The Middle East edged closer to a long-feared regional war on Tuesday after Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel in retaliation to the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and other key leaders.
Iran's bold response could well be the tipping point in the strife-hit region where the spectre of war has been looming since Hamas's invasion of Israel on October 7 in 2023.
Iran launched around 180 missiles at multiple locations across Israel over a period of half an hour. Israel said it intercepted many of the missiles.
Iran-Israel conflict: Follow live updates
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran “made a big mistake tonight and it will pay for it". An Iranian commander has threatened wider strikes on infrastructure if Israel retaliates against Iran's territory.
What will be Israel's next move?
Israel has made no bones about its plan to respond to Iran's missile blitzkrieg. The question is: how powerful will the response be and when is it expected to happen?
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagar said that the country will retaliate at the "place and time of our choosing".
Read: As the Middle East conflict spirals, how should investors position themselves?
According to Axios, Israeli officials said they plan to soon launch a "significant retaliation” potentially targeting the Iranian oil industry, air defence systems and other strategic sites.
They added that Israel could also target key Iranian figures. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is already in hiding since the killing of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah.
Israeli officials said further that if Iran retaliates again, then "all options will be on the table", including the "destruction of Iranian nuclear sites".
Even US officials have not ruled out this extreme scenario.
A New York Times report cited American officials as saying that Israel may hit the nuclear facilities of Iran, particularly the enrichment sites at Natanz, which is the heart of the Iranian program. Iran produced its near bomb-grade uranium at the Natanz site.
April warning resonates in October
In April, after Iran launched an extensive attack involving 185 drones, 36 cruise missiles, and 110 surface-to-surface missiles, Israel's response was notably muted.
While Israel targeted an air base in Isfahan—home to some of Iran's key nuclear facilities—it refrained from striking the facilities themselves.
Watch: Passenger captures shocking moment as Iranian rockets target Israel from Dubai flight
Israel's message was clear that it will target Iran's most prized nuclear assets next time, the NYT report said.
Moreover, in Arpil, President Biden had urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to “take the win,” stressing on a measured approach to the situation despite the severity of the Iranian assault.
Washington is again expected to tell Netanyahu to moderate Israel's response. Only this time, Biden's influence may not carry as much weight due to the approaching presidential elections in US.
Security analysts and former officials say that Israel "has a freer hand" to respond to Iran’s missile attack after Tuesday's missile attack, the NYT report said.
“Israel has much more free rein in the Iranian context than in April, as there’s essentially no more threat that Hezbollah would join,” Danny Citrinowicz, a retired Israeli intelligence officer who specialized in Iran, told NYT.
Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett said in a social media post that his country has "the biggest opportunity in the past 50 years to change the face of the region."
“We must act now to destroy its [Iran's] nuclear project, destroy their major energy facilities and critically hit this terrorist regime,” Bennett said.
“The tentacles of that octopus are severely wounded — now’s the time to aim for the head,” he added.
(With inputs from agencies)
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