Israel attacks Iranian military targets, Tehran says damage is ‘limited’

By Parisa Hafezi, Emily Rose and Ahmed Tolba

DUBAI/JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israel struck military sites in Iran early on Saturday, but its retaliation for an Iranian attack this month did not appear to target the country’s most sensitive oil and nuclear targets after urgent calls from allies and neighbors to restraint. .

The risk of a wider conflagration between heavily armed Israel and Iran has roiled a region already on fire from warfare in Gaza and Lebanon, but it was not clear whether the overnight strikes would lead to further escalation.

Israel’s military said dozens of fighter jets carried out three waves of attacks on missile factories and other sites before dawn, warning its heavily armed nemesis against hitting back.

Iran said its air defenses had successfully repelled the attack, but some locations suffered “limited damage.” A semi-official Iranian news agency promised a “proportionate response” to the Israeli attacks.

Tensions between Iran and Israel have risen rapidly since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by the Iran-backed Hamas.

Fears of an escalation have increased since October 1, when Iran launched about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, killing one person in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in response to earlier Israeli moves and new vows of retaliation.

The escalating conflict in Lebanon, where Israel is waging an intensive campaign against Iran’s main regional ally Hezbollah to prevent the country from firing missiles into northern Israel, has further raised the temperature.

With the United States and many Middle Eastern countries urging restraint, all eyes are on Iran for how the country will respond to Saturday’s attacks.

Iranian news sites broadcast images of passengers at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, apparently intended to show there was little impact. Local media had reported explosions in the capital and at nearby military bases for hours.

The Israeli military indicated it did not expect an immediate Iranian response and said there was no change in public security restrictions across the country.

‘OBLIGATORY TO RESPOND’

The Israeli military said it had carried out “targeted” strikes in Iran, targeting truck and surface-to-air missile factories, adding that the planes had returned home safely.

“If the regime in Iran should make the mistake of initiating a new round of escalation, we will be obliged to respond,” the military said.

The targets did not include Iran’s energy infrastructure or nuclear facilities, a US official said.

US President Joe Biden had warned that Washington, Israel’s top backer and arms supplier, would not support an attack on Tehran’s nuclear sites and had said Israel should consider alternatives to attacking Iran’s oil fields.

Iranian authorities have repeatedly warned Israel against any attack.

“Iran reserves the right to respond to any aggression, and there is no doubt that Israel will face a proportionate response to any action it takes,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency said on Saturday, citing sources .

A senior Biden official said Israel’s “targeted and proportionate strikes” should mean an end to the direct firefight between the two countries, but the US was fully prepared to defend Israel again if Iran chose to respond.

US INFORMED PRIOR TO STRIKES

Videos circulated by Iranian media showed air defenses continuously firing at apparent incoming projectiles in central Tehran, without saying which locations were being attacked.

Tasnim reported that the attacked Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps bases were not damaged and said Iran resumed flights from 9 a.m. (0530 GMT) after a suspension during Israel’s attack. Neighboring Iraq also resumed flights, the state news agency said.

Israel launched airstrikes on several military sites in the central and southern parts of Syria early on Saturday, Syria’s state news agency SANA reported. Israel has not confirmed that it will attack Syria.

Israel said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other security officials were closely monitoring the operation at the army’s command and control center in Tel Aviv.

Gallant spoke with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin shortly after the Israeli attacks began. Austin highlighted the United States’ strengthened military force to defend American personnel, Israel and its partners across the region, the Pentagon said.

Israel informed the United States before striking, but Washington was not involved in the operation, a US official told Reuters.

Saudi Arabia, which has mended fences with Iran after years of regional rivalry and was moving toward better ties with Israel before the Gaza war, condemned the attack as a violation of Iranian sovereignty and international law.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; Emily Rose and James Mackenzie in Jerusalem; Trevor Hunnicut, Kanishka Singh, Gabriella Borter and Phil Stewart in Washington; Ahmed Tolba, Jaidaa Taha and Adam Makary in Cairo; newsroom in Dubai; Writing by Simon Lewis and Lincoln Feast; editing by Rosalba O’Brien, William Mallard, William Maclean)