In the immediate days after the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, Israeli intelligence officials feared a preemptive strike was imminent from another longtime enemy, Hezbollah. They frantically prepared to stop it with plans to strike and kill Hassan Nasrallah, the powerful Hezbollah leader who the Israelis knew would be in a bunker in Beirut.
But when Israel informed the White House of its plans, alarmed administration officials discounted the imminent Hezbollah strike. President Joe Biden called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told him that killing Nasrallah would set off a regional war and asked him to hold his fire, current and former senior American and Israeli officials said.
On Saturday, Israel announced that it had killed Nasrallah after warplanes dropped more than 80 bombs on four apartment buildings in Lebanon, where the Hezbollah leader of more than three decades had gone to meet his top lieutenants. Biden was not informed ahead of time, aggravating the White House.
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