Iranian missiles hit Israeli military sites

Satellite © Planet Labs 2024

Iranian missiles hit Israeli military sites, visuals show

Some missiles broke through air defenses to strike or land near at least three Israeli military and intelligence installations.

By Meg Kelly, Imogen Piper and Evan Hill

October 4, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

At least two dozen long-range Iranian ballistic missiles broke through Israeli and allied air defenses on Tuesday night, striking or landing near at least three military and intelligence installations, according to a review of videos and photos of the attack and aftermath.

Videos verified by The Washington Post showed 20 missiles striking the Nevatim air base, in the southern Negev desert, and three striking the Tel Nof base, in central Israel. Analysts told The Post the visuals were consistent with direct impacts on the bases rather than debris from intercepted missiles. Other videos showed that at least two missiles landed near Tel Aviv in Cinema City Glilot, Hod Hasharon, close to Israel’s Mossad spy agency headquarters, leaving at least two craters.

People take shelter in central Israel on Tuesday. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)

The findings raise questions about the full scope of the damage to Israeli military bases and suggest that Iran was more successful in evading Israel’s defenses than in April, when only two munitions eluded air defenses and impacted Israel, according to Post reporting.

The Israeli military said air defense systems identified 180 missiles fired from Iran but did not respond to questions about the number of locations affected by the strikes. The United States and Israel have said that there was minimal damage on the ground, and the Israeli military said Wednesday that its bases were fully operational.

The Pentagon declined to comment on The Post’s findings. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment.

A man holds children as people take cover in central Israel on Tuesday. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)

Three videos synchronized by The Post show a cascade of missiles streaking toward Nevatim air base. A bright flash is seen midair where an Israeli interceptor appears to stop an incoming missile. Fireballs and plumes of smoke rise above the horizon in at least 20 locations where missiles struck the ground, according to a Post analysis of the 30-second videos, which begin after the missiles are in the sky.

“The further away the missile is launched, the greater the margin of error,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California. He added that when Iran previously launched missiles at Nevatim air base in April, half fell within three-quarters of a mile of the base and half fell outside that radius, according to his team’s calculations.

 

The Israeli military has two missile defense systems — Arrow II and Arrow III — that are designed to defend against long-range ballistic missiles like those used by Iran in Tuesday’s attack. Arrow II works after the missile has entered the final phase of its flight, inside the atmosphere, while Arrow III aims to intercept missiles still in space, said Fabian Hinz, an Iran analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Berlin who follows the missile program closely.

Medium-resolution satellite imagery collected by Planet Labs on Wednesday shows what appears to be at least one destroyed building at Nevatim. A high-resolution image of another part of the base shows a large hole in the roof of an aircraft hangar and several impact craters.

Lewis said his team counted 32 strikes on Nevatim alone.

Israeli rescue force members inspect the site where a missile fired from Iran hit a school
building in central Israel on Tuesday. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)

North of the Nevatim air base, a video filmed on the balcony of the Hilton hotel in Tel Aviv shows two missiles speeding through the sky from the east toward Cinema City Glilot, Hod Hasharon, close to Mossad headquarters. One hits the ground, emitting a large flash of light. The other falls into the sea.

A video filmed in the immediate aftermath and published to social media on Tuesday shows a sprawling crater in the middle of a highway, stopping traffic completely. The vehicles closest to the impact are coated in a thin layer of dirt. Some appear to have had their windows blown out.

The missile hit the median of the highway, creating a crater that appears to be roughly 20 feet wide and more than a dozen feet deep, an analysis of video shows. A Post journalist saw a second crater on the same highway.

It was not immediately clear what kind of missiles were used in the attack.

Iran’s state-run Mehr News Agency reported that Ghadr and Emad missiles were used, adding that 90 percent of the missiles hit their targets. The Ghadr and Emad are among the longest-range missiles in Iran’s arsenal. Iran also said it used a Fattah-1 missile for the first time, which it has said can maneuver at high speeds to avoid interceptors.

Another video, first geolocated by open-source researchers and independently confirmed by The Post, shows multiple towers of smoke floating above the horizon line from another barrage of missiles that struck the Tel Nof air base. Bright flashes following a missile impact appear to be a secondary explosion.

A crater is visible on the grounds of a school not far from the base in Gedera, video published to X and confirmed by The Post shows. The school’s wall has pulled away, exposing empty classrooms inside⍐.

Adam Taylor, Missy Ryan, Jarrett Ley and Nilo Tabrizy contributed to this report.