How Israel pulled off its largest-ever strike on Iran

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. TEL AVIV—Shortly before 2 a.m. on Saturday in Israel, airmen and women wearing bomber jackets bearing the Star of David climbed into the cockpits of about 100 jet fighters, spy planes and refueling aircraft at an Israeli military base.

They were following commands from an underground bunker known as the pit. Israel’s wartime leaders, who were gathered in the bowels of the military headquarters in Tel Aviv, had just given the green light for the largest attack against Iran in Israel’s history—and its most politically perilous. They called the operation “Days of Repentance." The assault was calibrated to punish Iran for an attack on Israel but aimed to avoid setting off a full-scale war between the two foes involving American forces and other countries in the region.

The attack steered clear of the oil and nuclear facilities that Iran had warned would prompt a retaliation, and appeared to heed the caution urged by U.S. officials. The attack, however, marked a dangerous new phase of confrontation between Israel and Iran, which began striking each other directly earlier this year.

It left Iran even more exposed to further air attacks, with Israel destroying several of the country’s Russian-made S-300 batteries, according to an Israeli official. “The message is that we don’t want an escalation but if Iran decides to escalate and attack Israel again, this means that we have increased our range of freedom of movement in the Iranian skies," an Israeli official said. For weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had signaled that Israel would hit back over Iran’s ballistic-missile assault on Israeli territory on Oct.