Early Saturday morning, Israel launched coordinated airstrikes on Iran amid the Zionist regime’s genocide in Gaza and attacks on the West Bank and Lebanon.

This attack, Israel’s largest ever military offensive against Iran, represents a major provocation and escalation of Israel’s war in the Middle East, planned in close consultation with Washington and benefiting from US logistical and intelligence support.

Since the beginning of the current Middle East war, the main target of both Israel and its US imperialist sponsors has been Iran, seen as the main regional obstacle to Washington’s unfettered hegemony over the world’s major energy-exporting region. U.S. action against Iran has increased as Tehran, in response to Washington’s destruction of the Iran nuclear deal and threats of war, has established closer strategic ties with Beijing and Moscow, including supplying Russia with unmanned aerial vehicles and possibly ballistic missiles for the Ukraine war. hostility increased.

In the weeks before Saturday’s attack, Israeli government and military spokesmen announced that they were considering striking key elements of Iran’s nuclear program and/or the oil infrastructure on which its economy depends. Iran has warned that both actions risk triggering an all-out war.

Ultimately, Israel preferred to organize a more limited operation. However, Saturday’s attack was much larger than the one carried out in April and was clearly aimed at precipitating a wider war by both reducing Iran’s military capabilities and testing its defenses.

US and Iranian media reports agree that the attack caused the deaths of five people in Iran, four soldiers and one civilian. Otherwise, precise information about what was hit and the overall effectiveness of the attacks would be disputed.

While U.S. and Israeli accounts insist that the strikes inflicted extensive damage on Iran’s ballistic missile program and anti-missile defenses, Iranian officials have downplayed the impact of the strikes.

None of the claims and counterclaims should be taken at face value. The various warring parties are not just trying to mislead their enemies about their military capabilities. They also face restive populations at home who fear the terrible costs of an all-out war.

The most detailed news about the strike in the US press was as follows: Wall Street Magazine “How did Israel carry out its biggest attack ever on Iran?” article titled. It was reported that 100 fighter jets, spy planes and refueling planes, including F-35 stealth fighter jets, were involved in three attack waves, hitting targets not only in Iran but also in Syria and Iraq.