The defense establishment hopes to reduce missile fire sufficiently that Iran no longer succeeds at causing casualties, more similar to the Yemeni Houthis’ missiles.
Although there was a spike in Iranian ballistic missile threat sirens on Saturday, sending millions of Israelis into their safe rooms and bomb shelters throughout the day, the IDF said that it had destroyed 75% of Iran’s missile launchers.
The 75% number is a jump from 65% just two days ago, showing continued progress.
At the same time, IDF sources have not expressed any certainty about fully stopping Iranian missile fire in the near future.
A more modest hope may be to reduce missile fire sufficiently that Iran no longer succeeds at causing casualties, more similar to Yemen Houthi missiles, which disrupted daily life from 2023 to 2025, but rarely caused casualties.
Further, IDF sources said that Saturday saw a continued drop in the number of missiles fired to below 15, possibly close to 10, from a rate of 100 on the first day of the war and 20-25 in recent days.
Anti-missile batteries fire interception missiles toward incoming ballistic missiles launched from Iran, as seen over Tel Aviv, during the war with Iran and ongoing missile fire toward Israel, March 7, 2026. (credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG/FLASH90)
There were also no reported massive hits in Israel on Saturday, in contrast to the early days of the war when there were multiple such hits.
The IDF updated that over 200 ballistic missiles have been fired on Israel since the start of the war.
While the latest update said 80 missiles were fired on the first day, earlier top IDF sources had put the number at around 100.
There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.
On the second day of the war, missile fire dropped to 60.
From the third day of the war onward, the latest IDF update said fewer than 20 missiles have been fired on Israel per day, though an earlier senior source had said the numbers were between 20 and 25.
3,100 residences have been sufficiently damaged to require evacuation.
IDF destroys between 300 and 415 Iranian missile launchers
There is still some confusion about how many missile launchers Iran had at the start of the war to fire their estimated 2,500 missiles.
Data collected by The Jerusalem Post would put the number at between 400 and 550 launchers.
This would mean that between 300 and 415 launchers have been neutralized, with an estimated half of those destroyed and half cut off from use, such as caving in their launch areas.
Hezbollah has also launched around 200 threats, including over 160 rockets, with 42 drones launched from Iran and 43 drones launched by Hezbollah.
IDF Chief Spokesman Brig. Gen. Efi Deffrin said that there is no clear coordination between Iran and Hezbollah regarding their aerial attacks, but that they are trying to coordinate to some extent, and have sometimes succeeded.
Deffrin said that the IDF started the war targeting air defenses, top Iranian leaders, and ballistic missile sites, but then moved on to targeting a wider array of the missile apparatus, and then moved on to striking a wider range of regime forces and command centers.
IDF targets IRGC, Hezbollah in massive air raid
A fleet of over 80 Israel Air Force fighter jets completed another wave of strikes targeting infrastructure belonging to the Iranian regime in Tehran, which included the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Air Force situation room, which was key to the air defense systems in Iran and was located in the heart of Tehran, the IDF announced early Saturday.
The strikes also targeted 16 aircraft belonging to the elite Quds Force that were being used to transfer weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the military said.
An earlier IDF statement said that several military sites were struck, including the main IRGC military university, the Imam Hossein University, which was used for the training of IRGC officers and as an emergency asset, and, most recently, an IRGC assembly compound during Operation Rising Lion.
The IDF also revealed that it had struck sites in Parchin and Shahrud, the two main areas where the regime produces its ballistic missiles and additional weapons.
“Over the past week, hundreds of Israeli Air Force fighter jets, acting on IDF intelligence, struck two of the Iranian terror regime’s main production sites,” the military said.
Among the targets were factories producing explosive materials for ballistic missile warheads, complexes producing unique raw materials for missile engines, a missile engine mixing and casting facility, and a complex used for the research, development, assembly, and production of advanced cruise missiles.
Tobias Holcman contributed to this story.