Iran’s Chief of Staff, General Mohammad Bagheri, said in an interview with state television on Wednesday that if Iran decides to strike back, it would deal a blow to infrastructure across Israel.
“The attacks will be repeated with greater intensity and all of the regime’s infrastructure will be targeted,” Bagheri said.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has imposed unspecified “sensitive security and military” sanctions in retaliation for the “violation of Iranian sovereignty and martyrdom” of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in an explosion in Tehran in July. It said it targeted the center. Israel was blamed, but Israeli officials made no claims.
The statement described the missile attack as “consistent with the legitimate right of a nation to defend itself.”
It also said the attack was a response to Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs last Friday that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Brigadier General Abbas Nilforushan, commander of operations for the IRGC’s overseas unit Quds Force.
Iranian state media later reported that the missiles hit the Nevatim, Hazterim and Tel Nof air bases as well as Israeli tanks in Necharim (a reference to the Israeli military corridor in central Gaza) and southern Israel. It claimed to have hit a gas facility in the city of Ashkelon.
The attack occurred about an hour after a senior White House official told reporters that the United States had indications that Iran was imminent ready to launch missiles at Iran.
Last April, Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel in retaliation for an attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria that killed several top commanders.
Almost all were shot down by Israel, the United States and other Western allies and Arab partners, and an air base in southern Israel suffered only minor damage when it was attacked.
Israel responded by launching a missile that struck an Iranian air base, prompting calls for Western restraint.
On Saturday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised that the death of his close ally Hassan Nasrallah “will not be avenged.”
“The fate of this region will be decided by the insurgents, with Hezbollah at the forefront,” he said, without giving details.
Iran has built a network of coalitions of militants opposing the United States and Israel across the Middle East, sometimes calling themselves the ‘Axis of Resistance’. In addition to Hezbollah, these include Hamas in the Palestinian territories, the Houthis in Yemen, and a number of Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria.
