WASHINGTON ― Israel’s military said early Saturday it had completed a series of retaliatory airstrikes against Iran in response to an Iranian missile attack, a move that continued to push the Middle East to a more dangerous and multi-front phase of conflict a year after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state.
“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,” Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. “Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond.”
Iran’s authorities may not reveal the precise nature and impact of Israel’s attack and whether it was limited to military targets or included facilities linked to Tehran’s nuclear program, which could trigger a major response from Iran. Israel said that based on intelligence, its aircraft hit missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at Israel over the past year and that posed “a direct and immediate threat to the citizens of Israel.”
The IDF also said it struck surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities that were intended to restrict Israel’s aerial freedom of operation in Iran.
“The mission was fulfilled,” the military said.
Iranian state media said Israel’s attacks did not cause any major damage.
In Washington, President Joe Biden told reporters he was notified in advance of the attack. “I hope this is the end,” he said of the conflict between the two countries.
A senior administration official said the U.S. did not take part in the military operation.
“It is our aim to accelerate diplomacy and de-escalate tensions in the Middle East region,” said Sean Savett, spokesman for the National Security Council. “We urge Iran to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation.”
He referred other questions to the Israeli government.
The White House said Biden had been briefed by his national security team on Israel’s military operations and was closely following the latest developments. Vice President Kamala Harris also was briefed and monitoring the attacks, the White House said.
Strong explosions heard around Tehran
A U.S. senior administration official described the Israeli strikes as extensive, targeted, precise and directed at military targets across Iran.
Iran’s state TV reported several strong explosions were heard around the capital, Tehran. Semi-official Iranian media said explosions were also heard in the nearby city of Karaj.
The Israeli airstrikes also targeted some military sites in Syria’s central and southern parts, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported.
Syrian air defense forces intercepted missiles launched by Israel “from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the Lebanese territories” and shot down some of them, SANA added.
Earlier on Saturday, SANA reported explosions in the vicinity of Syria’s capital Damascus.
Escalating tensions between Israel and Iran
Israel’s operation came after Iran fired around 180 missiles at Israel on Oct. 1 in what Tehran described as a retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hassan Nasrallah and other top Lebanon-based Hezbollah leaders. Most of Iran’s missiles were intercepted with help from the U.S. military. A Palestinian man was killed in the West Bank.
An all-out war between arch-foes Israel and Iran has been threatened for decades.
But the two regional powerhouses have been caught in an escalatory spiral after Hamas attacked communities in southern Israel last year, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 251. Israel responded by launching a war in the Gaza Strip that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, laid waste to Gaza and sparked an uptick in military actions against Israel by groups that Iran trains, funds and supplies with weapons to promote its interests.
These groups, sometimes referred to as Iran’s “axis of resistance,” include Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, Houthis rebels in Yemen and various Iraq-based militias. Among their shared interests with Iran are opposition to the state of Israel and a desire to drive western powers, chiefly U.S. troops, from the Middle East.
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Iran launched a barrage of more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel in April. With U.S. and western allies, Israel shot down almost all of them. Over the summer, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated by a bomb hidden in the wall of a government guest house in Tehran. Israel is believed to be behind the assassination.
Yahya Sinwar, the elusive leader of Hamas regarded as the mastermind behind group’s brutal attack on Israel last year, was killed last week during an Israeli military operation in Gaza. His body was found in the rubble of a building. DNA testing confirmed his identity.
In recent weeks Israel launched what it characterized as a “limited” ground operation inside Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure. Israel’s new strikes on Iran mean it is effectively fighting a war on multiple fronts against a web of non-state and state actors spread across four countries: Iran, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.
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In Washington, a senior administration official said that Israel has signaled the retaliatory attacks against Iran should mark the end of the direct exchange of fire between the two countries. The official said the U.S. has multiple direct and indirect channels of communication with Iran where it has made its position clear.
While the U.S. was not involved in the attacks, it stands ready to defend Israel should Iran choose to respond, the official said.
Iran has said it reserves the right to respond to Israel’s attack. It’s not clear if it will.
Biden had worked with Israelis over the past few weeks to encourage Israel to conduct a targeted and proportional response with low risk of civilian harm, and that appears to be what occurred, the official said.
Biden has ordered the U.S. military to aid Israel in its defense, a move that some national security experts believe risks pulling the U.S. into a war in the Middle East.
Rosemary Kelanic, Middle East director at Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank that argues for a smaller global U.S. military footprint, said that surging more U.S. troops to the region recently has “only encouraged Israel’s brinkmanship and raised the risk of a war with Iran that serves no U.S. interest.”
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Kelanic said that “if the past 20 years of failed policy have taught us nothing else, conflict in the Middle East is quicksand. The more the U.S. fights it, the deeper we are drawn in.”
Two weeks ago, the Biden administration slapped fresh sanctions on Iran’s oil industry in response to Tehran’s attack on Israel. The Treasury Department said the sanctions targeted “the shadow fleet” of tankers and illicit operators that help transport the Iranian regime’s petroleum exports in violation of existing sanctions.
The punitive measures designate 10 entities in multiple jurisdictions and 17 vessels as “blocked property” under a federal law that allows the federal government to freeze a company’s assets and property in the United States.
The State Department announced it also is imposing sanctions on six companies and six vessels engaged in the Iranian petroleum trade.
This story has been updated with new information. Contributing: Reuters; and Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy of USA TODAY