With the growing potential for talks between the United States and Iran, the Israeli military is striking as many key targets as it can, concerned the war could soon be brought to a halt, two senior Israeli officials and two people briefed on the matter said.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered that every effort be made over the next 48 hours to destroy as much as possible of the Iranian arms industry, according to the two officials.
The order came after Mr. Netanyahu’s government obtained a copy of a U.S.-drafted, 15-point plan to end the war, which had been sent to Iran, the officials said, one of whom was present at meetings at which it was discussed.
The haste — and Thursday’s deadline — reflected a concern in the Israeli government that President Trump could announce peace talks at any moment, the officials and the two people briefed on the matter said. All spoke on the condition anonymity to discuss sensitive matters of national security.
The Trump administration has not confirmed or denied the existence of a plan, or whether such a plan has been passed to Iran.
Israel is acutely concerned about the possibility of a deal when it has yet to fulfill its key war aims. Those aims are eliminating Iran’s ballistic-missile threat, ensuring Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon and creating the conditions under which the Iranian people could rise up against their government.
“If you do not obtain the three objectives, you will not be able to end the war,” Boaz Bismuth, a member of Mr. Netanyahu’s party and chairman of the foreign affairs and defense committee in Parliament, said in an interview.
Though the U.S. plan was highly general in its terms, with much still to be determined, it was detailed enough to alarm Mr. Netanyahu, his staff and Israel’s defense chiefs, the officials said. The Israeli government believed the plan did not ensure that Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic-missile capabilities would be sufficiently curbed.
Mr. Netanyahu gave the order to accelerate airstrikes in Iran at a tense meeting on Tuesday, deep underground in the bowels of Israel’s Tel Aviv military headquarters. It followed briefings by top commanders, including the heads of the air force and of military intelligence, on what targets could still be struck, the two officials said.
David M. Halbfinger is The Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief, leading coverage of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. He also held that post from 2017 to 2021. He was the politics editor from 2021 to 2025.
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