Here are the latest developments. (2024)

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Here are the latest developments.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the attack. A senior U.S. official said that Israel had notified the United States through multiple channels shortly before the attack. All the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The explosions came less than a week after Iran fired more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel — nearly all of which were shot down — in response to an April 1 strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria that killed seven Iranian officials. That attack brought the decades-long shadow war between Israel and Iran — waged on land, at sea, in air and in cyberspace — more clearly into the open.

Here’s what else to know:

• Israeli leaders came close to ordering widespread strikes in Iran on the night Iran attacked, officials said, but after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with President Biden, and because the damage was limited, the war cabinet postponed a decision. Mr. Biden and other world leaders urged Israel for days not to retaliate in a way that would inflame a wider Middle East war while it fights on two other fronts — against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both allies of Iran.

• Details of the Friday attack remained unclear. Iranian officials told The New York Times that it had been carried out by small drones, possibly launched from inside Iran, and that radar systems had not detected unidentified aircraft entering Iranian airspace. They said that a separate group of small drones was shot down in the region of Tabriz, roughly 500 miles north of Isfahan.

• In public, Iranian officials sought to downplay the strike. Maj. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, the commander in chief of Iran’s army, said explosions heard early Friday in Isfahan “were from our air defense firing at a suspicious object,” and that there had been “no damage.” Iranian news agencies reported that nuclear facilities in Isfahan had not been hit.

• President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran had warned that “the tiniest act of aggression” on his country’s soil would draw a response. But in the hours after Israel’s strike, there have been no public calls for retribution by Iranian officials.

Israel has commonly used exploding drones in attacks on Iran.

The drones might have been launched from inside Iran, whose radar systems had not detected unidentified aircraft entering Iranian airspace, Iranian officials said.

Israel’s military has not commented on Friday’s strike. Though it rarely claims responsibility publicly for attacks against Iranian targets, several attacks in recent years have used drones:

• August 2019: Israel sent an exploding drone into the heart of a Hezbollah-dominated neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon, to destroy what Israeli officials described as machinery used in the production of precision missiles.

• June 2021: A quadcopter exploded outside Tehran at one of Iran’s main manufacturing centers for centrifuges, which purify uranium and are used at the country’s two major uranium enrichment facilities. Western officials have closely watched activity at those facilities for signs that Iran could be moving toward producing a nuclear weapon. Iran claimed that there had been no damage to the site outside Tehran, but satellite images showed evidence of significant damage.

• February 2022: Six quadcopters exploded at Kermanshah, Iran’s main manufacturing and storage plant for military drones.

• May 2022: A strike targeted the highly sensitive Parchin military site outside Tehran, where Iran develops missile, nuclear and drone technology. Quadcopter drones exploded into a building, killing an engineer and injuring another person, Iranians with knowledge of the attack said at the time.

• January 2023: A drone attack on an Iranian military facility in January 2023 caused a large explosion in the center of Isfahan, the city near the air base that was struck on Friday. At the time, Iran made no effort to hide the fact that an attack had happened, but said it had done little damage. Iranian state media reported that drones had targeted an ammunition manufacturing plant but had been shot down by a surface-to-air defense system.

Blinken says the U.S. has not been involved in ‘offensive operations’ in Iran.

But Mr. Blinken would not even directly confirm the Israeli strike, which appeared to be the country’s first military response to Iran’s attack last weekend, referring instead to “reported events,” and he would not say whether the United States had been notified in advance of the Israeli action. Shortly before he spoke, Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, told reporters that the United States had been “informed at the last minute” of the Israeli strike.

“But there was no involvement on the part of the United States,” Mr. Tajani said. “It was simply information which was provided,” adding that he believed the G7’s collective efforts deserved credit for “the small scale of the event.”

Mr. Tajani did not say how he knew the United States had not been notified in advance, but he had recently come from a meeting with Mr. Blinken and other G7 ministers. A senior American official said on Friday that Israel had notified the United States through multiple channels shortly before its attack on Iran.

The G7 weighed in collectively in a statement concluding the three-day meeting, urging countries to prevent further escalation “in light of reports of strikes” on Friday. The G7 includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the European Union.

The statement also said that the member nations “condemn in the strongest terms Iran’s direct and unprecedented attack” on Israel.

