Israel launched a long-awaited retaliatory strike on Iran early Saturday local time, the Israeli military said. Israel has vowed payback to Iran’s October 1 attackwhen the Islamic republic launched about 180 ballistic missiles at Israel.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said that “in response to continued attacks” from Iran, it carried out “precise strikes against military targets in Iran.”
Sean Savett, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, told CBS News in a statement that “we understand that Israel carried out targeted strikes against military targets in Iran as a self-defense exercise and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel on October 1.” ”
A source told CBS News that the Israeli attack was limited to military targets, and not nuclear or oil installations.
The US was warned of the attack, two sources told CBS News. One of the sources said the US was not involved in the attack.
White House officials told CBS News that President Biden was briefed on the attack and is following developments. Two defense officials confirmed to CBS News that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoava Gallant on Friday.
Office of the Israeli Defense Minister
“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have continuously attacked Israel since October 7 – in seven areas – including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” the IDF said in a statement. “Like every other sovereign state in the world, the State of Israel has the right and obligation to respond.”
Very few Iranian missiles passed through Israel’s advanced missile defense system, and there were no casualties from the October 1 attack, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to make Iran “pay”.
“The Iranian regime does not understand our determination to defend ourselves,” the Israeli leader said in a statement shortly after the Iranian attack on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. “They will understand.”
Mr. Biden and Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris have said Israel has the right to defend itself and responding to an Iranian attack, but Mr. Biden was clear that he would not support an Israeli attack targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities or key oil infrastructure.
In anticipation of Israel’s response — and Iran’s potential counter-response — the US Israel sent a new missile defense system in mid-October. Austin said on October 21 that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system had arrived in Israel, along with about 100 American troops.
Iran defended the missile attack on Israel as a “legal, rational, and legitimate response to the terrorist acts of the Zionist regime – which involved targeting Iranian citizens and interests and violating the national sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
US officials told CBS News before the Iranian attack that Tehran had been preparing for a swift attack on Israel since early August, when Iran first threatened to retaliate against the attack. killing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Israel has killed several senior Iranian and Iranian-backed military and paramilitary commanders in attacks in the region, although it has not publicly claimed responsibility for Haniyeh’s death.
An Iranian diplomatic source told CBS News immediately after the October 1 missile attack that Iran’s leadership was “under heavy pressure to take action” amid escalating Israeli attacks on Iran’s close ally Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon and has long been designated a terrorist group by the US. Israel and many other countries.
Israel has launched a major offensive against Hezbollah – the most powerful of Iran’s proxy groups in the region – since mid-September, killing many senior leaders and bombing strongholds on the southern outskirts of Beirut and in southern Lebanon. , near the Israeli border.
The Israel Defense Forces have also conducted ground operations in southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s public health ministry says Israeli operations in the country since September have killed around 1,500 people and displaced around 1.2 million from their homes.
The IDF said it had been forced to launch strikes against Hezbollah in response to rocket and drone strikes targeting northern and central Israel. Hezbollah has vowed to continue its attacks on Israel until the war with its Iranian allies Hamas in Gaza ends.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.
