Israel prepared a multi-day bombing campaign against Iran that was scheduled for the weekend of October 10, but the operation was called off after US President Donald Trump opposed it, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing three people familiar with the plans. That is the FT's account, reported as such here — and, as set out below, the Jerusalem Post says its sources dispute the premise.

According to the FT report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the military to prepare strikes on Iranian regime, military, nuclear and energy targets, including power plants and other civilian infrastructure that had not been hit in the February campaign. The planned operation was described to the FT as larger than that earlier US-Israeli offensive. Netanyahu had pressed Trump to support renewed action, in part over Israeli concerns about Iran's nuclear activity, the report said.

Trump strongly opposed launching a new campaign before the US midterm elections on November 3, the FT said. On October 8, days before the operation was reportedly due to begin, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the United States would not attack Iran before the midterms, said Washington was having "productive discussions" with Tehran, and insisted Iran would not have a nuclear weapon. One source told the FT that further strikes in the coming weeks remained a realistic possibility, adding: "Either there will be a deal or there will be an attack."

The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday that it had learned the opposite: the IDF was not planning to strike Iran on October 10. Post sources said the military had been on a war footing a few times in recent months — including around October 7, amid concern Tehran might choose that anniversary to start a new conflict — but that neither Netanyahu nor Defence Minister Israel Katz had given the IDF an order to prepare an attack of the kind described. "Trump could not block an attack that was not planned," the Post's sources said, speculating that a leak of such a story could be intended to affect Israel's October 27 election or to present Trump as managing an unpopular conflict responsibly ahead of the midterms. Those are the Post sources' speculations, not established facts.

What is not in dispute is that Iran dominated this week's US-Israeli meetings: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met Netanyahu in Israel on Monday, and Israel's KAN News reported the main topic was Iran, with FT reporting that Israeli officials presented an updated list of Iranian targets based on recent intelligence. With Tehran, by Reuters' separate reporting, deliberately prolonging talks rather than giving Trump a pre-election deal, the gap between the FT and Post accounts matters: either a major strike was days away and was stopped in Washington, or Israel was bracing for an Iranian move and no strike was ever ordered. Sources: Financial Times reporting via United With Israel (Oct 21, 2026) and via NewsInIsrael citing Ynet and Walla (Oct 21, 2026); Azernews summarising the FT report (Oct 21, 2026); Jerusalem Post reporting via JBizNews — IDF was not planning to strike Iran on Oct. 10 (Oct 21, 2026).