile manufacturing,” the Israeli leader noted. “But I can’t say more than that.”

He also spoke of optimism about how a toppled Iranian regime could mean “the end of Hezbollah,” as well as Hamas and the Houthis, “because the whole scaffolding of the terrorist proxy network that Iran built collapses if the regime in Iran collapses.”

But he stopped short of predicting such a downfall of Iran’s regime. “Is it possible? Yes. Is it guaranteed? No.”

Southern Israeli towns woke to widespread damage on Sunday after air defences failed to intercept two Iranian missiles ​overnight that injured scores of civilians in one of the worst attacks of the war so far ‌on Israeli soil.

As daylight broke, the scale of the damage in ​the desert town of Arad, where one of the strikes hit a ⁠multi-story apartment bloc, came into clearer view, with entire floors blown open by the blast.

Iran-Israel war updates on March 22, 2026

Uri Shacham, the chief of staff of Israel’s ambulance service, said at least eight buildings were damaged by the missile, ‌which left a crater not far from the apartment blocks.

Footage verified by Reuters showed flames engulfing the top floor of an apartment building ‌shortly after the strike. Search and rescue teams moved from floor to floor inside ‌the ⁠damaged buildings. Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said both strikes had been ⁠carried out with conventional ballistic missiles. He declined to comment when asked about the initial findings of a military investigation into the failure to intercept the missiles.

Netanyahu says miracle no one killed

Most Israelis receive alerts ​on their mobile phone when launches from ‌Iran are identified. An air raid siren sounds and they then have a few minutes to go to safe rooms or public bomb shelters. “It is a miracle that no-one was killed,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday (March 22, 2026), standing in ‌thecrater at the impact site in Arad.

Pointing at the blown out walls ​of the apartment bloc and then at the enforced undamaged wall leading to a shelter below ground, Netanyahu urged Israelis not to be ⁠complacent. No one would have been hurt, he said, had all sought shelter in time.

In Arad, 31 people, including 18 children, were hospitalised, at least 9 of them in serious ‌condition, according to the hospital. Dozens more were lightly injured. Israel said Iran was targeting civilian population areas. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they targeted military and security-related sites in retaliation for Israeli strikes against Iranian sites.

Arad and Dimona, another city that was hit, are located close to Israel’s secretive nuclear reactor and several military bases, including Nevatim Air Base, one of the country’s largest.

In Dimona, 5 people were hospitalised, including a 12-year-old boy in ‌serious condition, the hospital said.

Since joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, Israel has come under ​daily missile fire from Iran. At least 20 civilians have been killed in Israel and the Palestinian territories, including one Israeli killed in an ⁠attack by Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah on Sunday (March 22, 2026).

At least 15 people were hospitalised on Sunday (March 22, 2026) in ⁠fresh

Iranian attacks, according to emergency services, including a cluster munition that struck in Tel Aviv.

Israeli and U.S. strikes have killed at least 1,300 people in ‌Iran so far, according to the Iranian government. The U.S.-based rights group HRANA, which tracks human rights violations in Iran, has recorded 3,320 people killed, including 1,406 civilians ​and 1,167 military personnel, with the remainder not yet determined. Reuters could not independently verify the data.

Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or ​make ballistic missiles after 20 days of U.S.-Israeli air ‌attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ​a news conference on Thursday (March 19, 2026).

“We are ⁠winning, and Iran is being decimated,” Mr. Netanyahu said, noting that Iran’s missile and drone arsenal is being massively ‌degraded and will be destroyed.

Iran-Israel war updates on March 19, 2026

“What we’re destroying now are the factories ‌that produce the components to make these ‌missiles ⁠and to make the nuclear weapons that ⁠they’re trying to produce,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

Mr. Netanyahu did not provide evidence for his claim that Iran no longer had ​the capacity to enrich ‌uranium.

Iran’s nuclear programme was the focus of mediated talks that ultimately collapsed with the U.S. and Israel launching an air attack on ‌Iran on February 28. Iran has ​fired missiles back at Israel and other Gulf countries while also limiting tankers from ⁠using the Strait of Hormuz.

Despite the nearly three week war, it was still too ‌soon to tell whether Iranians will take to the streets to try to overthrow their government, Mr. Netanyahu said.

“It’s up to the Iranian people to show that, to choose the moment and to rise to the moment,” he ‌said.

While the war so far has been conducted ​via air attacks, Mr. Netanyahu said there has to be a ground component as ⁠well and “there are many possibilities for this ground ⁠component.” He did not elaborate.

Mr. Netanyahu also denied he dragged the United States into ‌the conflict.

“Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do?” he ​said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told lawmakers in Jerusalem on Wednesday that his country stood with Israel “firmly with full conviction” following Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023.

