Israel estimates 1,000 Iranian missiles still threaten it as war grinds into second month

A Thai agricultural worker examines the tail of an Iranian ballistic missile that hit near a cow barn in the Israeli settlement of Shadmot Mehola, in the West Bank.

Photo: EPA Israel has assessed that Iran still has more than 1,000 missiles capable of reaching it, while Hezbollah’s arsenal in Lebanon includes as many as 10,000 shorter-range rockets, according to military briefings cited by Israeli media on the weekend.

In an interview with Channel 12, an Israeli air force officer provided the tally of remaining Iranian ballistic missiles in what appeared to be an official break from earlier refusals to disclose estimates of Tehran’s arsenal.

The estimate of 8,000 to 10,000 rockets in Hezbollah hands was reported by Israel’s Army Radio.

Given the current rates of fire by Iran and its ally Hezbollah, more than five weeks into the conflict, the estimates imply potentially months more fighting - even though Israel and the US insist their core objectives were being achieved.

Iran and Hezbollah do not comment on the size of their weapons caches.

Neither has shown signs of backing down. “A great deal of resources would have to be invested to bring that down to zero.

In all honesty, I have to tell you that it won’t reach zero,” the air force officer, an intelligence lieutenant-colonel whose name was withheld under customary regulations, said of Iran’s ability to keep firing.

First responders at the site of a projectile impact in northern Israel.

Photo: Reuters Iran before the war was believed to have about 2,000 intermediate-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel, two senior Israeli officials told Bloomberg earlier on condition of anonymity.

More than 500 have since been launched at Israel and others destroyed on the ground, according to the IDF.

At least 19 people have been reported dead in Israel during this latest conflict.

On Monday, Israeli firefighters were searching for two missing people in the rubble of a residential building in the northern city of Haifa after it was struck by an Iranian missile that killed two others.

Tehran has been firing missiles from dozens of tunnel silos in remote mountain regions that are proving hard to destroy pre-emptively, the air force officer told Channel 12. “I’m not sure we’re capable of doing much more” to stem the salvoes, he added.

Israel has been waging a parallel campaign in neighbouring Lebanon to drive back Hezbollah, Tehran’s guerrilla ally, which reignited that front with cross-border r

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