“Israel and its people have our full solidarity and support and we reaffirm our commitment toward Israel’s security,” it added.

The G7 also issued a new warning to Tehran, demanding that “Iran and its affiliated groups cease their attacks” throughout the Middle East and saying that “we stand ready to adopt further sanctions or take other measures.”

Mr. Blinken said of Iran that “degrading its missile and drone capabilities” was a key G7 goal.

Mr. Blinken also addressed the ongoing conflict in Gaza, pointing a finger at Hamas for the failure so far to reach a cease-fire deal that would include the release of Israeli prisoners.

“The only thing standing behind the Gaza people and a cease-fire is Hamas,” he said.

But he also addressed a major friction point with Israel, warning against what Israel says is its planned attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have sought shelter from fighting elsewhere in the enclave. Israel has said an invasion of Rafah is necessary to eliminate Hamas battalions in the city.

“We cannot support a major military operation in Rafah,” Mr. Blinken said. Mr. Blinken said that protecting and caring for civilians amid such an operation was “a monumental task for which we have yet to see a plan.”

Asked about the U.S. veto on Thursday of a United Nations Security Council resolution to recognize a Palestinian state, Mr. Blinken said that while the United States supports the creation of such a state, doing so requires negotiations and that the proposed resolution “will have no effect on actually moving things forward and achieving a Palestinian state.”

He added: “You can put something down on a piece of paper and wave it around. It has no effect. What does intend to have an effect is actual diplomacy.”

Mr. Blinken also noted that, under U.S. law passed by Congress, U.N. acceptance of a Palestinian member state would require “cutting off all of our funding for the United Nations.”

World leaders call for de-escalation after Israel’s strike in Iran.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, told reporters during a visit to China: “It is absolutely essential that the region remains stable and that all sides refrain from further action.”

Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said the Group of 7 nations — which includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — had changed the agenda of its meeting Friday on the resort island of Capri to “address the Iran issue and put priority attention on the Middle East.”

“The political goal of the G7 is de-escalation,” Mr. Tajani said.

The government of Jordan, which has been criticized in the Arab world for playing a role in intercepting Iran’s attack last weekend, issued an especially pointed plea.

“Israeli-Iranian retaliations must end,” Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s foreign minister said on Friday. He urged the international community to turn its attention back to Gaza, where six months of Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion have killed over 33,000 people and led to extreme hunger in parts of the territory.

“The inhumane war on Gaza must end now,” Mr. Safadi said. “The focus of the world must remain on ending the catastrophic aggression on Gaza.”

Israel informed the U.S. shortly before it struck Iran, an American official says.

“We were not surprised,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

Publicly, Biden administration officials were tight-lipped about Friday’s strike, refusing to comment at all about it. Administration officials were keeping quiet to avoid getting the United States pulled into the conflict between Iran and Israel, the official said.

Speaking to reporters in Capri, Italy, at a meeting of foreign ministers from Group of 7 nations, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken declined to address the strike, saying only that “the United States was not involved in any offensive operations.” He added that the G7 was urging all parties to de-escalate.

Antonio Tajani, Italy’s foreign minister, told reporters in Capri that the United States had been “informed at the last minute” of the Israeli strike.

Michael Crowley contributed reporting from Capri, Italy.

Israel’s strike was smaller than expected, and so was Iran’s reaction.

But when it finally came early on Friday, Israel’s strike appeared less damaging than expected, allowing Iranian officials and state-run news outlets to downplay its significance, at least at first.

Iranian officials said that no enemy aircraft had been detected in Iranian airspace and that the main attack — on a military base in central Iran — had been initiated by small unmanned drones that were likely launched from inside Iranian territory. The nature of the attack even had precedent: Israel used similar methods in an attack on a military facility in Isfahan early last year.

By sunrise, Iranian state-run news outlets were projecting a swift return to normality, broadcasting footage of calm street scenes, while officials publicly dismissed the impact of the attack. Airports were also reopened, after a brief overnight closure.

Analysts cautioned that any outcome was still possible. But the initial Iranian reaction suggested that Iran’s leaders would not rush to respond, despite warning in recent days that they would react forcefully and swiftly to any Israeli strike.

