Israel Strikes Military Targets Across Iran, Expanding Conflict

(Bloomberg) --

Israeli fighter jets carried out airstrikes on targets across Iran early Saturday, delivering on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to retaliate for a missile barrage three weeks ago and fanning fear of open conflict between the two longtime adversaries.

Numerous explosions were reported around Tehran in what appeared to be a first wave of strikes. More than an hour later, Israel’s Channel 12 reported more strikes in the city of Shiraz and said dozens of fighter jets were involved. There were no immediate reports of casualties. 

After declaring the operation over, the Israel Defense Forces said aircraft struck production facilities that made the missiles used over the last year against Israel. It said surface-to-air missile arrays and other aerial capabilities were also hit.

A person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing Israel’s operation, said its forces struck missile production facilities and air defense systems. That suggested that Netanyahu held off strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and energy infrastructure as US President Joe Biden had urged.

“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 Israeli military said in a statement. Israel had the “right and duty” to respond to Iran’s attacks, it said.

The early morning strikes fulfilled Netanyahu’s promise to hit back after Iran fired about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Oct. 1. The Islamic Republic said that attack was a reprisal after days of military and intelligence operations that killed Hezbollah militia members in Lebanon, which is Tehran’s most important proxy group and is deemed a terrorist organization by the US. 

The tit-for-tat strikes fanned fears of a direct and open conflict between Israel and Iran. The US and its allies said for weeks that Israel had the right to defend itself but had worked behind the scenes to keep Israel from launching an attack that would set off a wider war.

Iran “reserves the right to respond to any form of aggression,” the official Tasnim news agency said. Civilian flights in Iran were canceled until further notice.

The latest attack unfolded a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left the Middle East, where he made a renewed US push for a cease-fire in Gaza and sought to exert fresh influence on Israel to temper its response to Iran. The Biden administration had worried that an assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be an unacceptable escalation and attacking the country’s oil infrastructure would roil global energy markets.

Read More: How the Israel-Iran Conflict Shapes the Middle East: QuickTake

Biden was briefed on the Saturday morning airstrikes and was monitoring developments. The Israeli government advised the US of its plans in advance, according to a person familiar with the matter. But the US military wasn’t involved, another official said.

“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,” National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement.

Israel Launches Precise Strike on Military Iran Targets: TOPLive

Last month, Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an airstrike on Beirut. That came after days of intense bombing that killed several of the organization’s commanders. In the weeks since, Israel has pressed ahead with its campaign against Hezbollah despite urging from western allies for a cease-fire. It also killed Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Iran-backed militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year, killing about 1,200 people, kidnapping about 250 more and spurring a war with Israel. The ensuing fighting left more than 42,000 Palestinians dead, according to health officials in the Hamas-run territory, who don’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.

The Israeli statement about Saturday’s strikes was unusual as an open acknowledgment of action against Iran. Israeli is suspected of having conducted numerous assassinations against Iran in recent years, as well as a single strike after a previous Iranian attack in April that was a response to a strike on Iranian generals in Syria, but hadn’t claimed direct responsibility.

(Updates with Israel declaring operation over in third paragraph)