Israel says major assault on Iran 'achieved' objectives, seemingly sparing oil, nuclear sites

washington — Israel says it has completed a major assault on Iran after more than a year of fighting, which began with an attack by Iranian proxy group Hamas on the Jewish state and has grown into a multifront conflict directly involving Tehran and its other regional proxies. In a statement issued early Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces said its warplanes safely returned home after conducting “precise and targeted strikes against military targets in a number of areas in Iran.” It issued the statement about four hours after the first reports emerged of explosions in Iran around 2:30 a.m. Tehran time. “Based on intelligence, Israel air force aircraft struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at Israel over the last year,” the IDF said. “These missiles posed a direct and immediate threat to the citizens of Israel. Simultaneously, the IDF struck surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities, that were intended to restrict Israel's aerial freedom of operation in Iran.” Later Saturday, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, said there had been no Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.   “Iran’s nuclear facilities have not been impacted. IAEA inspectors are safe and continue their vital work. I call for prudence and restraint from actions that could jeopardize the safety & security of nuclear & other radioactive materials,” Rafael Mariano Grossi wrote on social media platform X.   IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that the Israeli airstrikes achieved their objectives but did not immediately provide evidence. Iranian state news site IRNA quoted the nation’s air defense organization as saying Israel attacked military centers in Tehran and in the western provinces of Khuzestan and Ilam. It said Iranian forces “successfully” intercepted much of the strikes, ensuring they caused only “limited damage.” Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref was the only senior official to make a public comment about the Israeli attacks early Saturday. He posted a flag of the Islamic Republic on X and wrote: “Iran’s power humiliates the enemies of the motherland.” Iranian authorities did not provide evidence of interceptions of Israeli airstrikes or damage. But Iran's state-run IRNA news agency said four people were killed, all with the military air defense. A senior U.S. administration official told reporters that Israel carried out “precision airstrikes against multiple military targets across Iran and outside populated areas.” “The president and his national security team, of course, worked with the Israelis over recent weeks to encourage Israel to conduct a response that was targeted and proportional, [with a] low risk of civilian harm. That appears to have been precisely what transpired this evening,” the administration official said. The official added that if Iran “chooses to respond [to Israel] once again, we will be ready, and there will be consequences for Iran.” Governments across the region and beyond condemned the attack, including those of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Bangladesh, Turkey, Pakistan and others, saying it threatened regional security. “Israel … has now brought our region to the brink of a wider war with this attack,” read a statement released by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday. U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were both briefed on Israel’s operation, the White House said Friday. Both were closely following developments and would continue to be updated, according to media reports. A U.S. defense official told VOA, “We were given a heads up” on the strikes, “but we’re not involved.” U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant Saturday and received updates on the Israel Defense Forces’ strikes on military targets in Iran, according to a readout of their conversation from Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder. Austin reaffirmed the ironclad commitment of the United States to Israel’s security and right to self-defense, the readout said. The secretary emphasized the United States' ability to defend U.S. personnel, Israel and partners across the region in the face of threats from Iran and Iran-backed terrorist organizations and the U.S. determination to prevent any actor from exploiting tensions or expanding the conflict in the region, the statement added. The Israeli military said it conducted Saturday’s airstrikes on Iran “in response to the attacks by the Iranian regime against Israel and its citizens in recent months.” Iran fired hundreds of cruise missiles and drones in its first direct attack on Israel in April. The barrage was in response to an Israeli airstrike that killed senior officers of Iran’s top military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in Damascus that month. The IRGC fired around 200 ballistic missiles in its second direct attack on Israel, on October 1, saying it was retaliating for Israeli strikes that killed another IRGC commander and leaders of its proxies Hezbollah and Hamas in the preceding days and months. The United States has designated the IRGC, Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations. U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters Saturday that Israel notified him before the strikes, and he said it looked like “they didn’t hit anything but military targets.” He noted he had just finished a call with intelligence officials and said, “I hope this is the end.” Meanwhile, the U.S. administration official said, “Israel has made clear to the world that its response is now complete. Accordingly, we call on all countries of influence to press Iran to stop these attacks against Israel so that we can move beyond this direct cycle of attacks.” Iranian state news agency Tasnim cited “informed sources” in a Telegram post, saying, “There is no doubt that Israel will receive a proportionate response to any action.” IDF spokesperson Hagari said Israel will know how to select additional targets in Iran and strike them if required. “This is a clear message: Whoever threatens Israel will pay a heavy price,” he said. In a message to VOA, former IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said he believes the Israeli airstrikes will not be the last in Iran. “As the sun will rise over Tehran, we will have a better assessment of the damage caused to the regime and its military. These Israeli strikes are the first round under a new strategy to hold the Iranian regime directly accountable for its actions,” he said. Videos shared on social media and deemed credible by VOA’s Persian Service showed Iranian air defenses firing into the night sky above Tehran on Saturday, as some Iranians awoken by explosions from the Israeli air strikes filmed the scenes from their rooftops or windows. Iranian social media users also posted videos showing long lines of vehicles at gas stations in the Iranian capital early Saturday, in an apparent sign of panic buying by motorists. Iran closed its airspace while the Israeli assault was under way. The flightradar24 tracking website showed Iran reopened its airspace after 9 a.m.. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned Iran shortly after its October 1 ballistic missile attack that it “would pay” for what he called “a big mistake.” In both of Iran’s aerial assaults on Israel, the Israeli military backed by U.S. forces intercepted most of the Iranian missiles and drones, preventing significant damage or casualties. All of the additional U.S. forces that the Pentagon had ordered to the Middle East earlier this month had arrived in the region before the Israeli assault on Iran, a U.S. defense official told VOA. Earlier this month, U.S. media outlets reported that the Biden administration had won assurances from Israel that its forces would not hit Iranian nuclear or oil sites in its threatened retaliation against Iran. There were no reports of any Israeli strikes on such sites. A long-running low-scale conflict between Israel, Iran and its proxies erupted into open warfare on October 7, 2023, when Iran-backed Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel from Gaza, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 more as hostages to the Palestinian territory. Several Americans are among the 101 hostages whom Hamas still is holding, with a third of those hostages believed to be dead. Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. VOA White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara, national security correspondent Jeff Seldin, Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb and regional correspondent Heather Murdock contributed to this report, which was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Persian service.