Iran “made a big mistake” by launching a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated, while insisting that the attack was largely thwarted.
According to Israeli authorities, Iran fired a total of 181 rockets, resulting in “isolated” impacts in central and southern Israel. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that most of the projectiles were intercepted by air defenses.
Two Israelis were reportedly injured by falling shrapnel and debris, and a Palestinian man was killed by a missile fragment in the West Bank.
In contrast, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed that 80-90% of the missiles struck their designated targets, including the Tel Nof air base near Tel Aviv. The barrage also allegedly destroyed several Israeli F-35 fighter jets at the Nevatim air base. According to the IRGC, at least some of the missiles launched on Tuesday night were hypersonic.
Speaking at a security cabinet meeting, Netanyahu proclaimed that “Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it.” The Israeli prime minister also issued a thinly veiled threat to those in Iran who do “not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies.”
Thanking the US for its support, the prime minster called on the “forces of light in the world” to “stand by Israel” and unite against Iran.
In a video address on Tuesday, IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, called Iran’s attack a “severe and dangerous escalation,” and warned that Israel “will respond wherever, whenever and however we choose.”
The latest missile bombardment came after Israeli ground troops entered southern Lebanon early on Tuesday, targeting infrastructure used by the Iran-backed Shia militia Hezbollah. An Israeli airstrike killed the militant group’s long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah and several other top-tier commanders last Friday.
Commenting on the assault on Israel, the IRGC explained that it was in response to the deaths of Nasrallah as well as Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoshan, who was the IRGC deputy commander of operations.
Haniyeh was killed in a suspected Israeli bombing in Tehran in late July, and Nilforoshan died in the same Hezbollah Beirut bunker where the group’s leader perished last week.
The IRGC warned that “if the Zionist regime responds to our attack, our next strikes will be more destructive.”