200-Jet Airstrike on 500 Iranian Targets: The Israeli Air Force’s Largest Operation

Jerusalem, 28 February, 2026 (TPS-IL) -- Israel announced details of its Saturday airstrikes against Iranian missile and air defense infrastructure, describing them as the largest operation in Israeli Air Force history.

“Since this morning, some 200 fighter jets, under the direction of Military Intelligence and the Air Force, carried out a broad strike against the missile array and defense systems of the Iranian terrorist regime in western and central Iran,” the Israel Defense Forces said.

“This is the largest strike flight in the history of the Israeli Air Force, carried out after close planning with high-quality intelligence, while synchronizing hundreds of aircraft simultaneously. Air Force aircraft dropped hundreds of munitions on about 500 targets, including defense systems and missile launchers, in several areas throughout Iran. Attacking the defense systems made it possible to expand air superiority in Iranian skies and severely damage the regime’s most central offensive capability — the launch sites in western Iran.”

The IDF said the strikes focused on degrading Iran’s ability to launch missiles toward Israel and on expanding Israeli air superiority over Iranian territory. Among the targets was a site near the northwestern city of Tabriz, which the military said was used by a surface-to-surface missile unit preparing to fire dozens of missiles at Israel’s civilian rear areas.

In a video statement released on Saturday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said the country is facing “a significant, fateful and unprecedented campaign to destroy the capabilities of the Iranian terrorist regime — capabilities that constitute a continuing existential threat to Israel’s security.”

Zamir added, “This is a campaign that will ensure our existence and future here, in the land of our ancestors, for generations to come.”

Israel and the United States launched strikes on Saturday following weeks of escalating tensions.

“We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally … obliterated. We are going to annihilate their navy,” President Donald Trump said in a video statement posted on Truth Social.