Israeli weapons damaged Iranian air defenses without detection

• Published date: 20 April 2024
• Author: YONAH JEREMY BOB
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The New York Times, Fox News, and other foreign reports said that Israel undertook the attack, though Jerusalem has been silent about it

It was still unclear Saturday whether drones had played some role in the attack as well.

US Senator Marco Rubio tweeted, "Israel has the ability to conduct strikes against targets inside Iran without entering Iranian air space from aircraft over Syrian and Iraqi airspace."

Both Rubio's comment and foreign reports indicated that the first stage of a two-stage Israeli-made missile may have been found in Iraq and may have been fired from there.

Foreign reports said that the missiles were not fired from Iranian, Israeli, or Jordanian airspace.

Strategic attack sends message to Iran

Such an attack could have two intended effects: the impact of messaging to the Iranians that their nuclear facilities could have also been hit or could easily be hit in the future and letting the Islamic Republic end the crisis by denying any real damage.

Unlike Iran's nuclear facilities at Natanz, Karaj, and elsewhere, where Tehran has had to acknowledge their destruction in the past because they are open to visits from the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran can keep the public away from seeing its losses of the S-300 missile defense system (other than via satellite imagery).

But the loss is significant in the sense that the S-300 is the most advanced anti-aircraft system the Islamic Republic possesses, which it spent years pressing Russia to sell it.

On the other hand, this attack could be called much less bruising of Iran's attack capabilities than the one by Israel that destroyed huge numbers of its drone fleet in February 2022, which former prime minister Naftali Bennett has publicly confirmed.

Further, the attack did not directly touch Iran's nuclear program, which means that the program has not been set back.

The Jerusalem Post was the first to confirm that long-range missiles had been used in the attack early Friday morning.

The New York Times was the first to confirm Israeli involvement.

Iran, it appears falsely, has claimed that there was no damage and that it shot down a few minor drones that tried to attack.

On Sunday morning, Iran International published footage of the damage caused to the Isfahan base as a result of the strike.

The report came shortly after local sources reported explosions in Isfahan in central Iran, in the As-Suwayda Governorate of southern Syria, and in the Baghdad area...