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By Sonam Sheth
Evening Politics Editor
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A series of explosions were heard around Tehran on Friday evening, as Iran was bracing for an Israeli retaliation to the airstrikes that the Islamic Republic carried out against it earlier this month.
After an initial round of explosions, Reuters cited local Iranian media as saying that four new explosions were heard in Tehran, though it added that "air defence is still active" in the city.
U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed on the strikes and is closely following the developments, according to a White House pool report.
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Vice President Kamala Harris was also briefed on Friday's events and "will continue to be updated," a White House official told Reuters.
The news was first reported by Iranian state media. The Israeli military made the rare move of confirming that it was carrying out airstrikes against Iran.
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Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, said in a video statement that Israel's "offensive and defensive capabilities are fully mobilized."
The National Security Council's spokesperson acknowledged Friday's strikes, telling reporters that "we understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran as an exercise of self-defense and in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1st."
"We would refer you to the Israeli government for more information on their operation," the spokesperson said.
Israel had vowed to retaliate after Iran fired around 200 ballistic missiles at Israel earlier this month, in the culmination of a yearlong conflict that began on October 7, 2023, when the Hamas militant group carried out a deadly terrorist attack on Israeli soil.
Iran carried out its strikes against Israel on October 1, after the killing of Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, and the killing of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Abbas Nilforushan in Beirut in September.
Israeli officials said that Israel's air defenses intercepted most of Iran's strikes. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the Islamic Republic had made a "big mistake" launching its attack on October 1, and Israel's defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said the payback would be "precise, painful, and surprising."
Israel's counterattack on Friday came after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had wrapped up a trip to the Middle East that was focused on addressing the ongoing conflict in Gaza and securing the release of Israeli hostages that were captured on October 7, 2023.
Reuters reported that Israel notified the White House ahead of time about its plan to launch targeted strikes against Iran.
Israel's retaliatory strikes on Friday reignited long-simmering fears of a wider war in the Middle East, and Hamas' October 7 attack last year was the catalyst for the latest escalation in the conflict between Israel and the Iran-aligned Axis of Resistance coalition.
Tensions between them ratcheted up when Iran launched airstrikes against Israel in April, to which Israel responded with a series of counterstrikes targeting Iranian military sites.
The conflict escalated further with the killings of Haniyeh, Nasrallah and Nilforushan. Israel landed its most significant blow against Hamas earlier this month when it killed Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of last year's October 7 attacks.
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