DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israel pounded Iran with a series of airstrikes early Saturday, saying it was targeting military sites in retaliation for the barrage of ballistic missiles the Islamic Republic fired upon Israel earlier this month.
Explosions could be heard in the Iranian capital, Tehran, though there was no immediate information on damage or casualties.
The attack risks pushing the archenemies closer to all-out war at a time of spiraling violence across the Middle East, where militant groups backed by Iran — including Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon — are already at war with Israel.
It also marked the first time Israel's military openly attacked Iran, which hasn't faced a sustained barrage of fire from a foreign enemy since its 1980s war with Iraq.
"The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since Oct. 7 … including direct attacks from Iranian soil," Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a prerecorded video statement early Saturday. "Like every other sovereign country in the world, the state of Israel has the right and the duty to respond."
Israel's hourslong attack ended just before sunrise in Tehran, with the Israeli military saying it targeted "missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year." It also said it hit surface-to-air missile sties and "additional Iranian aerial capabilities."
Israel offered no initial damage assessment.
Iran’s military said the strikes targeted military bases in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces, causing “limited damage,” and claimed its air defenses limited the damage, without providing additional evidence.
The statement from Iran’s armed forces was read aloud on state television, which showed no images of the damage described.
Initially, nuclear facilities and oil installations were seen as possible targets for Israel's response to Iran's Oct. 1 attack, but in mid-October the Biden administration believed it won assurances from Israel that it would not hit such targets, which would be a more severe escalation.
Explosions heard across Tehran
Iran's state-run media acknowledged blasts that could be heard in Tehran and said some of the sounds came from air defense systems around the city.
Iranian state television began showing what it described as live footage of men loading trucks at a vegetable market in Tehran in an apparent attempt to downplay the assault.
A Tehran resident told The Associated Press that at least seven explosions could be heard in the first wave of attacks, which rattled the surrounding area. The resident spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
As explosions sounded, people in Tehran could see what appeared to be tracer fire light up the sky. Other footage showed what appeared to be surface-to-air missiles being launched.
Iran closed the country's airspace early Saturday, and flight-tracking data analyzed by AP showed commercial airlines had broadly left the skies over Iran, and across Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed and would continue to receive updates.
In Syria, the state news agency SANA, citing an unnamed military official, reported missile fire targeting military sites in the country's central and southern region. It said that Syria's air defenses had shot some of the missiles down. There was no immediate information on casualties.
A report of a major U.S. intelligence security breach says two American documents detailing Israel's movements in preparation for its retaliatory strike on Iran have been leaked and published in an anti-Israel Telegram account called Middle East Spectator. Iran is bracing or Senior correspondent Bianca Zanini brings the details in her report. Correspondent Ariel Oseran brings more insight.
Missile attacks by Iran led to Israeli assault
Iran fired a wave of missiles and drones at Israel last April after two Iranian generals were killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike in Syria on an Iranian diplomatic post. The missiles and drones caused minimum damage, and Israel — under pressure from Western countries to show restraint — responded with a limited strike it didn't openly claim.
But after Iran's early October missile strike, Israel promised a tougher response. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately said Iran had "made a big mistake."
A forceful Israeli strike on Iran risks further entangling the U.S., which maintains a large troop presence in the Persian Gulf and has helped Israel defend itself against attacks by Iran and its proxies.
Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel on the evening of Oct. 1, sending Israelis scrambling into bomb shelters but causing only minimal damage and a few injuries. Iran said the barrage was retaliation for attacks in recent months that killed leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian military.
Before Iran's October attack, Israel had landed a series of devastating blows against Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into Israel near-daily for over a year — ever since the deadly Hamas attack against Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
Dozens were killed and thousands wounded in September when pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded in two days of attacks attributed to Israel. A massive Israel airstrike the following week outside Beirut killed Hezbollah's longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.
Israel then ratcheted up the pressure on Hezbollah by launching a ground invasion into southern Lebanon. More than a million Lebanese people have been displaced, and the death toll has risen sharply as airstrikes continue to hit in and around Beirut.
Israel has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for Israeli citizens displaced from their homes near the Lebanon border to return. Hezbollah has vowed to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
Israeli strike is the latest in the Mideast wars
When Hamas and other militants attacked Israel last Oct. 7, they killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 hostages into Gaza. In response, Israel launched a devastating air and ground offensive against Hamas, and Netanyahu has vowed to keep it up until all of the hostages are freed. Some 100 remain and roughly a third are believed to be dead.
More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials who don't delineate between civilians and combatants but say more than half of the dead are women and children.
(CNN) — The impact of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip could erase “over 69 years of progress”…
Israel's strikes on Iran Saturday happened just as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed back to the U.S. after a tour of the Middle East where he and other U.S. officials had warned Israel to respond in a way that would not further escalate the conflict in the region.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Friday with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in London, Britain.
Two U.S. officials said the U.S. was notified by Israel in advance of the strikes. They said there was no U.S. involvement in the operation. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing operation.
Israel and Iran have been bitter foes since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Israel considers Iran to be its greatest threat, citing its leaders' calls for Israel's destruction, their support for anti-Israel militant groups and the country's nuclear program.
