Israel demonstrated its military dominance over adversary Iran in its apparent precision strikes that hit near military and nuclear targets deep in the heart of the country, meeting little significant challenge from Iran’s defenses and providing the world with new insights into both militaries’ capabilities.

The international community, Israel and Iran all signaled hopes that Friday’s airstrikes would end what has been a dangerous 19-day run of strikes and counterstrikes, a highly public test between two deep rivals that had previously stopped short of most direct confrontation.

The move into open fighting began April 1 with the suspected Israeli killing of Iranian generals at an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria. That prompted Iran’s retaliatory barrage last weekend of more than 300 missiles and drones that the U.S., Israel and regional and international partners helped bat down without significant damage in Israel. And then came Friday’s apparent Israeli strike.

Ellen Knickmeyer reports:

Israeli forces have killed 13 Palestinians since beginning a raid on Tulkarm city and Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank from Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday.

An Iranian attack on an Israeli desert air base during Tehran’s unprecedented assault on the country damaged a taxiway, a satellite image shows.

The overall damage done to Nevatim air base in southern Israel was minor despite Iran launching hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.

The Planet Labs PBC image, taken on Friday for the Associated Press, shows the repaired taxiway near hangars at the southern part of Nevatim air base, about 40 miles south of Jerusalem.

The daily newspaper Haaretz, which published lower-resolution images of the site on Thursday, identified the hangars nearby as housing C-130 cargo aircraft flown by transport squadrons.

The satellite image corresponds to footage earlier released by the Israeli military, which showed construction equipment near the damaged taxiway. A hangar in the background of the video mirrors those seen nearby.

Other images released by the Israeli military showed a crater in the sand and damage under what appeared to be a wall that it said came from the Iranian attack.

The little visible damage seen at the air base in the satellite image directly contradicts Iran’s efforts to portray the attack as a great victory to a public alienated by the Islamic Republic’s struggling economy and its heavy-handed crackdowns on dissent in recent years.

However, it does show Iran’s arsenal has the ability to reach Israel, as the 13 April attack marked the first direct military assault on the country by a foreign nation since Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein launched Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.

A Palestinian ambulance driver was killed during the evacuation of the wounded during a raid by violent Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, Palestinian authorities said.

The incident came as violence flared across the area and fighting continued in Gaza.

The Palestinian health ministry said the 50-year-old driver was killed by Israeli gunfire near the village of Al-Sawiya, south of the city of Nablus, as he was making his way to transport people injured during the attack on the village.

It was not immediately clear whether he was shot by settlers. There was no immediate comment from the military.

Earlier, health authorities said at least two Palestinians, identified by Palestinian sources and officials as a gunman and a 16 year-old boy, had been killed during a raid by Israeli forces in the Nur Shams area, near the Palestinian city of Tulkarm.

A number of militants were killed and more arrested, the Israeli military said, and at least four soldiers were wounded in exchanges of fire.

Tulkarm Brigades group, which includes militants from numerous Palestinian factions, said its fighters exchanged fire with Israeli forces on Saturday.

At least three drones were seen hovering above Nur Shams, where Israeli military vehicles were massed and bursts of gunfire were heard.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan discussed efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and reach a fair and lasting peace in the region during a meeting with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul on Saturday, his office said.

It was the first meeting between Erdogan and a Hamas delegation headed by Haniyeh since Israel began its military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Haniyeh’s visit to Turkey took place three days after he met Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Doha.

“Issues related to Israel’s attacks on lands of Palestine, particularly Gaza, efforts for adequate and uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and a fair and lasting peace process in the region were discussed,” the Turkish presidency said in a statement.

The visit took place amid escalating regional tensions following Israel’s reported attack on Iran this week.

“Erdogan stressed that Israel should not benefit from the developments (between Iran and Israel) and that it is important to make efforts that will draw attention to Gaza again,” the statement added.

NATO member Turkey has denounced Israel’s offensive in Gaza following Hamas’ 7 October attack on Israel and called for an immediate ceasefire.

In Saturday’s meeting, Erdogan told Haniyeh Turkey continues its diplomatic efforts for a permanent ceasefire as well as the establishment of an independent state of Palestine, according to the statement.

Erdogan also told Haniyeh “it is vital for Palestinians to act in unity,” the statement said.

An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza’s southernmost city killed at least nine people, six of them children.

The strike late Friday hit a residential building in the western Tel Sultan neighbourhood of the city of Rafah, according to Gaza’s civil defence.

The casualties were initially transferred to the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah, and later the bodies of the six children, two women and a man were taken to Rafah’s Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital, where the area’s main morgue is located, the hospital’s records showed.

The fatalities included Abdel-Fattah Sobhi Radwan, his wife Najlaa Ahmed Aweidah and their three children, his brother-in-law Ahmed Barhoum said. Barhoum also lost his wife, Rawan Radwan, and their 5-year-old daughter Alaa.

“This is a world devoid of all human values and morals,” Barhoum told The Associated Press Saturday morning, crying as he cradled and gently rocked the shroud-wrapped body of Alaa in his arms.

“They bombed a house full of displaced people, women and children. The only martyrs were women and children.”

Tension between Israel and Iran should not distract from the situation in Gaza and the first priority of the international community should be ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Fidan, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said there was concern in the region over the ongoing escalation.

“We’ve warned of the expansion of the conflict from the very beginning,” he said.

“We’ve called on both parties (Iran and Israel) to exercise restraint.”

Fidan said the main cause of instability in the Middle East was Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and Western backing for Israel.

“Any development that could distract us from this fact should be ignored,” he said. “Our first priority should be ending Israel’s occupation in Palestine and a two-state solution.”

A huge blast at a military base in Iraq early on Saturday killed a member of an Iraqi security force that includes Iran-backed groups.

The force commander said it was an attack while the army said it was investigating and there were no warplanes in the sky at the time.

Two security sources had said earlier that an airstrike caused the blast, which killed a member of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and wounded eight others at Kalso military base about 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad.

In a statement, the PMF said its chief of staff Abdul Aziz al-Mohammedawi had visited the location and reviewed information from investigators.

“The air defence command report confirmed, through technical efforts and radar detection, that there was no drone or fighter jet in the air space of Babil before and during the explosion,” the military said in a statement.

A video broadcast by Al Ahad TV, which is owned by a PMF faction, showed debris and a crater left by the explosion.

Footage released on social media on Saturday 20 April appears to show huge explosions at a military base belonging to Iraq’s Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Babylon, south of Baghdad.

The cause of the blast hasn’t been confirmed.

Footage from a car shows huge explosions in the distance from an ammunition depot inside the military base, followed by what appears to launch bright fragments into the sky and with huge smoke and fire.

A statement from the Iran-backed PMF said “an explosion occurred at the headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces at the Kalsu military base”.

Hamas “strongly condemns” reported explosions on a base of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in Iraq and “considers it a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”, Al Jazeera reported.

“We hold the Biden administration responsible for the escalation in the region through its supply and support for the Nazi war of extermination against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” the group said in a statement.