The Israeli Air Force struck a series of targets, including missile-production facilities and air-defense systems, in Iran early Saturday morning, weeks after Tehran launched a coordinated strike of more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel earlier this month.

The limited strikes targeted military sites around Iran, avoiding densely populated civilian areas as well as nuclear and energy facilities. Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that two soldiers were killed in the strikes.

The Biden administration has been in conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over the last few weeks regarding the nature of Israel’s response to Iran’s Oct. 1 attack, which damaged a number of buildings and resulted in several injuries and one fatality, a Palestinian man in the West Bank.

The U.S. was “not a participant” in the attack, according to a senior Biden administration official. The White House has made clear that — ahead of the U.S. presidential election — Israel’s response to the Iranian missile attack should be intended to de-escalate the crisis, and not risk a larger regional war.

“The president and his national security team, of course, worked with the Israelis over recent weeks to encourage Israel to conduct a response that was targeted and proportional with low risk of civilian harm, and that appears to have been precisely what transpired this evening,” the official said.

The White House also made clear that Iran should not respond — and Israel should not plan any more attacks on Iran.

“This should be the end of this direct exchange of fire between Israel and Iran. Israel has made clear to the world that its response is now complete,” said the Biden administration official.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were both briefed on the Israeli attacks on Friday evening, although neither was in Washington. Biden was at his home in Delaware and Harris was at a campaign rally in Houston. Neither had released a statement on the attacks as of Saturday morning. 

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), who has been floated as a possible defense secretary if former President Donald Trump is elected, pointed out that Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility and Kharg Island, from which Iranian oil is exported, were not targeted in the overnight strikes, suggesting that pressure from Biden and Harris contributed to Israel’s limited response.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin hours after the strike. Austin, according to a readout provided by the Pentagon, “reaffirmed the ironclad commitment of the United States to Israel’s security and right to self-defense.”

It remains unclear how, or if, Iran will respond to the strikes. 

Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, noted that “while Israel did not target nuclear or oil facilities, it carried out a broad, significant strike that challenges the image of Iran’s leadership, which has publicly vowed in recent weeks to respond to any substantial Israeli attack.”

Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch contributed to this report.