Jerusalem officials are indicating that following Tuesday’s unprecedented but ultimately unsuccessful missile attack by the Islamic Republic, Israel seems ready to strike major assets of its top regional enemy — including, perhaps, Iran’s nuclear facilities. 

“This is a grave violation,” the Israel Defense Forces spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, told reporters Tuesday evening after nearly 200 missiles were fired at Israel. “This attack will have repercussions. We have plans, and we will act at the time and place of our choosing.”  

The Israeli response will be “unlike anything we’ve known until now,” an unidentified official told Kan News. Prime Minister Netanyahu, who convened the cabinet at Jerusalem, warned in a videotaped message to the Iranian people Monday that an attack on Israeli soil would trigger a strike on “strategic” targets inside Iran.  

Reports say Israel’s response could involve anything from cyber attacks on Iranian infrastructure to a kinetic attack on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s military assets to a hit on an oil-exporting depot, depriving Tehran of its main source of income. 

Yet Mr. Netanyahu’s warning that “strategic” Iranian assets could be targeted is leading observers to conclude that Israel might attempt to attack the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites. “I think Israel is in a risk-ready mood, so yes, I think it’s possible,” the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, Jason Brodsky, tells the Sun.

“Don’t talk, act,” a top opposition politician, Benny Gantz, a former army chief of the general staff, said Tuesday, adding, “Israel possesses capabilities developed over the years to strike Iran, and the government has full backing to act decisively and with strength.”

After the White House warned Iran of “consequences” if Iran struck Israel, the national security adviser, Jacob Sullivan, made no mention of an American response. Instead, he told reporters that Washington will consult with Israeli counterparts on what he called “severe consequences.”

Perhaps hinting that Israel should moderate its response, he also noted that Tuesday’s attack was “defeated and ineffective.” Iranian reports claim that Tehran alerted Russia and America prior to the attack. The reports could have been an attempt to explain the failure by contending that it was not meant to cause real harm.

The Department of State’s spokesman, Matthew Miller, denied that America received any alert from Iran prior to the attack. For internal consumption, the mullahs themselves boasted of a great success.

“Based on legitimate rights and with the aim of peace and security for Iran and the region, a decisive response was given to the aggression of the Zionist regime,” President Pezeshkian writes in Persian on X. “Let Netanyahu know that Iran is not belligerent, but it stands firmly against any threat. This is only a corner of our power. Do not enter into a conflict with Iran.”

Despite the failed attack, Israelis were in no mood to compromise. “We should never again allow all Israelis to spend hours in bomb shelters,” a former Knesset member and an army colonel, Matan Kahana, said. 

Some 181 ballistic missiles were launched from various sites in Iran toward Israeli territory. Israel’s top emergency medical authority, Mada, reported that there were no Israeli casualties in the barrage. One Palestinian Arab was reportedly killed in the West Bank, as he was hit by debris from a missile that was intercepted. 

 “At this point we don’t see additional aerial threats,” the IDF spokesman, Admiral Hagari, said this afternoon Israel time. Minutes earlier, the military home command sent phone messages to Israelis, advising that they could leave shelters and protected spaces, where they had spent hours prior to and during the attack.

Unlike a similar attack on April 14, which involved several missile types and drones that carried varied payloads, Iran on Tuesday utilized ballistic missiles armed with heavy explosives that could reach Israel from Iran within 15 minutes.

America had beefed up its presence in the region just prior to the Iranian attack that the Pentagon said was almost twice as severe as the one in April. America’s Central Command coordinated allied defenses. Jordan announced it had intercepted missiles over its airspace. 

Yet because of the nature of Tuesday’s missile attack, which came with a much shorter alert time than the one in April, the IDF mostly relied on its own Arrow defense batteries. The Israeli-developed Arrow defense system is designed to intercept long-range incoming projectiles, including in outer space. 

President Biden and Vice President Harris followed the events from the White House situation room. Earlier, administration officials warned of an “imminent” Iranian attack and cautioned the Islamic Republic of “consequences” if it pursued the attack.

Yet, the White House is making clear that it will consult closely with Israel, indicating that Washington might try to minimize the response, fearing further escalation toward an all-encompassing regional war.