Iran says Israeli air strike on military sites caused limited damage
Israel's military says its planes safely returned home after striking missile manufacturing facilities in Iran.
In short:
Iran says Israel's air attack against military targets caused only limited damage.
Scores of Israeli jets completed three waves of strikes before dawn on Saturday against missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran, Israel's military said.
The United States joined other countries in calling for a halt to the cycle of attacks between Israel and Iran.
Iran has played down Israel's air attack against Iranian military targets, saying it caused only limited damage.
US President Joe Biden called for a halt to military escalation that had raised fears of an all-out conflagration in the Middle East.
Scores of Israeli jets completed three waves of strikes before dawn on Saturday against missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran, Israel's military said.
It was retaliation for Iran's October 1 attack on Israel with about 200 ballistic missiles, and Israel warned its heavily armed archenemy not to hit back after the latest strike.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday that Iranian officials should determine how best to demonstrate Iran's power to Israel after the attack, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.
"The evil committed by the Zionist regime (Israel) two nights ago should neither be downplayed nor exaggerated," IRNA cited him as saying.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Israel had the right to retaliate.
"What I do is join with the US secretary of state and Prime Minister [Keir] Starmer to work towards a de-escalation in the Middle East," he said.
"I think that is what everyone wants to see and certainly at CHOGM (the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) that was the common view."
Iran condemned the Israeli raid and its foreign ministry said Iran was "entitled and obligated" to defend itself.
But it added that it "recognises its responsibilities towards regional peace and security", a more conciliatory statement than after previous bouts of escalation.
Iran says Israeli planes 'prevented from entering' airspace
Iran's military said the Israeli warplanes used "very light warheads" to target border radar systems in the provinces of Ilam and Khuzestan and around Tehran.
"Enemy planes were prevented from entering the country's airspace … and the attack caused limited damage," Iran's military joint staff said in a statement.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel damaged Iran's ability to defend itself and to produce missiles when its air force struck two nights ago.
"The air force attacked throughout Iran. We hit hard Iran's defence capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed at us," Mr Netanyahu said in a speech.
"The attack in Iran was precise and powerful, and it achieved all its objectives," he said.
David Albright, a former UN nuclear weapons inspector, said low-resolution commercial satellite imagery appeared to show that one Israeli strike hit the sprawling Parchin military complex near Tehran, damaging three buildings, including two where solid fuel was mixed for ballistic missile engines.
Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at CNA, a Washington think tank, said Israel also hit Khojir, a large missile production site near Tehran.
Tensions between Iran and Israel have grown rapidly since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Iran-backed Hamas, raising fears of a wider regional conflict that could drag in global powers and imperil world energy supplies.
Worsening conflict in Lebanon, where Israel is waging an intense campaign against Iran's main regional ally Hezbollah to stop it firing rockets into northern Israel, has raised the temperature still further.
The United States, which had pressed Israel to avoid targeting sensitive Iranian energy and nuclear sites, joined other countries in calling for a halt to the cycle of confrontation between Israel and Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel had chosen the targets in Iran based on its national interests, not according to what was dictated by the United States.
Mr Biden said the strikes appeared to only hit military targets and he added he hoped they were "the end".
Harris calls for de-escalation
US Vice-President Kamala Harris, who hopes to succeed Mr Biden by winning the November 5 US presidential election, said it was "the strong perspective of the United States that there must be de-escalation".
Two regional officials briefed by Iran told Reuters that several high-level meetings were held in Tehran to determine the scope of Iran's response.
One official said the damage was "very minimal" but added that several Revolutionary Guard bases in and around Tehran were also hit.
Iranian news sites aired footage of passengers at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport, seemingly meant to show there was little impact.
Israel's military, signalling it did not expect an immediate Iranian response, said there was no change to public safety restrictions across the country.
Israel says it struck military sites
Satellite photos analysed by the Associated Press appear to show the attack damaged facilities at a secretive military base south-east of the Iranian capital that experts in the past have linked to Tehran's one-time nuclear weapons program.
