Dramatic details are now being revealed behind the scenes of the preparations for Israel’s war against Iran, with Ynet reporting that only a few months ago, Israel’s preparations for a conflict with Iran were partial—and in fact almost nonexistent.

Sources in the IDF said that until February, “the target bank was almost empty,” and the assumption in the defense establishment was that the operation would be carried out mainly in covert missions and not through a large-scale military campaign.

Serious preparations began in October—amid the war with Hezbollah. The IDF then decided to launch operational preparations for a campaign against Iran. The battle procedure began to unfold, but then it became clear that the military intelligence lacked a concrete target bank—even at the tactical level. “We found an empty cup,” one of the officers said.

In November, hundreds of officers convened at a closed strategic conference, while the war with Hezbollah was still raging, in an attempt to understand Iran’s centers of gravity [COG]—where to strike to achieve strategic gains. The conclusion that was reached: air superiority is the key; that is, Iran’s air defense systems must first be destroyed in order for the IDF to achieve freedom of action in the skies above Iran.

The IDF established a dedicated joint team of military intelligence and Air Force personnel—120–130 officers—to try to crack the air superiority challenge. However, until January, no sufficient progress was made. “We started to get stressed. We were on a path to failure,” a senior military intelligence officer official said.

The breakthrough came in February–March: with a dedicated intelligence protocol for each air defense system. At the same time, a real target bank was formulated for the first time: separate teams dealt with each area—missiles, command and control, nuclear, and economic. The progress was “daily—every day was better than the previous one,” IDF officials said.

The operation itself was launched the moment several elements converged: the Iranian nuclear program reached a peak, Iran recovered from the damage to its missile production capabilities in November, and Tehran’s plans to attack Israel via its proxies matured. At that point, the decision to launch a war against Iran was made.

According to a New York Times report, Israel began planning for the war in December after Hezbollah was subdued and the Assad regime in Syria fell, opening up an air corridor.

The report added that during Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House in February, he delivered a presentation on Iran’s nuclear program to US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)