Explainer: What are scenarios and likely targets of retaliatory strike on occupied al-Quds? 

By Ivan Kesic

Almost three weeks since the assassination of Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and high-ranking Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, the options are being weighed for the retaliatory military operation against the Zionist entity.

The retaliatory operation is most likely to be severe and unprecedented, as sources tell the Press TV website, although the precise timing and nature of the response remains shrouded in mystery.

Among the potential targets include Tel Aviv, Haifa, and the occupied al-Quds (western Jerusalem), as the Press TV website previously analyzed the most likely targets in these occupied territories.

The occupied al-Quds or western Jerusalem is home to a number of important military and intelligence sites belonging to the Israeli regime that could be easily pounded with long-range missiles.

A significant target, according to our analysis, is the complex of Israeli military buildings in the Givat Ram neighborhood, which houses the Knesset (Israeli regime’s parliament), the war affairs ministry building, the prime minister's office and its associated intelligence agencies.

The latter two are located on Kaplan Street, in the immediate vicinity of Leyada High School and the western residential districts, as can be seen on the map.

About 750 meters east of this complex, at the junction of Smolenskin and Balfour streets, is the official residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, known as the Aghion House.

The Israeli media has also reported about the existence of an underground bunker in the occupied city, known as the “National Management Center,” whose exact location remains unknown, but it is likely located under the aforementioned regime complex.

This site serves as a safe haven for senior Israeli regime leaders who can remain hidden there for an extended period in the event of war and was prepared by the internal military service Shin Bet.

According to these reports, an underground bunker in the occupied al-Quds is connected by secure communication to the ministry of war affairs headquarters and its underground bunker in Tel Aviv, as mentioned in the previous Press TV analysis.

Of particularly great importance are the Ofrit and Ora SIGINT bases, where the Israeli spy agency Unit 8200 intercepts, collects, deciphers and analyzes signal intelligence (SIGINT) throughout the region.

Unit 8200 operates a number of such bases across the occupied territories, many of which are strictly classified, but some of its principal locations have been disclosed in public or official media.

A large number of these sites have been revealed in recent months thanks to Hezbollah strikes on SIGINT bases in the occupied Golan Heights and northern occupied Palestine.

Other known military bases are in the city of Herzliya, Camp Moshe Dayan in Ramat HaSharon, between Tel Aviv and Herzliya, huge Urim Base in the Negev Desert, and important clandestine sites on the Mount Avital and Mount Hermon, both on the occupied Golan Heights.

The SIGINT facilities in those bases intercept international phone calls, emails, regional telecommunication satellites, maritime communications and undersea cables, so they are of crucial importance for identifying and locating the targets of assassinations carried out by the regime.

The Ofrit SIGINT Base is located on Martin Buber Street in occupied East al-Quds, just across the Green Line, on Mount Scopus, one of the highest points in the city, offering the best vantage point to receive and transmit signals to space satellites.

It is only 100 meters east of the Hebrew University campus, one of the regime’s leading institutions of higher learning, and just as far south of densely populated residential areas.

This base was accidentally exposed in early 2014 when Israeli military correspondent Ronen Bergman mentioned it on Israeli television, after which the segment of the reportage was quickly censored.

Bergman had revealed the so-called “National Security Agency” maintained a secret facility in the occupied al-Quds that monitored all US satellites, after which it became clear that a major US spy agency collaborates so closely with Israeli intelligence that it maintains a joint facility with it.

It also disclosed that there was a secret agreement allowing the Israeli regime to share in all intelligence information produced as part of the Five Eyes network, a powerful intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US.

Despite the regime's efforts to censor information and high-resolution satellite imagery, leaking data and topographical position suggest that it was used for telecommunications interception of the occupied West Bank and eastern neighbors in the region.

In 2018, independent analysts such as Richard Silverstein reported that SIGINT equipment was moved from Ofrit Base to the new Ora Base, after which the former became the headquarters for a unit of the Israeli military’s “Home Command” and the army radio station.

The reason for this was not given, but the possibilities are that it became too exposed to Palestinian strikes after its function was exposed, or the controversy that a joint US-Israeli spy base was stationed in occupied East al-Quds and thus violated US foreign policy not to ratify Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories conquered in 1967.

The new Ora SIGINT Base is located 10 kilometers to the southwest, deeper in the occupied territories, but the altitude is even higher and again provides an excellent position for intelligence surveillance of the eastern areas.

The intelligence facilities are located a few meters from the illegal Israeli settlement built on the former Palestinian village of al-Jura, ethnically cleansed by Zionist gangs in 1948.

Other military-intel facilities include the Har Nof base and Camp Anatot in occupied east al-Quds, a notorious detention center where innocent Palestinian civilians are frequently held and abused.

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