US media reports Israel has launched an attack on Iran

The details are still coming to light. It is still early in the morning here in the Middle East after this Israeli attack. From overnight. U.S. officials are reporting that they were advised by Israel that there would be a strike on Iranian soil. They’re saying that it was a missile strike. But Iranian media, state media is reporting quite a different story. They’re saying that three explosions were heard over the central province of Isfahan. Now that’s an area that is home to a number of military facilities, including drone building and manufacturing facilities. It’s also home to a number of nuclear facilities, but there’s no indication at this stage that nuclear facilities were being targeted. It seems more likely that those military facilities were being targeted by Israel, But Iran, through state media, say that there has been no damage, that the explosions that were heard over Isfahan were actually interceptions by Iranian defence capabilities, intercepting a number of drones. That there has been no ground explosions and no damage. Now this is important, Joe. I know it’s confusing, but it’s important to know that there is this differing of accounts and differing at length of language. Because it could indicate that Iran is trying to play down what has happened overnight. Because that would give them almost an out to not respond to this attack with as much force and power as they had been threatening would happen if Israel did respond to the more than 300 missiles and drones that Iran sent here to Jerusalem. And why do Israel just a few days ago now, for Australians here, it is a tense time. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs has updated its travel warnings for this area. It is now saying that Australians in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories should leave if it is safe to do so. They’re citing an increased risk of military action, including terrorism attacks. Given the volatility that we’re seeing here, and certainly there are a lot of diplomatic efforts happening behind the scenes now to try and calm the situation, to ensure that this doesn’t spill over into a regional war between these two arch enemies And Ali, Israel has neither confirmed nor denied any involvement in this. No, we’re yet to hear anything from Israel at all. It’s not unsurprising Joe that we haven’t heard anything. Quite frequently Israel will carry out attacks on foreign soil and we don’t hear any confirmation or denial from Israel. So it isn’t unusual. But I think we can say with some clarity that it did happen, mainly because the US is reporting that the the Washington was informed by Israel that they would be carrying out an attack on Iranian territory and also officials there have some pretty solid information of what that attack looked like. Importantly here on the ground though, Israel hasn’t increased any of its security measures. So to give you an example, in the days leading up to the missile attack from Iran that we saw here in Jerusalem over the weekend, there were a number of restrictions put in place. Schooling was cancelled, universities were shut down, there were caps on the numbers of people that could gather together. None of those sort of restrictions are being talked about or have been put in place this morning, which could give some optimism to the feeling that Iran may not be planning to retaliate immediately or at the very minimum, is certainly taking its time in trying to consider what sort of response there could be.