IAF commander: Iran launched 32 missiles toward Israel in early May

Israel Air Force Commander Maj.-Gen.Amikam Norkin said Tuesday that Iran launched 32 missiles toward Israel in early May.

“Iran launched 32 missiles and we intercepted 4 of them and the rest fell outside Israeli territory,” Norkin said at the IAF senior Air Force Conference in Herzilya on Tuesday.

The IDF had said earlier that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp’s Quds Force had launched 20 Fajr-5 and Grad missiles towards Israel’s front defensive line in the Golan Heights.

According to Norkin, Syria fired over 100 anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli jets and in response Israel destroyed the anti-aircraft batteries.

Israel struck 50 mainly Iranian targets in Syria.

According to Norkin, Israel has been “managing a campaign against Iranian forces, especially on Israel’s northern border” for the past two years.

Israel had been preparing for a direct attack from the Quds force since mid-April in response for a strike allegedly carried out by the Jewish state against an Iranian operated airbase in Syria which killed seven IRGC soldiers.

The night before the missile salvo, the military instructed local governments to open bomb shelters to residents of the Golan Heights following the identification of “abnormal movements of Iranian forces in Syria.”

The army raised preparedness of “troops for an attack” and deployed air defenses in the several locations in the north of the country.

During the Israeli retaliation, the Syrian regime fired dozens of air-defense missiles from Sa2, Sa17, Sa22 and SA5 missile batteries. No Israeli jets were hit and all returned to base safely.

The IAF had received extensive intelligence several days earlier about the Quds Force in Syria planning an attack on Israel and carried out a preventative strike on a base in Kisweh outside Damascus, effectively thwarting the attack. It is believed that due to that strike Iran carried out their backup plan, launching the 32 Fajr-5 and Grad missiles towards Israel at midnight.