Israel ‘prepared to strike nuclear targets’ if Iran retaliates after assassination

 

Israel is believed to be prepared to strike Iranian nuclear facilities if Tehran launches an attack in retaliation for the assassination of a top general last week.

The Israel Defense Forces has held air force drills in recent days and is eyeing vital Iranian infrastructure, including nuclear facilities, Elaph News, a London-based media outlet, reported, citing an unnamed Western security official.

Israelis have been on tenterhooks since late last week when a high-precision Israeli air strike killed a top general with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and other senior officers at the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

Mohammad Reza Zahedi has been described as Iran’s most important general to have been assassinated since the 2020 US airstrike that killed Qassim Soleimani.

Iran has vowed to retaliate, sparking fears of a major escalation and potentially all-out war between Israel and Iran.

Last Friday, an IDF spokesman urged the Israeli public not to panic-buy supplies and power generators as Western intelligence sources said a major air strike on Israel was imminent within 48 hours.

Meanwhile, the latest US intelligence assessment suggests that Iran is unlikely to attack Israel directly, fearing broad repercussions of a global conflict, according to intelligence sources quoted by CNN on Tuesday.

Previously, both Israel and the US believed a direct attack by Iran was inevitable.

Early on Tuesday, Israeli forces launched a series of strikes on Syrian army posts in Syria’s south, the IDF said. That came in response to Syrian rocket fire on Israel-occupied Golan Heights in the north. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Separately, Israel’s foreign minister pledged in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Tuesday to strike Iran if Israel comes under attack.

“If Iran attacks us directly, we will attack Iran,” said Israel Katz. “And if it’s the militias allied with Iran that do it, as a reprisal for the destruction of the [Iranian] consulate in Damascus, we will attack them as well.”

Israel has indicated that it is not interested in a major confrontation with Hezbollah, despite the Iran-backed terrorist group hitting northern Israel with rockets almost daily since the start of the war in Gaza.

Asked about a possible response to a major Hezbollah attack, Mr Katz said: “If missiles start hitting Tel Aviv from Lebanon as a reprisal for Damascus, Israel will send military aircraft and troops.”