Israel Warns Of ‘Hitting Hard’ If Iran Launches More Missiles

Israeli Defence Force’s Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi warned that if Iran launched ballistic missiles again at Israel — in response to Israel’s attacks on the Islamic Republic over the weekend — then it will “capabilities and places that we spared” last time. 

“If Iran makes the mistake and launches another barrage of missiles at Israel, we will once again know how to reach Iran, reach even with capabilities that we did not use this time, and hit very, very hard both the capabilities and places that we spared this time,” Halevi said to aircrews at the Ramon Air Base in southern Israel, as per The Times Of Israel.

Halevi said that certain targets had been set aside “for a simple reason, because we may be required to do this again”.

“This event is not over; we are still in the midst of it,” he said, according to a statement issued by the military.

Israel’s fighter jets carried out pre-dawn strikes against Iranian military targets and missile production facilities, on Saturday, to retaliate against a major ballistic missile attack carried out by Tehran earlier this month.

Tehran’s attack involved 200 missiles that were launched to hit back for the killing of several Tehran-aligned militant leaders, including Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, and a Revolution Guards commander. 

Iran had confirmed that the Israeli attack had targeted military sites in the capital Tehran and other parts of the country, but caused “limited damage”.

On Sunday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that Israel’s airstrikes on Iran should not be magnified nor downplayed. While Israel would like to amplify the impacts of its actions against Iran, Khamenei said, it would also not be right for Iran to dismiss the strikes as insignificant.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah announced that Shiite cleric Naim Qassem was appointed as its new leader, nearly a month after his predecessor, Nasrallah’s death. Following this, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant reacted on social media platform X and said that it was only a “Temporary appointment. Not for long.”