File image.
Iran carried out its longest attack on Israel on June 23, launching six or seven ballistic missiles in four waves over a 40-minute period, according to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
Sirens sounded in northern, central and southern Israel, including settlements close to the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, amid the attack. The Magen David Adom ambulance service said that there were no casualties, but multiple impacts were reported.
The Israel Electric Corporation said that one ballistic missile impact near a “strategic infrastructure facility” in the south, caused temporary power disruptions in several settlements in the area.
An additional ballistic missile was launched from Iran around an hour later, again triggering sirens in the north of Israel. However, the IDF said that it was intercepted. .
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps later said in a statement that “strategic targets were struck throughout the occupied territories.”
Amid the missile attack heavy strikes hit the Iranian capita, with Defense Minister Israel Katz announcing that the IDF was “striking with unprecedented force regime targets and governmental repression bodies in the heart of Tehran.”
“Images will soon be released, illustrating the depth of the damage,” the minister said in statement issued by his office.
“For every rocket fired at the Israeli home front, the Iranian dictator will be severely punished, and the strikes will continue with full intensity. We will continue to act to defend the home front and defeat the enemy until all war objectives are achieved,” he added.
According to Katz, the targets attacked by the IDF included “the Basij headquarters, the Evin Prison for political prisoners and regime opponents, the ‘Destruction of Israel’ clock in Palestine Square, the internal security headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideology headquarters, and other regime targets.”
Later, the IDF said in a statement that Israeli Air Force fighter jets dropped 100 munitions on the targets in Tehran within two hours.
The military also confirmed carrying out a strike against the access roads to Iran’s underground Fordo nuclear site earlier in the day. It said that the strikes were intended to “disrupt” the site’s accessibility, after it was bombed by the United States along with the sites of Natanz and Isfahan a day earlier.
Separately, the IDF acknowledged that one of its drones was downed by Iranian air defenses over the western area of Khorramabad.
“During operational activity, an Air Force unmanned aerial vehicle was downed in Iran. There is no fear of information leaking,” the military said in a statement.
Iranian media, which shared footage of the wreckage, identified the drone as a Hermes 900, a medium-size drone used for reconnaissance, surveillance, communications relay and attack missions. This was the second such drone to be shot down during the ongoing confrontation.
While recent development, including the direct intervention of the U.S., suggest that confrontation between Israel and Iran could soon spark and all-out war in the Middle East, both sides may be playing their final cards before de-escalating.
Still, the end of the ongoing confrontation wont mean the end of the Israeli-Iranian conflict. Both sides has lost deterrence and due to this, they will likely exchange strikes more frequently from now on.
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