Updates: Israel attacks Iran, warns Tehran against retaliation

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You can read more about Israel’s overnight attacks on targets in Iran here.

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Here are the latest updates:

• The Israeli military has carried out strikes on Iran, hitting about 20 sites over several hours in response to Iran’s October 1 missile attack on Israel.
• An Israeli army spokesperson said the now-finished assault, which he named operation “Days of Reckoning”, attacked Iran’s “means of producing missiles”, as well as surface-to-air missile systems and other air defence capabilities.
• Iran’s military has confirmed the Israeli strikes targeted military bases in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces, saying they caused only “limited damage”.
• Israel has warned Iran against retaliating, saying it will be “obligated to respond” again, adding it has “additional targets” it could strike should that happen.
• A US National Security Council spokesman said Washington was aware of strikes by its ally but did not participate, describing the operation as an “exercise in self-defence”.
• Israeli authorities have closed the country’s airspace until 8:30am local time (05:30 GMT), but are yet to issue a state of alert to citizens.

Israel’s military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has confirmed Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Iran have been completed.

“We carried out targeted and precise attacks against military targets in Iran – and thwarted immediate threats to the State of Israel,” he said.

Hagari warned the Iranian government that Israel is prepared to strike further targets in the country if needed.

“We will know how to select additional targets … and strike them if required. This is a clear message, whoever threatens Israel, will pay a heavy price,” he said.

Iran’s military has confirmed that Israeli strikes on the country targeted military bases in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces, causing “limited damage.”

The statement from Iran’s armed forces was read aloud on state television, which showed no images from the sites of the attacks.

Iran’s military claimed its air defences limited the damage inflicted by Israel’s strikes.

The Republican has briefly commented on the situation in the Middle East during a rally in Michigan.

“We’ve got a war going on, and she’s out partying,” he said, referring to his Democratic opponent, Harris.

The US vice president is holding a campaign rally in Houston, Texas, alongside Beyonce and other celebrities. For more of Al Jazeera’s US election coverage, see our live page here.

As we previously reported, the Israeli military’s senior spokesperson Daniel Hagari has confirmed that Israel has concluded its attacks on Iran.

The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee has offered more details on what has been labelled operation “Days of Reckoning”.

Adraee said:

• All Israeli aircraft returned safely to their bases.
• Air Force aircraft, guided by intelligence, attacked “the means of producing missiles launched by Iran towards” Israel.
• Iranian surface-to-air missile systems and other air defence capabilities were also attacked.
• The Israeli raid has been completed and its objectives accomplished.

Israel has launched overnight attacks on Iran’s capital Tehran and other locations around the country.

Watch as Iranian aerial defence systems respond to the Israeli attacks.

The Israeli military’s attacks on several Iranian sites in recent hours come as it continues its deadly bombardments of Gaza and Lebanon.

At least 88 Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks across Gaza on Friday, including 38 people – 14 children among them – in a strike on a residential building in Khan Younis in the south of the territory.

In Lebanon, the country’s Health Ministry said on Friday the death toll from Israeli attacks since October 2023 has surged to 2,634 in recent weeks as a result of the escalating assault on the country.

At least 41 people were killed and 133 wounded in Israeli attacks in the latest 24-hour period, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Friday.

Al Jazeera is reporting from outside Israel because it has been banned by the Israeli government.

Israel continues to maintain and tell its citizens that they are ready for any kind of strike that might be headed towards Israel.

Israel tells their citizens, in defiant tones often, that the actions they are involved in right now – all this aggression – that it is going to make Israel safer in the long term.

Even though the Israeli government continues to say they are protecting the homeland and that they are doing all they can to defend their citizens, many in Israel are worried that the country is becoming much more vulnerable.

Certainly, right now, the Israelis are saying that their defensive systems are capable. They are saying that they have not heightened the alert because of this attack on Iran.

But that could all change, and we are bound to hear more about that from the Israelis in the hours to come.

We have reached out to the secretary-general’s office. We have not heard any statement from him yet – but that is normal.

The UN chief usually will wait several hours after something like this takes place before he will issue a statement, to assess exactly what has transpired.

Antonio Guterres for weeks now has been calling for de-escalation. Any sort of spillover, either into Lebanon or between Israel and Iran, is something that he has been very worried about for a very long time.

And, clearly, that spillover is very evident at this hour.

Doron Kadosh, a reporter with Israel’s Army Radio, has cited an unnamed source who said the Israeli attacks “are expected to continue for several more hours”.

Israel is preparing for more attacks, as well as for defensive measures in case of a possible Iranian response, Kadosh said.

Citing an unnamed source briefed on Israel’s military planning, The Washington Post also reported that the Israeli “target list contains military assets, particularly missile manufacturing facilities and aerial defense sites”.

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Now you have direct confrontation going on between Israel and Iran.

That is not something that used to happen.

It used to be a proxy battlefield. Now you have direct confrontation. And that is what’s so concerning to international actors, the US, and to so many people in the region.

The worry is about a wider regional conflagration at a time when tensions are at an all-time high.

The state-run IRNA news agency has said Iranian air defences have “successfully shot down adversarial targets in the airspace around Tehran province”.

Footage shared online captured what appeared to be interceptions over the Iranian capital.

Just a reminder that the sun is due to rise in about half an hour in the Iranian capital.

Saturday is the first day of the working week in Iran and residents of the capital and across the country will soon start to go to their jobs.

Daylight is expected to bring more clarity as questions over the scale of the attack, casualties and targets remain.

Democrat Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump have not yet commented on the Israeli attacks. The US presidential candidates are holding campaign events in Texas and Michigan, respectively.

Both Harris and Trump have pledged unwavering support to Israel during the election race.

After Iran’s October 1 missile attack against Israel, Harris said her “commitment to the security of Israel is unwavering”. In an interview with CBS programme 60 Minutes earlier this month, Harris also said she considered Iran to be the US’s “greatest adversary”.

For his part, Trump has maintained a hardline against Tehran and blamed the Biden-Harris administration for the current crisis. “When I was president, Iran was in total check. They were starved for cash, fully contained, and desperate to make a deal,” he said on October 1.

During his time in office, Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the multilateral Iran nuclear deal, and he also authorised the assassination of top IRGC General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in 2020, fuelling regional tensions.