Plumes of smoke rise over Iran’s capital Tehran following airstrikes amid ongoing U.S.â”Israel attacks on March 1. Photo: Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images
The Israeli Air Force conducted strikes on military targets in central and western Iran on Monday morning local time, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
Why it matters: The strikes, in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack against Israel, mark a new phase in a growing escalation that started on Sunday morning. This is the first time Israel has struck Iran since the April 8 ceasefire.
- Further exchanges of fire could unravel the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran and lead to the resumption of the war.
- President Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hours before the strikes not to retaliate after Tehran conducted a retaliatory attack on Israel.
Between the lines: A U.S. defense official said the U.S. military was not involved in the Israeli strikes on Iran.
- The official said the Israeli strikes were “relatively limited” in their scope.
- Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., said on X that Iran had fired 11 ballistic missiles at his country earlier, adding: “Israel is now targeting Iranian surface-to-surface missile launch sites, as well as infrastructure facilities unrelated to the energy sector.”
- If Hezbollah were to fire at Israel, Leiter said the Tehran-backed militant group’s command center in Dahieh “will be hit hard,” adding: “This has nothing to do with Iran.”
- Explosions were heard in the Iranian cities of Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan, Tabriz and Kermanshah, according to Iranian state media.
- Iran closed its airspace around Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport following the strikes.
- An hour after the Israeli strikes in Iran, a ballistic missile was launched from Yemen towards central Israel, but it was intercepted, the IDF said.
- Shortly after, sirens went off in Tel Aviv. It was the first attack from Yemen since the April 8 ceasefire.
- Earlier on Sunday, Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs in response to a Hezbollah missile attack on northern Israel, Israeli officials said.
- What we’re watching: Tehran had threatened to expand its attacks and target U.S. bases in the region if Israel retaliates raising concerns that further exchanges could trigger a wider regional conflict.
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