Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israeli forces attacked petrochemical plants in Iran, which he described as part of the “money machine” that brings income to the “terrorist regime in Tehran,” CNN and The New York Times reported.
The Israeli military has struck several Iranian locations of economic value, such as steel plants and fuel depots, claiming that the Iranian government is using them for military purposes. On Saturday, Iranians reported attacks on petrochemical companies in the southwestern province of Khuzestan.
“We promised you that we would continue to crush the terrorist regime in Tehran and that is what we are doing,” the Israeli prime minister said in a video message late Saturday.
“After destroying 70% of their steel production capacity, which they use as raw material for their weapons against us, today we attacked their petrochemical plants. These two things are their money machine, to finance their war of terror against us and against the whole world,” he continued.
Israel's military reported hitting infrastructure at a petrochemical complex in Mahshahr, southwest Iran, and “two central facilities used to produce materials for explosives, ballistic missiles and other weapons.”
“Damage to this infrastructure is expected to disrupt the regime's ability to use materials produced at the facility to manufacture various types of weapons intended to target the State of Israel,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
The IDF's estimate of Iran's ballistic capabilities
The Israeli military believes Iran still has more than 1,000 ballistic missiles capable of hitting Israel, an Israeli air force intelligence officer told Channel 12.
At the beginning of the war, according to the Times of Israel, the IDF estimated that Iran had 2,500 ballistic missiles. Since then, Iran has launched more than 500 missiles at Israel, and several hundred more have targeted countries in the Middle East.
If on the first day of the war it launched about 90 rockets towards Israel, the rate of fire has decreased in recent weeks to 10-15 rockets per day, the publication also wrote.