“The way they present it to their own people, and the fact that the skies are open already, allows them to decide not to respond,” said Sima Shine, a former head of research for the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, and an Iran expert.

But, she added, “We have made so many evaluation mistakes that I am very hesitant to say it definitively.”

In a miscalculation that set off the current round of violence, Israel struck an Iranian embassy compound in Syria on April 1, killing seven Iranian officials including three senior commanders.

For years, Israel had mounted similar attacks on Iranian interests in Syria as well as Iran, without provoking a direct response from Iran. But the scale of the attack appeared to change Iran’s tolerance, with Iranian leaders warning that it would no longer accept Israeli strikes on Iranian interests anywhere in the region. Early on April 14, Iran fired more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel, causing little damage but shocking Israelis with the scale of the attack.

Even if Iran does not respond in a similar way to Israel’s latest strike on Friday, it could still react forcefully to future Israeli attacks on Iranian assets in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, Ms. Shine said.

That possibility became more pressing early on Friday, after the Syrian authorities said that Israel had again struck a site in Syria, at roughly the same time as its attack on Iran.

Israel did not claim responsibility for the strike, in line with its policy of not commenting on such attacks. But if the attack harmed Iranian interests, and if Iran attributes the attack to Israel, it remains unclear how Tehran will respond.

“The question is whether they will stand by their red line,” Ms. Shine said. “But what exactly is the red line? Is it only high ranking people? Is it only embassies? Or is it every Iranian target in Syria?”

Johnatan Reiss and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed reporting.

Isfahan is one of Iran’s most historic cities and home to military facilities.

That has made the city, home to roughly two million people today, one of the tourist centers of Iran.

Isfahan is also a center of missile production, research and development for Iran. That includes the assembly of Shahab medium-range missiles, which can reach Israel and beyond. And it is the site of four small nuclear research facilities, all supplied by China many years ago.

The Natanz uranium enrichment site is also in Isfahan Province, along with an air base that has long hosted Iran’s fleet of American-made F-14 Tomcats — purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, according to The Associated Press. A Russian-made S-300 air defense battery has also been seen in Isfahan, according to an assessment by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The Israeli attack early on Friday — which Iranian news agencies said had not hit Isfahan’s nuclear facilities — was not the first time the area has been targeted.

In January 2023, Israel carried out a drone attack on a military facility in the middle of Isfahan, according to senior intelligence officials who were familiar with the dialogue between Israel and the United States about the strike. The facility’s purpose was not clear, and neither was how much damage that attack caused.

At the time, Iran made no effort to hide the fact that an attack had happened but said it had done little damage. Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, reported that the drones had targeted an ammunition manufacturing plant and that they had been shot down by a surface-to-air defense system.

A muted initial response in Iran and Israel suggest both want to avoid escalation.

In Israel, officials described the strike as a limited response designed to avoid escalating tensions. Pundits on the country’s morning news shows said the strike did not appear to cause significant damage to military sites in Iran.

“Israel can do elegant military maneuvers that are not noisy or cause significant military damage but which deliver the message Israel wants,” Dana Weiss, a diplomatic affairs analyst for Israel’s Channel 12, told viewers. “And that is what we have seen them do.”

State television in Iran said military and nuclear facilities in Isfahan were safe and broadcast footage of the city looking calm in the spring light. One newsreader there described the attack as “not a big deal.”

Social media users in Iran, including some connected to the country’s military, mocked the Israeli strike as a puny response to the roughly 300 missiles and drones that Iran launched at Israel last weekend.

In one video that was widely shared online Friday, a girl throws a paper airplane at an apartment building and compares it to the Israeli strike, giggling as the folded paper hits the concrete structure.

Iranian officials told The New York Times that a strike had hit a military air base near Isfahan. But Brig. General Siavash Mihandoust, the most senior military official in Isfahan, told state television that any explosions heard there on Friday were not caused by Israeli strikes, attributing them to air defense systems shooting down “flying objects.”

Some in Israel celebrated the strikes, including elected leaders from the country’s right-wing parties.

Tally Gotliv, a lawmaker from the Likud party, wrote on X, “A morning in which our head is proudly up. Israel is a strong and forceful country.”

A strike appears to be Israel’s first military response to Iran’s attack.

