Israel army chief vows to hit Iran ‘very hard’ if it retaliates

Israel’s military chief vowed on Tuesday to hit Iran “very hard” if it retaliates against Israel for its attacks on the Islamic republic over the weekend.

“If Iran makes the mistake of launching another missile barrage at Israel, we will once again know how to reach Iran… and strike very, very hard” Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said.

Addressing military personnel who took part in the weekend strike, Halevi said that certain targets had been set aside “because we may be required to do this again”.

“This event is not over; we are still in the midst of it,” he said, according to a statement issued by the military.

On Saturday, Israeli fighter jets carried out pre-dawn air strikes against Iranian military targets and missile production facilities in retaliation for a major ballistic missile attack by Tehran earlier this month.

That attack, which involved around 200 missiles, was itself launched in retaliation for the killing of several Tehran-aligned militant leaders, including Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, and a Revolutionary Guards commander.

Iran confirmed that the Israeli attack had targeted military sites in the capital Tehran and other parts of the country, but said it had caused “limited damage”.

In a post on X, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Israel’s attack “should neither be exaggerated nor minimised”.

Without elaborating, he described the attack as a “miscalculation”.

The missile barrage was the second-ever direct attack by Iran on Israel, following a similar barrage in April. Israel reportedly retaliated for that attack the same month.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran was seeking to develop a “stockpile” of nuclear bombs aimed at destroying his country.

“Iran is striving to develop a stockpile of nuclear bombs to destroy us, equipped with long-range missiles, intercontinental missiles that Iran is trying to develop,” Netanyahu said.