By Robert Inlakesh

While the deception is expected from Israeli and American officials, the real issue with the use of these numbers and analyses based upon them, is that Western corporate media accept the figures blindly and treat Israel’s military as a credible source.

Israel’s ever-changing estimates about Iran’s missile stockpile, air defense and defense capabilities demonstrate that it has no clear understanding of what Tehran truly possesses. The initial Israeli act of aggression also failed to achieve its goals.

A few days after its June 12 act of aggression against Iran, the Israeli leadership claimed that Iran only continued to possess 1,300 missiles.

A recent CNN article, basing its understanding on Israel’s “military data and expert analysis,” reported that “Iran has fired about 700 of its medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBM) at Israel over the past 14 months, leaving it with anything between 300 to 1,300 left in its stockpile.”

These numbers, other than the number of missiles fired by Iran, are based on guesswork and nothing else. In fact, just using basic reasoning, what the CNN report and Israeli data they cited suggest is that Iran did not produce a single missile to replace any of those it fired, some over a year ago.

Israeli aircraft bombed a site in the Iranian capital, Tehran, soon after US President Donald Trump took to his Truth account to warn Tel Aviv against the move. pic.twitter.com/FY0b97a9Sk

— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) June 24, 2025

Then, on Friday, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu made the claim that Iran still has 28,000 ballistic missiles. Later that same day, the Israeli military’s Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir, claimed that Iran possessed 2,500 ballistic missiles at the start of the Tehran-Tel Aviv war and had launched 500 up until that point.

Only days into the war, Israel began claiming that it had eliminated at least half of Iran’s missile launchers. The number of launchers for anywhere between Iran’s 300 to 28,000 munitions, according to the various Israeli estimates, is said to be only 400. If we are to believe the Israeli numbers for how many launchers have been destroyed, then only 200 launchers remain.

There is no evidence to suggest Israel has taken out 200 launchers, with some of the videos released by the Israeli air force even featuring them striking mock launchers. While it is safe to assume that Israel likely had some success targeting launchers and missile sites, as some evidence has emerged to suggest this, their numbers still don’t add up.

Using basic reasoning, if Iran is militarily advanced enough to be supplying Russia with drones and missiles, also demonstrating its ability to strike Israeli military targets with precision well over a thousand kilometers away, does it make sense for it to keep only 400 launchers? Or have a reserve of only 1,300 ballistic missiles left, especially knowing that the US could launch an attack against it at any moment?

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council hailed Tuesday’s missile strikes—including a deadly hit on Beersheba—as a strategic victory for the resistance, hours before a US-brokered ceasefire took effect.https://t.co/PNCpy2chAN pic.twitter.com/eRaB8ZHMXP

— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) June 24, 2025

The reality is that Israel has no idea how many missiles and launchers Iran possesses, or if it does, it is purposely floating around false estimates for propaganda purposes. 

Similarly, when the genocide against Gaza began on October 7, 2023, the Israelis made various contradictory claims about how many miles of tunnels existed underneath the besieged coastal territory.

The Israeli numbers put out in late 2023 had the Gaza tunnel network set to around 400 kilometers in total. Yet in early 2024, the New York Times published an article citing new Israeli military intelligence sources on the issue, claiming that the length and number of tunnels were much more, stating that they likely ranged between 560-720 kilometers.

In February of 2015, Israeli sources were cited to claim that 100 kilometers of tunnels were found to have been built underneath the Gaza Strip during the 2014 assault on the besieged coastal territory, around a third of which was located on the Israeli side of the separation fence. Israel later claimed to have closed and destroyed all of these tunnels. 

Israel vs. Iran: What a Full-Scale War Would Look Like – Analysis

Throughout the past 20 months of the Gaza genocide, the Israeli military and their US allies have claimed all kinds of figures and percentages for what they claim to have found or eliminated in Gaza. These often contradictory and nonsensical claims have covered everything from the number of Hamas fighters, to RPG rounds, rockets, and tunnels. No proof is ever offered.

This is very similarly the case when it comes to Iran, the Israelis, pro-Israel think tanks, and their American allies, claim to have an enormous amount of knowledge on Iranian weapons. Yet they never present a shred of evidence for what they claim.

When these numbers are thrown around, it’s usually only for propaganda purposes alone, and should be ignored. Meanwhile, Tehran would have no real use in letting anyone know the true size of their arsenal, so the Iranians are unlikely to provide such information themselves. 

While the deception is expected from Israeli and American officials, the real issue with the use of these numbers and analyses based upon them, is that Western corporate media accept the figures blindly and treat Israel’s military as a credible source.

(The Palestine Chronicle)