By Kostis Konstantinou • March 4, 2026
Jerusalem, 4 March, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Israel and the United States conducted months of joint planning for the current war with Iran following detailed military debriefings of the earlier operations Rising Lion and Midnight Hammer, a senior Israeli official said.
According to the official, both militaries conducted separate post-operation assessments to review what had worked and identify weaknesses.
The process coincided with a leadership transition at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), in which General Michael Kurilla stepped down, and Admiral Cooper assumed the role. The official said the new commander also conducted his own evaluation of the operations.
After completing the reviews, Israeli and American officials began joint planning for the possibility of another round of fighting, exchanging operational data and examining potential scenarios across the region.
The official said two developments had raised particular concern from Israel’s perspective. One was Iran’s effort to move parts of its nuclear program into very deep underground facilities that could become extremely difficult to strike. The second was a rapid increase in Iran’s ballistic missile production capacity, as the official described it.
According to the official, political leaders in Washington and Jerusalem instructed the militaries to begin coordinated operational planning. Specialized teams from both countries worked together on areas including air defense, ballistic missiles, space capabilities, munitions, and logistics.
The official said the result was the development of a joint war plan that assigns tasks according to the relative strengths of each military.
As part of that cooperation, the United States has provided extensive aerial refueling capabilities, the official said. Dozens of American tanker aircraft have been deployed to support Israeli operations, with some stationed at Israel’s main international airport, Ben Gurion.
Offensive operations have been divided both geographically and by mission type, according to the official. Israeli forces are primarily responsible for targeting ballistic-missile launch areas in western and central Iran, while U.S. forces focus on southern operational zones. In other cases the division is functional, with the Iranian navy, for example, being targeted mainly by U.S. forces.
The official said the American military presence in Israel currently includes hundreds of U.S. troops, dozens of fighter aircraft and aerial refueling tankers, air-defense systems such as THAAD and naval assets equipped with the Aegis system, along with extensive logistical support.
At the same time, Israeli officers are stationed at U.S. bases on the American East Coast in order to coordinate planning and operations, the official said.
Intelligence sharing between the two militaries is particularly close, according to the official, including shared target lists and coordination across all levels of command.
The official said there are roughly 4,000 to 5,000 coordination exchanges each day between Israeli and American military personnel.
“For the first time since Israel’s independence we are fighting shoulder to shoulder with another army — the superpower called America,” the official said.
He added that the operational cooperation is so extensive that many Israeli officers describe the campaign as “a war in English,” because much of the daily coordination between the two militaries takes place in English.
Addressing the role of Gulf states, the official said Israel and the United States had expected that American bases in the region could be targeted in an Iranian response. However, the official said they had not anticipated that Iran would also strike civilian targets in Gulf countries.
Israel is assisting some Gulf states, particularly those participating in the Abraham Accords framework, mainly in intelligence and defensive coordination, the official said.
Much of that cooperation takes place through CENTCOM’s regional architecture, which allows intelligence to be shared with multiple partners in the region, according to the official.
The official also said the war could last several weeks, noting that Iran still possesses thousands of short-range ballistic missiles that are being used primarily against targets in the Gulf.
From Israel’s perspective, the campaign is focused on Iran’s ballistic missile systems, drones, air-defense networks, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Basij militia, and the country’s military and nuclear industries, the official said.
The official added that Israeli strikes would continue until the regime’s military capabilities are dismantled.
“In a few days,” the official said, “I don’t think there will be a single building connected to the IRGC still standing in Tehran or any other place.”