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Israel may respond to Iran’s major Tuesday ballistic missile attack by striking strategic infrastructure, such as gas or oil rigs, or by directly targeting Iran’s nuclear sites, media reports said on Wednesday, citing Israeli officials.
Targeted assassinations and attacks on Iran’s air defense systems are also possible responses, Axios reported.
An attack on Iranian oil facilities could devastate the country’s economy, and any of the considered responses could mark another escalation, almost one year into the ongoing war that began when the Hamas terror group attacked Israel in October 2023.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting with Israel’s security chiefs at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv Wednesday, his office said in a statement.
The meeting — held hours before the Rosh Hashanah holiday, marking the Jewish New Year — was expected to discuss potential responses to the attack, which consisted of some 181 ballistic missiles fired directly at Israel from Iran, almost all of which were intercepted as Israelis nationwide gathered in bomb shelters.
The discussion took place after another hours-long meeting of the security cabinet in a bunker underneath Jerusalem on Tuesday night. That meeting ended with the understanding that Israel would respond to the attack militarily, but without clarity as to how it would do so, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed Israeli officials.
The absence of a more specific decision was in part out of a desire to coordinate any plans with the United States, the report said, adding that Netanyahu was expected to speak with US President Joe Biden as soon as Wednesday afternoon.
Netanyahu declared after the attack that “Iran made a big mistake tonight, and it will pay for it,” vowing, “whoever attacks us — we will attack them.”
Foreign Minister Israel Katz, in a statement Tuesday, declared: “The ayatollahs’ regime has crossed the red line — and the State of Israel will not be silent in the face of Iran’s criminal attack on our citizens.”
Gallant wrote on X: “Iran has not learned a simple lesson — those who attack the State of Israel, pay a heavy price.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, too, said in a statement Wednesday morning that “the response must be harsh, and send a clear message to the entire axis: Iran, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza,” naming countries and territories from which Iranian-backed terror groups have launch attacks on Israel.
“Alongside a military response, we must also develop an overall regional political strategy, that turns military success into strategic change, and we must not forget for one moment the urgent need to bring our hostages home,” Lapid added, referring to the 97 people kidnapped in Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack who are still held captive in Gaza, plus four others held there for around a decade.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, speaking on CNN Tuesday shortly after the attack, called this moment a “once in a 50-year opportunity.”
“We need to take out Iran’s nuclear program, we need to attack Iran’s energy facilities, and we need to attack the regime itself, right away,” Bennett said, noting that Hezbollah and Hamas are at a historically weak point after a year of war.
“It’s time to hit, destroy the nuclear program, and finally allow the Iranian people to rise up — the amazing Iranian people, who have one of the worst regimes on earth,” he said.
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