Reuters – Israel struck military sites in Iran early on Saturday, but its retaliation for an Iranian attack this month did not appear aimed at the country’s most sensitive oil and nuclear targets after urgent calls from allies and neighbours for restraint.
The risk of a wider conflagration between heavily armed Israel and Iran has convulsed a region already on fire with warfare in Gaza and Lebanon, but it was not clear whether the overnight strikes would trigger further escalation.
Israel’s military said scores of jets had completed three waves of strikes before dawn against missile factories and other sites, and warned its heavily armed arch foe not to hit back.
Iran said its air defences had successfully countered the attack but some locations had received “limited damage”. A semi-official Iranian news agency vowed a “proportional reaction” to the Israeli strikes.
Tensions between Iran and Israel have grown rapidly since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Iran-backed Hamas.
Fears of an escalation have increased since Oct. 1 when Iran launched around 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, killing one person in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in response to earlier Israeli moves and prompting new vows of retaliation.
Escalating conflict in Lebanon, where Israel is waging an intense campaign against Iran’s main regional ally Hezbollah to stop it firing rockets into northern Israel, has raised the temperature still further.
With the United States and many Middle Eastern countries urging restraint, all eyes are on Iran for how it will respond to Saturday’s strikes.
Iranian news sites aired footage of passengers at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, seemingly meant to show there was little impact. Local media had reported blasts over several hours in the capital and at nearby military bases.
Israel’s military, signalling it did not expect an immediate Iranian response, said there was no change to public safety restrictions across the country.
