Israel’s Channel 13 reported on Thursday that IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said during a recent private meeting that he doesn’t currently see an operational need to strike Iran before next week’s Knesset election. “We do not see any indications of a need to strike Iran before the election. If we determine that a strike on Iran is necessary, we will carry it out,” Zamir is quoted as having said, reported The Times of Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main rival in the upcoming Oct. 27 national elections, Yashar chief Gadi Eisenkot, offered a similar message publicly earlier Thursday, telling Channel 13, “There is no direct, immediate threat from Iran that necessitates a war prior to the election.”

Zamir’s statement, however, doesn’t guarantee that Netanyahu won’t make a different decision.

In Washington, President Trump claimed Thursday that the US has “knocked the hell out of them,” referring to Iran. “This should have been done a long time ago by other presidents, the Iran war, and we’ve knocked the hell out of them, and we may do it a little bit further,” Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for a campaign rally in Iowa.