on Tuesday 14 January, 2025

After striking Houthis, Israeli pilots say air force ‘is ready to attack Iran now’

IAF F-16I fighter jets prepare to take off from the Ramon Airbase in southern Israel for strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, January 10, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
by : The Times of Israel

Days after carrying out an airstrike mission against the Tehran-backed Houthis in Yemen, Israeli Air Force commanders and pilots told Hebrew media Monday that they were ready to strike Iran directly.

“We will be ready for any scenario or order, even if it is 90 degrees to the east,” one IAF commander told the Walla news site, referring to the location of Iran.

On Friday, the air force struck Houthi targets in Yemen as Israeli officials threatened to hunt down the leaders of the Iran-backed group unless they stopped their drone and missile attacks, which have continued for the past 15 months.

The military said over 20 IAF aircraft — including fighter jets, refuelers and spy planes — participated in the strikes, dropping some 50 munitions on three main targets: the Hodeida and Ras Isa ports on Yemen’s western coast, and the Hezyaz power plant near the capital Sanaa.

The strikes were carried out nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) from Israel.

Speaking to Channel 12, one squadron commander who was involved in Friday’s strikes said: “You can open a map and measure with a ruler. Yemen is further away than Iran. Now do the math. Let’s say, if I were sitting in Iran, I wouldn’t sit calmly. The air force is ready to attack Iran now.”

“We have no limit in terms of capability,” he added.

As the Iran-backed Houthis have continued to attack Israel, some in the Israeli security establishment have suggested striking Iran directly, arguing that the IAF strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen have not done enough to deter the group.

Among those reportedly pushing for Israel to carry out a direct strike against Iran is Mossad chief David Barnea, who recently was said to have told government officials that Israel needs to “go for the head [of the snake], for Iran — if we only hit the Houthis, it’s not certain we’ll manage to stop them.”

The Houthis have fired over 350 drones and ballistic missiles at Israel since October 7, 2023 — when fellow Iran-backed group Hamas stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.

The vast majority of the Houthis’ munitions and financial support comes directly from Iran, although the Islamic Republic denies supplying the Yemeni insurgent group.

Israel is also reportedly considered striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, believing that the US will either back the strikes or will move to strike Iran itself, especially after US President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming inauguration.

In January, US news website Axios reported that White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan had presented President Joe Biden with options for a potential US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if Tehran moved toward developing an atomic weapon before January 20, when Trump takes office.

Iran, which is sworn to destroy Israel, has in recent years increased its manufacturing of enriched uranium, and it is the only non-nuclear weapons state to possess uranium enriched to 60 percent, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said, a short step from the 90% needed for weapons-grade.

Israel has carried out two direct attacks on Iran over the past year in response to Iran’s two unprecedented drone and missile attacks.

In April, Israel hit an air defense battery near a nuclear site in response to a volley of some 300 drones and missiles fired at Israel by Iran.

Israeli warplanes also carried out a counterstrike on October 26, targeting Iranian air defenses as well as its ballistic missile program, striking factories, storage sites, launchers, and research facilities, and targeting one facility believed to be used for the regime’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

A wave of retaliatory Israeli airstrikes on October 26 targeted Iranian air defenses as well as its ballistic missile program, striking factories, storage sites, launchers, and research facilities, and targeting one facility believed to be used for the regime’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

Weeks earlier, on October 1, Iran launched 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, sending most of the population rushing to bomb shelters and safe rooms, causing relatively minor damage to military bases and some residential areas, and killing a Palestinian man in the West Bank.