Israel has launched direct airstrikes against Iran in a high-stakes retaliatory attack that brings the Middle East closer to a regional war that could draw in the US.
At least seven explosions were reported over the capital, Tehran, and nearby Karaj as well as the eastern city of Mashhad just after 2.30am local time on Saturday, as Israeli jets struck what were described as “military targets” in the country.
It was not immediately clear if that marked the end of the attack. The Wall Street Journal, citing US officials, reported about two hours after the initial salvo that a second wave of strikes had hit Iran.
Iranian media initially appeared to downplay the airstrikes, noting that Tehran’s airport was operating normally. State TV reported several strong explosions heard around the capital, while the state news agency, IRNA, said there had been no casualties. There was no immediate official comment about the source of explosions, which Iranian news outlets reported were under investigation. Air defence systems were activated around the country.
The semi-official Iranian Fars news agency said later on Saturday morning that several military bases in the west and southwest of Tehran had been targeted.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) took the rare step of acknowledging the attack on Iran, in a confirmation that a decades-old shadow war between the enemy states has now firmly moved into the open.
Kan, the Israeli public broadcaster, said dozens of fighter jets were involved in the operation.
“In response to months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the state of Israel — right now the Israel Defense Forces is conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran,” the IDF said in a statement posted to X.
The attacks were widely expected as a retaliation to a missile barrage launched by Iran on 1 October that saw an estimated 180 ballistic missiles fired towards Tel Aviv and military bases, in an unprecedented direct altercation between the two regional enemy states.
Tehran said the unprecedented salvo was fired in support of its Lebanese ally Hezbollah after Israel’s ground invasion, as well as in response to the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s leader, in the Iranian capital in July.
While most of the missiles were shot down, dozens managed to strike the Nevatim airbase, demonstrating that Iran could at least partially penetrate Israel’s sophisticated air defence systems at some of the country’s most highly protected sites. One person was killed in the occupied West Bank.
US president Joe Biden had said that Israel should not target Iranian nuclear or oil facilities in an effort to prevent an escalation of the conflict that could lead to a direct war.
Miscalculation could propel Iran and Israel into full-scale hostilities; the US, Israel’s staunch ally and main arms supplier, is wary of being drawn into the fighting and of negative impacts on the global oil industry.
Before Israel launched the airstrikes on Saturday, Iran had repeatedly warned there were “no red lines” for Iran on the issue of defending itself. Last week, the country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, also indirectly threatened US forces against operating in Israel after Washington dispatched a Thaad advanced missile defence system battery and 100 troops to aid its ally amid the tensions.
However, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander implicitly stated in remarks on Thursday that Tehran would be unlikely to retaliate further if Israel’s attack was considered “limited” and did not cause casualties.
US news outlet Axios reported on Saturday that US and Israeli officials assess that Iran will respond militarily, but in a limited fashion.
In the statement on Saturday, Israel’s military said the attacks were a retaliation for a number of attacks against Israel, including the 7 October 2023 raid by the Iran-allied Palestinian group Hamasin which 1,200 Israelis were killed and another 250 abducted.
Israel responded by launching the war in the Gaza Strip, which has devastated the region and killed at least 42,000 Palestinians. Israel has also launched aerial and ground operations against Hezbollah, another powerful militia in Tehran’s “axis of resistance”, in Lebanon, after a year of tit-for-tat cross-border fire which displaced hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the border. The fighting in Gaza has draw in other Iranian proxies operating in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil. Like every other sovereign country in the world, the state of Israel has the right and the duty to respond.”
Israel is fearful of a costly war of attrition with Iran while it is fighting in Gaza and Lebanon. After Tehran fired its first ever direct salvo at Israel in April in retaliation for the killing of a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander in Syria, Israel heeded western calls for restraint, striking an air defence battery at an Iranian airbase.
The Israeli response this time is expected to be more severe.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said this week that enemies would “pay a heavy price” for trying to harm Israel.
The White House was notified shortly before Israel carried out airstrikes on Iran, a spokesperson said. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had said on Wednesday that Israel’s retaliation should not lead to greater escalation.
“We understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran as an exercise of self-defense and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1st,” said Sean Savett, the White House national security council spokesperson.
There was no US involvement in Israel’s operation in Iran, an anonymous US official told Reuters.
In a possible indication of the scope of Israel’s attack on Saturday, state media in Syria also reported Syrian air defences had intercepted what was described as “hostile targets” and “sounds of explosions” near the capital city, Damascus, without elaborating.