Israel on Friday struck military targets in Iran, a long-awaited response to what officials in Jerusalem said were months of drone and missile attacks by Iran and its proxy network across the Middle East. The Israeli strikes mark yet another escalation of a Mideast conflict that is now raging across the region.
Explosions were reported in the Iranian capital of Tehran, the city of Karaj, and elsewhere across the country, suggesting that Israel hit a range of targets across a wide area. Israeli military officials said that the pre-dawn strikes, conducted in three separate waves, targeted facilities that Iran uses to make the kinds of missiles fired at Israel earlier this month.
Tehran said the damage to its military sites was limited, though Iranian government officials said that two soldiers had been killed. It does not appear that Israel targeted any of Iran’s nuclear facilities or its oil-production infrastructure, satisfying pleas from the Biden administration to avoid hitting such non-military targets.
The Israeli Defense Forces said that Friday’s strikes against Iran were necessitated by relentless attacks on Israel by Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and, on two occasions, the Iranian military itself. Those attacks have continued in the year since Hamas, another Iran-backed group, launched its Oct. 7 attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.
IDF officials said the strikes were hitting military targets only, suggesting that Jerusalem is going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties in Iran.
After the strikes, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the attacks will help prevent any immediate attacks by Iran against Israel. He also warned Tehran against responding militarily.
“I can now confirm that we have concluded the Israeli response to Iran’s attacks against Israel. We conducted targeted and precise strikes on military targets in Iran — thwarting immediate threats to the State of Israel,” he said in a video posted on X.
“The Israeli Defense Forces has fulfilled its mission,” he said. “If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond. Our message is clear: All those who threaten the state of Israel and seek to drag the region into wider escalation will pay a heavy price.”
Iran’s state-run Mehr News Agency confirmed that “several” explosions were heard in Tehran early Saturday local time.
“The cause of the sounds is not known yet. Reports suggest that some of the loud sounds were caused by the operation of air defense systems,” the news agency reported. “The situation in the capital is calm.”
Hours after the attack, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported that at least two soldiers had been killed in the strikes.
“The army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in defending Iran’s security and protecting the people and Iran’s interests, sacrificed two of its fighters while countering projectiles from the criminal Zionist regime,” the statement said.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying it had a right to self-defense, and “considers itself entitled and obligated to defend against foreign acts of aggression.”
But it’s not clear whether Tehran will, in fact, respond with military force. The limited nature of the Israeli strikes, and the fact that Iran seems to be downplaying their impact, could suggest that Tehran is looking for an off ramp and may want to avoid further direct conflict with Israel.
International flights began diverting around western Iran as news of the strikes broke, flight-tracking data showed.
White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement that “we understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran.” He referred further questions to the IDF. The White House was told about the strikes shortly before they began, according to media reports, and officials said that the U.S. did not have a hand in the attacks.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed on the strikes, White House officials said.
Governments from around the world, including the U.K., Russia and Egypt, expressed concern about the strikes and urged both sides not to escalate the fighting.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaking to reporters on a visit to Samoa, said Saturday morning, “I am clear that Israel has the right to defend itself against Iranian aggression. I’m equally clear that we need to avoid further regional escalation and urge all sides to show restraint. Iran should not respond.”
The Israeli strikes came just hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken left the region. He was in the Mideast again this week pressing for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, a deal aimed at ending a year of fighting in the Gaza Strip and securing the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas.
Separately, there were also reported explosions in Syria on Friday evening, suggesting that the IDF may be targeting Iran-backed militias in that country. Israel also has targeted the Houthi rebels in Yemen on multiple occasions as it seeks to dismantle Iran’s proxy network piece by piece.
Israel’s direct strike on Iran has been expected since Iran fired a barrage of nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel earlier this month. Tehran said that attack was retaliation for the recent killings by the IDF of senior Hezbollah and Hamas officials. Israel recently has killed Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah, Hamas militant leader Yahya Sinwar, and other leaders of Iran’s proxy network, known as the “axis of resistance.”
Israel also has killed key figures in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
A senior Iranian cleric on Friday vowed that Israel will be annihilated if it launches an attack against them.
“The armed forces of the country are the vigilant arms of the Iranian nation and have repeatedly announced that if the criminal Zionist regime makes a mistake, they will be crushed by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Ayatollah Mohammad Khatami said during prayers at Tehran University.
Iran has attacked Israel directly twice this year, the first time in April and again on Oct. 1. In both instances, most of the missiles fired by Iran were intercepted by Israel’s air defense network and with the help of U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers in the region.
Some observers said that given the near-constant attacks on Israel by Iran and its proxies, retaliation was the only option.
“How should a people react when threatened with annihilation by a fanatical neighbor? And what should it do when this neighbor launches 180 missiles, stopped only by a miracle of technology,” noted French intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy said Friday in a post on X. “It does exactly what Israel is doing in Iran, just now. And it is right.”
The Biden administration pushed Israel to restrict its response to Iran’s military targets, rather than the country’s nuclear facilities or oil industry. It appears Jerusalem may have heeded the White House’s request. There is a major nuclear power plant in Karaj, but it does not appear to have been targeted.
The New York Times, citing Iranian officials, said targets of the Israeli strike appeared to be the Russian-supplied S-300 air defense of Imam Khomeini International Airport near Tehran and several military bases operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The IRGC oversees the network of regional allies that have been battling Israel in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere.
The limited response even brought some rare criticism inside Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not been tough enough in his response.
Knesset opposition leader Yair Lapid said the apparent decision to avoid “strategic and economic targets” in the attack was a mistake.
“We could and should have exacted a much heavier price from Iran,” Mr. Lapid wrote on X.
• This article is based in part on wire-service reports.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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