Early on Friday, April 19, Israel retaliated to the drone and missile attack launched by Iran against its territory on April 13. Tehran, however, sought to minimize the scale of its response, the nature and details of which remained uncertain in the morning. Explosions were reported near the central city of Isfahan, home to several military sites, including nuclear and ballistic. On April 14, missile fire was filmed from these locations, aimed at at least one Israeli Air Force base.

A resident of the city of Isfahan told Le Monde that he felt powerful tremors and at first thought "it was an earthquake." The Fars news agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, reported that "three explosions" were heard near an army base in Isfahan and said that air defense was activated against a possible drone. It added that another suspicious flying object also activated these defenses in the northwestern city of Tabriz, a few kilometers from a refinery.

Iranian agencies quoted the army commander in Isfahan, Siavosh Mihandoust, as saying that the sound of the explosion, heard by residents, came from the air defense. "We suffered no damage and there were no incidents," he said. At dawn, official Iranian television dispatched its journalists to downtown Isfahan, to demonstrate that calm was prevailing and that daily life was going on as usual.

An official of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, which regularly speaks on behalf of the Revolutionary Guards, also denied that the attack involved the firing of missiles. Israel had neither confirmed nor denied this information by Friday morning. It asserted that the downed drones had a short range and were fired from Iranian territory. Elaborating on this official account, an analyst told state television that the "mini drones" were fired by "infiltrators from inside Iran" – a method that Israeli foreign intelligence would be capable of, having already carried out at least one attack of this type in the past. Flights from Tehran's airports, suspended at dawn, were due to resume in the morning.

As it stands, and without prejudging the lethality of the attack, it appears that Israel has chosen a relatively discreet response, leaving Tehran the option of not retaliating. The Israeli government and army had not commented on the strikes by Friday morning. As early as Sunday, however, Israeli officials were indicating that the war cabinet would take into account not only the very limited result of the Iranian attack on April 13 but also Tehran's intentions: Its massive attack, of unprecedented symbolic importance, seemed designed to inflict real damage.

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