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An astronaut was taken to hospital shortly after returning to Earth from an extended mission on the International Space Station.

The astronaut, who NASA did not name for privacy reasons, is suffering from an undisclosed medical issue.

NASA initially said the entire crew was flown to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola hospital out of precaution, but did not specify whether all or some of the crew had been experiencing issues.

The other three crew members have left the hospital and returned to Houston, the space agency said.

NASA said: “The one astronaut who remains at Ascension is in stable condition under observation as a precautionary measure.”

Astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin splashed down in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at 3.29am local time on Friday (8.29am UK time) off Florida’s Gulf Coast.

NASA, which is usually tight-lipped on medical issues involving astronauts, declined to say what prompted the abundance of caution or describe the crew’s condition.

Russia’s space agency has not responded to a request for comment on Mr Grebenkin’s condition.

SpaceX has a fleet of reusable spacecraft and has flown to the ISS 44 times.

The Elon Musk-owned company remains the only US option for NASA astronaut trips to and from the space station. Boeing’s Starliner, intended as a second US ride, has been hindered by years of development issues.

The crew should have been back on Earth two months ago but their homecoming was stalled by problems with the Starliner astronaut capsule, which returned empty in September because of safety concerns.

Hurricane Milton then interfered, followed by a further two weeks of high wind and rough seas.

Marking 235 days in space, the Crew-8 astronauts’ stay aboard the ISS, a football field-sized science lab 250 miles in orbit, was longer than the typical six-month astronaut missions on the station.

It also marked the longest mission so far for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft since its introduction in 2020.

Following the series of delays, the Crew Dragon spacecraft safely undocked from the ISS on Wednesday and re-entered Earth’s atmosphere early on Friday morning, deploying parachutes before dropping into the Gulf of Mexico.

At a post-splashdown news briefing, a NASA official said “the crew is doing great” and made no mention of any issues with the astronauts, but noted two hitches with Crew Dragon’s parachute deployment.

Richard Jones, deputy manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Programme, said Crew Dragon’s initial set of braking parachutes suffered some “debris strikes” and that one of four parachutes in a subsequent set took longer than expected to unfurl.

Neither event affected crew safety, Mr Jones said, calling the splashdown weather “ideal” for the crew’s recovery.

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Amid the hum of cooling fans and squelch of vacuum pumps, a new home for 12 quantum computers has opened in Oxfordshire, as part of a bid to put the UK ahead in a global race to harness the technology.

Quantum computers promise to solve problems too hard for even the most powerful supercomputers – like those requiring vast numbers of parallel computations like complex weather simulations, the binding of drugs to their targets, or the vagaries of financial markets.

While prototypes have proven that the weird world of quantum matter can be used to perform calculations – none are yet large or stable enough to be of much use.

“With its focus on making quantum computers practically useable at scale, this centre will help them solve some of the biggest challenges we face,” said science minister Lord Vallance.

Quantum computers exploit the strangeness of quantum physics to replace the “bits” – zeros and ones – that encode information in classical computers with something fundamentally different.

If manipulated in the right way, matter can be coaxed into quantum bits – or qubits – that can be both a zero and a one at the same time.

This power, and the fact qubits can become “entangled,” or interact with each other means a relatively small number of qubits can perform more calculations in parallel than a classical computer chip ever could.

However, even the slightest interference from the outside world can destroy a fragile qubit, so building groups of them large enough that last long enough to make a reliable computer is a major challenge.

The new National Quantum Computing Centre at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Harwell is designed to accelerate that research.

The 4,000-square-metre facility is designed to host multiple competing designs of quantum computer and around a hundred scientists working on them.

Some commercial, others developed by university teams – to try to solve hardware and software problems in parallel.

“The UK National Quantum Computing Centre is central to this critical work, bringing together internationally leading researchers and technologists from across academia and industry to ensure that the UK’s quantum computing ecosystem thrives,” said Prof Dame Ottoline Leyser, chief executive of UK Research and Innovation that is funding the centre.

Competition is fierce. Big tech firms like Google, Microsoft, IBM and Amazon are all investing in quantum technology. So too are other states, led by China, which directs more government funding into the field than anyone else.

