Israel will respond to Iran’s attack, military chief says

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military chief said Monday that Israel will respond to Iran’s weekend missile strike, but did not immediately elaborate on when and how.

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said that Israel is still considering its steps, but he said that the Iranian strike of missiles and attack drones “will be met with a response.” Halevi spoke during a visit to the Nevatim air base, which Israel says suffered light damage in the Iranian attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been huddling with top officials to discuss a possible response to Iran’s attack involving hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.

The Iranian attack on Saturday marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The attack happened less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria that killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building.

The Israeli military says that 99 percent of the drones and missiles launched by Iran were intercepted, with the help of other countries including the United States, Britain and France.

Despite the reported interceptions, Iran has called the attack a success. Iran has long vowed to destroy Israel.

In Washington, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declined to say whether the U.S. had been or expects to be briefed on any Israeli response plans.

“We will let the Israelis speak to that,” he told reporters Monday.

“We are not involved in their decision-making process about a potential response,” Kirby said.

Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel’s six-month war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two terrorist groups backed by Iran, carried out a cross-border attack on Oct. 7 in which 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 250 other were kidnapped.

A deal in November freed about 100 hostages, leaving about 130 in captivity, although Israel says about a quarter of those are dead.

Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 33,700 Palestinians, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says. The ministry’s count doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Israel says it has killed more than 12,000 terrorists during the war.