A report Sunday aired extensive quotes from Israeli leaders and top officials from before and throughout the 12-day war with Iran, shedding light on the motives for the extraordinary June 13 overnight strikes that started it, the hope that the United States would step in to destroy the underground Fordo facility, the attempts to find an opportunity to assassinate Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and destabilize Tehran’s regime, and efforts to cause Tehran’s residents to flee.

Channel 13 news published the details as part of a report set to air in full on Tuesday evening and to be accompanied by an interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, some excerpts from which were published by the network on Sunday.

It did not detail how it obtained transcripts from the top-secret closed-door meetings.

On June 12, the security cabinet convened for a secret meeting at a bunker in the Jerusalem Hills area.

Netanyahu said at the meeting’s outset: “We are at a historic moment with a crucial decision. If we don’t stop [them], within a few years, they will get tens of thousands of kilograms of [nuclear] explosives. Iran has already enriched fissile material at a level that is enough for eight to nine bombs, and they are working on the weaponization. If we don’t act, we simply won’t be here. We will deal a big blow to the command and control, hit senior scientists and other components. May God help us.

“They are getting close to being the second-biggest powerhouse on ballistic missiles. After we destroy some of their sites and scientists, negotiations for a deal will be held in a different reality. We have held marathon discussions over many months,” Netanyahu said.

An unnamed senior military official told the ministers that one of the goals of the operation was to create the conditions for preventing Tehran from going nuclear in the long term, and to “improve Israel’s strategic balance.”

The official said the goals also included “destroying” Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, hitting individuals in charge of the nuclear program, and hitting sites for converting the enriched uranium into the bomb’s metal core.

“In Tehran, we will strike many targets of various types, because it is an Iranian focal point,” the official told the meeting.

He added that “Fordo will be destroyed only if the US attacks it.”

The Fordo nuclear site was buried deep under a mountain, with only the US possessing the massive bunker buster bombs that could penetrate the fortified site.

He also warned that “the basic assumption is that at the end of the operation, Iran will still possess enriched material. In the first few days, they will be able to launch hundreds of rockets toward Israel.”

The official warned of unprecedented ramifications for the Israeli home front, estimating that at least several dozen Israeli........

© The Times of Israel