Iran’s Missile Strikes Hit Five Military Bases and 40 Infrastructure Targets Across Israel - Reports

Defence affairs analysis

New information on Iranian missile attacks on Israel launched over eleven days from June 13-24 has confirmed successful strikes on key infrastructure and military facilities according to an analysis of satellite data conducted at Oregon State University. 

Images confirmed hits on over 40 Israeli infrastructure facilities, as well as five major military bases across the country’s northern southern and central regions. Some of the most high profile targets successfully hit by Iranian missiles have included Haifa Port, the Haifa Oil Refinery, Ben Gurion Airport, the Weizmann Institute of Science and Technology, Ben Gurion University, the headquarters of the defence firm Rafael, the Israel Nuclear Research Centre in Tel Aviv, and various strategic industrial sites in the city of Kiryat Gat. Military sites targeted included Israel’s equivalent to the Pentagon, the Kariya, defence ministry buildings and the headquarters of the intelligence agency Mossad, as well as Ovda Airbase and Nevatim Airbase which respectively host F-16 and F-35 fighters. The extent of the damage to these facilities, and possible damage to others, remains highly uncertain due to the unusually strict censorship which Israel has imposed on reporting on the strikes.

Iranian strikes were launched in response to an Israeli air offensive against targets in Iran on June 13, made use of the Emad, Haj Qasem, Kheibar Shekan, or Fattah ballistic missile classes, as well as Shahed 136 and Arash 2 drones. Commenting on the extent of the strikes at the subsequent NATO summit, President Donald Trump observed: “Especially those last couple of days, Israel was hit really hard. Those ballistic missiles, boy they took out a lot of buildings.” The attacks are estimated to have cost Israel and the United States over three billion dollars in expenditures on air defence efforts alone at a conservative estimate, with the U.S. Army THAAD system alone having expended interceptors worth an estimated $810 million to $1.215 billion at a conservative estimate. The capabilities of Iran’s ballistic arsenal are thought to be a primary factor deterring Israel and its strategic partners in the Western world from initiating a new round of hostilities, although Israeli officials have made clear their intention to launch new operations against Iran to achieve a number of objectives, one of the foremost of which is to prevent it from continuing ballistic missile production