Israeli officials increasingly believe it will be Hezbollah, rather than Iran, that will be first to launch a major attack on Israel in the coming days, according to media reports on Wednesday, while Tehran was reported to be possibly reconsidering its threatened large-scale onslaught.
Citing two sources familiar with intelligence on the matter, CNN reported that Hezbollah appears increasingly set to act against Israel “independent” of an expected Iranian response to the recent killings of the Lebanese terror group’s top military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
One of the sources said Hezbollah was moving at a faster clip than Iran in readying an attack, which it looks set to launch in the coming days.
According to the US news network, multiple officials said Iran seems to still be hashing out its retaliation plans, with one US military official quoted as saying Tehran has already made some — but not all — of the expected preparations for a large-scale attack against Israel.
The second source said that unlike Iran, Hezbollah can likely initiate an attack with few to no warning signs, as Lebanon borders Israel.
The source added that it’s unclear how or if the Islamic Republic and its Lebanese proxy are cooperating on a potential attack, and that some officials believe they may not be on the same page about how to proceed.
The report said that Israel was readying for potential attempts to attack civilian infrastructure or Israeli-linked targets abroad, though there is currently no intelligence suggesting plots against specific locations overseas.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant took part in Home Front Command deliberations on Wednesday about when to issue an advance warning to Israeli citizens and update its public guidance, but did not reach a decision on a specific time due to concerns about exposing intelligence sources.
Defense sources have said that citizens will be looped in once Israel figures out an attack is underway.
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