Many new facts are coming to the surface in the denouement phase of the Iran-Israeli conflict. One has to do with the damage that Israel actually incurred, which caused it to so swiftly seek an out from the slugfest:

The $3B quoted above does not take into account actual missile and military expenditures, but strictly damage caused. In the same article, infamous Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich actually named the war cost’s highest ceiling at $12B:

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told a press conference the total cost of war could be as high as $12 billion, while Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron put the figure at about half that when speaking to Bloomberg TV on Wednesday. Whatever the final figure, that presents a challenge to an economy already strained by 20 months of wider conflict.

This is only from a 12-day span—imagine if this had dragged out to months, or even a year. Recall we were told the war was costing $200-300M per day just in military expenditures, if you add the above higher figure of $12B in non-military damage, total they represent $1.3B per day, at the highest end. Israel’s defense budget is around $45B, which means the war would eat the entire budget in a mere month, and the entire country’s GDP in a year and change.

“This is the greatest challenge we’ve faced — there has never been this amount of damage in Israel’s history,” Shay Aharonovich, the director general of Israel’s Tax Authority who’s in charge of paying out compensation, told reporters.

The article further confirms that Israel was almost entirely economically shut-down during the duration of the war, as we had reported last time:

During the 12-day campaign, the Israeli economy was almost completely shut down, with schools and businesses closed barring those designated essential. The government will pay compensation to businesses, estimated by the Finance Ministry at as much as 5 billion shekels.

It further admits Israel’s largest oil refinery in Haifa was ‘badly damaged’, and that the brief war against Iran cost far more than both conflicts against Hamas and Hezbollah from October 2023 onward—which is shocking when you think about it.

In short, Iran did massively more damage than we were led to believe.

Let’s not forget the US’ expenditures:

US BURNED 15-20% of its THAAD missile interceptors to defend Israel in conflict with Iran — Newsweek

Cost taxpayers an ‘unprecedented’ $800+ MILLION

Raviv Drucker from Israeli Channel 13 says that Israeli authorities hid a lot of big hits on strategic sites, concealing ‘just how accurate’ Iranian strikes were:

Further, even more photographic proof continues to emerge of Iran’s downing of Israeli heavy UCAV drones, like the Heron, Hermes, and Eitan series. Several new photos and videos showed previously unseen drones shot down and being recovered by Iranians, with one list put together claiming at least 7 confirmed heavy UCAVs:

Israeli defense minister Katz likewise admitted Israel wanted to kill Khamenei but simply could not get to him:

Chalk that up to another failed objective.

In fact, some reports now indicate up to four of the Iranian generals claimed as ‘killed’ have resurfaced unharmed, though—besides Ismail Qaani—as of this writing it remains unverified:

The hits on Iran’s nuclear sites are likewise fraught with questionable details. For instance, the chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed the B-2 pilots saw the “brightest explosion” ever seen, while at the same time striking the narrative—as per Hegseth—that all bombs perfectly entered the same one hole, and burrowed extremely deep underground. Where, then, did this ‘bright flash’ come from?

U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine:

In the days preceding the Fordow attacks, Iranians tried to cover the shafts with concrete.

The pilot who hit Fordow told me it was the brightest explosion he’d ever seen.

All six weapons at each vent at Fordow went exactly where they were intended to go.

Fordow is mere miles from Tehran, a metropolitan area of nearly 20 million people, yet not a single video or eyewitness account exists of “the brightest explosion ever seen”—why is that?

In fact, a coverup hid that one of the B-2s taking part in the operation “broke down” on the way to the Middle East and had to make an emergency landing in Hawaii, where it was stranded out in the open in the public Honolulu International Airport:

June 21, 2025: A B-2 (callsign MYTEE 14, serial 88-0332) diverted to Honolulu after declaring an emergency, as noted in recent sources.

Some point to the fact that certain Iranian officials have now “admitted” that the strikes were successful. But let’s briefly break this down: figures like FM Araghchi and spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said that ‘serious damage’ was suffered. However, recall the following:

1. The US launched a large Tomahawk missile strike on the surface components of the sites.

2. Other sites not as deeply fortified as Fordow were hit, such as Natanz, which some sources claim was ‘destroyed’ below ground.

This means that Iranian officials can play along with the game and claim ‘serious damage’ was done as a generality, while concealing the fact that Fordow’s underground structures may have remained completely untouched.

Also, it should be noted that Ayatollah Khamenei himself contradicted his foreign ministry, stating that no serious damage was done:

But what’s more is that there seemed to have been a hidden quid-pro-quo wherein Iran allowed US its ‘show strike’ while US in turn removed the sanctions against Iran’s oil trade, as admitted to by Steve Witkoff.