Israeli Airstrikes Blunt Iranian Long-Range Ballistic Missile Threat
18th June 2025
Israel’s campaign against Iranian ballistic missiles and their launchers appears to be having an effect. On Tuesday, Iran was able to fire 20 ballistic missiles. That is far fewer than in previous days, which had seen around 370 ballistic missiles unleashed at Israel in total, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). A spokesman for the IDF on Tuesday said this campaign has resulted in Iran pushing back its launchers further from Israel. Operation Rising Lion, Israel’s effort to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and dismantling its military, is now in its fifth day.
“We have delivered significant blows to the Iranian regime, and as such, they have been pushed back into central Iran. They are now focusing their efforts on conducting missile fire from the area of Isfahan,” said Brig Gen. Effie Defrin. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) added that on Tuesday, it “conducted intelligence-based strikes on 12 missile launch sites and storage facilities. These missiles were aimed at Israeli civilians.”
All told, Israel said it has destroyed over 200 ballistic missile launchers, “which is a significant portion of Iran’s arsenal, according to the military,” Times of Israel reporter Emanuel Fabian stated on X. “The strikes on the launchers have disrupted Iran’s attempts to fire more missiles at Israel, but the IDF assesses that Iran still has the capability to launch attacks and cause devastating harm in Israel. “