Israel issues stern ultimatum to Iran if they retaliate for huge IDF bombing campaign on Tehran

Israel has issued a stern ultimatum to Iran if the country decides to retaliate for its airstrikes on Tehran early Saturday morning.

Israel hit Iran with three waves of attack, focusing on ‘missile manufacturing facilities’ it claimed were used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the Jewish nation on October 1.

It also struck ‘surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities, that were intended to restrict Israel’s aerial freedom of operation in Iran,’ the IDF announced.

But if Iranian officials were to strike back, Israel would be ‘obligated to respond,’ Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari warned in a video posted to X.

‘Our message is clear: All those who threaten the state of Israel and seek to drag the region into a wider escalation will pay a heavy price,’ he said. ‘We demonstrated today that we have both the capability and the resolve to act decisively, and we are prepared on offense and defense, to defend the state of Israel and the people of Israel.’

IDF forces had earlier announced on social media it was conducting ‘precise strikes’ on military targets in Tehran in response to what it called ‘the continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against Israel.’

Several hours later, the Israeli military announced that it has completed its strikes on the Iranian capital, saying: ‘Our planes have safely returned home. The retaliatory strike has been completed and the mission was fulfilled.’

The strikes hit roughly 20 sites over the course of the night, according to the New York Times. 

Iranian officials later said those strikes caused only ‘limited’ damage, claiming ‘the attack has been successfully intercepted and countered’ by Iran’s ‘integrated air defense system,’ its state-run news agency IRNA reported. 

It had earlier said that several ‘loud explosions’ that were heard across the city were related to the country’s air defense systems. 

The Israeli strikes came in retaliation for Iran’s attack on October 1, in which around 200 ballistic missiles were fired at Israel – in Iran’s second direct attack on Israel in six months. 

An Israeli military statement said that Israel ‘has the right and the duty to respond.

‘The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since Oct. 7 – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil,’ it said.

Officials said they hit Iran with three waves of attack Saturday morning. The first focused on Iranian air defense systems, while the second and third focused on missile and drone bases as well as production sites, according to Axios reporter Barak Ravid. 

The semi-official Iranian Fars news agency also confirmed several military bases in the west and southwest of Tehran had been targeted in the attack.

Witnesses said they heard loud explosions, with one resident saying: ‘It was so loud and the sky became red.’

A correspondent for Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen also reported explosions on the outskirts of Diyala and Salah al-Din in Iraq, the outlet posted to X, while others claimed there were explosions in Damascus, Syria as well.

Amid the attack Hagari called on the people to be ‘alert and vigilant’.

Shortly after communities in northern Israel were told to take shelter amid an alert of a drone from Lebanon.

The Home Front Command issued an alert for a ‘hostile aircraft intrusion’ around the northern city of Nahariya and other parts of Galilee. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were in a bunker at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu’s office said.

The Isreali Prime Minister’s Office has released an image of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and military officials at the IDF’s underground HQ amid the strikes on Iran

Iranian authorities have warned Israel against launching an attack, saying any strike on Iran would be met with a stronger retaliation.

U.S. President Joe Biden had also warned that Washington, Israel’s main backer and supplier of arms, would not support a strike on Tehran’s nuclear sites and has said Israel should consider alternatives to attacking Iran’s oil fields.

According to Fox News, the White House was notified shortly before Israel conducted the strikes, however officials have said the US was not involved in the operation.

The strike happened just as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was arriving back in the U.S. after a tour of the Middle East where he and other U.S. officials had warned Israel to tender a response that would not further escalate the conflict in the region and exclude nuclear sites in Iran.

White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement that ‘we understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran in an an exercise of self-defense’ following Tehran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this month.

President Joe Biden is currently in Wilmington, Delaware, and his advisers are currently not planning to convene in the Situation Room. 

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps troops march in a military parade commemorating the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq War

A missile is launched during a military exercise in an undisclosed location in the south of Iran, in this handout image obtained on January 19, 2024

This comes as state news agency SANA reported that Syrian air defences intercepted ‘hostile targets’ near Damascus, as Israel said it was launching strikes in Iran.

‘Our anti-aircraft defense is confronting hostile targets in the skies around Damascus,’ SANA said on Telegram after reporting ‘sounds of explosions’ in the vicinity of the Syrian capital.

International flights began diverting around western Iran as news of the strikes broke, flight-tracking data showed. 

Iran later announced it has closed its airspace until 8:30am Israel time – for more than four hours.

Iranian officials, under condition of anonymity, told the New York Times that Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has told his armed forces to prepare several responses to be implemented depending on the severity of Israel’s strike.

Widespread damage and a high number of casualties could provoke a sharp reaction from Tehran, the officials said, adding there may be no response if the attack is limited to military compounds.

Focus has fallen on the various oil refineries and nuclear sites of economic and strategic value to Iran in the wake of its blistering assault on Israel earlier this month. Israel was said to assured allies in the US it would steer clear of valuable sites.

Earlier this month Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, assured the United States that a counterstrike on Iran will be limited to military targets rather than oil or nuclear facilities, according to a person familiar with the discussions. 

Officials said a major attack could trigger a response with as many as 1,000 ballistic missiles – fivefold the number used earlier this month in what was its largest attack on Israel in its history.

The Ayatollah has allegedly ordered that such a heavy response should be carried out if Iran hits energy infrastructure or nuclear facilities, or assassinates senior officials, the officials said.

Israel have killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah (pictured in 2015) in strikes on Beirut

Israel released a graphic showing the Hezbollah senior figures who had so far been ‘eliminated’ – adding that they had ‘dismantled’ the group

Flames rise after an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanonon Sept 28

On October 1 Iran launched 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, it was Iran’s second such attack on Israel this year, after it launched about 300 missiles and drones in April.

While many of the missiles were shot down, dozens managed to strike the Nevatim airbase, demonstrating that Iran could at least partially penetrate Israel’s sophisticated air defence systems at some of the country’s most highly protected sites. 

Iran claimed they were in response to an Israeli attack that killed IRGC operations commander Brig-Gen Abbas Nilforoushan and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon, according to Iran.

Iran has maintained that it does not seek escalation, but has sent out persistent warnings to Israel that it will ‘not last long’ as it presses on with operations in Lebanon and Gaza.

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel on Oct. 1

People take cover on the side of a road as a siren sounds a warning of incoming missiles on Oct 1

Iranian launched projectiles being intercepted by Israel above Jerusalem on October 1

And as the region appears to be on the brink of war, the Israeli military boasted that the decapitation of Hezbollah was ‘not the end of our toolbox’ and gloated that they can ‘reach’ anyone who threatens them. 

In a brazen taunt to the countries surrounding them, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) then shared a diagram of the Hezbollah chain of command, where each leader had been marked up as ‘Eliminated’. 

On top of this, three days ago Israel killed  Hashem Safieddine, the alleged ‘next leader’ of Hezollah in a blitz of his bunker. 

Safieddine was a powerful cleric within the Hezbollah ranks and was anticipated to succeed Hassan Nasrallah. 

About 25 other Hezbollah leaders were also reportedly killed during the airstrike.