Israel strikes Iran Live Updates: Iran president says Tehran will give 'appropriate response' to Israeli attack

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned Iran against any "escalation" after Israel struck Iranian military targets.

"My message to Iran is clear: massive escalating reactions must not continue. These must stop immediately. Only then can we open the possibility of a peaceful evolution in the Middle East," he posted on X.

Saudi Arabia's airspace was not used during Israel's overnight airstrikes on Iran, a Saudi official told Reuters on Saturday.

Lebanon's Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned Israel's airstrikes on multiple sites in Iran, describing them as a violation of Iranian sovereignty and a serious threat to regional and international peace and security. (Reuters)

Egyptian national carrier EgyptAir said on Saturday it had cancelled flights to Iraq's capital Baghdad and northern city of Erbil, citing regional developments, after Israeli airstrikes on military targets in neighbouring Iran.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement on Saturday said it had launched drones against an Israeli air base south of Tel Aviv, its first claimed attack against the facility.

At war with Israel since last month, after a year of tit-for-tat cross border exchanges, Hezbollah regularly announces the targeting of Israeli military facilities but its statement that it launched "an aerial attack with drones" against Tel Nof base was the first claim of its kind in one year.

Egypt is gravely concerned over the escalation in the Middle East including the Israeli air attack on Iran, and condemns all measures that threaten regional security and stability, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Iran is "entitled and obligated to defend itself against external aggressive acts", its foreign ministry said on Saturday after Israeli airstrikes on Iranian military targets.

Calling the Israeli attack a violation of international law, the ministry said in a statement that Tehran "recognises its responsibilities towards regional peace and security".

Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Saturday that it launched a drone attack against Israel's Tel Nof airbase, south of Tel Aviv.

Iran said it was obliged to defend itself, after Israeli retaliatory strikes hit military targets and killed two soldiers in the Islamic republic on Saturday.

"Iran has the right and the duty to defend itself against foreign acts of aggression," the foreign ministry said in a statement, citing Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.

Syria condemned Israeli air strikes against Iran on Saturday, saying it affirmed its ally's right to self-defence.

Expressing its "solidarity" with Iran, the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement that it supported "Iran's legitimate right to defend itself and protect its territory and the lives of its citizens".

Iraq denounced global inaction against Israel which it accused of expanding conflict in the Middle East, after strikes against Iran on Saturday.

"The occupying Zionist entity continues its aggressive policies and widening the conflict in the region through blatant attacks that it carries out with impunity," including against Iranian targets, government spokesman Basim Alawadi said in a statement denouncing "the international community's silence" on Israeli actions.

Lebanese state media said the Israeli army dynamited houses in a Lebanese border village on Saturday, more than a month into its war with Hezbollah.

The official National News Agency said "the army of the Israeli enemy has since dawn blown up and destroyed houses" in the border village of Adaisseh.

The Israeli military had earlier reported "the explosion of a large quantity of explosives in Lebanon" that was strong enough to trigger earthquake warnings in large parts of Israel.

Two soldiers were killed in Saturday morning's Israeli airstrikes on Iran, the official news agency IRNA reported.

"The army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in defending Iran's security and protecting the people and Iran's interests, sacrificed two of its fighters while countering projectiles from the criminal Zionist regime," the statement said.

Pakistan condemned Israeli strikes on military targets in Iran on Saturday, saying Israel bore "full responsibility" for escalating the conflict in the Middle East.

"Pakistan strongly condemns Israel's strikes against Islamic Republic of Iran in the early hours on Saturday," its foreign ministry said in a statement. "These strikes undermine the path to regional peace and stability... Israel bears full responsibility for the current cycle of escalation and expansion of the conflict."

Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, at war with Israel in Gaza, on Saturday said it strongly condemned Israeli strikes on military targets in Iran.

"We... condemn in the strongest terms the Zionist aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the targeting of military sites in several provinces", the movement said in a statement, calling the move "a blatant violation of Iranian sovereignty and an escalation that threatens the security of the region".

The United Arab Emirates on Saturday condemned the military targeting of Iran and stressed the importance of exercising "maximum restraint" to avoid escalation, after Israel carried out airstrikes on military sites in Iran.

Emirati airline flydubai cancelled flights to Jordan, Iran, Iraq and Israel and diverted others on Saturday, a company spokesperson said, shortly after Israel struck military targets in Iran.

UK PM Starmer said, "I urge all sides to show restraint, Iran should not respond" on Israeli strikes in Iran.

The Israeli military said it intercepted two drones crossing into Israel from Lebanon on Saturday, hours after Israel struck several military targets inside Iran.

"Following the sirens that sounded between 08:39 (05:39 GMT) and 08:41 in the Upper Galilee area, the IAF (air force) intercepted a UAV that crossed into Israel from Lebanon," the military said in a statement, later adding that another drone had also crossed and been intercepted.

Saudi Arabia condemned Israeli strikes on military targets in Iran on Saturday, warning against any further expansion of the conflict in the Middle East.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expresses its condemnation and denunciation" of the Israeli strikes and emphasised its "firm position rejecting escalation of the conflict in the region", which "threatens the security and the stability of countries and peoples" in the Middle East, the foreign ministry said on X.

