Strategy IDF seems to have targeted infrastructure defences and missile sites

Details have emerged suggesting Israel used precision air and drone strikes in its unprecedented attack on Iran last weekend to target air defence systems protecting crucial oil and gas facilities, as well as military sites linked to Tehran's nuclear programme and ballistic missile production.

- Bethan McKernan

Fearing all-out war and shocks to the global oil industry, western leaders had urged Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, not to target oil or nuclear facilities in the widely anticipated response to an Iranian ballistic missile salvo on Tel Aviv and military bases on 1 October. Iranian officials had repeatedly warned that attacks on nuclear or energy infrastructure would cross a "red line".

Satellite imagery of affected sites in Iran and details reported by the New York Times suggest the Israeli leader heeded allies' advice, but the locations of the strikes nonetheless signalled that Israel is capable of hitting high-value targets if the escalation continues.

The operation, codenamed Days of Repentance, appears to have been aimed at degrading Iran's ability to attack Israel, as well as making the country more vulnerable to future airstrikes.