The potential for quantum computers to crack the encryption tools used to keep most online traffic secure gave rise to the term “Q-day” – when the first machine emerges with the capability to decrypt the internet.

It’s still some way off, but helps explain why governments are interested in betting big on a technology that promises much, but has so far delivered little.

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The Trump campaign released an ad Friday featuring a Holocaust survivor criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris for comparing former President Trump to Adolf Hitler. 

‘I know more about Hitler than Kamala will ever know in a thousand lifetimes,’ 94-year-old Jerry Wartski, a survivor of Auschwitz, says in the roughly minute-and-a-half advertisement. ‘For her to accuse President Trump of being like Hitler is the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my 75 years living in the United States.’

Wartski said Trump was a ‘mensch,’ a Yiddish term of endearment, arguing ‘he has always stood with the Jewish people and the State of Israel.’

Wartski also demanded an apology from Harris. 

‘I know President Trump, and he would never say this, and Kamala Harris knows this,’ Wartski says. ‘She owes my parents and everybody else who was murdered by Hitler an apology.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The ad comes after Harris repeatedly compared Trump to Hitler this week, including during a press conference from the steps of her formal residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., during a town hall Wednesday that Harris conducted with CNN and on social media. 

Harris’ remarks followed media reports this week that detailed alleged claims by ex-Trump administration officials, including Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, that the former president on ‘multiple occasions’ praised Hitler and the loyalty his Nazi generals showed him.

‘Donald Trump is out for unchecked power. He wants a military like Adolf Hitler had, who will be loyal to him, not our Constitution,’ Harris posted to X this week. ‘He is unhinged, unstable, and given a second term, there would be no one to stop him from pursuing his worst impulses.’

‘If the President of the United States, the commander in chief, is saying to his generals, in essence, ‘Why can’t you be more like Hitler’s generals?’ Anderson, come on. This is a serious, serious issue,’ Harris said during her town hall event Wednesday. 

‘And we know who he is. He admires dictators, sending love letters back and forth with Kim Jong Un.’

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The U.S. government is investigating unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by Chinese hackers, targets of which include the Trump campaign.  

The campaign was informed this week of the potential breach of cellphones used by former President Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, the New York Times reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

‘After the FBI identified specific malicious activity targeting the sector, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) immediately notified affected companies, rendered technical assistance, and rapidly shared information to assist other potential victims,’ the FBI and CISA told Fox News Digital in a joint statement. 

The FBI and CISA said the investigation was ongoing and ‘we encourage any organization that believes it might be a victim to engage its local FBI field office or CISA. Agencies across the U.S. Government are collaborating to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating with our industry partners to strengthen cyber defenses across the commercial communications sector.’

The anonymous officials said that investigators are working to find out if any data was stolen from the campaign, adding that other people in the U.S. government may have been targeted by the attackers. 

The Trump campaign blamed the Biden administration and Vice President Kamala Harris over the attack. 

‘This is the continuation of election interference by Kamala Harris and Democrats who will stop at nothing, including emboldening China and Iran attacking critical American infrastructure, to prevent President Trump from returning to the White House,’ Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, told Fox News Digital on Friday. 

‘Their dangerous and violent rhetoric has given permission to those who wish to harm President Trump,’ Cheung added. ‘They have now stood by and allowed major foreign adversaries to attack us in order to illegally help Kamala because they know she represents a weak American who will always bow down. Whereas, President Trump will actually stand up against our enemies and defend the United States from any and all aggression.’

The news comes months after the Trump campaign said campaign data was targeted by hackers from Iran. 

In September, three hackers linked to Iran were indicted in connection with a hacking plot against the Trump campaign. 

The three hackers, who are accused of working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, were allegedly ‘engaged in a wide-ranging hacking campaign that used spear-phishing and social engineering techniques to target and compromise the accounts of current and former U.S. government officials, members of the media, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals associated with U.S. political campaigns.’

‘These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,’ Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, said in August after Politico reported that the campaign had been targeted through spearfishing. 

Fox News Digital has also reached out to the Harris campaign for comment. 

This isn’t the first election cycle a foreign power has attempted to influence the election via hacking.

