Israel reportedly behind rare pair of recent strikes on Iran civilian infrastructure

Israel was behind a pair of attacks on major gas pipelines inside Iran this week, which disrupted the flow of gas to millions of people, The New York Times reported Friday, citing two Western officials and a military strategist affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

If confirmed, the strike would amount to an escalation by Israel, which has been linked to numerous strikes in Iran over the years, but primarily against the country’s nuclear program, as well as assassinations of senior figures.

“The enemy’s plan was to completely disrupt the flow of gas in winter to several main cities and provinces in our country,” Iran’s oil minister, Javad Owji, told Iranian media in comments on the “sabotage and terrorist attacks.”

He avoided publicly blaming Israel for the blasts, which he said were aimed at damaging Iran’s energy infrastructure and stirring public upheaval.

A Western official told NYT that the strike was largely symbolic, causing minimal harm and being easy to repair, but sent a message that Israel can cause significant damage.

Iran’s Minister of Petroleum Javad Owji attends the opening session of the 24th ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), in Cairo on October 25, 2022. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)

The natural gas pipeline that was targeted runs from Iran’s western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province up north to cities on the Caspian Sea. The roughly 1,270-kilometer (790-mile) pipeline begins in Asaluyeh, a hub for Iran’s offshore South Pars gas field.

There are no known insurgent groups operating in that province, home to the Bakhtiari, a branch of Iran’s Lur ethnic group.

The two Western officials said Israel was also behind another blast Thursday inside a chemical factory on the outskirts of Tehran. However, local officials quoted by the Times said the explosion was due to an accident in the factory’s fuel tank.

There has been no comment from Israel on the blasts, which came amid the ongoing war in Gaza triggered by the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught in which Palestinian terrorists killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 253 hostages.

Iranian leaders have denied Tehran was behind the Hamas attack but have praised the massacres and boasted of Iran’s support for the Gaza-ruling terror group and other armed proxy organizations opposed to Israel that it backs. The US also has said Iran was not directly responsible for the onslaught but that it continues to fund, arm and train proxies who have been targeting the Jewish state.

There have been worries of a wider regional conflict since the Hamas atrocities and Israel’s subsequent offensive aimed at eliminating the terror group in Gaza and returning the hostages, with Lebanon’s Hezbollah launching daily attacks on northern Israel, the Houthi rebels in Yemen striking shipping in the Red Sea and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria targeting US forces stationed in those countries.