How Israel launched a ‘birthday surprise’ attack against Iran’s nuclear defences

Israeli fighter jets fired missiles at Iran in a muted show of force early on Friday morning, reportedly targeting the air defence systems of a key nuclear plant in the country.

The attack was aimed near the central city of Isfahan, home to an Iranian military base, a major missile production complex and several nuclear sites, according to US officials.

Friday’s strike came in response to Iran’s first ever direct attack on its arch rival last weekend, after decades of shadow war.

Israel had vowed to hit back after Iran launched more than 300 drones and ballistic and cruise missiles, an attack which was itself in retaliation to the April 1 bombing of an Iranian consulate in Damascus which killed seven military officers.

The retaliatory action on Friday appears to have been very limited in scope and calculated to avoid escalating the regional tensions into a wider war, though fears of a miscalculation remain.

Tehran almost immediately played down the attack as “reckless fireworks”, claiming no damage was caused, while Israel stayed silent.

Israel has not publicly claimed credit

Israel has not publicly claimed credit, although Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani told reporters at a G7 summit that the Jewish state had alerted Washington at the “last minute”.

Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, was tight-lipped at the G7 foreign ministers summit in Capri, but stressed the US “was not involved in any offensive operations”.

Mr Blinken said Washington, along with the rest of the G7, was “committed to de-escalating” and “to trying to bring this tension to a close”.

The White House has remained unusually silent, with Joe Biden’s spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, refusing to comment on the attack at a press briefing last night.

Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, called for “calm heads to prevail” in a statement on Friday.

That message appears to have been heeded for the time being.

One Israeli official said the attack was intended to send a message, while another described it as “carefully calibrated” to avoid escalation.

Direct state-to-state strikes ‘over’

Meanwhile a regional intelligence source with knowledge of Iran’s thinking said that direct state-to-state strikes between the two regional powers were “over.”

Three Iranian officials told The New York Times that small drones carried out the “attack”, possibly launched from inside Iran, and that radar had not detected unidentified aircraft entering Iranian airspace.

However, according to one senior US official, three missiles were fired from Israeli fighter aircraft outside of Iran.

The Israelis were targeting an air defence radar site protecting the Natanz nuclear complex, reported to be Iran’s primary uranium enrichment facility, the official told ABC News.

An initial assessment suggested the strike had destroyed the air defence station, but the report had yet to be completed, the official said.

The strike was intended to send a signal to Iran that Israel has these capabilities, but was not looking to escalate the situation, according to the official.

Iran’s soft rhetoric in response suggests it has no current plans for retaliation.

“The media supporters of the Zionist regime attempted to spin a narrative victory from another defeat,” said Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

‘Downed small drones no financial or human damage’

“However, the downed small drones had no financial or human damage.”

Israel’s decision to hold back from broader and immediate action this week came amid competing pressures on Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to deliver a blow that would punish Iran without provoking further escalation.

The Israeli Prime Minister has been under pressure from the US and Europe to moderate the country’s response, while hardliners at home demanded a sharp rebuke of Tehran.

Gulf countries had been increasingly worried about the situation.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had publicly called for maximum “self-restraint” to spare the region from a wider war.

Regional neighbours including Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s message “was relayed forcefully” through direct security and diplomatic channels, one senior regional intelligence source said.

Israel’s plans to hit back were reportedly postponed twice as a result.

As Iran’s barrage unfolded last weekend, two members of the war cabinet, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, both former armed forces commanders, were reported to have called for an immediate response.

The war cabinet agreed to hold off following a call with President Joe Biden and in the face of differing views from other ministers, according to two Israeli officials.

Israel’s options ranged from strikes on strategic Iranian facilities, including nuclear sites or Revolutionary Guards bases, to covert operations, targeted assassinations and cyber attacks on strategic industrial plants and nuclear facilities.

Direct and destructive strike on strategic sites

The country’s war cabinet ultimately ruled out the most drastic options: a direct and destructive strike on strategic sites including Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The sun had yet to rise on Friday morning when some residents in the Iranian city of Isfahan were startled awake by buzzing sounds, then blasts.