In 2016, the Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton, and the DNC infamously had their emails hacked by Russia and released through Wikileaks during the election. 

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Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated ‘the danger and the threat that Donald Trump poses to America and the fact that he is unfit to serve,’ on Friday when asked about criticism of her rhetoric by Republican leaders. 

‘Well, listen, we all must speak out against any form of political violence, and I’m very clear about that. No one should be the subject of violence,’ she told reporters, according to a press pool report. 

‘But the American people deserve to be presented with facts and the truth. And the fact and the truth is that some of the people closest to Donald Trump when he was president, generals, including most recently, John Kelly, a four-star marine general, have been very clear about the danger and the threat that Donald Trump poses to America and the fact that he is unfit to serve. And the American People deserve to hear that and know about that,’ the vice president continued. 

Her campaign was initially silent following a call from Republican congressional leaders for her to stop using ‘dangerous rhetoric,’ such as referring to Trump as a ‘fascist.’

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., released a relatively rare joint statement on Friday, demanding Harris cease using such rhetoric and reminding her of the two recent assassination attempts against Trump. 

‘Labeling a political opponent as a ‘fascist’ risks inviting yet another would-be assassin to try robbing voters of their choice before Election Day,’ the Republican leaders said in the statement less than two weeks before the election. 

Harris’ campaign initially declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital. 

‘Vice President Harris may want the American people to entrust her with the sacred duty of executive authority. But first, she must abandon the base and irresponsible rhetoric that endangers both American lives and institutions,’ Johnson and McConnell wrote. 

‘We have both been briefed on the ongoing and persistent threats to former President Donald Trump by adversaries to the United States, and we call on the Vice President to take these threats seriously, stop escalating the threat environment, and help ensure President Trump has the necessary resources to be protected from those threats,’ they said. 

The statement noted that there have been two assassination attempts against Trump in the last several months, pointing out that ‘in the weeks since that second sobering reminder, the Democratic nominee for President of the United States has only fanned the flames beneath a boiling cauldron of political animus.’

During a CNN town hall this week, Harris told host Anderson Cooper that she believes Trump is a fascist. 

‘Yes, I do. Yes, I do,’ she told Cooper when asked if she agreed with retired Gen. Mark Milley, who described Trump as ‘fascist to the core’ in journalist Bob Woodward’s latest book.

Cooper noted that Harris had cited Milley’s quotes about Trump in the past. 

Harris further referred to new interviews with Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly in The New York Times, in which he said Trump ‘certainly falls into the general definition of fascist.’

Kelly further claimed Trump told him once that ‘Hitler did some good things, too.’ 

Trump has denied saying this. 

According to the Kelly interview, he felt the need to speak out because of a recent comment Trump made in an interview on Fox News. 

While speaking with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on ‘Sunday Morning Futures,’ Trump was asked about concerns with regard to ‘chaos’ on Election Day. The host noted a recent plot by an Afghan refugee that was foiled. 

‘I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in and [are] destroying our country and by the way, totally destroying our country. The towns, the villages, they’re being inundated,’ Trump began. 

‘But I don’t think they have the problem in terms of Election Day. I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics,’ he said. ‘It should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.’

Harris’ campaign has since seized on the remark. 

According to Johnson and McConnell, ‘Her most recent and most reckless invocations of the darkest evil of the 20th century seem to dare it to boil over. The Vice President’s words more closely resemble those of President Trump’s second would-be assassin than her own earlier appeal to civility.’

‘This summer, after the first attempted assassination of a presidential candidate in more than a century, President Biden insisted that ‘we cannot allow this violence to be normalized.’ In September, after President Trump escaped yet another close call, Vice President Harris acknowledged that ‘we all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence,” they pointed out. 

However, ‘[t]hese words have proven hollow,’ they said. 

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The U.S. government is investigating unauthorized access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by Chinese hackers, targets of which include the Trump and Harris campaigns. 

The campaigns have been informed of the potential breach of cellphones used by former President Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, and members of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

‘After the FBI identified specific malicious activity targeting the sector, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) immediately notified affected companies, rendered technical assistance, and rapidly shared information to assist other potential victims,’ the FBI and CISA told Fox News Digital in a joint statement. 

