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 attack occurred in three major waves, with the second and third waves targeting Iranian drone and missile production sites, hitting over 20 targets.
Israel confirmed it had struck numerous military sites during its retaliatory strikes on Iran on Saturday in an operation later named “Days of Repentance.”
The attack was declared over by 5:45 a.m., just as the sun began rising over Tehran, according to public broadcaster KAN11.
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.
The attack occurred in three major waves, US and Israeli officials said. The second and third waves targeted Iranian drone and missile production sites, hitting over 20 targets, according to Axios and the New York Times.
The first wave of attacks apparently targeted Iran’s air defense capabilities, both to ensure the IDF’s freedom of operations during Saturday’s sorties, and to lay the ground for further strikes, should Iran retaliate. As the campaign was underway, Syrian state media reported that Israel struck several military sites in the south and center of the country, action possibly taken to enable the IAF to operate more freely in Iran.
The next waves hit drone and ballistic missile manufacturing sites — those used in direct Iranian attacks on Israel on April 14 and October 1 — as well as sites used to launch such weapons.
Iran told AFP that it had not received any reports of injuries from the strikes.
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 .
The IDF confirmed the operation was over and that all mission goals had been achieved, with all planes returning safely home.
The IAF struck missile manufacturing sites that produced the missiles Iran fired at Israel over the last year.
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.
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