TEHRAN, IRAN – OCTOBER 26, 2024: A view of the Iranian capital, Tehran, after the Israeli military announced strikes targeting “military targets” in Iran on October 26, 2024. The Israeli military stated, “In response to the ongoing attacks against Israel recently Last” months ago, precision strikes are currently being carried out on military targets in Iran. (Photo by Fatima Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Israel bombed military sites in Iran early Saturday, but its response to an Iranian attack this month did not target the most sensitive oil and nuclear facilities and did not prompt any immediate pledges of retaliation.
The threat of a wider conflagration between Israel and heavily armed Iran has shaken a region already ablaze with war in Gaza and Lebanon, but Tehran's initial reaction appeared weak.
The Israeli army said that dozens of aircraft carried out three waves of pre-dawn strikes against missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran, and warned its heavily armed arch enemy to respond.
Iran said its air defenses successfully repelled the attack, but four soldiers were killed and some sites sustained “limited damage.” A semi-official Iranian news agency said there would be a “proportionate response” to the Israeli strikes.
Tensions between Iran and Israel have escalated rapidly since the attack by the Iran-backed Hamas movement on October 7, 2023, raising fears of a broader regional conflict that could drag in world powers and jeopardize global energy supplies.
Fears of escalation have increased since October 1, when Iran fired about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, killing one person in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in response to previous Israeli moves.
The escalation of the conflict in Lebanon, where Israel is waging an intense campaign against Hezbollah, Iran's main regional ally, to prevent it from firing missiles into northern Israel, has raised the temperature.
The United States and other countries responded to the Israeli strikes by calling for an end to the cycle of confrontation. President Joe Biden said it appeared that Israel had only struck military targets in its attack, and he expressed hope that this would be “the end.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that his country has no limits when it comes to defending its interests and the safety of its territory and people, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
An earlier State Department statement said Iran “has the right and obligation” to defend itself, but added that it “recognizes its responsibilities to regional peace and security,” a more conciliatory statement than after previous bouts of escalation.
Two regional officials briefed by Iran told Reuters that several high-level meetings were held in Tehran to determine the scope of the Iranian response. One official said the damage was “very minimal” but added that several Revolutionary Guard bases in and around Tehran were also hit.
Iranian news sites broadcast footage of passengers at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, apparently intended to show that there was little impact.
Indicating that it does not expect an immediate Iranian response, the Israeli military said there was no change in public safety restrictions across the country.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) holds a meeting with the security cabinet after Iranian missile attacks on Israel in West Jerusalem on October 01, 2024. Mossad Director David Barnea (right) also attended the meeting.
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“Message to Iran”
Benny Sabti, an Iranian affairs expert at the Tel Aviv Institute for National Security Studies, said the Israeli strike appeared to be aimed at giving Tehran an opportunity to avoid further escalation.
He said: “We see that Israel wants to close this event, to pass this message to Iran that the matter is closed and we do not want it to escalate.”
Video clips published by Iranian media showed air defenses continuously firing at what appeared to be incoming projectiles in central Tehran, without specifying the locations under attack.
The Israeli army said that its planes bombed missile manufacturing facilities and surface-to-air missile arrays, and returned safely to the homeland.
The army said: “If the regime in Iran makes a mistake by starting a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond.”
A US official told Reuters that Israel notified the United States before the strike, but Washington did not participate in the operation. A US official said the targets did not include Iranian energy infrastructure or nuclear facilities.
In the days following Iranian strikes on Israel this month, Biden warned that Washington, Israel's main backer and main arms supplier, would not support a retaliatory strike on Tehran's nuclear sites, and said Israel should consider alternatives to attacking Iranian oil fields.
The Arab countries between Israel and Iran were particularly concerned that using their airspace might lead to retaliation.
Jordanian television quoted a source in the Jordanian Armed Forces as saying that no military aircraft were allowed to cross its airspace. A Saudi official also said that Saudi airspace was not used in the strike.
A regional intelligence source said that Israeli planes flew across southern Syria and issued sonic sounds near the Jordanian border and then across Iraq.
Saudi Arabia, which repaired its relations with Iran after years of regional rivalry and was moving toward improving relations with Israel before the war in Gaza, condemned the attack and described it as a violation of Iranian sovereignty and international law.
Conflict in Lebanon
In Lebanon, Hezbollah said on Saturday that it launched a drone attack on the Israeli Tel Nof air base, south of Tel Aviv, and targeted an intelligence base north of Safed with missiles.
Israel said it bombed Hezbollah facilities in the southern suburbs of Beirut, including a weapons manufacturing site and an intelligence headquarters.
The conflict in Lebanon, which has intensified significantly in recent weeks, has also led to strikes on sites linked to Iran and Hezbollah in Syria.
The Syrian news agency SANA reported that Israel launched air strikes on some military sites in central and southern Syria early on Saturday. Israel did not confirm attacking Syria.
Efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage release agreement in Gaza, which could help calm the broader conflict, are expected to resume in Doha when negotiators head there on Sunday.
