It has been claimed that there is a split among members of the Israeli war cabinet over how and when to respond to the Iranian attack.
Information about the meeting of the Israeli war cabinet at the Defence Ministry building in Tel Aviv, where the response to Iran was discussed, has begun to leak to the press.
In talks that lasted more than three hours on Sunday afternoon, Israel’s five-member war cabinet failed to reach a decision on how to respond to Iran’s massive rocket and drone attack on Saturday night.
Israeli officials told Reuters that the war cabinet was in favour of retaliating against Iran, but was divided over the timing and scale of such a response.
The Israel Hayom newspaper quoted an Israeli official as saying that “there will be a response”, while NBC, citing an official source in the Prime Minister’s Office, reported that the response had not yet been decided and that the IDF had been asked to present its options.
Channel 12 reported that the meeting agreed on the need to respond to Iran, but disagreed on how and when to do so, without ignoring pressure from the United States and the international community.
It was learned that War Cabinet members Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot proposed an immediate response to the Iranian attack on 13 April, which was strongly opposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief Herzi Halevi, due to the difficulty of taking simultaneous action at a time when Iran is focused on intercepting incoming missiles and drones.
The war cabinet was divided into two factions, those who believed that retaliation should be “short, swift and an eye for an eye” and those who believed it should be “wait, plan well and respond strongly”.
The claim that ‘it was called off at the last moment’
The news on Israeli state television KAN claimed that after the phone call between Netanyahu and Biden, the Israeli government “gave up at the last minute on responding to Iran’s attacks”. It was reported that the war cabinet and the council of ministers had initially approved the immediate response to Iran by a simple majority, but this decision was changed after the meeting with the US president.
US President Joe Biden reportedly warned Netanyahu to “think carefully” before responding to Iran’s attacks.
‘The US will not participate in retaliation’
A senior US official briefed reporters on Biden’s call to Netanyahu.
According to AA, the official said Biden told Netanyahu that “the risk of escalation should be carefully considered and the issue should be approached strategically”. Israel has made it clear to the United States that it does not intend to escalate tensions with Iran, the official said, adding that when asked about the possibility of the United States supporting a possible Israeli retaliatory strike, the official said “they have no plans to do so”.
The White House also announced that the US administration would not support a possible Israeli counterstrike.
In a separate report, Channel 12, citing no sources, claimed that the US did not oppose an Israeli response, but told Israel that it should be informed and coordinated about such a response in advance.
‘Rafah attack postponed’ claim
On the other hand, it was claimed that Netanyahu had postponed the ground assault on Rafah, where displaced Palestinians in Gaza are sheltering.
A news report on Israeli state television KAN claimed that Netanyahu, who said last week that “the date is clear” for the ground assault on Rafah, had “postponed” it. The news report gave no information as to why or until when Netanyahu had postponed the ground assault on Rafah.
