The Israeli military launched airstrikes deep inside Iran in a huge escalation of the Middle East conflict.
Images on social media showed plumes of smoke rising from an airfield near the capital of Tehran. And a flight map revealed how the skies had been closed down to civilian aircraft.
Iranian state media reported the sound of explosions around the capital. An Israeli military statement said the country “has the right and the duty to respond.”
The statement said: “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 also did not elaborate on the targets. Iranian state television later identified some of the blasts as coming from air defense systems, without offering more details.
Iran has launched two ballistic missile attacks on Israel in recent months. Most recently Israel was hit with a barrage of Iranian bombs on October 1, most of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system. This followed a similar attack back in April.
Tonight’s Israeli strikes happened just as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was arriving back in the US after a tour of the Middle East where he and other American officials had warned Israel to tender a response that would not further escalate the conflict in the region and exclude nuclear sites in Iran.
Taking to Twitter, the Israeli Defence forces responded with a statement: “In response to months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the State of Israel—right now the Israel Defense Forces is conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran.
“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th—on seven fronts—including direct attacks from Iranian soil.”
“Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond. Our defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilized.”
It comes after 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 had raided Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the few medical facilities still functioning in the area. Israel has renewed its offensive against Hamas in the north in recent weeks, and aid groups are sounding 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