Israel plans massive Iran payback with Middle East on edge

WASHINGTON – Israeli officials staring down all-out regional war tell Axios Israel will launch a “significant retaliation” to Tuesday’s massive missile attack within days that could target oil production facilities inside Iran and other strategic sites.

Why it matters: Israel and Iran have never been closer to opening up a new and far more dangerous front in the war that has engulfed the Middle East.

Iran threatened on Tuesday that if Israel responds with force to the nearly 200 missiles it launched on Tuesday, it will attack again.

If that happens, Israeli officials say all options will be on the table – including strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“We have a big question mark about how the Iranians are going to respond to an attack, but we take into consideration the possibility that they would go all in, which will be a whole different ball game,” an Israeli official said. 

Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel in April was answered by a very limited Israeli strike against an S-300 air defense battery in Iran and ended the exchange of direct attacks.

This time around the Israeli retaliation will be much more significant, Israeli officials said.

The Israeli security cabinet convened on Tuesday at an underground government bunker inside a mountain near Jerusalem.

“The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies. They will understand. We will stand by the rule we established: whoever attacks us, we will attack him,” Netanyahu continued.

A senior Israeli official told Axios one of the reasons a decision wasn’t made at the cabinet meeting was because Israeli officials want to consult with the Biden administration.

While Israel is going to respond on its own, it wants to coordinate its plans with the US because of the strategic implications of the situation. Another Iranian attack in response to an Israeli retaliation would require defensive co-operation with US Central Command, more munitions for the Israeli air force and potentially other kinds of US operational support, the Israeli official said.