Israel's military says 'targeted' attacks on Iran are over after three waves of strikes — as it happened (2025)

We will wrap up our live coverage here for now.

Updates on the situation will continue on the ABC News website.

A full wrap of the latest news can be found here:

We've just been briefed on the strikes by a senior Biden administration official on what the US knew of the attacks.

The US is insisting it was not involved in the strikes, but it was given warning by the Israeli government.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was briefing by Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in a phone call.

The White House is describing the strikes as "targeted and proportional" after Iran launched more than 180 missiles at Israel in October.

The senior official suggested Israel had heeded international warnings to contain its retaliatory attack to military targets, limiting the risk to Iranian civilians.

But, and it's a big but, the official said the White House was of the opinion this should be the end of direct attacks between Israel and Iran.

The official said there would be consequences to any further response by Iran.

Iran says its air defence system successfully countered Israel's attacks but that "limited damage" was caused to some locations.

In a statement, the Iranian air defence said Israel attacked military targets in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam.

The IDF has released a statement saying that it has "completed precise and targeted strikes on military targets in a number of areas in Iran".

"The strike was conducted in response to the attacks by the Iranian regime against the State of Israel and its citizens in recent months," it read.

"The retaliatory strike has been completed and the mission was fulfilled."

The IDF claims that the Israeli Airforce struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the Israel over the last year.

"These missiles posed a direct and immediate threat to the citizens of the State of Israel," it read.

"Simultaneously, the IDF struck surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities, that were intended to restrict Israel's aerial freedom of operation in Iran."

It wrote says that the IDF is "conducting ongoing situational assessments and is ready to conduct defensive and offensive action."

Israel has been promising a retaliatory attack against Iran for weeks now, after Iran fired more than 180 missiles at Israel at the beginning of October.

Since then the world has been waiting to see what Israel would do.

Last week, US intelligence on Israeli preparations for such an attack were leaked. They detailed things like Israeli military exercises and what weapons might be used in any attack.

That has been embarrassing for the United States, and an investigation has been launched.

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken toured the Middle East this week — a trip billed as a week long series of talks, which seemingly got cut short.

He met with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem, before travelling to Riyadh to meet Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and on to London to meet Jordanian and Lebanese officials.

This attack has happened after that, showing any overtures he made to Israel for restraint went unheard.

Israel has also been waiting for its own defences to be bolstered.

The United States deployed its THAAD anti-missile defence system to Israel, along with around 100 troops to operate it — wanting to shore up Israel's ability to protect itself from any further strikes from country's such as Iran.

That is now in place and operational, giving Israel some extra cover.

Israel's public broadcaster is now reporting the IDF's strikes against Iran have now finished.

It says there were three waves of strikes.

When the IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari announced Israel's strikes had begun on Iran, he said they were "precise strikes on military targets".

The international community, particularly the United States, had been urging Israel to focus its retaliatory attacks on military assets rather than other targets — energy infrastructure, or Iran's nuclear facilities for example.

Any attacks beyond military targets would be an even more dramatic escalation in the Middle East conflict — hitting things like Iranian military bases allows Israel to make its point without being seen as targeting areas where civilians could be harmed.

Smartraveller has been warning Australians not to travel to Iran for a while, but it has now provided updated information on its channels to warn of the risk of travelling to the Middle East.

It says the situation in Iran may deteriorate quickly with little or no notice.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose network of pro-Iran factions, claimed responsibility early on Saturday for a drone attack against a "military target" in northern Israel, following the announcement of Israeli strikes on Iran.

"Islamic Resistance fighters in Iraq carried out a drone attack at dawn on Saturday against a military target in Acre", in northern Israel, the group said in a statement on Telegram.

AFP

Iran is prepared to respond to Israel's "aggression", semi-official state news agency Tasnim has said.

A source reportedly told Tasnim: "Iran reserves its right to respond to any aggression and there is no doubt that Israel will receive a proportionate response to any action."

Global affairs editorJohn Lyonssays there has been months of build-up to the attack and the situation could escalate further if Israel hits the Iranian nuclear plants and oil plants.

Loading...

Israel's attack on Iran is ongoing and is expected to be a one-night affair, the US ABC News reported early on Saturday in the Middle East and late on Friday in the United States.

ABC cited one source, who also said there were no Israeli casualties or damage to war planes reported thus far.

Reuters

Iranian state TV said that the blasts heard around the capital earlier today were due to the "activation of the air defence system" against an Israeli attack.

"The loud blasts heard around Tehran were related to the activation of the air defence system against the actions of Zionist regime which attacked three locations outside of Tehran city," state TV reported, citing officials of the Tehran province air defence.

AFP

Four further explosions were heard in eastern Tehran on Saturday, local media said, adding that "air defence is still active" in the capital.

AFP reporters also heard fresh blasts in Tehran.

Reporter Emilie Gramenz in Washington DC says the US was given some notification from Israel about the attacks.

Loading...

Reader Tim has asked what impact this is having on flight paths in the region.

Iran closed the country’s airspace early on Saturday after Israel's attack.

An urgent advisory seen by The Associated Press was sent to pilots .

Iranian state media did not acknowledge the country’s airspace had been closed.

Airlines travelling over the Middle East have been redirecting their aircraft away from the region in anticipation of retaliatory attacks such as what we're seeing now.

Iraq's transport ministry suspended flights across all airports until further notice "due to regional tensions", the Iraqi state news agency INA reported.

Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and British Airways have even started using Afghanistan's airspace after years of avoiding the country.

The alternative routes are increasing fares, adding hours to flights, and causing congestion, but airlines say they cannot take any chances.

You can read more about that here.

This attack comes weeks after Iran launched 200 ballistic missiles towards Israelon October 1. That attack was in response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and senior Revolutionary Guard commander Abbas Nilforooshan.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had "made a big mistake" and "will pay for it".

In response, Iran promised to respond to a potential attack.

Regional tensions have been at an all-time high since Israel's war with Gaza broke out last year.

Flightradar 24 has shared an image on social media showing what the airspace around Iran looked like after Israel launched strikes.

An Israeli air strike targeted some military sites in Syria's central and southern parts early on Saturday, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

Syrian air defense forces intercepted missiles launched by Israel "from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the Lebanese territories" and shot down some of them, SANA added.

Earlier on Saturday, SANA reported explosions in the vicinity of Syria's capital Damascus.

Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up such raids since the October 7 terror attack by armed group Hamas on Israeli territory.

Reuters