A satellite image analyzed by the Associated Press on Saturday revealed that an Iranian attack on the Negev airbase in Israel last week, part of an unprecedented strike by Tehran, resulted in damage to a runway. Overall, the destruction at the Negev airbase in southern Israel was slight, despite Iran launching hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles. Israeli defenses and fighter jets, supported by the United States and the United Kingdom, shot down the vast majority of them.
However, the Iranian attack demonstrated Tehran's readiness to use its extensive arsenal of ballistic missiles directly against Israel, while tensions continue across the Middle East due to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli retaliatory strike on Isfahan, Iran, on Friday, and Tehran's weak response, seem to indicate a desire from both countries to avoid escalating their covert conflict, although the risks of a broader war in the region remain.
Images from Planet Labs BBC taken on Friday showed a new blackened area on a runway near hangars in the southern part of the Negev airbase, located 65 kilometers south of Jerusalem. The daily Haaretz, which published lower quality images of the site on Thursday, noted that the adjacent hangars house C-130 cargo planes. The satellite image matches a video broadcast earlier by the Israeli military, showing construction equipment working to repair a damaged runway, with the hangar in the background matching that seen in the clip.
Additional images released by the Israeli military revealed a hole in the sand and damage under what appeared to be a wall, which it attributed to the Iranian attack. The slight damage visible at the airbase in the satellite image directly contradicts Iran's efforts to portray the attack as a major victory. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi stated on Friday, "This operation has become a symbol of the strength of the Islamic Republic and its armed forces."
