The Israel Defense Forces planned “Operation Roaring Lion” against Iran for mid-2026 but moved it up after consultations with the Trump administration, Defense Minister Israel Katz revealed on Wednesday.
“Developments and circumstances—especially what happened inside Iran, the position of the U.S. president and the possibility of creating a combined operation—created the need to move everything up,” Katz told troops during a visit to the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate.
“This was something we ourselves hoped for but were not certain about,” he said, praising the directorate for its intelligence-gathering ahead of the opening strike on the Islamic Republic.
“We are in the midst of a campaign, and we’re convinced it will end in the best possible way,” Katz said. “The results will significantly strengthen the security of the State of Israel, its standing, the removal of threats, and all challenges we’ve faced for a long time.”
Following “Operation Rising Lion” against Iran in June 2025, it was clear that Jerusalem had not fought its last war against the Islamic Republic, Katz told the Military Intelligence Directorate.
“Many intelligence and other capabilities had been exhausted, burned and used, and therefore the challenge was to rebuild the intelligence capability—not only rebuild it, but expand it tenfold,” he explained. “That is essentially what happened here, across all of Iran.”
Despite “strategic warnings,” Tehran was unprepared for the opening strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei due to the “breadth and depth” of Israel’s intelligence, and its capabilities “to exploit that intelligence to strike, attack, destroy and dismantle their capabilities,” he said.
“You have a tremendous share in building this capability, which also led to this entire integration and to the result of the fantastic opening strike and its continuation,” Katz told the IDF troops.
Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, told his soldiers, “We are on the right path, keeping to the schedule.”
The directorate provides “intelligence for decision-making, and above all, we are now providing intelligence for victory over the enemy—for victory over Iran, across all sectors, in all missions and regarding all capabilities that we have determined to degrade,” Binder added.
“The intelligence is reaching the missions we need to accomplish, and we hope to continue moving forward with full strength,” he declared.
Binder revealed on Monday night that the Israeli Air Force’s opening strike against the Islamic Republic on Saturday morning killed “more than 40 of the most important people in Iran” in only 40 seconds.
“We could tactically surprise them, beginning at an unexpected hour and catching our enemies mid-gatherings,” the IDF commander said.
“Anyone who chooses to engage in such actions against the State of Israel, against the residents of the State of Israel, against our future here, we will find them, and we will eliminate them,” Binder vowed.
Israeli and U.S. forces continued to jointly attack Iran on Thursday as the IDF announced in the morning that it had begun a “large-scale wave of strikes against infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime across Tehran.”
The IDF said on Wednesday that the IAF launched 5,000-plus munitions since the start of the operation, focusing heavily on the Tehran region.
