Bid by Iran to harm senior Israeli officials prompted Netanyahu’s secretive DC departure – reports

Stepped up effort by Tehran to score ‘strategic psychological achievement’ reportedly leads to beefed up Shin Bet security, explains why Netanyahu left for US under the radar, after convening cabinet in underground facility

Iran has stepped up attempts to physically harm current and former senior Israeli officials, including a group of top incumbent ministers, according to an assessment that the security establishment delivered to the threatened figures in recent days, unsourced Hebrew media reports said Tuesday.

While Iran has long tried to harm Israeli officials, Israel’s security establishment has recently identified increasing efforts to “quickly” score a “strategic psychological achievement” against Israel in the form of an attack on high-ranking individuals, Channel 12 reported.

The Shin Bet has beefed up security for several senior Israeli officials, and former senior officials are also being targeted, a similar Ynet report said.

The threat was reportedly why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the advice of security officials, took off for the US on Monday from the Nevatim Air Force base in the south — rather than the Tel Aviv-area Ben Gurion Airport — and without making his time of departure public.

Netanyahu also convened the cabinet for its weekly meeting on Sunday in a secure underground facility, rather than the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. A PMO official had attributed the move to unspecified security concerns.

On Thursday, Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency said that together with foreign counterparts, it foiled an Iranian intelligence network that recruited operatives through criminal organizations to infiltrate Israel and harm senior officials.

Netanyahu met with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, after the US on Saturday concluded 13 straight nights of airstrikes against Iran, the largest reigniting of the regional war since an April ceasefire.

Trump was said to be waiting until after the meeting with Netanyahu to decide whether to revive an interim agreement with Iran last month.

Israel is not a party to the agreement or the ensuing peace talks, and Israeli officials have criticized the agreement for failing to secure concrete concessions from Iran on its nuclear program.

The US and Israel jointly launched a bombing campaign on Iran on February 28 in a bid to destabilize its regime and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.