PM Modi in Israel: Follow LIVE updates on February 25. 2026

“I… carry with me the deepest condolences of the people of India for every life lost and for every family whose world was shattered in the barbaric terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7,” Modi said in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.

“We feel your pain, we share your grief. India stands with Israel firmly with full conviction in this moment and beyond,” he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked the President to grant him a pardon during his long-running corruption trial that’s bitterly divided the country.

In a statement on Sunday (November 30, 2025), the Prime Minister’s office said that Mr. Netanyahu had submitted a request for a pardon to the legal department of the Office of the President. The Office of the President called it an “extraordinary request,” carrying with it “significant implications.” Mr. Netanyahu is the only sitting Prime <inister in Israeli history to stand trial, after being charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases, accusing him of exchanging favours with wealthy political supporters. He has not yet been convicted of anything.

The request comes weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump urged Israel to pardon Mr. Netanyahu.

The Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal is facing a tough test as Hamas is yet to return the bodies of Israelis taken captive on October 7, 2023, as agreed in the deal. Teams from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross are working with the Israeli military and Hamas to locate the bodies in Gaza. The BBC reported that there are still 13 bodies in Gaza. Hamas is either unable to locate the bodies or is pretending not to know where they are, to prolong this phase. Once all the bodies are returned, Hamas would have to surrender arms in the following phase. And that is where the real test of the ceasefire lies.

Meanwhile, in the past week, Hamas killed an Israeli soldier in northern Gaza. In return, the Israeli army attacked Gaza, killing more than 100 people in a day. Qatar, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, defended Israel and accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire deal.

The pressure on Israel

Mr. Trump has deployed about 200 U.S. military personnel in Israel to support monitoring and coordination efforts. This is to show that he is serious about the ceasefire and to also demonstrate his distrust of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli army. American drones are monitoring Gaza. This kind of direct U.S. surveillance is unprecedented in the last two years of the war. The political and military pressure on Israel was visible last week when the top men of the Trump administration — Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Vice President J.D. Vance — were all in Jerusalem. “We (the American establishment) are calling the shots here” was the message, which created domestic troubles for Mr. Netanyahu. He had to appear not pressured by Mr. Trump and reassure Israelis that Israel remains a sovereign state and not a ‘client state’ of America. The hardliners in the Israeli government dislike Mr. Trump’s 20-Point Gaza Plan, but they could not reject it under threat of losing American support. Mr. Trump’s statement that “Israel will lose all the support from the U.S. if it annexes the West Bank” was another blow to the right-wing settler movement’s ambitions.

Less leverage on Hamas

Whether they like them or hate them, Israeli leaders, including Mr. Netanyahu, are not in a position to oppose Mr. Trump’s ideas about how to conclude the remaining war in Gaza. An International Stabilization Force for Gaza is being planned, which will further take over control from the Israeli army. Yet Mr. Trump will have far less leverage on Hamas to keep it bound to the ceasefire. Hamas has stood up to his threats since January 2025 and has not released the hostages without a major concession from Israel. Now that it has extracted political advantage, it will act more assertively and resist disarmament. Qatar and Turkey coerced Hamas into the deal because both wish to please Mr. Trump while seeking influence in Gaza’s reconstruction. How long Hamas will remain obliged to them is a critical question in the coming weeks.

A curious paradox

What is emerging, therefore, is a curious paradox: Mr. Trump seems in control of Israel, but far less so of Hamas. The Israeli government, though militarily superior, is politically cornered — forced to follow Washington’s script to retain its strategic cover. Hamas, though militarily weaker, is ideologically freer and less dependent. Mr. Trump’s style of muscular diplomacy, rooted in threats and transactionalism, may bring temporary calm, but it risks breeding long-term resentment in the region.

For Mr. Netanyahu, this moment is both humiliating and useful. It allows him to outsource the burden of peace to Mr. Trump while deflecting domestic anger over the war’s failures. Yet it also exposes how Israel’s sovereignty is tethered to American politics — a vulnerability that will deepen as U.S. elections draw nearer. In contrast, Hamas and its backers will exploit the optics of Israeli submission to foreign dictates.

Ultimately, Mr. Trump’s deal diplomacy may succeed in imposing a pause, but not peace. The asymmetry of power between Israel and Hamas cannot be resolved by American command alone. Stability in Gaza will demand something that Mr. Trump’s world view rarely accommodates — restraint, reconciliation, and regional ownership. And while Mr. Trump enjoys the image of a dealmaker, he might soon discover that in West Asia, even the best “deals” unravel once the cameras are gone.

Khinvraj Jangid, Professor and Director, Centre for Israel Studies, Jindal School of International Affairs, OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat