Israel is helping the United States manage the crisis around the Strait of Hormuz through intelligence, a senior Israeli security official told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Monday, without addressing the issue of an Israeli involvement in any possible ground operations in Iran.
The official said the Israeli army had been tasked with creating conditions that could enable the fall of the regime and that Israel was “very close” to achieving the objectives it had set for itself in Iran, with assessments of the campaign’s gains being updated constantly.
“Israel is helping the United States manage the crisis around the Strait of Hormuz, primarily through intelligence,” the senior security official said.
He noted that the Israeli strikes on Iranian steel plants earlier this week had caused damage worth billions of dollars and had become a major preoccupation for Tehran.
The remarks came after Israeli sources affirmed that Tel Aviv supports a ground military operation in Iran, but that its troops are not expected to join.
Last Sunday, US Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper was in Israel and met with Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and other top Israeli generals. According to Channel 12, they discussed US-Israeli coordination in the war on Iran, as well as efforts to stop Iranian weapons production.
Israel wants to continue the war and is pushing for a ground operation in Iran. However, it fears surprises from US President Donald Trump, who could still declare a temporary ceasefire.
On Monday, Yedioth Ahronoth said the assessment in Israel is that a ground operation could create a chance to break Iranian resistance or force a surrender.
Meanwhile, it wrote, preparations are underway in Pakistan for possible US-Iran negotiations, and there is also growing attention to the possibility that Washington could announce a ceasefire as early as this week to allow talks to proceed.
The newspaper said that although Trump has warned Tehran to reopen the strategic waterway or face broader US attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure, his comments are contradictory with reports saying US is on advanced talks with Iran.
Control Iran’s Oil
Last Sunday, Trump said he could “take the oil in Iran” and seize Iran’s export hub of Kharg Island.
In an interview with the Financial Times, the US President said his “preference would be to take the oil,” comparing it with the US military operation in Venezuela earlier this year.
An Israeli source cited by Channel 12 last week said that ending the war without removing Iran's enriched uranium stockpile is considered akin to “leaving smoldering embers” and a failure to address the core threat.
The source added that Israel is not willing to end the war now before reaching an absolute victory after eliminating Iran's missile and nuclear capabilities.
Researcher Udi Dekel of the Institute for National Security Studies wrote on Monday that since October 7, Israel has been trapped in a conception of “absolute security” that drives it toward continuous war.
“If security is defined as the complete removal of every threat already in its earliest stages of emergence, and even more so when it is clear and tangible—rather than its reduction or the construction of a stabilizing political framework—then almost any other outcome of conflict will be perceived as insufficient, any arrangement as surrender, and any achievement as partial and therefore a failure,” he said.
Dekel considered that Israel faces two traps: a ceasefire without an effective settlement mechanism linked to a war-termination mechanism regarding the nuclear issue and ballistic missiles, which would leave it needing a continuous follow-up campaign and repeated rounds of strikes, and a “war of attrition” with no exit point.
Mechanism for Cooperation with Washington
According to Dekel, in order to leverage the military success against Iran into a strategic achievement—blocking Iran’s path to rebuilding its nuclear and missile capabilities, and ensuring regional stability—a mechanism for cooperation with the United States and moderate Arab states is required.
Its purpose would be to advance four overlapping interests: weakening the regional radical camp and significantly reducing the Iranian threat; maintaining the US military presence in the region; expanding security cooperation with the United States and regional states; and promoting regional stability while preserving freedom of navigation, which is vital for economic development and strengthening the moderate camp.
The researcher offered possible scenarios for ending the war, including a termination mechanism based on understandings between the United States and the surviving regime in Iran in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ensuring freedom of navigation, alongside continued negotiations on arrangements concerning the nuclear issue and missiles.
A dangerous scenario, he said, would be a prolonged attrition of Iran and internal destabilization that lead to broader regional chaos.
Dekel said the end of the war will not mean the end of the conflict. In conclusion, he wrote, Israel may find itself in a situation of operational victory against Iran alongside strategic failure.
Doubling Interceptor Missile Production
On Monday, Haaretz wrote that Israel's arms industry has ramped up production of interceptor missiles and other munitions in response to the country's continued wars on Iran and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
According to the report, Israel brought in massive stockpiles of munitions since last June. Its initial operational planning assumed the active, heavy-fire phase would last only about three weeks.
But as the war intensifies, Haaretz’ military correspondent Amos Harel, wrote that the Israeli defense industry has recently tripled the pace at which it produces interceptor missiles and other aerial munitions, in an attempt to respond to the army's needs during the war.
Production is expected to increase to four times the usual rate and continue through the Jewish holiday of Pesach, he said.
Meanwhile, US military cargo planes continue to deliver munitions to Israel as over 200 aircraft and ships have arrived in Israel carrying approximately 8,000 tons of military equipment, weaponry, and munitions since the start of the war.
