Israel will be wiped out in a major attack ‘at the right time’, IRGC General says

A high-ranking general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has said that a third large-scale missile attack on Israel will wipe out the country and destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa.

“Operation True Promise 3 will be carried out at the right time, with precision, and on a scale sufficient to destroy Israel and raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground,” General Ebrahim Jabbari said.

In 2024, Iran launched two large-scale missile and drone attacks against Israel, but with limited success.

Israeli air defenses, combined with intervention from the US and other allies, intercepted most of the projectiles, preventing significant damage.

The general, who is an adviser to IRGC chief commander Hossein Salami, was speaking on Thursday to paramilitary forces during ongoing drills, dubbed “The Great Exercise of Prophet Mohammad's Power.”

Jabbari claimed that “the United States can do nothing against Yemen.” He added that the resistance fronts in Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine are at the peak of readiness, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also ordered to increase the range of missiles.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said on X that it took the threat seriously and was prepared to defend itself.

“If the Jewish people have learned anything from history, it is this: if your enemy says his goal is to annihilate you—believe him,” Sa’ar said, citing Iran International’s original article on Jabbari’s threat.

“We are ready."

Tehran faced significant setbacks in the region in 2024, including Israeli operations that severely weakened Hezbollah in Lebanon and the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. In October, an Israeli airstrike reportedly delivered a decisive blow to Iran’s Russian-supplied air defense system.

Since Donald Trump took office in the United States, Tehran has grown increasingly insecure, issuing repeated warnings against further attacks. It has also conducted continuous military drills since early January.

General Jabbari at length praised IRGC Quds Force former commander Qasem Soleimani and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed by a targeted Israeli air raid last September.

They were “teachers who trained a whole generation of younger commanders,” he said.

Praising what he called their devotion to Khamenei, he said, “These martyrs believed their success lay in absolute obedience to the Supreme Leader.”