Nearly 20 Israeli warplanes were destroyed in the Iranian attack in October, IRGC commander says

TEHRAN – An adviser to the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says about 20 Israeli F-35 fighter jets were destroyed during Iran’s retaliatory missile strike on the regime’s military targets.

Brigadier General Ebrahim Jabbari revealed this information during a conference in Tehran on Wednesday.

The operation, known as True Promise II, took place on October 1, with Jabbari stating that an impressive 90 percent of the missiles deployed successfully hit their intended targets.

“The IRGC simultaneously conducted cyber and electronic warfare operations to disrupt Israel’s air defense systems, thereby facilitating the effectiveness of missile attacks,” General Jabbari noted.

Highlighting the operation’s significant achievements, General Jabbari stated: “It doesn’t matter where we aimed; What is important is that the enemy’s hollow power has been shattered.”

He stressed that the hangars housing F-35 fighter jets were among the direct targets of the operation, which he said successfully delivered a serious blow to the Israeli Air Force.

He noted that the military and intelligence apparatus of both the Israeli regime and the United States were caught by surprise, despite their extensive defense capabilities.

General Jabbari concluded by noting that now that Israel cannot be drawn into direct conflict, it is resorting to military or economic locations to exact retaliation, which he described as a clear sign of their misjudgment.

This rocket fire was Iran’s response to Israel’s assassination of high-profile figures, including Hamas Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC General Abbas Nilforooshan.

Haniyeh was assassinated on July 31 while in Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iran has reportedly fired around 200 ballistic missiles at various military and intelligence facilities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Although the Israeli regime has threatened retaliation following this attack, Iranian officials have made it clear that any response from Tehran will be calculated, harsh and proportionate to the expected aggression.

Israel began the war on Gaza after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupied territory on October 7, 2023, in response to decades of bloodshed and devastation by the Israeli regime against Palestinians.

The regime’s bloody assault on Gaza has so far killed more than 41,909 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 97,303 others. Thousands more are also missing and are presumed dead under rubble.