Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that Iran “made a big mistake” by launching a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday night, while emphasizing that the majority of the attack was successfully thwarted.
As reported by Israeli authorities, Iran launched 181 rockets in total. These attacks led to “isolated” impacts in central and southern Israel. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that the majority of the projectiles were intercepted by air defense systems.
Two Israelis were reportedly injured by falling shrapnel and debris, while a Palestinian man lost his life due to a missile fragment in the West Bank.
In contrast, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) asserted that 80-90% of their missiles successfully hit designated targets, including the Tel Nof air base near Tel Aviv. The attack also purportedly destroyed several Israeli F-35 fighter jets at Nevatim air base. According to the IRGC, some of the missiles launched on Tuesday night were hypersonic.
Speaking at a security cabinet meeting, Netanyahu declared that “Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it.” The Israeli prime minister also issued a barely concealed warning to those in Iran who “do not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our resolve to retaliate against our enemies.”
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Expressing gratitude to the United States for its support, the prime minister urged “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 described Iran’s attack as a “severe and dangerous escalation,” warning that Israel will “respond wherever, whenever, and however we choose.”
The most recent missile attack followed the entry of Israeli ground troops into southern Lebanon early Tuesday, focusing on infrastructure utilized by the Iran-supported Shia militia Hezbollah. An Israeli airstrike last Friday eliminated Hassan Nasrallah, the long-standing leader of the militant group, along with several senior commanders.
In response to the attack on Israel, the IRGC stated it was a retaliation for the deaths of Nasrallah, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoshan, who served as the deputy commander of operations for the IRGC.
Haniyeh was killed in a suspected Israeli bombing in Tehran late July, while Nilforoshan perished in the same Hezbollah Beirut bunker as the group’s leader last week.
The IRGC warned that “any response from the Zionist regime to our attack will result in even more destructive strikes.”