The FBI and CISA said the investigation was ongoing and ‘we encourage any organization that believes it might be a victim to engage its local FBI field office or CISA. Agencies across the U.S. Government are collaborating to aggressively mitigate this threat and are coordinating with our industry partners to strengthen cyber defenses across the commercial communications sector.’

The hackers are believed to be connected to the Chinese government’s intelligence services, The Journal reported. 

‘We are aware that a highly sophisticated nation-state actor has reportedly targeted several U.S. telecommunications providers to gather intelligence,’ telecommunications company Verizon said in a statement. ‘Along with federal law enforcement, industry peers and third-party cyber experts, we are working to confirm, assess and remediate any potential impact. Verizon is committed to assisting law enforcement in this investigation.  Since this is an active investigation, we have no additional comment at this time.’

The anonymous officials said that investigators are working to find out if any data was stolen from the campaigns, adding that other people in the U.S. government may have been targeted by the attackers. 

The Trump campaign blamed the Biden-Harris administration over the attack. 

‘This is the continuation of election interference by Kamala Harris and Democrats who will stop at nothing, including emboldening China and Iran attacking critical American infrastructure, to prevent President Trump from returning to the White House,’ Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, told Fox News Digital on Friday. 

A person familiar with the matter also confirmed to Fox News Digital that the Harris campaign was also targeted.

The latest apparent attack comes months after the Trump campaign said campaign data was targeted by hackers from Iran. 

In September, three hackers linked to Iran were indicted in connection with a hacking plot against the Trump campaign. 

The three hackers, who are accused of working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, were allegedly ‘engaged in a wide-ranging hacking campaign that used spear-phishing and social engineering techniques to target and compromise the accounts of current and former U.S. government officials, members of the media, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals associated with U.S. political campaigns.’

‘These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,’ Cheung said in August after Politico reported that the campaign had been targeted through spear phishing. 

Fox News Digital has also reached out to the Harris campaign for comment. 

It’s not the first election cycle a foreign power has attempted to influence the election via hacking.

In 2016, the Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton, and the DNC infamously had their emails hacked by Russia and released through Wikileaks during the election. 

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Russia has been aiding the Houthis’ assault on Western shipping lanes in the Red Sea by providing them targeting data. 

As the Houthis ramped up their strikes on the U.S. and other nations’ postures in the region after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Russians offered satellite data allowing them to expand their strikes, take out multimillion-dollar U.S. drones and hit ships sailing through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, through which 12% of global trade passes, according to a Wall Street Journal report. 

Each munition used to intercept a Houthi strike costs the U.S. upwards of between $1 million and $4 million. 

The data passed through Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). 

The satellite data would represent direct Russian involvement in attacks on the U.S.

In response to the report, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told Fox News Digital: ‘I am focused on U.S./U.K. providing satellite data to [Kyiv] regime to commit terrorist attacks against civilians.’

While the U.S. has tried to avoid direct involvement in the war by withholding long-range capabilities of U.S. weapons for Ukraine, it has provided classified intelligence to Kyiv’s war efforts. 

The news comes at the same time North Korea is sending at least 3,000 troops to fight alongside the Russians — as the conflicts in both the Middle East and Ukraine expand in global involvement. 

The U.S. has long been involved in diplomatic efforts to prevent Russia from arming the Houthis, a group Washington redesignated as a terrorist organization in January. 

The Houthis have vowed to continue their attacks until there is a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon. 

In addition to destroying goods destined for the West, the regular Houthi attacks drive up insurance costs, as premiums for some shot up tenfold. They also force some ships to travel the long way, down around the Horn of Africa, which can add $1 million in fuel costs for a round trip. 

Since Oct. 7, 2023, Houthis have targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, seizing one, sinking two and killing four sailors. Oil tanker traffic has now nearly halved through Bab al-Mandab, the strait that separates the Red Sea from the Indian Ocean, from October 2023 to August of this year, according to Windward, a maritime-intelligence company.

The rebel group shot down one of the U.S.’ MQ-9 Reaper drones, valued at $30 million a piece, in October and two in September. 

In recent months, Russian President Vladimir Putin has strengthened ties with Iran, despite a historic friendship with Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Putin has criticized the U.S. and Israel over the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon and said the region risks all-out war. 

