Nevatim is reported to be home to the Israeli Air Force’s most advanced aircraft, including US-produced F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets.

The image shows serious damage to the roof of an aircraft hangar, with a hole torn through it. Another impact appears to have hit a road on the base.

Aircraft are parked in the open and it does not seem from the image that any were damaged in the strike.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged that Nevatim was hit in a statement on Wednesday, but denied significant harm was caused.

The missiles damaged “office buildings and other maintenance areas” at air bases, the IDF said, but described the impacts as “ineffective.”

No soldiers, weapons or aircraft were hit, the IDF said.

Yet there is little doubt Tuesday’s missile strike by Iran caused some surprise in Israel.

Although the US warned it was coming several hours in advance, it was not telegraphed by days like Iran’s first drone and missile barrage in April.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had used Fattah missiles for the first time, which it claimed were “hypersonic” and therefore harder to shoot down.

This is refuted by the Israeli authorities but there is no doubt the missiles arrived quicker than many expected.

The IDF would not reveal on Wednesday what the missile interception rate was, saying this would aid Iran. However, it did say that the country’s air defences had “operated impressively, with high rates of interception”.

Nevertheless it seems unlikely Israel’s air defence system would have allowed the apparent impacts at or near Nevatim and the other two bases if it could have prevented them.