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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.