Khaberni - The Israeli Minister of War for the Occupation, Israel Katz, stated on Wednesday that his country decided to move up its attack on Iran to February, originally scheduled for mid-2026, due to the development of circumstances and intelligence capabilities.
Katz explained during a visit to the Israeli army's intelligence directorate that the operation was originally planned for mid-year, adding: "But the need to move everything up to February emerged," referring to developments and circumstances, including the anti-government protests that erupted in Iran last December and January.
Katz told intelligence officers: "You have made tremendous progress in intelligence day by day and hour by hour," confirming that Israeli intelligence aided coordination with the United States to carry out the opening strike and its aftermath, as reported by "The Times of Israel".
Earlier on Wednesday, the "Axios" website revealed the behind-the-scenes decision-making by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the war against Iran.
On the Monday prior to the start of the war, Netanyahu informed President Trump of extremely critical information, notably that Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his top advisors were about to meet at one location in Tehran on Saturday morning, and could all be killed in a single devastating airstrike.
Trump was already leaning towards striking Iran before learning of the new intelligence about Khamenei's meeting, but Netanyahu's call expedited his decision.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Kein, stated on Monday that Trump gave the green light for the mission against Tehran precisely at 3:38 PM on Friday.
On Tuesday, a report by "CNN" partially based on information published by the "Financial Times", revealed that Israel relied on an advanced intelligence system based on artificial intelligence and big data analysis to locate the Iranian leader Ali Khamenei before he was killed in the last US-Israeli strike.
The report stated that traffic cameras spread throughout the streets of the capital Tehran provided a live view of the movements of potential targets, after Israel had managed to hack them years ago, allowing it to map the city precisely and track the daily movement patterns of top Iranian officials.
