Israel launches strikes against Iran in response to ballistic missile attacks

Israel launched airstrikes on military targets in Iran early Saturday in response to a ballistic missile attack on October 1, according to officials. There were no immediate reports of damage in the Islamic Republic.

Prime Minister of Israel 'Benjamin Netanyahu.'

Abir Sultan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Israel has been threatening an attack for weeks, as the Middle East is on the verge of a regional conflict. This comes more than a year after Hamas launched an attack on Israel. Israel has now launched a catastrophic ground offensive in the Gaza Strip and an invasion of neighboring Lebanon, targeting militants who have long been armed and supported by Tehran.

The Israeli military hailed Saturday's operation as "precise strikes on military targets in Iran," but did not elaborate.

"The Iranian regime and its regional proxies have been relentlessly attacking Israel since Oct. 7... including direct attacks from Iranian soil," Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a prerecorded video message. "Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond."

The sound of explosions could be heard in Tehran, Iran's capital, with state-run media initially recognizing the blasts and claiming that some of the sounds came from the city's air defense systems.

A Tehran resident told The Associated Press that at least seven explosions shook the surrounding region. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation.

International flights began diverting around western Iran as news of the strikes spread, according to flight-tracking data. But, except from a brief mention, Iranian state television provided no further information and even began displaying what it said as live footage of individuals loading trucks at a vegetable market in Tehran in an attempt to downplay the attack.

Meanwhile, Syrian state news agency SANA claimed, citing an anonymous military official, that "barrages of missiles from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan and Lebanese territories targeted some military sites in the southern and central regions" of Syria early Saturday. It claimed that Syria's air defenses had shot down several of the missiles. There was no immediate information about casualties.

Iran has conducted two ballistic missile attacks on Israel in recent months, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip, which began with Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The original onslaught murdered approximately 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage back to the beach enclave.

Since then, over 42,000 Palestinians have been murdered in Gaza, according to local health professionals who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. According to the United Nations, hundreds of thousands of civilians are besieged with little food or supplies as Israeli soldiers shut in on the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya, while food and other help remain sparse in the enclave. Israeli military operations in the West Bank in the time since have killed hundreds more.

Israel has also initiated a ground invasion of Lebanon, as well as a series of severe airstrikes, which have shaken the country.

The strike occurred on Saturday, just as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned from a tour of the Middle East in which he and other US officials warned Israel not to escalate the conflict in the region and to exclude Iranian nuclear sites.

Sean Savett, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement that "we understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran" and directed media to the Israeli government for more information on the operation.

According to two US sources, Israel informed the US of the planned strikes ahead of time. They said there was no US involvement in the operation. The authorities spoke on the condition of anonymity while discussing an ongoing operation.

Following a strong Iranian missile barrage on October 1, Israel threatened to strike decisively. Iran claimed its bombardment was in response to deadly Israeli assaults on its proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, and has pledged to retaliate to any reprisal strikes.

Israel and Iran have been fierce rivals since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Israel believes Iran to be its most serious threat, citing its leaders' threats for Israel's destruction, support for anti-Israel militant groups, and the country's nuclear program.

Israel and Iran have been engaged in a years-long shadow war. Top Iranian nuclear experts were killed as part of a suspected Israeli assassination plot. Iran's nuclear facilities have been hacked or damaged in unexplained attacks blamed on Israel. Meanwhile, Iran has been implicated for a series of Middle Eastern shipping attacks in recent years, which evolved into attacks on Red Sea shipping by Yemen's Houthi rebels.

However, following Hamas' October 7 onslaught, the battle has become more open. Israel has increasingly focused its attention on Hezbollah, which has been shooting missiles into Israel since the conflict in Gaza began. 

Several senior Iranian military officers have been killed this year in Israeli strikes in Syria and Lebanon.

Last April, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones toward Israel following the deaths of two Iranian generals in a purported Israeli airstrike on an Iranian diplomatic facility in Syria. The missiles and drones inflicted minimal damage, and Israel, under pressure from Western governments to exercise restraint, retaliated with a limited strike.

However, following Iran's early October missile strike, Israel pledged a stronger retaliation.

Meanwhile, Israeli raids on residential areas in southern Gaza killed 38 people on Friday, including 13 youngsters from the same extended family, Palestinian health officials reported.

Health officials in northern Gaza claimed that Israeli forces attacked Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the few medical facilities remaining operational in the area. Israel has escalated its offensive against Hamas in the north in recent weeks, and relief organizations are warning of catastrophic humanitarian conditions.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon's southeast killed three journalists who worked for Hezbollah-aligned news outlets.