Israel hits back at Iran

The war in the Middle East escalated again early Saturday when Israel began bombing targets in Iran, ramping up the pace of attacks and retaliation that has inflamed the region.

Israel said it was punishing Islamic Republic for rocket attack earlier this month aimed at Israeli military installations and other targets. These attacks were a response to Israeli actions. assassination of top leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah militia And other senior commanders in Lebanon.

It was a rare direct confrontation between the two most armed countries in the Middle East. Instead, the enemies waged a decades-long “shadow war” through proxy militias such as the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group Hamas, or, in the case of Israel, through secret sabotage missions and assassinations.

“In response to months of continuous attacks by the Iranian regime on the State of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces are now conducting precision strikes against military targets in Iran,” the Israeli military said in a statement. “Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and responsibility to respond.”

In Tehran, residents reported explosions around the capital and the nearby city of Karaj. Possible targets include missile sites controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the western outskirts of Tehran. In this direction, smoke was visible above the night horizon.

On the Tehran side, smoke was also seen near the city of Shahriyar, a known site for underground missile storage facilities.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retreated to a bunker beneath the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, where he was joined by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other senior leaders. Netanyahu’s office released a photo of the group gathered around the table.

In the weeks leading up to the attack, Biden administration officials had repeatedly urged Israel to avoid attacks on Iran’s oil industry – to avoid damaging global markets – or its nuclear energy facilities.

US officials said the White House was notified by Israel before the strikes. In a statement Friday evening, a National Security Council spokesman said Israel was conducting “self-defense exercises in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1.”

Read more:As Israeli airstrikes destroy cities in Lebanon, some see echoes of Gaza

The strikes came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken left the region, where he ended several days of shuttle diplomacy between Israel, Saudi Arabia and other countries in hopes of resuming ceasefire talks in the region. War between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Countries in the region were preparing for Israel’s response to Iran after Netanyahu warned Tehran ‘will pay a big price’ for attacking Israel.

Until recently, both countries had largely avoided direct conflict. But in a region inflamed over the past year by brutal fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel and Iran have inched closer to real war. Tensions have risen further in the past month after mutual attacks by Israel and Hezbollah on the Israel-Lebanon border escalated sharply as a result of Israeli bombing and ground incursions into Lebanon.

Read more:Israel and Iran exchange threats as fighting intensifies in southern Lebanon

Just over a year ago, Hamas invaded southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. In response, Israel launched a merciless war in the Gaza Strip. The next day, Hezbollah, announced that it would intensify the firing of rockets into northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas.

Since then, the Israeli military has killed more than 42,000 people. Palestinians in Gaza on its southern flank, according to the Ministry of Health. Entire neighborhoods in Gaza were destroyed, as was much of Hamas, its leaders and infrastructure. On October 18, Israel announced that it had killed senior Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

By then, Israel had shifted its main military operations to its northern border with Lebanon. From Lebanon, Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets into Israel over the past 12 months, driving some 70,000 Israelis from their cities and killing a small number of Israelis. Israeli strikes in Lebanon also displaced tens of thousands of people until Israel expanded its bombing in late September.

Read more:Iran fires missiles at Israel amid ground invasion of Lebanon

On September 30, Israel launched its first ground invasion of Lebanon in 18 years and said it would attack Hezbollah targets. But its bombing campaign spread across Lebanon, into the Bekaa Valley and even Tripoli in the north, while repeatedly striking the capital Beirut. More than 2,000 Lebanese have been killed and a million displaced, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

Hezbollah is Iran’s most important proxy in the Middle East. Killing of Israel on September 27 Longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan NasrallahFour days later, Iran triggered a retaliatory strike with nearly 200 ballistic missiles that forced millions of Israelis into bomb shelters. With the support of the US and British Air Forces, Israel was able to intercept most of the shells. However, this was only the second time Iran had attacked Israel directly, the first attack occurring in April.; both times the damage in Israel was minimal.

Israel vowed to retaliate, and the region has been preparing for it ever since.

US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, aimed at releasing the remaining hostages held in the Gaza Strip, ending Israeli bombing and allowing desperately needed food and medicine to be delivered, have so far failed.

Times staffer Wilkinson reported from Washington, special correspondent Mostaghim from Tehran. Staff writer Laura King in Washington contributed to this report.

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This story first appeared in Los Angeles Times.