Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [Getty Images]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [Getty Images]

Israel resumed hostilities with Iran 100 days after the war began, launching a large-scale airstrike targeting Iran's air defense systems.

The Israeli military said Monday that the Israeli Air Force had "just completed a large-scale strike targeting Iran's air defense systems," according to a statement released that day.

The military said dozens of IAF fighter jets took part in the overnight operation, striking strategic defense systems across Iran.

It added that Iran had recently redeployed air defense systems throughout the country to restore detection and defensive capabilities degraded during Operation Roaring Lion, and said those systems had been destroyed in the latest strikes.

Earlier, Iran fired 11 ballistic missiles at northern Israel on Sunday in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike on Beirut, the Lebanese capital. It was Iran's first direct attack on Israeli territory since a truce took effect on April 8.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels had also fired missiles at Israel.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard says it struck Israeli industrial facility

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday it had struck a petrochemical facility in Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Iran's petrochemical industry.

The IRGC said the Karun Mahshahr petrochemical complex in Iran's southwestern Khuzestan Province had been hit by an Israeli airstrike earlier that day. Its Aerospace Force had "just struck a similar industrial facility in Haifa" at around 11 a.m. Tehran time, the IRGC said, in response to what it called aggression by "American and Zionist enemies" against Iran's petrochemical industry.

The IRGC went on to say that "the Zionist regime has started a dangerous game by attacking the oil industry and civilian facilities," warning that "the repercussions of this game will expand to all energy facilities in the region."

It also said the United States, which it called the primary instigator of the conflict, bore responsibility for the economic consequences the escalation could have on the global economy.


yul@heraldcorp.com