Iran plans ‘strong and complex’ attack on Israel as Khamenei vows ’harsh retaliation’ | What we know so far

Iran is planning a counterattack on Israel involving more powerful warheads and other weapons, the Wall Street Journal reported citing Iranian and Arab officials.

This comes a day after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed a harsh retaliation to Israel’s October 26 attack.

The WSJ report also citied officials as saying that Iran isn’t planning to limit its response to missiles and drones. However, WSJ noted it remains to be seen whether the threats are real.

Here's what we know so far:

• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Sunday the country will “certainly” launch a new attack against Israel.
• “Details cannot be discussed, but it will certainly be carried out,” Ali Fadavi, the IRGC’s deputy commander in chief, was cited as saying by the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency (INSA).
• The possible attack is expected to be named Operation True Promise 3, in line with previous missile strikes on Israel in April and October, said INSA.

• On Saturday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Tehran and its regional allies would deliver a “crushing response” to Israel, as well as the US.
• Israel’s October 26 attack, using more than 100 fighter jets on military targets across Iran, killed five people, including a civilian.
• Israel’s military said an elite commando unit captured “an Iranian terror network operative” in Syria.

• The operation in southern Syria “took place in recent months” and thwarted a future attack, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement, without providing specifics.
• Ali Soleiman al-Assi, a Syrian citizen, was detained for interrogation, the statement said, adding his “activities included gathering intelligence on IDF troops in the border area for future terror activity.”
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the border with Lebanon on Sunday, saying his focus was trying to keep Hezbollah from rearming itself through the “oxygen lifeline” of Iranian weapons transferred to Lebanon via Syria.
• Israel said its campaign in Lebanon aims to push Hezbollah away from the border and put an end to more than a year of fire by the group into northern Israel.

• Israel's strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 2,500 people over the past year. In Israel, 69 people have been killed by Hezbollah projectiles.
• Meanwhile, on Sunday, Hezbollah said it launched a barrage of missiles at an Israeli military base in the northern coastal city of Haifa.
• The Iran-backed group said in a statement that it had targeted "for the first time the technical base of Haifa, affiliated with the Israeli air force" with a barrage of missiles.
• This comes after Hezbollah earlier claimed a drone attack on another military base south of the city.
  
  (With agency inputs)