The meeting, attended by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, Mossad head David Barnea and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, was held amid preparations for anticipated attacks on Israel by Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
The assessment that Iran is likely to attack Israel in the coming days or weeks follows last week’s back-to-back assassinations of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Iran has blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s death and has vowed to retaliate.
Israel is not certain what to expect from Iran and its proxies, reports have indicated, and so is discussing a wide range of options as to how it can best respond to, or prevent, an anticipated assault.
During the meeting with Netanyahu, the option of striking Iran as a deterrence measure was discussed, Ynet reported, although security officials stressed that such a move would only be authorized if Israel received definite intelligence confirming that Tehran was about to launch an attack of its own. READ MORE
Jerusalem would require its own intelligence on the issue to match up with US intelligence on the matter, the report said, and even if it did match, it may still choose to avoid going down the route of a preemptive strike.
