TEHRAN: Iran said an Israeli attack targeted military sites in the Islamic republic on Saturday, killing two soldiers, almost a month after Israel vowed to avenge a missile barrage that raised fears of a full-scale Middle East war.
The Israeli military said its retaliatory air strikes hit Iran's missile manufacturing facilities, missile installations and other systems in several regions. It warned Iran it would "pay a heavy price" if it responded.
Iran confirmed an Israeli attack had targeted military sites in Tehran province surrounding the capital, and other parts of the country, saying it caused "limited damage". The armed forces said later two soldiers were killed in the strikes.
Israel had vowed to retaliate against Iran for its October 1 barrage of 200 missiles, the second-ever direct attack by Iran on its arch-foe. Most of those missiles were intercepted but one person was killed.
The Israeli retaliation drew condemnation from UAE and Saudi Arabia, which warned against further escalation.
Israel is already engaged in combat on two fronts, a full-on war against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon since last month, and in Gaza, where Israel has fought Palestinian Hamas militants for more than a year and the United Nations warned the "darkest moment" of that conflict was unfolding.
"Based on intelligence, IAF (air force) aircraft struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the State of Israel over the last year," Israel's military said in a statement.
Iran has carried out two direct missile barrages against Israel since April, but for more than a year Hezbollah, armed and financed by Tehran, has been firing over Israel's border.
"Simultaneously, the IDF (military) struck surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities," the Israeli military said, adding the "retaliatory strike has been completed and the mission was fulfilled".
Israeli aircraft "returned safely", a military spokesman added.
Two dead in Israel
Along with Hezbollah and Hamas, armed groups in Yemen, Iraq and Syria, also aligned with Iran, have carried out attacks in fallout from the Gaza war.
At roughly the same time as Israel struck Iran, Syrian state news agency SANA said an Israeli air attack targeted military positions in central and southern Syria.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose network of pro-Iran factions, claimed responsibility before dawn Saturday for a drone attack against a "military target" in northern Israel.
After the strikes on Iran ended, the Israeli military said two drones had been intercepted crossing into Israel from Lebanon.
On Friday, two people died from shrapnel wounds after a Hezbollah rocket barrage into Israel's north, Israeli officials said.
US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Israel's response to Iran was "an exercise in self-defence" focused solely on military targets.
He urged Iran to "cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation", and said the United States seeks "to accelerate diplomacy".
The Israeli military blamed "Iran and its proxies" in the region for "relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th", when Hamas's attack against Israel triggered the Gaza war.
That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Dozens of captives seized on that day are still held by militants in Gaza.
Israel's retaliatory bombardment and ground war in Gaza has killed 42,847 people, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, figures the United Nations considers reliable.
Flights resume
In late September Israel turned its focus to Lebanon, escalating bombardment of targets it said were linked to Hezbollah, and then sending in ground troops. Israel said the aim is to make the north of the country safe for tens of thousands of Israelis to return.
At least 1,580 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
Iran before dawn suspended all flights but the aviation authority later announced flights would "return to normal" from 9:00 am (0530 GMT).
In its first-ever direct assault against Israeli territory, Iran in April launched more than 300 drones and missiles. It said that barrage was retaliation for a strike on Iran's consular annex in Damascus that killed members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Explosions later in April shook Iran's Isfahan province in what US officials, cited by American media, said was Israeli retaliation.
Iran's air defence force on Saturday confirmed an Israeli attack had targeted several military bases.
"This fake regime (Israel) attacked parts of military centres in Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam provinces," it said in a statement, adding the attack "caused limited damage" while being intercepted.
Iranian state television had reported blasts around the capital due to the "activation of the air defence system" against an Israeli attack.
An AFP reporter in Tehran also heard explosions.
Possible 'atrocity crimes'
Iran said its October 1 missile attack against Israel was retaliation for an Israeli air raid that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and a Revolutionary Guards General in Lebanon, as well as for the assassination in Tehran of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
On Friday Gaza's health ministry accused Israeli forces of storming the last functioning hospital in the territory's north in a raid it said left two children dead.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating around Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp but was "not aware of live fire and strikes in the area of the hospital".
The Israeli military says it is seeking to destroy operational capabilities Hamas is trying to rebuild in the north.
Also in northern Gaza on Friday, Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli drone strikes killed 12 people waiting to receive aid near the Al-Shati refugee camp. There was no immediate comment from the military.
Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Israel's policies in northern Gaza "risk emptying the area of all Palestinians".
"We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity."
He said that, "Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day."
