Israel launches air strikes against Iran

Israel has launched air strikes against Iran, including targets in Tehran, in the latest salvo in an escalating conflict between the regional foes that has stoked fears of an all-out war in the Middle East.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck military facilities such as missile manufacturing plants and air defences during the attack in the early hours of Saturday. The assault was in retaliation for the missile barrage Iran fired at Israel three weeks ago.

Iran’s air defence headquarters said that Israel had targeted military bases in Tehran as well as in the south-western province of Khuzestan and the western province of Ilam. It said Iranian air defence systems “successfully confronted the aggression”, adding that there had been “limited damage” at some sites.

The Iranian army said on Saturday that two soldiers were killed “while countering the projectiles from the criminal Zionist regime”.

Explosions were heard in Tehran and Iranians on social media described multiple blasts that rattled the capital.

The US had pressed Israel to avoid striking Iran’s nuclear sites or oil facilities as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government prepared its response to the Iranian ballistic missile attack on the Jewish state three weeks ago.

The White House had been notified of the strikes in advance but did not participate in the attack, a senior US administration official said. A White House official said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the attack. Vice-president Kamala Harris, who is in Texas for a campaign rally less than two weeks before the US presidential election, was also briefed.

After Israel declared the assault over, the Biden administration said Israel’s response should mark the end of the latest cycle of attacks between the foes. The US has conveyed this message directly and indirectly to Tehran, the official said.

“This should be the end of this direct exchange of fire between Israel and Iran,” a senior administration official said.

If Iran responds, Washington will defend and support Israel and “there will be consequences”, the official added.

Iran’s foreign ministry called the strikes a “blatant violation of international law”, adding that the republic “considers it its right and duty to exercise legitimate self-defence against foreign acts of aggression”.

In a statement the ministry called on the international community to rein in Israeli aggression by halting the “genocide, war and aggression against Gaza and Lebanon”. 

Arab states, including Iran’s traditional regional rival Saudi Arabia, also condemned Israel’s attack, with Riyadh describing it as a “violation of international laws”.

Iran state media sought to portray a sense of normality in the hours after the strikes.

State television broadcast images of various cities and towns resuming routine activities on Saturday morning, the start of the working week in Iran. The sports ministry announced that scheduled events would proceed as planned while privately owned businesses opened and schools welcomed students.

Iran launched more than 180 ballistic missiles against Israel on October 1 in what it said was a response to the Israeli assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanese militant group Hizbollah, in an air strike on Beirut.

The attack was considered far more severe than a previous Iranian assault on Israel in April that involved hundreds of missiles and drones, but which was clearly telegraphed.

That was the first direct attack on Israel from Iranian soil and came after an Israeli strike on the Islamic Republic’s embassy compound in Syria killed several senior Iranian commanders. But it caused limited damage and most of the projectiles were intercepted.

Israel responded with a missile strike on a military base near the Iranian city of Isfahan and that tit-for-tat exchange was contained.

But this month’s Iranian barrage was launched with little notice and was aimed at multiple targets including an intelligence base just north of Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub.

Israel’s retaliatory attack was, as expected, far larger than its response in April. The region will now be braced for Iran’s next move. Tehran has signalled that it does not want an all-out war but has also vowed to retaliate if attacked.

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi this week warned Israel that the Islamic regime would “respond in kind” to any attack.

The Israeli military said all its war planes returned safely, and that it was ready to conduct defensive and offensive action. However, it did not issue any new restrictions to Israeli citizens, suggesting it did not expect an imminent Iranian retaliation.

The escalation comes as Israel is fighting on multiple fronts, with its forces still battling Hamas in Gaza and widening the offensive against Hizbollah, Iran’s most important proxy, in Lebanon.

Israeli air strikes also targeted several military sites in central and southern Syria in the early hours of Saturday, the Syrian state news agency Sana reported. It added that several explosions were heard around the capital Damascus.

Israel has stepped up its strikes on Syria, where Iranian forces, Hizbollah and other Tehran-backed groups that have supported the Assad regime during its civil war were stationed.

It also launched more air strikes on Lebanon overnight.

Regional hostilities between Israel and Iran and the militant groups it backs erupted after Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on southern Israel.

This month, the US sent an advanced antimissile system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery, to bolster Israel’s air defences. On Thursday, US Central Command said multiple F-16 fighter aircraft had arrived in the region as part of US efforts to support Israel if Iran decides to respond.