Explosions began sounding overhead at 4am in central Iran – according to eyewitness accounts and Iranian state media – where a major military base and the regime’s primary nuclear facility is located.

“I rushed out as I was worried about any attack in recent days; I saw a big boom, and then a few small ones,” said Ali, who lives in eastern Isfahan, in a telephone interview.

“The sky became orange,” he said. “We hear these sounds usually as they test air defence systems regularly, but this one was more than that, and too early.”

What surprised Ali before dawn would soon become known to the world.

Explosions heard and country’s air defence systems activated

The first major public indication that something was afoot came about an hour later from Iranian state media which reported that explosions had been heard and the country’s air defence systems activated.

US officials soon began privately confirming to news organisations that Israel had launched missiles from within Iranian territory, without providing more information on the extent and location of the operation.

Only a single word came from Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who posted on X, “lame.”

Hossein Alizaden, a former Iranian diplomat, told The Telegraph the strike “holds little political value” until Israel acknowledges it was behind it.

“Anyone could claim responsibility, even MEK, for example,” he said, referring to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, an Iranian opposition group.

“Israel’s reluctance to claim responsibility is likely because it could provoke Iran to retaliate, sparking a cycle of strikes between the two countries.”

As the sun tipped higher into the sky on Friday, Iranian state broadcasts moved seamlessly to cast the day just as any other.

“This morning’s explosion in the sky over Isfahan was caused by the activation of air defence systems in response to a suspicious object. There was no accident or damage,” said General Abdolrahim Mousavi, commander-in-chief of Iran’s army.

“Experts are currently conducting investigations. Further information will be provided once the results are available.”

Several quadcopters taken out

State television also claimed that several quadcopters had been taken out, and that all was well.

Airports in the capital Tehran, and the cities of Shiraz and Isfahan were shuttered and then reopened a few hours after the attack, according to Iran’s civil aviation organisation.

However, concerns remain that the incident could lead to a serious escalation in the Middle East, where tensions remain high as the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip recently tipped beyond six months, and hit a death toll of some 35,000.

Israel’s decision to strike in Iran’s central Isfahan province, a strategic military hub, and suggestions it launched strikes from within Iranian territory, if true, could be as much about psychological warfare as it was about causing physical damage.

“Israel has a lot of experience operating in Iran,” said Jason Brodsky, policy director of the United Against Nuclear Iran, an advocacy group.

“Israel has a long history of mounting covert operations inside the Islamic Republic. So that experience has informed what it did overnight in the Islamic Republic.”

One of the targets appeared to have been the Shekari 8 Air Base in Isfahan, a base for Iran’s regular army, rather than one used by its feared Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

“I think that they may have viewed the Islamic Republic as less likely to retaliate if they attacked an army base versus an IRGC base,” said Mr Brodsky.

That it happened around the birthday of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, was curious, though experts said it had little significance beyond an interesting coincidence.

Iranian authorities yet to assess full impact of action

Iranian authorities are yet to assess the full impact of the action and to calculate its response.

“I believe both sides are now posturing to claim achievements they can sell to their domestic audiences,” said Mr Alizaden.

“Iran can tell its citizens that it attacked and claimed responsibility, while Israel can assert that it targeted the Isfahan base,” he said.

“I think both sides are now content with claiming achievements, and it’s unlikely to escalate into a regional conflict.”

That Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi also chose not to cut short his trip to the central province of Semnan, indicated that the country was not on high alert.

For many months now, the Islamic Republic has indicated — along with other Middle Eastern countries — that there is little appetite to escalate into all-our war.

But given the long-running Iran-Israel rivalry, both sides have had to maintain appearances with a show of strength.

As such, world leaders on Friday rushed to urge “absolute restraint.”

In a statement, Mr Sunak said: “We have condemned Iran’s reckless and dangerous barrage of missiles against Israel on Saturday and Israel absolutely has a right to self-defence”.

“But as I said to Prime Minister Netanyahu when I spoke to him [this week] and more generally, significant escalation is not in anyone’s interest, what we want to see is calm heads prevail across the region.

“De-escalation remains the order of the day in the near future,” said Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor. “And we will also talk about this with all our friends and allies, and work together with them in this direction.”