Name: Israel will respond to Iran attacks, Israeli official says
Uploaded: 2024-02-03T03:15:05.000Z
Duration: 3 min 54 s
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We have reporters and analysts in place covering all of these breaking developments for us and we're going to begin with NBC's Raf Sanchez once again from Israel.

Raf, welcome. What's the latest we're hearing from Israeli officials?

So, Alex, in just the last few minutes, Israel's Defense Ministry says the Defense Ministry here spoke to Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defense.

It is the third phone call between these two men in a little over 24 hours.

They were actually speaking as that attack was underway last night.

The Israeli Defense Minister expressing appreciation to the United States for the role that American forces played in intercepting those drones and missiles on their way towards Israel.

But you can bet that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also raising the same point that President Biden did to Prime Minister Netanyahu, which is that the US does not want to see further escalation beyond what is already happening.

Now, Israel's war cabinet concluded a little earlier this evening after several hours of deliberation about what Israel will do next.

An Israeli official tells me Israel will respond, but that no final decisions were made at that meeting about the timing of that response or the scale of that response.

It could be a military response. It could be, as you just raised with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, some kind of cyber response.

And it is not clear that Israel feels it needs to retaliate immediately.

There is a little bit of breathing room for Israeli decision-makers at this point because the scale of the damage was so limited here in Israel.

In just the last hour or so, the military has put out what it says are images of damage to Nevatim Air Base down in the South.

That is the base where several of those ballistic missiles got through Israeli air defense.

That looks like relatively minor damage, judging by what the military point put out.

They are saying that there was no interruption to operational activity at that base, which is home to a big part of Israel's F35 Fleet.

But the Biden Administration, the world, will be very, very closely watching to see what decisions Israel comes to in the coming hours, in the coming days.

It's worth noting, Alex, we have not heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in public since last night's attack, in anything other than the form of a very short tweet last night. Alex.

Really quickly, as you talk about that Air Base that was attacked, it didn't do anything to hinder its operations and its ability to defend itself, correct?

That's what the Israeli military is saying.

They have put out footage of Israeli F-35s taking off from that base,

and they put out images that show what appears to be a crater off to the side of the runway and then some damage to the runway itself or to some sort of paved surface inside of that air base.

They're saying there was some structural damage to buildings, but they're saying no damage to any of those F35s or other aircraft at that base.

Okay, Raf Sanchez is always excellent reporting. Thank you for that, my friend.