At least five Israeli military facilities were damaged in Iranian strikes during last month’s 12-day war, including a base housing the IDF’s top intelligence unit, according to satellite images obtained by the Telegraph.
Provided by researchers at the University of Oregon, the images “suggest five previously unreported military facilities were hit by six Iranian missiles in the north, south and centre of Israel, including a major air base, an intelligence gathering centre and a logistics base,” the British newspaper reported on Saturday.
The military sites included Camp Glilot – home of the IDF’s 8200 intelligence unit – the Tel Nof airbase, Camp Zipporit in northern Israel, as well as installations near Irtah in the occupied West Bank and the Israeli village of Beit Nehemia.
While the Israel Defense Forces would not confirm any damage to its bases when reached by the Telegraph, an anonymous IDF official later told Reuters that some military sites had been struck, the first such public admission. The official insisted that “very few” bases were hit and that all remained operational, but declined to specify the facilities or the extent of the damage.
Tel Aviv has worked to prevent public disclosure of successful Iranian strikes during the war, claiming such information would only help Tehran to calibrate its targeting. After Israel launched its surprise attack on June 13 – deploying 200 fighter jets in a massive air raid – Iran hit back with hundreds of long-range missiles and up to 1,100 drones.
With US assistance, Israel claims to have downed about 90% of the Iranian projectiles. The Telegraph noted that at least 42 missiles or drones successfully penetrated Israeli air defenses, causing “significant damage to residential and industrial infrastructure” in addition to the five military sites.
Tehran relied on large saturation attacks meant to overwhelm Israel’s layered air defenses, using drone swarms to confuse radar systems, exhaust interceptors, and allow more powerful missiles to reach their targets.
“The main goal of firing [drones] at Israel is always to keep their systems busy,” one Iranian official told the Telegraph. “Many don’t even get through – they’re intercepted – but they still cause confusion.”
Over the 12-day conflict, Washington and Tel Aviv spent billions of dollars shooting down Iranian drones and missiles, with both countries burning through a significant portion of their missile interceptor stockpiles.
Analysis by the Telegraph found that Israeli air defenses became increasingly porous throughout the war. While just 2% of Iranian missiles got through on the first day of fighting, that figure had grown to 16% after one week, even as Tehran carried out fewer strikes. Near the end of the conflict, Israel was forced to ration its interceptors, leaving some areas more vulnerable.
The United States is also facing major shortages of missile interceptors, prompting the Donald Trump administration to briefly halt air defense shipments to Ukraine before resuming the transfers earlier this week.