Flight tracking websites showed that civilian planes had diverted their routes away from the area.

The Israeli military declined to comment. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The explosions came less than a week after Iran fired more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel, its first direct attack on the country, in response to an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria that killed seven Iranian officials on April 1.

For days, Israeli leaders have threatened to respond to Iran’s strikes, which turned the two countries’ yearslong shadow war into a direct confrontation.

The Israeli military declined to comment about the explosions on Friday in Iran.

Iran’s army chief, Maj. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, said on Wednesday that Iran would respond to any Israeli aggression, according to remarks carried by the IRNA state news agency.

President Biden had advised Israel against responding, amid fears that an Israeli counterattack would escalate into an all-out war. For more than six months, Israel has been fighting on two other fronts — against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both are allies of Iran.

U.S. officials express ‘concerns’ to Israeli officials about any major assault on Rafah.

The meeting was convened just days after the United States came to Israel’s defense against a barrage of more than 300 missiles and drones fired by Iran; Israeli, U.S. and other allied forces knocked down nearly all of the incoming Iranian weapons, resulting in little damage and no fatalities.

Despite that close collaboration, though, the discussion on Thursday underscored that the two sides remained at odds over Israel’s conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza more than six months after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

“U.S. participants expressed concerns with various courses of action in Rafah, and Israeli participants agreed to take these concerns into account and to have further follow up discussions between experts,” the White House statement said. The statement did not elaborate on the specific concerns.

The Israeli side was led by Ron Dermer, a close adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and member of the Israeli war cabinet, and Tzachi Hanegbi, the prime minister’s national security adviser. The group discussed the Iran attack and efforts to defend Israel against future threats.

The White House statement emphasized that the United States shared Israel’s goal “to see Hamas defeated in Rafah,” but the president has resisted a ground operation out of fear of the consequences for more than 1 million Palestinians who have taken refuge there.

The C.I.A. director blames Hamas for stalled peace talks.

While Mr. Burns did not describe the details of that proposal, he said that so far Hamas has not accepted it.

“It was a deep disappointment to get a negative reaction from Hamas,” said Mr. Burns, speaking at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas. “Right now, it’s that negative reaction that really is standing in the way of innocent civilians in Gaza getting humanitarian relief that they so desperately need.”

Last Sunday, Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, expressed regret that Hamas had rejected the proposal and argued it proved that the group was not interested in reaching a deal.

Other American officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, have said Hamas has signaled that it does not have enough women and civilian hostages in its control to consummate the first part of the deal, which would release 40 hostages over six weeks in return for a large number of Palestinian prisoners.

A senior Hamas official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were not enough living civilian hostages left who met Israel’s criteria to reach their proposed figure of 40 hostages over six weeks. He accused Israel of seeking to free captive soldiers for a lower price than that demanded by the group. Hamas has said most soldiers would be released in a later phase of a cease-fire deal.

In its latest proposal to negotiators, Hamas called for releasing fewer than 20 living hostages as part of an initial, six-week phase cease-fire deal, according to two Israeli officials familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Israel had hoped to see wounded and ill hostages freed, but Hamas was insisting on a far more narrow definition limited to the elderly and women, one of the officials said.

Last year, Mr. Burns helped guide talks that led to the release of roughly 100 hostages in return for a temporary halt in fighting and the release of Palestinian prisoners. Mr. Burns said he could not guarantee that the current talks would succeed.

“And it breaks your heart because you can see in very human terms what’s at stake here as well,” he said.

Mr. Burns also reiterated the Biden administration’s desire that Israel not escalate its conflict with Iran, after what he called a failed Iranian attack last weekend. Instead, he said President Biden and other policymakers hope that “we’ll all find a way to de-escalate the situation.”

“I know the Israeli government, as we sit here this afternoon, is considering a response to what happened last Saturday night,” Mr. Burns said. “And you know, that’s their choice to make that response.”

But Mr. Burns said the Israelis had “clearly demonstrated their superiority” with shooting down Iranian drones and missiles. He said of 330 drones and missiles launched by Iran, only four or five hit the ground in Israel.

“And none of them did any significant damage,” he said. “It’s a reminder of the quality of the Israeli military. It’s a reminder of the fact that the Israelis have friends, starting with the United States.”