Axios: Israel informed Iran in advance of the attack and the targeted sites and warned of a response
Axios website revealed, Saturday, that Israel sent a message to Tehran before the attack on Iran, warning the Iranians against responding, according to what three informed sources told Axios, indicating that the message was an attempt to limit the mutual attacks between Israel and Iran, and avoid a greater escalation.
Over the course of about four hours, the Israeli attack on Iran, which began around 2 AM, targeted missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at Israel, in addition to surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aviation capabilities that were intended to restrict the Israeli air operation in Iran, according to the Israeli army, which threatened Iran with a response “if the Iranian regime made the mistake of starting a new round of escalation”.
Axios sources said the Israeli message was conveyed to the Iranians via a third party.
“The Israelis made it clear to the Iranians in advance what they would attack in general and what they wouldn’t,” one source said.
Two other sources said Israel warned the Iranians not to respond to the attack, and stressed that if Tehran did respond, it would carry out a more significant attack, especially if Israeli civilians were killed or wounded.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Earlier, Axios quoted US and Israeli officials as saying that the Israeli attack on Iran was carried out in three waves.
They said that the first wave of Israeli attacks focused on the Iranian air defense system, while the second and third waves focused on missile bases, drones, and production sites.
Israeli Channel 13 Israel quoted Israeli military officials as saying that hundreds of fighter jets participated in the attack on Iran.
The White House said the Israeli attack on military targets in Iran was “in self-defense and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel on October 1”.
The White House urged Iran to stop attacking Israel to break the cycle of violence.
“We urge Tehran to cease its attacks on Israel to end the cycle of fighting without further escalation,” said National Security Council spokesman Sean Savitt, stressing that the United States wasn’t involved in the Israeli strikes.
Tasnim News Agency, which is close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, quoted sources as confirming that the Israeli missiles were unable to hit any military sites of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard west and southwest of Tehran, adding that the explosions were due to air defenses responding to Israeli military attacks.
The semi-official Iranian Mehr News Agency said that contrary to foreign media claims, no explosion occurred in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, while the official Iranian IRNA news agency quoted relief sources as saying that no incident had been reported in or around the capital that required intervention.
