The Israel Defense Forces is preparing to conduct a “precise and deadly” retaliation to Iran’s unprecedented Oct. 1 ballistic-missile attack on the Jewish state, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday.
Israel “will soon respond,” Gallant said during a meeting with the Heroism Forum, which represents bereaved military families and has urged the government and IDF to fight until victory against Iran and its proxies.
In a statement released hours earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office emphasized that though it listens to the United States, the decision to retaliate against Tehran will be based solely on Jerusalem’s “national-security needs.”
The statement was an apparent response to a Washington Post report on Monday that the Israeli premier had informed U.S. President Joe Biden that the expected Israeli Air Force strike on the Islamic Republic would avoid oil and nuclear installations, and instead focus on military sites.
The Israeli strike would be carried out before the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, an official familiar with the matter told the paper, because a lack of action could be perceived by Tehran as a sign of weakness. “It will be one in a series of responses,” the unidentified source claimed.
Jerusalem has vowed a significant response to Tehran’s second-ever direct attack on Oct. 1—the first having been in mid-April—in which more than 180 ballistic missiles were launched at the Jewish state from Iranian soil.
The Israeli military, with the assistance of the United States and Jordan, shot down most of the missiles, with the sole casualty of the attack being a Palestinian from Gaza who was struck by falling debris near Jericho.
