The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) jets were already airborne and ready to carry out a major pre-emptive strike in Lebanon against Hezbollah before the US managed to convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stand down at the last minute, said reports.
The incident occurred four days after Hamas's October 7 cross-border attack on Israel, reported The Wall Street Journal.
On October 11, Israeli officials contacted the US officials to inform them that they had intel that Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah was planning a cross-border attack, similar to the one carried out by Hamas on October 7. Israel asked the US for assistance after realising it could not pull off such a major strike against Hezbollah on its own.
However, Biden's top aides gathered for a meeting which concluded that the US intelligence didn’t match up with what Israel was warning of, the WSJ report added. Biden then dialled Netanyahu, a conversation that lasted over 45 minutes, to relay Washington’s scepticism over the Israeli intelligence, thereby convincing Israel not to move forward with the strike.
The US convinced Israel that a two-front war was still avoidable, but an IDF attack of this sort would make it inevitable. Netanyahu then informed Biden that he would discuss the matter with his aides. The US also had information from Iran through mediators that Tehran was not interested in further regional escalation.
The IDF had by then ordered its troops on the northern border to prepare for a multi-pronged Hezbollah assault, with terrorists paragliding and driving through the northern border. The alert was sent out to Israelis to immediately enter bomb shelters.
The report added that it was Defence Minister Yoav Gallant who was pushing hard for the preemptive strike. He had the support of the IDF, The Times of Israel quoted the Walla news site. Netanyahu opposed the idea but didn’t want to be a minority voice against a strike.
However, two former IDF chiefs of staff - Gadi Eisenkot and Benny Gantz - supported Netanyahu's belief that a preemptive strike was a bad idea. The war cabinet decided later in the day to call off the attack.
However, Netanyahu's office late Saturday denied the WSJ report, asserting that Netanyahu decided after October 7 that Israel’s priority would be to focus on the southern front and that this position was adopted by the war cabinet.
The Defense Ministry, CIA, and US State Department declined to comment on the report.
