The Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed in a report published on Monday a gap between official Israeli statements following the June 2025 operation and the current reality, indicating that Iran had largely rebuilt its missile stockpile prior to the outbreak of the latest military escalation.
According to the report, the Israeli occupation army estimates that Iran possessed approximately 2,500 ballistic missiles at the beginning of the war, around 500 fewer than it had at the outset of the June conflict known as Operation Rising Lion.
A statement by the spokesperson for the occupation army claimed that the June war deprived Iran of hundreds of missiles and prevented the production of at least 1,500 additional missiles. Since then, Tehran has reportedly intensified efforts to accelerate the restoration of its production capacity to what was described as dozens of ballistic missiles per month.
The report, attributed to journalist Yaron, noted that the current state of Iran’s arsenal reflects a discrepancy between what occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared at the conclusion of Operation Rising Lion on 24 June 2025, when a government spokesperson claimed that the occupation state had “removed a dual and direct existential threat” in both the nuclear and ballistic arenas, and the results of the first 48 hours of Operation Lion’s Roar. Those early hours demonstrated that the missile threat had not been fully eliminated despite last summer’s achievements.
Haaretz cited Brigadier General in reserve Ran Kochav, former commander of the Air Defence Division and former spokesperson for the occupation army, as saying that Iran “restored some of its capabilities and drew lessons.” He explained that during the previous operation, the Iranian response took many hours, whereas in the current operation the response came within minutes, with intermittent fire continuing throughout the first 24 hours.
Kochav stated that in the initial phase the Iranians used solid fuel missiles that can be stored in advance, before shifting to liquid fuel missiles, which require longer preparation and often necessitate removing them from concealment sites before launch.
He added that the attacks also included American targets and countries in the region that permit the United States to operate from their territory.
According to Tal Inbar, a researcher at the Missile Defence Advocacy Alliance, Iran had previously boasted of underground launch platforms enabling missile launches without prior warning. He suggested that this capability appears to have been partially damaged by American and Israeli bombardment and was not fully activated during the latest missile barrage.
Security reports in recent months have spoken of Iran increasing its production capacity to hundreds of missiles per month, and indicated that Iran obtained advanced Chinese air defence missiles following the conclusion of Operation Rising Lion.
Kochav further stated that Tehran is conducting negotiations with China to purchase these systems, though an agreement remains distant and the deployment of such batteries would require time, while the risk of downing fighter jets or drones persists.
He remarked that “life is far more complex than the Israeli tendency to view everything as either celebration or failure,” warning of the possibility that US President Donald Trump could declare victory in the coming days and abandon the occupation state, or impose an agreement without achieving the war’s objectives.
In the same context, the newspaper noted that the occupation state did not succeed in fully dismantling Hezbollah’s missile system in Lebanon.
Haaretz also quoted Orna Mizrahi, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and former deputy head of the occupation’s National Security Council, as saying that despite suffering damage to 80 percent of its firepower, Hezbollah still possesses thousands of missiles, rockets and drones.
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