The U.S. has been urging Russia not to provide antiship or antiair missiles to the Houthis which could threaten U.S. military postures in the region. 

Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer the U.S. traded for WNBA player Brittney Griner in a prisoner exchange, is attempting to broker a $10 million small arms deal with the Houthis, according to The Wall Street Journal. It’s not clear whether the deal is sanctioned by the Kremlin. 

Tankers carrying Russian oil have been the subject of Houthi attacks, but they are operating through shell companies meant to hide their Russian origin and evade Western oil sanctions. 

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American F-16 fighter jets have been deployed to the Middle East, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed on Friday, in a show of an ‘ironclad’ commitment to Israel as tensions mount with Iran. 

CENTCOM did not detail how many F-16s had been sent to the ‘area of responsibility,’ but said they had been deployed from the 480th Fighter Squadron based at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany.

When pressed by reporters about whether the move signaled Jerusalem was preparing to launch its promised retaliatory attack on Iran for the 180-missile strike it levied at Israel earlier this month, White House National Security Council communications director John Kirby said he could not go into any detail on the issue.

‘Our commitment to Israel’s security remains ironclad,’ he said. ‘And that means, as appropriate, making force posture changes that we think need to be made to help Israel defend itself.’

The U.S., which has been increasingly bolstering its regional defenses for months, has played a critical role in defending Israel from two substantial missile attacks, the first incident occurring in April when some 300 missiles and drones were fired and the second having played out earlier this month.

According to a report by Bloomberg on Friday, the U.S. has also signaled to Saudi Arabia that it will help defend the kingdom should it come under attack by Iran, once its chief adversary in the region, or its proxy forces. 

The promise allegedly served as some comfort to the U.S. partner as many Gulf states remain on high alert over concerns of a regional war. 

The international community has been anxiously watching Israel’s fight against Iranian proxy forces, Hamas and Hezbollah, as the U.S., as well as other regional partners, hustle to de-escalate the situation from becoming an all-out war between Israel and Iran — both of which have sophisticated military capabilities. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in the Middle East this week before traveling to London on Thursday, met with United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Friday to discuss efforts to bring an end to the war in Gaza and to secure the release of the hostages who have been in Hamas captivity for more than a year. 

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Blinken and his UAE counterpart also discussed ‘the post-conflict period’ and what a ‘vision for governance, security and reconstruction that establishes lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike’ could look like.

While the Biden administration holds tight to a two-state solution, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea long pushed by many in the international community. 

But the war in Gaza wasn’t the only issue up for discussion with the top regional ally. The pair also looked to Israel’s operations in Lebanon in its push to eradicate the threat Hezbollah poses there. 

‘The Secretary underscored the importance of a diplomatic solution that fully implements United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701,’ Miller said, though he did not go into detail on how the U.S. and its allies will look to ensure Hezbollah, which has embedded itself in the everyday life of many in Lebanon, will be stamped out. 

While Blinken also spoke with Lebanese Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday, their discussions appeared to concentrate on the humanitarian toll Israel’s operations have taken, including mounting civilian casualties.

‘He emphasized Iran and Hezbollah must not stand in the way of Lebanon’s security and stability,’ Miller said in a readout. ‘He also expressed support for the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon and underscored that the safety and security of their personnel is essential.’

‘They discussed Lebanon’s presidential vacancy and the need to empower leadership that reflects the will of the people,’ he added. Blinken also met with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.

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Republican lawmakers and leaders voiced support for Israel after the Jewish nation launched a retaliatory strike against Iran after the Islamic Republic unleashed a barrage of missiles earlier this month.

‘America stands with Israel,’ former Vice President Mike Pence wrote in an X post.

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., echoed Pence’s sentiment, saying Israel is ‘our great ally.’

‘America continues to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our great ally Israel in the face of terror,’ he wrote.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., wrote, ‘The United States stands with Israel.’

Other lawmakers took to social media to share that they were rooting for the Israeli military as it ‘defends itself against the evil Iranian regime.’

‘God Bless Israel as it seeks to defend itself against the evil Iranian regime for these vicious attacks over the past year and decades prior, only emboldened by the weak Biden-Harris admin that allegedly leaked their plans,’ Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., wrote.  ‘The U.S. must stand with Israel today and always.’