Israel and Iran have been locked in a yearslong shadow war. A suspected Israeli assassination campaign has killed top Iranian nuclear scientists. Iranian nuclear installations have been hacked or sabotaged, all in mysterious attacks blamed on Israel.
Meanwhile, Iran has been blamed for a series of attacks on shipping in the Middle East in recent years, which later grew into the attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on shipping through the Red Sea corridor.
Since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, the shadow war has increasingly moved into the light.
Palestinian civilians fleeing Isreali strikes against Hamas targets in northern Gaza are running out of food and places to shelter as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tries to restart ceasefire negotiations on his 12th Middle East trip since the war began.
Israeli strikes in Gaza, Lebanon continue
Israeli strikes on residential areas in southern Gaza killed 38 people on Friday, including 13 children from the same extended family, Palestinian health officials said.
In northern Gaza, health officials reported that Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the few medical facilities still functioning in the area. Israel renewed its offensive against Hamas in the north in recent weeks, and aid groups sounded the alarm over dire humanitarian conditions.
In Lebanon, Israeli strikes on the country's southeast killed three journalists working for news outlets that are considered to be aligned with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and its patron, Iran.
The Health Ministry in Gaza reported that Israeli airstrikes and shelling pounded the southern city of Khan Younis, killing 38 people and wounding dozens.
The Israeli military said its troops were dismantling militant infrastructure and killing Hamas fighters in the southern town. It said the figures from Gaza's health ministry "do not align with the information" it has, but did not offer its own casualty estimate.
Palestinians said the neighborhood was hit with no warning.
Palestinians check a building destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in the city of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo)
The victims were taken to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis as well as to the European Hospital, where records showed at least 15 members of the al-Farra family were killed. Six members of the Abdeen family also were killed, health officials reported.
The medical organization Doctors Without Borders said that one of its staff members — identified as 41-year-old Hassan Sobh, a father of seven who had worked with the charity for five years — had been killed in the attack. It said Sobh was its eighth worker to be killed in the past year of the Israel-Hamas war.
In response to reports that it stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, the Israeli military said only that it was "operating in the area" of the hospital based on intelligence that indicated the presence of militants and militant infrastructure.
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages — hospitals in Gaza have come under attack. The Israeli military accuses Hamas fighters of using hospitals, and tunnels beneath them, as bases. Hamas and Palestinian doctors denied that claim.
Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but says more than half were women and children.
Some visitors to Israel have a new stop on their tours: Hamas' destruction in the south
A group of Israelis visit a damaged house following the Oct. 7 Hamas militants attack on Israel in Kibbutz Beeri, southern Israel, on Friday, Jan. 28, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A group of Israelis on an educational tour visit the home of the Siman Tov family on Friday, June 21, 2024. The parents and three children were killed and their home was torched by Hamas militants on the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
An Israeli reservist poses for a picture with a tourist from Mexico, who is holding the soldier's M16 rifle, at the site of the Tribe of Nova music festival, where at least 364 people were killed and abducted during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, near Kibbutz Re'im, southern Israel on Thursday, June 20, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli soldiers watch a virtual tour of the destruction of the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel near the site of the Tribe of Nova music festival, where at least 364 people were killed and abducted near Kibbutz Re'im, southern Israel, Thursday, May 30, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
People look at the Gaza Strip through binoculars from an observation point in the town of Sderot, southern Israel, on Thursday, June 20, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A group of Israelis on an educational tour visit a house that was torched by Hamas militants on the Oct. 7 attack on Israel in Kibbutz Nir Oz, on Friday, June 21, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A woman stands next to photos of people killed and taken captive by Hamas militants during their violent rampage through the Nova music festival in southern Israel, which are displayed at the site of the event to commemorate the Oct. 7, massacre near Kibbutz Re'im on Thursday, June 20, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
FILE - Danny Danon, a member of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, left, and Nikki Haley, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, visit a home torched by Hamas in Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel, Monday, May 27, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
Israeli soldiers look at pictures of revelers killed on Oct. 7, 2023 at the Nova music festival by Hamas militants during a cross-border attack, as they visit the site in Re'im, southern Israel near the Gaza border, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A group of Israelis visit a damaged house following the Oct. 7 Hamas militants attack on Israel in Kibbutz Beeri, southern Israel, on Friday, Jan. 28, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A woman stands next to a shelter at the site of the Tribe of Nova music festival, where at least 364 people were killed and abducted during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, near Kibbutz Re'im on Thursday, June 20, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A group of Israelis on an educational tour visit the dining hall that was damaged during the Oct. 7, Hamas attack on Israel in Kibbutz Nir Oz, on Friday, June 21, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
People look at the Gaza Strip from an observation point in the town of Sderot, southern Israel, on Thursday, June 20, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A group of Israelis on an educational tour visit a house that was torched by Hamas militants on the Oct. 7 attack on Israel in Kibbutz Nir Oz, on Friday, June 21, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Ultra-Orthodox Jews from central Israel visit a bomb shelter where Israelis were killed during the Oct. 7 Hamas militants attack on Israel, near Kibbutz Beeri, southern Israel, on Friday, June 21, 2024. A new kind of tourism has emerged in Israel in the months since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. For celebrities, politicians, influencers and others, no trip is complete without a somber visit to the devastated south that absorbed the brunt of the assault near the border with Gaza. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
