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SATELLITE pictures show how Israel’s crippling airstrike blitz on Iran has damaged its missile production ability.
A former nuclear testing site near Tehran was also hit, the images revealed, as the Israeli army continues to strike targets in Gaza and Lebanon.
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AP
APAImages / PolarisIsrael’s military operation against Iran – dubbed “Days of Repentance” – was a long-anticipated response to Tehran’s assaults against Tel Aviv over the last year.
Iran launched two missile and drone attacks against its enemy in April and October – but has also raged against the country in response to the war in Gaza via its proxy puppets Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
The first wave of Israel’s attack on Saturday morning focused on Iranian air defence systems, with the second and third targeting missile and drone bases and production sites, Israeli and American officials told Axios.
Now satellite images have revealed how the strikes damaged Tehran’s ability to produce long-range ballistic rockets and gutted vital air defence systems.
Israeli forces also hit a defunct building that once formed part of Iran’s inactive nuclear weapons development program, according to satellite images analyzed by experts.
Former UN weapons inspector David Albright and Decker Eveleth, research analyst at Washington think tank CNA, both told Reuters that the huge military base in Parchin, near Tehran was struck.
Mr Eveleth also said Israel hit Khojir, a sprawling missile production site near the capital.
He said the strikes could have “significantly hampered Iran’s ability to mass produce missiles.”
Khojir was undergoing huge expansion as recently as July, Reuters reported.
Mr Albright said satellite images show the Parchin building – known as Taleghan 2 – which was previously used for nuclear testing.
Iran denies pursuing nuclear weapons but is the subject of international scrutiny after resistance to external checks.
ONGOING STRIKES IN GAZA & LEBANON
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said on Sunday that they struck a former school compound inside Gaza City after gathering intelligence about Hamas terrorists operating at the site.
Overnight, IDF fighter jets reportedly hit several Hezbollah strongholds and an arms depot in Beirut, the army claimed.
Israeli forces reportedly issued evacuation orders for three buildings in the Lebanese capital before the strikes.
The army claims to have killed some 70 Hezbollah militants and to have hit 120 sites in the blitzed country.
One of the locations was being used by Hezbollah’s drone unit – where a cell of fighters were taken out, the IDF said.
Israel claims to have killed some 40 Hamas terrorists in Jabaliya, Gaza, in the past day.
The IDF launched an operation against Lebanon earlier this month to attack Hezbollah and push the terror group away from the border to allow displaced Israelis to return.
This has stoked existing tensions in the region with more than 2,500 people in Lebanon killed in the five weeks since Israel began its strikes.
Israeli authorities have said 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.
The Israeli military has issued evacuation warnings for civilians in Beirut – where many fierce strikes have been concentrated.
Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon – both Iran-backed militant groups.
The IDF have been striking parts of northern Gaza, claiming they are aiming to wipe out Hamas brutes.
But the strikes have also killed scores of Palestinians who have been unable to flee the densely populated area.
More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war so far, according to Gaza-run health centres.
The figure also includes Hamas terrorists, but Israel has not specified the exact ratio of civilian to militant.
Hamas killed around 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals in the October 7 attack last year, and kidnapped around 250 more into Gaza.
Hamas – Iran’s terror puppet group based in Gaza – slammed the Israeli strikes against Iran this weekend as an “escalation” while Tehran said it had a right to “defend itself”.
Iranian military sources said four soldiers were killed in the overnight attack with the figure “expected to rise further”, state news agency Tasnim News reports.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Saturday that Israel was “conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran” in response to “relentless” attacks by Iran and its proxies since October 7.
He added: “If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond.
“Our message is clear: All those who threaten the State of Israel and seek to drag the region into a wider escalation will pay a heavy price.”
Iranian state TV confirmed that several strong explosions were heard around the capital and in the more remote rural regions, beginning at around 2am local time.
Two Israeli officials told The New York Times that some 20 different sites were hit in the overnight attack.
Israel reportedly sent a message of warning to Iran on Friday ahead of the airstrikes – warning them not to respond, Axios reports.
Sources said it was an attempt to limit the possibility of a wider regional conflict after the strikes.
Israel’s security cabinet is set to meet today to discuss “the Israeli attack on Iran and the possibility of an Iranian response,” an Israeli official told CNN.
Footage circulating online appeared to show the strikes inside Iran
Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu takes shelter in a bunker overnight on Saturday – during strikes against Iran
An Iranian drone is destroyed by Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system on October 1
English (US)