Israel warned Iran hours before its retaliatory strikes on Saturday morning which struck some 20 military sites across the country, according to a report.
The Israeli military carried out three waves of long-expected strikes overnight Friday and into Saturday on targets around Tehran and the southwestern provinces of Ilam and Khuzestan, with Iranian state media reporting “limited damage”.
Two Iranian soldiers were killed, according to an Iranian army statement.
Israel decided to warn Tehran that it was preparing to carry out its response to Iran's 1 October ballistic missile attack through diplomatic sources, according to a report in US outlet Axios on Saturday.
Iran launched a major missile attack on Israel at the beginning of the month which saw hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles reach Israeli military bases and other sites, in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC general Abbas Nilforoushan in Beirut last month and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
Citing sources “with knowledge of the issue” Axios reported that the Israelis sent a message to Iran through several third parties in an attempt to limit the tit-for-tat exchange and deter a wider escalation.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldcamp was named as one of the diplomatic channels involved in relaying messages to Iran, according to the report.
Veldcamp wrote on social media site X on Friday that he had spoken to the Iranian foreign minister “about war and the heightened tensions in the region”.
Israel reportedly warned Iran against responding to Saturday’s attack and threatened to conduct a larger attack if Israeli citizens were hit.
Israeli air force spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that Israel had a “duty to respond” claiming that it has been under attack on “seven fronts” since October 2023. Israel is currently attacking both Gaza and Lebanon, killing hundreds of civilians every week.
In a statement announcing the conclusion of the strikes, Hagari said that if Iran’s made “the mistake” of retaliating, Israel would be “obligated to respond”.
The Iranian air force said on Saturday that Israel “attacked parts of military sites in Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam provinces” but that the country’s “integrated air defense systems succeeded in intercepting and confronting this act of aggression”.
It said that investigations are ongoing and warned citizens “not to pay attention to the rumours of the enemy” and only follow news from “national and official media”.
Iran has not yet disclosed the exact details of what it described as “limited damage” caused by the missile strikes.
The US has said it was not involved with the strikes but a US official was quoted as saying that the White House was closely following the developments and that President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had been briefed on Israel’s raids.
A senior administration official said following Israel's attack that "This should be the end of the direct military exchange between Israel and Iran... As far as we're concerned, that should close out that exchange between Israel and Iran.”
Israel and Iran have exchanged direct fire on several occasions since the outbreak of war in Gaza which has also drawn Iranian-allied groups in the region, including the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Islamic Resistance groups in Iraq.