IDF acknowledges some Iranian missiles hit airbases, says no major damage caused
The Israeli military on Wednesday acknowledged that some of its airbases were hit in Iran’s massive ballistic missile attack on the country a night earlier, but stressed that no harm was caused to the functioning of the Israeli Air Force.
The missile impacts damaged office buildings and other maintenance areas in the bases, according to the military.
All of the missile impacts in the airbases were deemed by the military as “ineffective,” meaning that no harm was caused to the continuous operations of the IAF.
Drone strike in Tel Aviv
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The military reported no damage caused to fighter jets, drones, other aircraft, munitions, and critical infrastructure.
Highlighting the ineffectiveness of the Iranian attack, which consisted of a massive salvo of some 200 ballistic missiles fired at Israel, the military noted that the IAF continued its operations in the following hours, including major strikes against Hezbollah in Beirut, support for ground forces in southern Lebanon, and strikes in Gaza.
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No major injuries were caused in the attack, with only two civilians lightly hurt by shrapnel in Tel Aviv, according to medical services.
The remains of an Iranian missile on the ground in the Negev desert near Arad, on October 2, 2024, in the aftermath of an Iranian missile attack on Israel. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)
The IDF said that it measures the effectiveness of an attack based on how much damage was caused to critical infrastructure and assets and how many casualties were caused, and not how many missiles ultimately impacted. Air defenses successfully prevented such damage and major casualties, it said.
The IAF was also readying for a response against Iran, per the political echelon’s instructions.
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IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi reiterated on Wednesday afternoon that Israel would respond to the missile attack, vowing that the military had the capability to “reach and strike any point in the Middle East.”
“And those of our enemies who have not understood this so far, will understand it soon,” he said in a video statement, during a visit to the Tel Nof Airbase.
“Iran fired about 200 missiles at the State of Israel yesterday. Iran attacked civilian areas and endangered the lives of many civilians. Thanks to proper civilian behavior and high-quality defense, the damage is relatively small,” Halevi said. “We will respond, we know how to locate important targets, we know how to strike accurately and powerfully.”
Iran fired the massive salvo at Israel on Tuesday night, sending almost 10 million people into bomb shelters as projectiles and interceptors exploded in the skies above.
The Israel Defense Forces said that it intercepted “a large number” of them.
According to the military, the missiles launched at Israel on Tuesday were not hypersonic as Iran had claimed.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had used Fattah missiles for the first time, which it has described as a “hypersonic missile.”
Hypersonic weapons, which fly above Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, could pose crucial challenges to missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability. Iran described the Fattah as being able to reach Mach 15 — which is 15 times the speed of sound.
The military said that Iran does not possess hypersonic missiles, and the missiles launched at the country were not maneuverable.
Israel’s air defenses were “effective,” the IDF said late Tuesday. The US also participated in the defense of Israel, both by detecting the threat from Iran ahead of time and intercepting some of the missiles, according to the military.
The IDF said there were “isolated” impacts in central Israel and several more in southern Israel. It emphasized that there was no damage to the “competence” of the Israeli Air Force in the attack, and said the IAF’s planes, air defenses, and air traffic control were operating normally.
One of the missiles impacted a school in Gadera, in central Israel, with photos and videos from the scene showing severe damage to the school building. Nobody was injured. Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, the Home Front Command chief, visited the site of the impact alongside first responders.
At a security cabinet meeting in a secure bunker near Jerusalem in the aftermath of the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Tehran had made a “big mistake tonight” and vowed that “it will pay for it.”
Iran said it fired the missiles into Israel in response to attacks that killed leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Iranian military. It referenced Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan, both killed in an Israeli airstrike last week in Beirut. It also mentioned Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader in Hamas who was assassinated in Tehran in July in a suspected Israeli attack.
A previous attack using 300 missiles and drones in April — the first ever direct Iranian on Israel — was thwarted with the help of the US military and other allies. Israel reportedly responded at the time with an airstrike in Iran, targeting an air defense system near a nuclear site, but wider escalation was averted.
Source » timesofisrael.com
