The satellite image shows Israel’s Nevatim airbase on October 2, 2024, a day after Iran's massive missile attack against the occupying regime.     (Photo by Shehab news agency)

Tehran, October 3 (RHC)-- Satellite images of an aircraft hangar at a key Israeli military airbase for U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets show a large hole in the roof after Iran launched a massive barrage of ballistic missiles against the occupying regime’s bases.

Iran on Tuesday evening launched some 200 ballistic missiles toward the Zionist entity’s military and intelligence bases in a retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation True Promise II, which set off sirens all over the occupied Palestinian territories and sending Israelis to underground shelters.

The much-anticipated operation came in response to the regime’s assassinations of Hamas’ chief Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital of Tehran, Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan, an Iranian military advisory in Lebanon, in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

A report by AP news agency on Wednesday showed satellite images of the Nevatim airbase in southern Israeli occupied territories, revealing significant damage to the roof of several buildings near the main runway, with large debris scattered around the area.

Nevatim houses the Israeli Air Force's most advanced aircraft, including the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets produced in the United States.  This huge airbase with four runways covers about 50 square kilometers and is located in the Negev desert, 15 km east of Beersheba and 12 km north of Dimona.

It hosts three squadrons of US-made F-35 stealth fighter jets, the 140th, 116th and 117th, as well as C-130 transport aircraft, Boeing 707 tanker aircraft and other reconnaissance aircraft.

At least seven different videos show direct hits from 20 to 30 Iranian ballistic missiles, which caused extensive damage to the base and, according to some sources, destroyed over 20 jet fighters.

Separately on Wednesday, the Israeli military acknowledged that some of its airbases were hit in Iran’s missile attack, saying that office buildings and other maintenance areas in the bases sustained damage.

However, it claimed that no damage was caused to fighter jets, drones, other aircraft, munitions, and critical infrastructure.  It also alleged that no harm was caused to the functioning of the Israeli Air Force.

Earlier in the day, Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh confirmed that the operation has been more than 90 percent successful.

“Operation True Promise II was carried out with more than 90 percent success and was fully compliant with international law,” he said.  No civilian sites were among Iran's targets, Nasirzadeh stressed, adding that three military bases and one intelligence and spying base of the Israeli regime were hit.