The Israeli military carried out a strike on Iran and damaged weapons systems without being detected by Iranian air defence systems, defence sources have revealed.
In response to a massive drone and missile attack from Iran last weekend, Israel launched a counter-strike on Friday which hit a target designed to spot aerial threats.
But in an embarrassing sign for Iranian commanders, it’s claimed the Israelis managed to “bypass” Iran’s air defence systems during the attack, effectively leaving the pariah state “paralysed” to defend itself.
According to the New York Times, two Western and two Iranian officials confirmed the successful attack by Israel near Natanz, an Iranian city crucial to the country’s nuclear weapons program.
The publication said satellite imagery showed damage to the S-300 antiaircraft system at the Eighth Shekari Air Base in Isfahan, 80 miles from Natanz.
Western officials speaking to the paper said the Israeli strike was “calculated to deliver a message to Iran that Israel could bypass Iran’s defence systems undetected and paralyse them.”
In contrast to the ability of Israel seemingly to get past Iran’s defences, the vast majority of drones and missiles fired by Iran last week against Israel were shot down.
The overall damage done to Israel was minor despite Iran launching hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
Israeli air defences and fighter jets, backed by the US, Britain and neighbouring Jordan, shot down almost all of the incoming fire.
But the Iranian attack last weekend showed Tehran’s willingness to use its vast arsenal of ballistic missiles directly against Israel as tensions remain high across the wider Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
The apparent Israeli retaliatory attack on Friday on Isfahan has sparked a low-key response so far from Iran, suggesting both countries want to dial back their long-running shadow war for now, though risks of a wider conflagration in the region remain.
Iran’s attack on Israel on April 13 marked the first direct military assault on the country by a foreign nation since Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein launched Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.
