Israeli Defense Minister Tells Washington Iran Preparing Large-Scale Attack

According to the publication, the top military officials held a phone conversation on Sunday.

Earlier, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said, citing two unnamed sources, that Israeli intelligence believed that Iran had decided to attack Israel directly in response to the death of the political leader of Palestinian movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, and might do so before the hostage deal talks on August 15.

Earlier, Mohammad Najafi, the prefect of the city of Qasreshirin in the western Iranian province of Kermanshah on border with Iraq, said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, elite units of the Iranian Armed Forces) was conducting military exercises in the city.

These exercises are taking place against the backdrop of escalating tensions in the region following the assassination of Haniyeh on July 31 in Tehran as a result of an Israeli strike. The movement blamed Israel and the United States for Haniyeh’s death and said the attack would not go unanswered. Israeli officials said they would not comment on Haniyeh’s murder. The United States was not involved in the death of the Hamas politburo chief, US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said later.

On the evening of July 31, the New York Times claimed, citing sources, hat Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had ordered a direct strike on Israel in response to Haniyeh’s murder in Tehran. Iranian Ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani later said at a UN Security Council meeting that Tehran, in accordance with international law, reserved the right to self-defense in order to respond to Haniyeh’s murder when it deemed it necessary.