AP said the photos also showed damage at another base tied to its ballistic missile program.
This satellite photo shows Iran's Parchin military base, outside of Tehran, on September 9, 2024.
Some of the buildings damaged sat in Iran's Parchin military base, where the International Atomic Energy Agency suspects Iran in the past conducted tests of high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon.
Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, though the IAEA, Western intelligence agencies and others say Tehran had an active weapons program up until 2003.
The other damage could be seen at the nearby Khojir military base, which analysts believe hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites.
Damaged buildings, in the bottom right corner and bottom centre of the image, at Iran's Parchin military base on October 27, 2024, after Israel's attack.
Iran's military has not acknowledged damage at either Khojir or Parchin from Israel's attack, though it has said the assault killed four Iranian soldiers working in the country's air defence systems.
Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the Israeli military.
Beni Sabti, an Iran expert at Tel Aviv's Institute for National Security Studies, said the Israeli strike appeared designed to give Tehran an opportunity to avoid further escalation.
"We see that Israel wants to close this event, to pass this message to Iran that it is closed and we don't want to escalate it," he said.
Videos carried by Iranian media showed air defence systems continuously firing at apparently incoming projectiles in central Tehran, without saying which sites were coming under attack.
Israel's military said its jets had struck missile manufacturing facilities and surface-to-air missile arrays before safely returning home.
"If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond," the military said.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Iran "should not make the mistake of responding to Israel's strikes".
Mr Austin said he also stressed in a call with his Israeli counterpart diplomatic opportunities to lower tensions in the region, including in Gaza and Lebanon.
Israel notified the US before striking, but Washington was not involved in the operation, a US official told Reuters.
Targets did not include energy infrastructure or Iran's nuclear facilities, a US official said.
Israel continues to strike Lebanon and Gaza
Israeli military strikes killed at least 45 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, most of them in the north of the enclave, Palestinian health officials said, as efforts to secure a ceasefire in the more than year-long war resumed in Qatar.
At least 34 of those killed on Sunday were in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have returned to root out Hamas fighters who it says have regrouped there.
Twenty people were killed following an air strike on houses in Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, which has been the focus of an Israeli military offensive for more than three weeks, medics and the Palestinian official news agency WAFA said.
While an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinian families in Shati camp in Gaza City killed four people and wounded 20 others, many in critical condition, medics said.
On Sunday, Israel's military said it had "eliminated over 40 terrorists" in the Jabalia area in the past 24 hours, as well as dismantling infrastructure and locating "large quantities of military equipment".
Israel said on Friday that three of its soldiers were killed in combat in the north of the enclave.
Meanwhile, the death toll from an Israeli air strike late on Saturday on a residential district in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya rose to 40 on Sunday morning, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.
At least five people were killed and 13 wounded on Sunday in an Israeli strike on Sidon (Saida) in southern Lebanon, the country's health ministry said, adding that an air strike on Marjayoun the previous day resulted in five fatalities and one injury.
Four Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said.
Hezbollah said it fired rockets at a military base in northern Israel on Sunday, a day after it declared several areas in the region a "legitimate target" due to the presence of Israeli troops.
The Iran-backed group said it targeted a "military industries base north of Haifa… with a large rocket salvo", after it issued an evacuation warning on Saturday for large swathes of northern Israel.
Protesters disrupt Netanyahu speech marking October 7 attacks
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife Sara, President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog attend a ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7.
Protesters disrupted a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a ceremony Sunday remembering the victims of Hamas' attack on southern Israel last year.
People shouted "Shame on you" and made a commotion, forcing Netanyahu to stop his speech shortly after it began. The major commemorative event is being broadcast live around the country.
Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for the failures that led to Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack and hold him responsible for not yet bringing home the remaining hostages held by the militant group in Gaza.
Reuters/AFP
By：https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-27/iran-says-israeli-strike-did-limited-damage/104523656(责任编辑：admin)
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