Israel has several options if its leaders want to launch retaliatory strikes against Iran, and while western leaders have urged restraint, a significant assault is expected. Possibilities could include strikes against military, economic or even nuclear targets, although Joe Biden said he had told Benjamin Netanyahu’s government the US would not support the last option.
Iran has relatively weak air defences and it is expected it would struggle to prevent Israeli missiles or an air force bombing run, as was revealed on 19 April. Then, Israel, responding to Iran’s previous missile barrage, damaged part of Iran’s best air defence system, a Russian S-300, in the military-industrial city of Isfahan. It was a strike intended to showcase to Iran what Israel was capable of.
