Military personnel stand guard at a nuclear facility in the Zardanjan area of Isfahan, Iran, on April 19, in this screengrab taken from video.WANA/Reuters
Five days after it fought off an unprecedented launch of Iranian drones and missiles, Israel struck back Friday, with explosions reported near two Iranian cities.
Israel did not formally confirm it had launched a counterattack, although unnamed Israeli defence officials told U.S. newspapers their country was responsible.
The counterattack was carried out despite the urging of allies, including the U.S. and Canada, that Israel show restraint, amid fears any misstep could thrust the region into a wider war.
The Friday morning attack followed the unprecedented Iranian strike last weekend that saw more than 300 drones and missiles fired at Israel, all synchronized to hit at about 2 a.m. Sunday. Most of that barrage was shot down by Israel and an international coalition that included the U.S., Britain, France and Jordan. Iran launched that attack nearly two weeks after Israel struck what Tehran called a diplomatic compound in Damascus, killing seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
But Iran on Friday gave no immediate sign of making good on earlier threats to retaliate against even the slightest provocation. State media instead downplayed three 4 a.m. explosions near a military base outside the central city of Isfahan, saying they came from the activation of air-defence systems to shoot down three drones. A similar reason was given for blasts near the northern city of Tabriz.
Iran grounded commercial air travel for several hours but resumed flights by mid-morning.
Israel has attacked Iran, three people familiar with the matter said, as Iranian state media reported early on Friday that its forces had destroyed drones, days after Iran launched a retaliatory drone strike on Israel.
Reuters
State media in Syria also reported what they called an Israeli missile attack on air-defence infrastructure in the country’s south.
Iran’s Isfahan province is home to several sites involved in its nuclear program, including the Nuclear Technology Centre, the country’s largest complex for nuclear research.
That facility “is completely safe,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-backed Fars news agency reported Friday. It cited Second Brigadier-General Siavash Mihandoost, the area’s senior military commander, as saying no damage had been caused.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iranian nuclear sites were unharmed.
This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows Iran's nuclear site in Isfahan, Iran, on April 4.Planet Labs Pbc/The Associated Press
Preliminary assessments show that Israel used three missiles to take out an air-defence radar site built to protect a nuclear facility in the Isfahan area, ABC News reported, citing a U.S. official.
Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in comments reported by Iranian media, said Israel had fired drones at Isfahan but caused no damage.
“The Zionist regime’s media supporters, in a desperate effort, tried to make victory out of their defeat, while the downed mini-drones have not caused any damage or casualties,” he said.
A lengthy joint statement by G7 foreign ministers made no mention of the Friday morning attack. Instead, it condemned Iran’s earlier strike on Israel as “a dangerous escalation” that marked “an unacceptable step towards the destabilization of the region.”
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, in a post to X, said: “In light of the strikes reported in Iran and following our meeting this morning, I join my G7 colleagues in urging all parties to work to prevent further escalation.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke out against acts of retaliation, saying in a statement that it is “high time to stop the dangerous cycle of retaliation in the Middle East.” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. had not taken part “in any offensive operations” and reiterated support for Israel. “Our focus has been on making sure that Israel can effectively defend itself, but also de-escalating tensions, avoiding conflict,” he said.
In remarks reported Friday by state media, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi made no mention of the Israeli strike. He instead praised Iran’s offensive on Israel last weekend as a unifying moment that demonstrated his country’s “steely will.”
The reports of explosions near an Iranian air force base suggested an Israeli effort to match its response to Sunday’s attack from Iran, which caused minor damage to an air force base in southern Israel, said Ehud Eiran, a political scientist who studies conflict resolution and negotiation at the University of Haifa.
“It includes all the symbolism of a tit for tat,” he said.
“The Iranian attack was an effort to create new rules of the game that would limit Israel,” he added. “The Israeli response is to make a point that we’re not playing by these rules.”
Prof. Eiran and others said the Israeli strike seems likely to decrease the risk of more intensive confrontation with Iran.
Israel “had to take some sort of action,” wrote Ian Bremmer, the president and founder of risk consultancy Eurasia Group, on X.
But he called the nature of the response “deescalatory,” describing it as “restrained” in comparison with the Iranian attacks.
Some on Israel’s far right, however, saw an opportunity for a more destructive assault on Iran.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s Minister of National Security, expressed his frustration Friday with a single-word social media post typically employed to describe a weak soccer kick: “Lame!” – a comment that drew derision from Iran and criticism from domestic political opponents.
“In an unforgivable one-word tweet, Ben Gvir managed to mock and shame Israel from Tehran to Washington,” Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s Opposition, wrote on X.
The U.S. and other Western governments had made a major diplomatic effort to dissuade Israel from launching a counterattack that could lead to a regional war.
What Israel did on Friday was an attempt to strike a compromise, said Raphael BenLevi, a fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy in Jerusalem.
“On the one hand, we have to do something. On the other hand, it’s designed specifically to be under the threshold of escalation – and to give Iran a way to climb down from the ladder,” said Dr. BenLevi, an Israeli military intelligence reserve officer who has lectured at the Israel Defence Forces’ Military Command Academy.
Doing nothing, he said, would have risked sending a dangerous message “that Iran can attack Israel with impunity directly from its soil. That is unacceptable.”