Iran has begun focusing on striking high value targets inside Israel, which may indicate a decline in its missile stockpile, according to military expert Brigadier General Nidal Abu Zeid.
Tehran has stopped announcing the number of missiles it launches toward Israel and now limits itself to declaring that attacks have taken place. At the same time, it has begun publicly stating that it is targeting sensitive military facilities, Abu Zeid said in an analysis for Al Jazeera.
According to the trajectory of the conflict, Iran may be approaching or has already reached the peak of its military operations. From this perspective, the country appears militarily exhausted, leaving it with limited options: either flatten the level of operations or retreat toward collapse, the military expert explained.
Evidence for this, according to Abu Zeid, lies in what he described as the “night of fire” that occurred the previous night. The events indicated that Iran activated all its available pressure tools, including the Strait of Hormuz, missile strikes, and allied forces, while also signaling the possible use of what has been described as a new strait card.
On Wednesday, the Lebanese movement Hezbollah carried out a large scale diversionary operation across an area with a radius of 110 kilometres through three operational levels:
Short range missiles reaching the Shebaa Farms.
Medium range missiles reaching Glilot.
Long range missiles reaching Tel Aviv.
According to Abu Zeid, Hezbollah’s diversionary operation on behalf of Iran indicates a decline in Iran’s missile stockpile, which had been used extensively since the beginning of the war.
Earlier on Thursday, Tehran announced that it had targeted the Palmachim Air Base, the Ovda base, and the headquarters of the Shin Bet security service. Abu Zeid said this reflects Iran’s ability to take advantage of Hezbollah’s operations, which distracted Israeli defence systems of various types.
At the same time, the Israeli and American sides are also facing depletion in interceptor ammunition, which carries extremely high financial costs. According to the expert, intercepting a single missile requires launching two interceptors with a cost exceeding eight million dollars.
If these reports are accurate, Tehran has begun focusing its attacks on high value military sites, including intelligence and communications centres. Among them is the C4I centre, which Abu Zeid described as the “intelligence brain” of Israel.