The Israeli military said it intercepted a drone crossing into Israel from Lebanon on Saturday, hours after Israel struck several military targets inside Iran.

"Following the sirens that sounded between 08:39 (05:39 GMT) and 08:41 in the Upper Galilee area, the IAF (air force) intercepted a UAV that crossed into Israel from Lebanon," the military said in a statement.

Amid a proliferation of brutal armed conflicts, Red Cross chief Mirjana Spoljaric decried the disregard shown for the internationally-agreed laws of war, with disastrous consequences on the ground, in an interview with AFP.

"What we see are constant violations of international humanitarian law in a fast-rising number of compiling conflicts," Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told AFP this week.

"We need to come back to acknowledging that the key to bringing peace is respect for humanity."

But that respect appears to be in short supply amid a record number of armed conflicts -- more than 120 raging around the world, the ICRC chief said.

In numerous conflicts, including the crushing civil war in Sudan, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and Israel's escalating wars targeting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, there seems to be little effort to spare civilians.

"The numbers of civilian casualties that we see today (and) that high and fast rising number of displaced people are unacceptable," Spoljaric said.

"Better compliance with international humanitarian law... is urgently needed."

Iran will resume flights as normal from 9 a.m. (0530 GMT), the semi-official news agency Tasnim reported on Saturday following a brief suspension after Israel struck military targets in the country.

Israel's strikes on military sites in Iran appear to have been a targeted and proportional response to Tehran's earlier attacks, with low risk of civilian harm, a senior Biden administration official said late on Friday.

This should be the end of direct exchange of fire between the two countries, the official said, adding that the US has multiple direct and indirect channels of communication with Iran where it has made its position clear.

Israel military has said that their planes returned safely after striking military targets in Iran. Israel's military added that these included missile manufacturing facilities used by Iran in its attacks on the state of Israel over the past year.

The White House on Saturday said that the US has urged Iran to 'cease its attacks' on Israel to break cycle of fighting.

Israel on Saturday said that it now has 'wider freedom of action' in air over Iran after strikes.

The US on Saturday said that Israeli strikes on Iran should 'complete' the exchange of fire between enemies and warned Tehran against retaliation.

Israel army on Saturday warned Iran that it will have to 'pay a heavy price' if it begins a new round of escalation.

Iran said on Saturday 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 Israeli military said on Saturday it had completed its air attack on Iran, saying it hit the Islamic republic's missile manufacturing facilities, surface-to-air missile arrays and other aerial capabilities across several areas of the country.

"Based on intelligence, IAF (air force) aircraft struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the State of Israel over the last year," the military said in a statement.

Israel army said struck Iran's surface-to-air missile arrays, aerial capabilities.

Israel said early Saturday it had completed its strikes targeting Iran.

The Israeli military issued a statement saying its planes “have safely returned home.”

Its aircraft “struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year,” the military said. “These missiles posed a direct and immediate threat to the citizens of the state of Israel.”

It added that it also “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 offered no damage assessment. Iran has not acknowledged any damage to its military facilities.

A spokesperson for Iran's Civil Aviation Organization said flights on all routes have been cancelled until further notice, the country's state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

Netanyahu and top Israel officials conducted a security assessment on Iran strikes.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose network of pro-Iran factions, claimed responsibility early 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.

Israeli strikes on military targets in Iran are "an exercise of self-defense" following Tehran's ballistic missile attack earlier this month, the United States said late Friday, adding it was informed ahead of the strikes.

White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said the "targeted strikes on military targets" are "an exercise of self-defense and in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1."

The United States was "informed beforehand and there is no US involvement," a US defense official told AFP, under the condition of anonymity.

The official did not say how far in advance the United States had been informed or what had been shared by Israel.

White House officials said in separate statements later that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had been briefed on the strikes and would continue to receive updates from their national security teams.

Iranian state TV reported Saturday that the explosions heard around Tehran were the result of the "activation of the air defense system" in response to an Israeli attack. "The loud blasts heard around Tehran were related to the activation of the air defense system against actions by the Zionist regime, which targeted three locations outside Tehran," state TV stated, citing Tehran province air defense officials.

US defense secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Friday following Israel's announcement of strikes on targets in Iran, a US defense official confirmed. The official, speaking anonymously, did not provide specifics on the content, timing, or duration of the call between Austin and Gallant.

Syrian air defenses intercepted "hostile targets" near Damascus early Saturday, according to state news agency SANA, as Israel announced strikes in Iran. "Our anti-aircraft defenses are engaging hostile targets in the skies around Damascus," SANA reported on Telegram, following reports of "explosions" near the Syrian capital.

Israel launched airstrikes on Iran early Saturday, announcing it was targeting military sites in response to a recent barrage of ballistic missiles fired by Iran. Explosions were reported in the Iranian capital, Tehran, though details on damage or casualties have not been confirmed.

The escalating confrontation between the two rivals threatens to bring them closer to a full-scale conflict amid rising tensions across the Middle East, where Iran-backed groups such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon are already engaged in warfare against Israel. The Israeli military confirmed that "precise strikes on military targets in Iran" were underway but did not provide further details.