Members of the Israeli political-security cabinet were not informed in advance of the plans to assassinate Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last night, and Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr in Beirut, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Defense Minister were present all night at the Kirya, the Israeli army’s central headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu arrived in Kirya following Shukr's assassination and held discussions to assess the situation, according to the Ynet website yesterday. Netanyahu remained there with Galant during Haniyeh's assassination.

The cabinet met on Sunday evening to discuss Israel's response to the killing of 12 children and teenagers by a rocket that fell on the village of Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights. The meeting ended without a decision on the form of response, in case the decision was leaked, but it was decided to authorize Netanyahu, Galant and the security leadership to decide on the form of response, without informing the cabinet members of the form of response. There was no discussion of assassinations in the cabinet, according to Ynet.

The government's legal advisor, Gali Baharav-Miara, said that if the Israeli response to the Majdal Shams operation leads to a large-scale war, the cabinet must be convened shortly before the response is implemented in order to approve it.

In turn, Netanyahu said that if he believed that the response would lead to a large-scale war, he would convene the cabinet shortly before carrying it out, but he did not do so and the cabinet members were not informed of the claim that the response would be an assassination operation.

"Ynet" indicated that the cabinet was not involved in the decision to attack the port of Hodeidah in Yemen, in response to the targeting of Tel Aviv by a drone launched by the Houthis, but the cabinet was informed of this attack when Israeli warplanes were about to take off for this attack.

According to Ynet, it is not clear whether Netanyahu and Galant's isolation in making such important decisions with the army and intelligence leadership stems from their lack of confidence in the opinion of ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, or whether they fear that such decisions will be leaked.