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APRIL 25 • 2024 | 7
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launched April 14, none
crossed into Israeli territory.
Twenty-five of them were
intercepted by IAF fighter
jets outside the country’s
borders, the IDF said. Out
of over 120 ballistic missiles,
only a few crossed into
Israeli territory, with the
rest being intercepted. The
ones that impacted targeted
the Nevatim F-35 Air Force
Base in southern Israel,
causing only minor damage
to infrastructure. The base
remains operational.
“Iran hoped to incapacitate
the base and thus impair
our aerial capabilities, but it
failed. IAF aircraft continue
to take off and land from the
base and depart for offensive
and defensive missions. This
includes the ‘Adir’ [F-35]
fighter jets, which are now
returning to the base from
an aerial defense mission,
and you will soon see them
landing,” IDF Spokesperson
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari
stated the following morning.
In addition to the launches
from Iran, several launches
occurred from Iraq and
Yemen on April 14 — but
none of them crossed into
Israeli territory, Hagari said.
A 7-year-old Bedouin-
Israeli girl was severely
injured by shrapnel in the
Negev and is being treated in
hospital.
Hezbollah, for its part,
remained in its usual low- to
medium-intensity wartime
mode, firing dozens of
rockets from Lebanon in
recent hours, and absorbing
strikes by IAF jets.
The IAF’s Aerial Defense
Array as well as aircraft
pilots have been preparing
for this moment for years.
REGIONAL PUSH-BACK
AGAINST IRAN
Iran fired extremely
dangerous threats at Israel on
April 14. Its ballistic missile
attacks likely included
projectiles with very large
warheads, each one of
which can destroy multiple
buildings on impact, if not
intercepted. Iranian media
claimed the attack included
Kheibar Shekan ballistic
missiles, which have a
warhead of 500 kilograms
(1,100 pounds).
The IDF Chief of General
Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi,
directed the defensive air
battle together with IAF head
Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar and
other senior commanders
from the Israeli Air Force’s
Operations Center at the
Kirya IDF headquarters in
Tel Aviv.
Just as Iran dropped
its mask and revealed its
fanatical intentions on April
14, so, too, did Arab states
in the region that are badly
threatened by Iran reveal
their intentions to push back
against Iran, according to
international media reports.
If Saudi Arabia took part
in interception activities, this
would not be the first time.
In November 2023,
Saudi Arabia reportedly
intercepted a ballistic missile
fired from Yemen, by Iran-
backed Houthis, at Israel.
Several factors enable this
cooperation. The existing
framework of U.S.-Israeli
missile defense collaboration,
built over three decades,
Israel’s entry in 2021 to
the U.S. Military’s Central
Command (CENTCOM,
which is responsible for
the Middle East) area of
operations, and sales of
American Patriot and
Terminal High Altitude Area
Defense (THAAD) systems
to Saudi Arabia all make
such cooperation possible.
“Over the past six months,
we have been operating in
close coordination with
our partners, led by U.S.
CENTCOM, the U.K., France
and other countries that
operated last night. This
partnership has always been
robust, but last night it was
exceptionally evident,” said
Hagari.
In this context, it is
important to note decades
of joint Israeli-American
research and development
on all Israeli air defense
systems (except Iron Dome),
the integration of radars
and interceptors across
the Middle East, and the
building of an intricate web
of information-sharing.
On this network,
American sensor data from
various sources is fused and
shared with Israel, and vice
versa.
This likely includes data
from American satellite
assets, and radars stationed
in places like Turkey, Qatar
and Israel, which can nourish
Israeli interceptors, along
with Israel’s own extensive
radar and sensor network.
The network could well
include Saudi and Jordanian
sensors. Two U.S. Navy ships
in the eastern Mediterranean
shot down at least three
ballistic missiles using the
Aegis missile defense system,
according to CNN, while
U.S. fighter jets also shot
down Iranian aerial threats.
As such, a defense
architecture that has been
assembled for years by the
United States, Israel and
Arab states shined.
ISRAEL’S RESPONSE
An Israeli response against
Iran was a certainty. The fact
that Iran launched its attacks
from its own soil means
that Israel had to direct
its response at targets on
Iranian soil.
Israel had a range of
options at its disposal. The
Israeli War Cabinet balanced
its response options against
Iran with the need to move
in on Hamas’ last bastion
of Rafah in Gaza, and a
potential escalation with
Hezbollah in Lebanon. These
factors helped shape the
Cabinet’s plan: Israel chose a
succesful limited retaliatory
strike on an Iranian airbase
that was situated to defend a
nuclear facility, rather than
broader operations that could
target Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel must pursue its
core security interests based
on the realization that
international legitimacy is
fickle, waxing and waning in
the space of days and even
hours. Since Israel made
good on its duty to fight
back against its enemies, its
allies will respect it more,
despite public posturing.
Yaakov Lappin is an Israel-based
military affairs correspondent and ana-
lyst. He is the in-house analyst at the
Miryam Institute; a research associate
at the Alma Research and Education
Center; and a research associate at
the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic
Studies at Bar-Ilan University. He is
a frequent guest commentator on
international television news networks,
including Sky News and i24 News. This
piece was updated by the JN to reflect
Israel’s April 19 retaliation against Iran.