Netanyahu asked Trump to delay Iran strike after Israel caught off guard: report

The pace of those movements added to Israeli concerns about timing and preparedness.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked President Donald Trump last week to delay a potential US strike on Iran after Israel was surprised by the speed at which Washington appeared to move from caution to readiness for military action, according to foreign reports.

The request came after a rapid shift in US posture, with reports indicating that as late as Tuesday, there was still uncertainty within Israel over whether Trump would authorize an attack.

Israeli officials, according to these reports, did not expect the US president to consider military action as early as Wednesday without additional coordination.

The shift followed an evolving series of public statements by Trump about possible American military, cyber, or covert options against the Islamic Republic, as well as a phone call between Trump and Netanyahu.

Despite those signals, Israeli officials were reportedly unprepared for how quickly Washington’s position appeared to harden.

At the same time, US naval and air assets were moved into the region, mirroring deployments seen during three previous rounds of confrontation between Israel and Iran in 2024 and 2025, according to the reports.

The pace of those movements added to Israeli concerns about timing and preparedness.

Israeli leaders were also closely tracking developments inside Iran. Officials assessed that the Iranian regime had killed between 2,000 and 3,000 of its own citizens, largely over January 8 and 9 — a sharp increase from earlier estimates of 400-500 fatalities.

During those same days, around one million protesters were believed to have taken to the streets — a dramatic escalation from earlier demonstrations that typically numbered fewer than 100,000 participants.

Despite the scale of the violence and protests during that period, neither Israel nor the US took action at the time. It was a delay that reportedly allowed Tehran to regain momentum in its effort to maintain control.

Questions within Israel reportedly extended beyond the timing of a US strike. Officials weighed Israel’s air defense readiness and the extent of American support in the event of retaliation, and questioned whether a US attack would meaningfully weaken the regime or prove ineffective if poorly timed or insufficiently planned.

Foreign reports said Netanyahu’s request to slow the process reflected more than routine consultation. Israeli officials were described as having been caught off guard by the volatility of events, including the sudden surge in protest numbers after nearly two weeks of relatively limited demonstrations.

While Israeli intelligence had long tracked Iran’s economic and water crises under renewed global nuclear sanctions imposed in late August, the pace and scale of recent developments were not fully anticipated, according to the reports.