Israel targeted military sites in long-awaited counterstrike on Iran; Tehran says damage was limited
Israel completed its long-awaited retaliatory strikes on Iran with a series of pre-dawn airstrikes Saturday that targeted military sites in Iran. Israel had vowed payback for Iran's Oct. 1 attack, during which the Islamic republic launched about 180 ballistic missiles at Israel.
In a statement, Israel Defense Forces said that "in response to months of continuous attacks" from Iran, it conducted "precise strikes on military targets in Iran."
A source told CBS News the Israeli attack was limited to military targets, and not nuclear or oil installations. And in a video posted later Saturday morning, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari confirmed that the IDF had "concluded the Israeli response to Iran's attacks against Israel."
"Iran attacked Israel twice, including in locations that endangered civilians, and has paid the price for it," Hagari said. "We are focused on our war objectives in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. It is Iran that continues to push for a wider regional escalation."
Explosions were heard in the Iranian capital, Tehran, though the Islamic republic insisted the strikes caused only "limited damage" and Iranian state-run media downplayed the attacks.
In a carefully worded statement on Saturday, Iran's military appeared to suggest that a cease-fire "to prevent the killing of the helpless and oppressed people" in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon trumps any retaliation against Israel.
While still saying it held the right to retaliate, the statement from Iran's military suggests Tehran may be trying to find an off-ramp to further escalation in the war after Israel's attack early Saturday morning.
It added that Israel used so-called "stand-off" missiles over Iraqi airspace to launch its attacks and that the warheads were much lighter in order to travel the distance to the targets they struck in three provinces in Iran.
The statement added that Iranian military radar sites had been damaged, but some already were under repair.
Iran's army said four of its troops were killed in the attack and they all served in the country's military air defense.
Following the strikes, Iran's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying it had the right to self-defense, and "considers itself entitled and obligated to defend against foreign acts of aggression."
Calling the Israeli attack a violation of international law, the ministry also said that Tehran "recognizes its responsibilities towards regional peace and security."
The strikes are not disrupting the planned talks between CIA Director William Burns, the head of Mossad, David Barnea, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Doha on Sunday.
U.S. informed ahead of strikes
The U.S. was given an advanced warning of the attacks, two sources told CBS News.
Sean Savett, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, told CBS News in a statement that "as the Israelis have stated, their response was an exercise in self-defense and specifically avoided populated areas and focused solely on military targets, contrary to Iran's attack against Israel that targeted Israel's most populous city."
The U.S. did not participate in the operation, Savett added.
President Biden told reporters on Saturday Israel gave him a heads-up before the strikes and said it looked like "they didn't hit anything but military targets." He said he had just finished a call with intelligence officials.
"I hope this is the end," he said.
Two defense officials confirmed to CBS News that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant Friday night.
"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," the IDF said in its statement. "Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond."
Very few of Iran's missiles made it past Israel's advanced missile defense systems, and there were no casualties from the Oct. 1 attack, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to make Iran "pay for it."
"The regime of Iran 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 nominee Kamala Harris have both said Israel had the right to defend itself and respond to the Iranian attack. Still, Mr. Biden was clear that he would not support an Israeli attack targeting Iran's nuclear facilities or major oil infrastructure.
In anticipation of the Israeli response — and any potential Iranian counter-response — the U.S. sent Israel a new missile defense system in mid-October. Austin said on Oct. 21 that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system had arrived in Israel, along with about 100 American troops.
Iran defended its missile attack on Israel as a "legal, rational, and legitimate response to the terrorist acts of the Zionist regime — which involved targeting Iranian nationals and interests and infringing upon the national sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
U.S. officials told CBS News before the Iranian attack that Tehran had been ready to strike Israel on short notice since early August when Iran first threatened to retaliate for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Israel has killed several senior Iranian and Iran-backed military and paramilitary commanders in strikes across the region, although it did not publicly claim responsibility for Haniyeh's death.
An Iranian diplomatic source told CBS News immediately after the Oct. 1 missile attack that Iran's leadership had been "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 as a terrorist group by the U.S., Israel and many other countries.
Israel has mounted a blistering offensive against Hezbollah — by far the most powerful of Iran's so-called proxy groups in the region — since mid-September, killing many of its senior leaders and bombing its strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs and across the south of Lebanon, near the Israeli border.
The Israel Defense Forces have also carried out ground operations in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese public health ministry says Israel's operations in the country since September have killed about 1,500 people and displaced some 1.2 million from their homes.
The IDF said it had been forced to launch its assault on Hezbollah in response to the group's year-long barrage of rocket and drone fire targeting northern and central Israel. Hezbollah has vowed to continue those attacks on Israel until the war with its fellow Iranian benefactor Hamas in Gaza comes to an end.