Israeli warplanes launched multiple missile strikes against several facilities in Iran early on Saturday.
Israel had warned Iran through intermediaries before the missile strike, according to Axios, citing three anonymous sources. The report states that Israel indicated which targets it would attack, while urging Tehran not to retaliate.
Early Saturday, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari confirmed that Israeli forces were conducting “precise strikes on military targets” in Iran. The operation, reportedly codenamed ‘Days of Repentance,’ was launched “in response to months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the State of Israel,” he said.
Axios reported that Israel had “made it clear to the Iranians in advance what they are going to attack in general and what they are not going to attack.” The US media outlet described this as an “attempt to limit the ongoing exchange of attacks between Israel and Iran and prevent a wider escalation.”
The report also claims that Israel warned Iran against responding to the attack, threatening a more devastating strike if Tehran retaliated.
Axios claimed that Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp was one of the channels used by Israel to convey its message to Iran. On Friday, the diplomat confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that he had spoken “with the Iranian Foreign Minister about war and the heightened tensions in the region.” He added that he had urged Tehran to exercise restraint.
“IAF aircraft struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the State of Israel over the last year,” according to an IDF statement. The Israeli military also claimed to have struck Iran’s surface-to-air missile capabilities.
Iran reopened its airspace at 9am local time (6am GMT), with the country’s National Air Defense Headquarters reporting that Israel’s “provocative” attack had resulted in “limited damage… in certain areas,” and that a more detailed assessment was still underway.
“The country’s integrated air defense system successfully intercepted and countered this aggressive action,” officials in Tehran asserted.
On October 1, Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to the killing of the Hamas and Hezbollah leaders as well as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general.