Israel has issued a stern ultimatum to Iran if the country decides to retaliate for its airstrikes on Tehran early Saturday morning.
Israel hit Iran with three waves of attack, focusing on ‘missile manufacturing facilities’ it claimed were used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the Jewish nation on October 1.
It also struck ‘surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities, that were intended to restrict Israel’s aerial freedom of operation in Iran,’ the IDF announced.
But if Iranian officials were to strike back, Israel would be ‘obligated to respond,’ Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari warned in a video posted to X.
‘Our message is clear: All those who threaten the state of Israel and seek to drag the region into a wider escalation will pay a heavy price,’ he said. ‘We demonstrated today that we have both the capability and the resolve to act decisively, and we are prepared on offense and defense, to defend the state of Israel and the people of Israel.’
IDF forces had earlier announced on social media it was conducting ‘precise strikes’ on military targets in Tehran in response to what it called ‘the continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against Israel.’
Several hours later, the Israeli military announced that it has completed its strikes on the Iranian capital, saying: ‘Our planes have safely returned home. The retaliatory strike has been completed and the mission was fulfilled.’
Israel hit Iran with three waves of attack on Saturday morning. The first focused on Iranian air defense systems, while the second and third focused on missile and drone bases as well as production sites, according to Axios reporter Barak Ravid.
The strikes hit roughly 20 sites over the course of the night, according to the New York Times.
Iranian officials later said those strikes caused only ‘limited’ damage, claiming ‘the attack has been successfully intercepted and countered’ by Iran’s ‘integrated air defense system,’ its state-run news agency IRNA reported.
It had earlier said that several ‘loud explosions’ that were heard across the city were related to the country’s air defense systems.
The National Air Defense Headquarters went on to say the Israeli strikes were a ‘provocative attack,’ but made no mention of a possible response, just saying, ‘The scope of this incident is currently under investigation,’ NBC News reports.
A correspondent for Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen had also reported explosions on the outskirts of Diyala and Salah al-Din in Iraq, the outlet posted to X, while others claimed there were explosions in Damascus, Syria as well.
The Israeli strikes came in retaliation for Iran’s attack on October 1, in which around 200 ballistic missiles were fired at Israel – in Iran’s second direct attack on Israel in six months.
While many of the missiles were shot down, dozens managed to strike the Nevatim airbase, demonstrating that Iran could at least partially penetrate Israel’s sophisticated air defence systems at some of the country’s most highly protected sites.
Iran claimed they were in response to an Israeli attack that killed IRGC operations commander Brig-Gen Abbas Nilforoushan and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon.
An Israeli military statement said that Israel ‘has the right and the duty to respond.
‘The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since Oct. 7 – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil,’ it said.
The strikes finally came just as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was arriving back in the U.S. after a tour of the Middle East where he and other U.S. officials had warned Israel to tender a response that would not further escalate the conflict in the region and exclude nuclear sites in Iran.
Amid the attack Hagari called on the people to be ‘alert and vigilant’.
Soon after, communities in northern Israel were told to take shelter amid an alert of a drone from Lebanon.
The Home Front Command issued an alert for a ‘hostile aircraft intrusion’ around the northern city of Nahariya and other parts of Galilee.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were in a bunker at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu’s office said.
Leave a Reply