Israel’s military intends to retaliate “significantly” and swiftly against Iran after the latter fired around 180 missiles at Israel’s territory, but it is still weighing what form this reprisal will take, according to a source briefed on the matter.
Israel is currently examining a range of options to strike back at Iran, and it is still consulting with the U.S. about this.
However, one of those options, the person said, is causing severe financial or economic damage to Iran by striking its lucrative oil fields. The person briefed on the matter spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The source added that the timing of any Israeli strike has also not yet been decided but was expected to be “soon” and would likely not wait for the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah to conclude. That holiday runs from sundown on Wednesday until sundown on Friday.
Attacking Iran’s oil facilities would hurt regular citizens, a move Israel largely has avoided to keep the focus on the country’s leadership, according to a separate U.S. official who discussed potential targets on condition of anonymity.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran “made a big mistake” by attacking Israel “They will understand,” he said. “We will stand by the rule we established: whoever attacks us, we will attack them.”
Iran said it fired its missiles at Israel in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hassan Nasrallah and other top Lebanon-based Hezbollah leaders. Most of Iran’s missiles were intercepted with help from the U.S. military.
The Biden administration has vowed Iran will face “severe consequences” for the airstrike on Israel. President Joe Biden said Wednesday the U.S. will impose sanctions on Iran, saying Iran went “way off the board” with its attack.
Biden held a phone call Wednesday with leaders of other Group of Seven Nations in which the alliance “unequivocally condemned Iran’s attack against Israel,” the White House said.
“There’s going to be some sanctions imposed on Iran,” Biden told reporters before boarding Air Force One to travel to parts of South Carolina and North Carolina to tour damage from flooding caused by Hurricane Helene. He did not elaborate on the sanctions.
When asked whether he supports an Israeli strike on Iran nuclear sites, Biden said: “The answer is no.”
Another option Israel may be weighing as a response to Iran’s missile attack is more assassinations of leaders of Iran’s proxy forces and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the U.S. official said.
For almost a year, Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, has intensified firing of rockets into northern Israel. Tensions on that border have increased since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that killed 1,200 people. Israel responded by launching military strikes on Gaza that have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry.
