IDF Chief of Staff Says Next Strike On Iran Could Be Much Bigger

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. General Herzi Halevi posted a video Sunday evening in which he can be seen and heard briefing senior IDF officers on the airstrike which hit Iran the previous day. “We drew upon only some of our abilities,” Halevi said. “We have the ability to do much more. We hit strategic systems in Iran… and we will see how things develop now. We are ready for all scenarios on all fronts. We know how to reach and hit any threat, in any place, at any time.”

The strikes were meant to be in retaliation for Iran's ballistic missile attack on Israel on October 1st, and more generally to punish Iran for it's support of Hamas and Hezbollah and to restore deterrence against it in the region.

Iran is reported to be weighing a response, and even had a volley of ballistic missiles ready to fire at Israel during the strikes on Saturday morning but they decided not to launch them because Israel's destruction of the Russian-built S-300 air defense systems meant Iran would be unable to defend against further Israeli strikes.

A report by Israel's Channel 13 news portal said that Iran's leadership has come to the conclusion that Hezbollah, which it was counting on to deter Israel from attacking them, has largely been neutralized.

However, Iranian officials have continued to make rhetorical threats.

General Hossein Salami, chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, made a thunderous speech on Monday in which he declared, among other things, that Israel's strike had been a failure, and was a sign of Israel's “miscalculation and helplessness” in the face of Iran's military might. He added that the strike would only result in "bitter consequences" for Israel that "will be unimaginable”.

Other Iranian officials issued similar statements.