Summing up the information from all sides, the matter is very strange, Iran has denied that Israel has retaliated, is it relenting? Or is there another reason?
U.S. media said that "Israel carried out a 'limited retaliation' on targets in Iran in the early morning of April 19, and at the same time, images of attacks did flow out over Iran's Isfahan province, and a number of media reported that Iran's air defense system was on high alert and intercepted a number of missiles." Parts of Iraq and Syria have also been attacked.
It stands to reason that Iran should be well aware of who and how it attacked. Surprisingly, however, there is now a lot of confusion in the media coverage, including in Iran.
U.S. media reports basically say that Israel retaliated against Iran in a limited way, such as the "New York Times" and "ABC News".
Israel's largest newspaper, Novaya Izvestia, also said that it was Israel that retaliated against Iran, but denied that it had launched a missile, but a drone.
The newspaper reported that whoever carried out the attack targeted only one or more facilities of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Air Force in order to avoid a new exchange of fire.
There were reports of both "missile strikes" and "drone strikes" in the Iranian media, as well as reports of "missile strikes" that were convinced that "no missiles were involved in the attack."
Three small UFOs were shot down near the Iranian Army Air Base northeast of the city of Isfahan in Isfahan province, Iranian military officials and state television reported.
On the whole, foreign media speculate that it may be Israel itself, or use Iran's opposition to make a breakthrough in Iran's air defense system as a warning to Iran.
Therefore, according to Reuters, citing senior Iranian officials, Iran has no immediate plan to return fire after being attacked on the 19th, and it has not yet been ascertained who launched the attack.
Now the only thing that can be confirmed: explosions were heard near the 8th air base of the Iranian army in the city of Isfahan. It is not clear whether it was a drone or a missile that hit the target, or a loud noise after being intercepted.
There must be a reason for the confusion. The author speculates that there are three main reasons:
First, Israel may have really controlled the intensity of its retaliation, and if it did not launch missiles directly, it should have activated proxies, or the sleepers released drones;
Second, Iran has not qualified the matter for the time being, or is preparing to launch a larger retaliatory action. Iran has warned Israel many times before, but after the warning is ineffective, it still needs to save some face, after all, the 19th is also the 85th birthday of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Third, Isfahan is home to Iran's important nuclear facilities, including uranium enrichment equipment and experimental nuclear reactors, as well as Iran's nuclear research institutes. Although Iran claims that its nuclear facilities are safe and has not been attacked, this is not necessarily the case.
However, with the increase in major media reports, most of the media directly used the topic of "Israel's retaliation against Iran" to report, and the Omani Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Israel's attack on Iran itself, so it is likely that Israel did initiate retaliation against Iran.
But it is clear that Iran has not yet made Israel disappear in 12 days, as claimed. However, the U.S. Embassy in Israel has asked its staff to limit their movements, and it appears that Iran will retaliate in kind.
Now that the general reaction of the international community is to oppose the act of "escalating tensions" and urge both sides to exercise restraint, it is difficult to say what will happen to the "storm that is about to come and the wind is full of buildings". #以色列开始反击伊朗 What is the particular location##以导弹击中伊朗境内目标画面曝光##直击伊朗以色列多地实况##外媒: The US side confirmed that Israeli missile hit Iran##伊朗等国响起爆炸声 The Israeli army did not comment#