Israel launches retaliatory strike on Iran

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Israel launched strikes on Iran in the early hours of Saturday, hitting targets in Tehran, in the latest salvo in an escalating conflict between the regional rivals that has stoked fears of an all-out war in the Middle East.

The Israeli military offered few details about the attacks which were in retaliation for an Iranian missile assault on Israel this month, other than describing them as “precise” and aimed at “military targets in Iran”.

“Our defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilised,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said. “We will do whatever necessary to defend the State of Israel and the people of Israel.”

The semi-official Fars News Agency, which is close to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, reported that “several military sites in western and southwestern Tehran were targeted by Israel”.

Explosions could be heard in Tehran and the western city of Karaj, with Iranians on social media describing multiple blasts that rattled the capital.

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

US secretary of state Antony Blinken this week met Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials and reiterated Washington’s calls for a measured response.

The White House was notified of the strikes in advance but did not participate in the attack, a senior US administration official said.

US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said: “We understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran as an exercise of self-defence and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1. ”

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 was clearly telegraphed. That was the first direct attack on Israel from Iranian soil but did 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 happened with little notice and was aimed at multiple targets including an intelligence base just north of Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, with Israel expected to launch a more robust response than in April.

The scale and nature of Israel’s attacks will determine Iran’s response, which has said it does not want an all-out war, but has also vowed to retaliate if it was attacked.

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

Iranian media linked to the state initially sought to play down the impact of the Israeli strikes.

Tasnim, a news outlet affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, said that “no damage occurred at military sites,” adding that the blasts were “caused by the army’s air defence systems”. Officials also said that the international airport in Tehran was operating normally.

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

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

The US earlier this month sent an advanced antimissile system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery, to bolster Israel’s air defences ahead of its planned response.

On Thursday US Central Command said multiple F-16 fighter aircraft had arrived in the region, part of US efforts to support Israel should Iran decide to respond.