Operation 'Days of Repentance': Analyzing Israel's military response to Iran

Report by Wissam Nasrallah, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

Israel responded to the Iranian missile attack on Oct. 1 with an operation named "Days of Repentance." However, one key question remains: from which airspace did Israeli jets launch their missiles toward Iranian targets?

This question lingers, as both Jordan and Saudi Arabia have stated they did not permit any military aircraft to fly through their airspace, despite video clips circulating on social media showing what appear to be Israeli jets over Jordan.

The closest point from northern Israel to Tehran is approximately 1,400 kilometers, a distance beyond the range of air-to-surface missiles carried by Israeli fighter jets.

Thus, these jets would need to come within about 900 kilometers of Tehran to enable their AGM-158B missiles, carried by F-35s, to reach their targets—a range consistent with the area between At Tanf and Al Bukamal on the Iraqi-Syrian border, where U.S. forces are stationed.

Supporting this hypothesis is a report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which claimed that at 2 a.m., Israeli warplanes struck Syrian air defenses at the radar battalion in Tel al-Qalib, in Syria’s Al-Suwaidaa province.

So, what happened during the operation? 

Around 2 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 26, successive explosions were heard in Tehran. Meanwhile, the sounds of Syrian air defense interceptors echoed over both Syria and Lebanon.

Half an hour later, the Israeli army announced it was targeting military sites in Iran.

Dozens of Israeli fighter jets struck Iranian military sites in three successive waves. 

In the first wave, Israeli jets targeted Iranian air defenses to clear the way for the next strikes. In the second and third waves, they targeted facilities for missile and drone production, hitting more than 20 locations, according to Axios.

According to the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Defense Force, military facilities in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan, and Ilam were bombed, resulting in the deaths of two soldiers.

By sunrise on Saturday, the Israeli jets returned to their bases. At 6:15 a.m., the Israeli army announced the operation's conclusion, turning what was planned as "Days of Repentance" into mere hours.