Israel strikes Iran military sites, warns rival against retaliation

Attack seemingly not aimed at oil, nuclear targets; Tehran says damage very minimal

Israel struck military sites in Iran early on Oct 26, killing two soldiers, but its retaliation for an Iranian attack in October did not appear aimed at the country's most sensitive oil and nuclear targets.

The risk of a wider conflagration between heavily armed Israel and Iran has convulsed a region already on fire with warfare in Gaza and Lebanon, but Tehran's initial response appeared muted.

Israel's military said scores of jets had completed three waves of strikes before dawn against missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran, and warned its heavily armed arch-foe not to hit back.

Iran said its air defenses had successfully countered the attack, but two soldiers were killed and some locations suffered "limited damage". A semi-official Iranian news agency vowed a "proportional reaction" to the Israeli strikes.

Tensions between Iran and Israel have grown rapidly since the Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Iran-backed Hamas, raising fears of a wider regional conflict that could drag in global powers and imperil world energy supplies.

Fears of an escalation have increased since Oct 1 when Iran launched around 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, killing one person in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in response to earlier Israeli moves.

Worsening conflict in Lebanon, where Israel is waging an intense campaign against Iran's main regional ally Hezbollah to stop it from firing rockets into northern Israel, has raised the temperature further.