After reports of explosions west of Tehran from the Iranian Tasnim news agency, the IDF has announced that it is “conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran.” It is the latest in a series of escalations between the two countries since the Hamas attack on October 7th last year that killed nearly 1,200 Israelis, and the ensuing invasion of Gaza by the IDF that has officially killed 40,000 Palestinians, though the figure is widely acknowledged to be a significant undercount. There are also reports of explosions in the countryside around Damascus, though there is no official word from Israeli officials on that front yet as of this writing.
Iran sent a barrage of 200 ballistic missiles into Israel on October 1st, which it said at the time was in retaliation for a bombing that killed the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian military officials in a densely populated suburb of Beirut. The bombing also killed hundreds of civilians, according to the IDF’s estimates. The two countries had previously exchanged attacks in the spring, after Israel bombed the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus, killing sixteen people, including eight Iranian military officials and two Syrian civilians. Iran responded at the time with a drone attack on Israel, although there were reports that Iran warned countries hosting U.S. military bases of the attack up to 3 days prior. Iran backs Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party and paramilitary force, with funding and other resources. Hezbollah has been launching rocket attacks against Israel since its invasion of Gaza last year.
According to CBS News, the United States was given advanced warning of the attack from the Israeli military. In a statement, the National Security Council said that Israel is attacking Iran as “an exercise of self-defense and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1st.” The NSC spokesperson, Sean Savett, has referred inquiries to the Israeli government for further information. Since Israel’s invasion of Gaza last October, the United States has funded its military with a record $17.9 billion.
