Since Thursday morning, Israeli residents have entered shelters ten times due to an increasing Iranian effort to strike population centers with cluster missiles.
At the top of Israel’s defense establishment, Defense Minister Israel Katz has defined the destruction of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) surface-to-surface missile array as the highest priority since the beginning of Operation Roaring Lion.
Every day, Katz receives a detailed professional report from the Intelligence Directorate and the air force, evaluating the achievements of strikes on Iranian launchers and missile batteries.
IAF officials emphasize that Iran’s manufacturing industry has been crippled, making it impossible to produce new launchers during the fighting, leading to a significant erosion in its missile-launching capabilities. According to data presented to Katz, Iran is struggling to execute its original plan of launching 100 missiles daily, due to coordination difficulties and a shortage of operational launchers.
Of the approximately 470 launchers, fewer than 180 (40%) remain operational, while the rest are severely damaged or destroyed in airstrikes and many others remain disabled inside tunnels that collapsed due to bombing.
In addition to the physical destruction, the Intelligence Directorate has reported growing Iranian difficulties in operating missile batteries, with increasing signs of refusal among the regime’s launch crews.
The IAF’s operations focus on a "needle threading" technique to target launchers hidden within tunnels, and senior IDF officers have noted that Iran’s strategy of placing the launchers in sprawling tunnel systems has complicated Israel’s detection and destruction efforts.
One of the main concerns, however, lies in the IAF’s ability to respond quickly to launches amid challenges posed by weather conditions and the availability of aerial firepower. To mitigate these risks, the IDF is receiving assistance from the US military.
Preventing Iran from rebuilding
Alongside this systematic "hunt" to locate stationary and mobile launchers, the IDF is monitoring craters left behind by its strikes to ensure the Iranians aren’t restoring the destroyed sites.
In the past, the IDF has even targeted repair efforts to prevent the rehabilitation of missile sites after they’ve been bombed.
While Israel continues to gather intelligence on the IRGC’s core missile capabilities, the question remains: Why has there been an increase in missile launches from both Iran and Lebanon? The answer is Iran’s objective to increase pressure on Israel and the US while negotiations for a ceasefire continue.
Hezbollah’s increased missile launches from Lebanon also align with this goal: the group is seeking to enter negotiations with Iran to reach a ceasefire. Israel strongly opposes this.
A senior security official stressed that Israel insists that any agreement with Iran must address not only the nuclear and missile projects but also terror financing and the tunneling network used to conceal missile launchers.