The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday that it is preparing to launch a “serious and significant” strike against Iran, in response to an Iranian missile barrage on Israeli military bases earlier this week.
An IDF spokesperson announced the strike plans to multiple media outlets on Saturday, adding that the Iranian attack would “have consequences.”
Iran launched around 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, in response to Israel’s bombardment of Beirut, which killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of his top commanders. While the IDF claimed that the Iranian missile attack was ineffective, video footage shared online shows dozens of missiles making it past Israel’s Iron Dome air defense network, with impacts observed at the Nevatim and Tel Nof airbases. According to Tehran, the strike at Nevatim destroyed several Israeli F-35 fighter jets on the ground.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday night that Iran “made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it.”
Israel is widely expected to focus its retaliatory strikes on Iranian nuclear or oil and gas infrastructure. However, the US has advised West Jerusalem against these measures. US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he would oppose targeting Tehran’s nuclear facilities, and on Friday warned that “if I were in [the Israelis’] shoes, I would be thinking about other alternatives than striking Iranian oil fields.”
With a month to go until the US presidential election, any attack on Iranian oil production would cause global prices to skyrocket, in turn driving up the cost of gasoline at American pumps ahead of the vote.
It is unclear whether the Israelis will heed Biden’s warning. Israel has already conducted two major operations in Lebanon – sabotaging thousands of Hezbollah communication devices and then killing Nasrallah in an airstrike – without consulting Washington first. Prior to the Nasrallah operation, Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire proposal drawn up by the US and France, before backing out at the last moment and going ahead with the airstrike, American and other Western officials claimed last month.
Israel has been waging war against Hamas in Gaza for almost a year, and recently escalated its campaign against the Iran-aligned Hezbollah group in Lebanon. After three weeks of aerial bombardment and four days of ground operations in Lebanon, Israeli forces have killed more than 2,000 people, including 127 children, the country’s Health Ministry announced on Friday.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned this week that any Israeli response to Tuesday’s missile attack would be met with a “more destructive” response. Iran wants to avoid the outbreak of a regional war, but Israel must be “deterred practically,” an Iranian official told Al Jazeera on Thursday.