Biden says Israel apparently only hit Iran military sites: ‘My hope is this is the end’
US seeks to maintain balance of backing Israel’s right to respond to Iranian attacks while avoiding regional escalation; Herzog hails US support while PM seems to downplay it
US President Joe Biden said Saturday that Israel appeared to have exclusively hit military targets in its retaliatory attack against Iran the night before, while Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin warned Tehran not to respond.
“It looks like they didn’t hit anything other than military targets,” Biden told reporters.
It was the latest effort by Washington to subtly offer its approval of Israel’s strikes, which a senior Biden administration official told reporters hours earlier were “targeted and proportional with low risk of civilian harm.”
“My hope is this is the end,” Biden added at the end of his response, as the US seeks to balance its support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran’s October 1 ballistic missile strike, while also pressing for de-escalation in the region.
US Defense Secretary Austin said that he had stressed the opportunities to de-escalate tensions in the region during a call to his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“Iran should not make the mistake of responding to Israel’s strikes, which should mark the end of this exchange,” Austin said in a statement.
The push for a diplomatic solution was echoed later Saturday by US Vice President Kamala Harris, who told reporters, “We are very adamant that we must see de-escalation in the region going forward, and that will be our focus.
“Of course, we maintain the importance of supporting Israel’s right to defend itself,” she added, while highlighting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to the region this week aimed at advancing ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon.
In the nearly four weeks since Iran’s attack, the US sought to use its influence over Israel to calibrate a response that Washington felt would avoid an all-out war between Israel and Iran. Biden spoke out publicly against the idea of targeting Iranian nuclear and oil sites, leaving military sites such as the ones hit early Saturday as the main viable option left for Israel as it relies heavily on US support.
In the lead-up to the counter-strikes, the US sent several THAAD air defense batteries to Israel along with US troops to operate them — the first time that the US had placed boots on the ground to defend Israel.
President Isaac Herzog made a point of thanking the US for its “overt and covert” cooperation in the lead-up to Israel’s retaliatory attack, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office downplayed the notion that the US was overly involved.
The Prime Minister’s Office issued a pair of denials of Hebrew media reports — the first of which claimed that Israel initially planned to strike Iran’s oil and natural gas facilities but changed its plan to focus exclusively on Iranian military facilities after persistent US pressure.
“Israel chose the targets ahead of time, based on its national interests,” said the PMO, “and not based on American directives.”
The second denial was of a report saying Israel warned Iran through third parties not to respond to the airstrikes and gave Iran a general indication of what it would and wouldn’t target.
“Israel did not notify Iran before the attack — not about the timing, not about the targets, and not about the scale of the attack,” said a separate statement from Netanyahu’s office.
While Israel appeared to try and downplay the US role, Iran took the opposite approach.
Israeli warplanes attacked Iran from Iraqi airspace, Iran’s mission to the UN tweeted Saturday, blaming the United States for what it called its complicity.
“Iraqi airspace is under the occupation, command and control of the US military. Conclusion: The US complicity in this crime is certain,” the Iran UN mission wrote.
Gantz and Ben Gvir say Israeli campaign far from over
Meanwhile, National Unity chair Benny Gantz tweeted Saturday that the IDF strike was “nothing more than a fraction of the harm Israel can inflict to the regime, should it choose to continue its aggression.”
The attack was “important not only in of itself but due to the method by which it was executed,” the former IDF chief of staff wrote, asserting that the strike “marks a new stage in our war against the Iranian regime” that paves “the way for future operations.”
“The campaign is far from over,” said Gantz, who took his party into the opposition in June after leaving the war cabinet due to disagreements with Netanyahu over his handling of the conflict.
“We must continue persevering in the efforts to bring our hostages home, replace the Hamas regime, and continue to degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities to create a new reality on our northern border that will enable our citizens to return home and live in safety,” added Gantz.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir echoed the notion that the attacks against Iran were just the beginning. He lauded the strikes but characterized them as merely an “opening blow” that must be followed by further action.“We have a historical obligation to remove the Iranian threat to destroy Israel,” he added.
Iran’s foreign ministry said earlier Saturday it was obliged to “defend itself” after the Israeli strike, but did specifically not threaten a response.
Iranian media reported that four soldiers were killed in the early Saturday strikes.
At least three Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps missile bases were targeted in the strikes, according to unnamed officials quoted by the New York Times, one of whom is a member of the IRGC.
The IDF releases a video showing F-15 fighter jets heading out to carry out last night's strikes in Iran. pic.twitter.com/9BAjeSBP5H
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 26, 2024
Israeli drones also targeted the secretive Parchin military base on the outskirts of Tehran, The New York Times report added, citing the officials as saying that one drone hit the site while others were downed.
The IDF said it precisely targeted strategic military sites, specifically drone and ballistic missile manufacturing and launch sites, as well as air defense batteries.
The strikes were carried out in multiple waves over the course of several hours, in various areas of Iran, with the Islamic Republic closing its airspace for the duration and seemingly showing little ability to counter the assault. Strikes were reported in the Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan and Shiraz areas.
The first wave of attacks apparently targeted Iran’s air defense capabilities, both to ensure the IDF’s freedom of operations during Saturday’s sorties, and to lay the ground for further strikes, should Iran retaliate. As the campaign was underway, Syrian state media reported that Israel struck several military sites in the south and center of the country, action possibly taken to enable the IAF to operate more freely in Iran.
The next waves hit drone and ballistic missile manufacturing sites — those used in direct Iranian attacks on Israel on April 14 and October 1 — as well as sites used to launch such weapons.
