Iran says Israel targeted residential areas

For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a blistering attack on the heart of Iran’s nuclear and military structure distracts attention from Israel’s ongoing and increasingly devastating war in Gaza, which is now over 20 months old.

There is a broad consensus in the Israeli public that Iran is a major threat, and Israel’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, a staunch critic of Netanyahu, offered his “full support” for the mission against Iran. But if Iranian reprisals cause heavy Israeli casualties or major disruptions to daily life, public opinion could shift quickly.

Hezbollah issued a statement that offered condolences and condemned the attack, but did not threaten to join Iran in its retaliation.

Khamenei, the Iranian Supreme Leader, said in a statement that Israel “opened its wicked and blood-stained hand to a crime in our beloved country, revealing its malicious nature more than ever by striking residential centers.”

Netanyahu expressed hope the attacks would trigger the downfall of Iran’s theocracy, saying his message to the Iranian people was that the fight was not with them, but with the “brutal dictatorship that has oppressed you for 46 years.”

“I believe that the day of your liberation is near,” he said.

The strike on Iran pushed the Israeli military to its limits, requiring the use of aging air-to-air refuelers to get its fighter jets close enough to attack. It wasn’t immediately clear if Israeli jets entered Iranian airspace or just fired so-called “standoff missiles” over another country. People in Iraq heard fighter jets overhead at the time of the attack.