Israel, which carried out a series of airstrikes against Iran on Monday, targeting the headquarters and symbols of the regime, is seeking to end the war with the Islamic Republic soon.

Army Radio reported on Monday morning that Israeli leaders fear that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will drag Israel into a prolonged war of attrition, during which Iran will fire ballistic missiles at Israel for months, like the Houthis did from Yemen.

According to the report, Israel wants to end the war as quickly as possible—within a few days.

However, Israeli sources say that even if Iran drags Israel into a war of attrition, the IDF’s bank of targets in Iran is enormous, including ballistic missile targets, air defense launchers, regime targets, targeted assassinations, nuclear laboratories, commanders, and headquarters.

Senior security officials told Army Radio, “We will increase our attacks on Iran in the coming days—with the goal of pushing Khamenei into a corner. We aim to complete our objectives and then bring about a tacit agreement of ‘silence will be answered with silence,’ with each side halting its attacks. This is what we want to happen but Khamenei will likely want otherwise. He has lost his life’s work, and it is far from certain that he will act rationally.”

Security officials added that they estimate that Hezbollah has not yet received a clear order from Khamenei to join the campaign: “When they receive the order, we’ll have to see how they choose to act.”

The report added that the IDF is on heightened alert for possible attacks by the Shiite militias in Iraq against Israel or US bases in the region.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)