Israeli attack on Iranian targets, still no sign of casualties or damage

Israel has carried out airstrikes on Iran. The Israeli army writes that it has targeted “military targets” at X with precision strikes, “in response to the continued attacks of the Iranian regime.”

The attack marks Israel’s declaration of resistance to an Iranian missile attack more than three weeks ago. Army spokesman Hagari said in a video on X after the attack that Israel has an obligation to respond if Iran “makes the mistake of starting a new series of escalations.”

Around 1 in the morning (Dutch time) the first reports came in about explosions heard in the Iranian capital, Tehran, among others. About four hours later, after several waves of attacks, the military issued a press release saying that the attack had ended.

Israel says it has hit locations where rockets are being manufactured and says the attack is “successful”. Iran says that “limited damage” was caused and that the attack was largely repelled thanks to air defenses.

Here are night images of the explosions over Tehran:

There is still no independent picture of casualties, damage or what exactly was hit. American media wrote that Iran’s oil and energy infrastructure and the country’s nuclear facilities have at least not caught fire.

Iran closed the country’s airspace because of the attack. The US, Israel’s most important ally, was reportedly contacted by Israel shortly before the attack.

Early this month Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic projectiles at Israel. Most of the missiles were intercepted. Shortly thereafter Israel announced a path forward, but it was not clear when he would arrive.

Iran’s attack followed a series of threats from Iran following the attacks on Hezbollah, the killing of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and the ouster of Hamas leader Haniyeh in Tehran.