‘Iran is on the ‘find out’ side of the equation right now. I stand with Israel,’ former state Rep. Tim Whelan, R-Mass., wrote. ‘May almighty God keep the IAF and IDF safe.’

The GOP’s reaction came after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Friday it was ‘conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran.’

‘The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since Oct. 7 — on seven fronts — including direct attacks from Iranian soil,’ the IDF said in a statement.

‘Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond. Our defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilized. We will do whatever necessary to defend the State of Israel and the people of Israel.’

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and Brie Stimson contributed to this report.

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The Biden administration was made aware of Israel’s plans to strike Iran in retaliation for the Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack days in advance of the strike Friday night. 

A source familiar with the proceeding confirmed to Fox News that multiple conversations were held between U.S. and Israeli officials, and the exact time of attack was communicated to Washington on Friday. 

Speculation surfaced earlier in the day that the long-awaited attack – which Israel vowed to hit Tehran with immediately following the Oct. 1 attack – was imminent given the announcement by U.S. Central Command confirming the deployment of more F-16’s to the region. 

White House National Security Council (NSC) communications director John Kirby would not confirm whether the reinforcement of U.S. defenses in the region signified that an Israeli-led attack was forthcoming, but said it showed an ‘ironclad’ commitment to Jerusalem. 

Following Israel’s strikes on Iran early Saturday morning local time under a mission dubbed ‘Days of Repentance,’ NSC spokesman Sean Savett confirmed the operation had begun ‘against military targets in Iran as an exercise of self-defense and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on Oct. 1.’

Roughly three hours after the Israeli attack started – in which some 140 Air Force planes were reportedly sent to the skies for the assault, according to Israeli local news outlet Channel 12 – the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the operation was ‘completed.’

Following the attacks, the Pentagon released a statement noting that, ‘Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant today to receive updates on the Israel Defense Forces’ strikes on military targets in Iran.’

The statement added, ‘Secretary Austin reaffirmed the ironclad commitment of the United States to Israel’s security and right to self-defense. The Secretary emphasized the enhanced force posture of the United States to defend U.S. personnel, Israel, and partners across the region in the face of threats from Iran and Iran-backed terrorist organizations and the U.S. determination to prevent any actor from exploiting tensions or expanding the conflict in the region.’

IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari addressed Iran directly in a statement once all Israel’s planes had returned. ‘If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation — we will be obligated to respond.’

He continued, ‘Our message is clear: All those who threaten the State of Israel and seek to drag the region into a wider escalation — will pay a heavy price.

We demonstrated today that we have both the capability and the resolve to act decisively — and we are prepared — on offense and defense — to defend the State of Israel and the people of Israel,’ Hagari concluded.

Strikes on military bases in Syria and Iraq were also reported Friday by Israeli news outlets, though the IDF did not mention these locations in their release. 

Senior Israeli defense source told Fox News Digital the targets of the attack were ‘solely military and intelligence targets.’

Iranian news outlet Tasnim news agency, which has known ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), cited a senior source who said, ‘We reserve the right to respond to any attack.’

‘Israel will undoubtedly receive a proportional response to any action,’ the source added, suggesting the aggressive volley between Israel and Iran will continue. 

Neither U.S. nor Israeli officials have yet commented on the effectiveness of Israel’s strikes, though local Israeli news outlet Channel 12 reported that Iran’s air defense system had been damaged.

The IRGC headquarters in Tehran was also reported to have allegedly been hit by strikes, though Fox News has not been able to independently verify this. 

Al-Mayadeen channel, a Lebanese pro-Hezbollah and Iran-aligned network, claimed, ‘Air defense systems intercepted all hostile targets in Tehran. Israel’s attempt to strike air defense bases around Tehran has failed.’

The IDF said its Air Force ‘struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the State of Israel over the last year.’ 

‘These missiles posed a direct and immediate threat to the citizens of the State of Israel,’ the IDF added. ‘Simultaneously, the IDF struck surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities, that were intended to restrict Israel’s aerial freedom of operation in Iran.’ 

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