US President Joe Biden said on Saturday that early indications appeared that Israel had only hit military targets in its attack on Iran and that he hoped this was “the end”.

“It appears they hit nothing but military targets. I hope that’s the end of it,” he told reporters in Philadelphia, noting that he was briefed earlier.

The US president said he was briefed ahead of Israeli retaliation. Biden administration officials said the US was not directly involved in the attack but was consulting closely with Israel.

Biden also said he was “not surprised” that former President Donald Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but stressed that Trump was not representing the US in those talks.

Israel launched the expected retaliation against Iran early on Saturday, nearly four weeks after the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile barrage against it, with the military saying the Israeli Air Force’s “precise strikes” targeted strategic military sites – specifically drones and ballistic missile manufacturing and launch facilities, as well as air defense arrays.

The Pentagon said the US had been informed of Israel’s plans in advance and had no involvement in the operation.

The fact that the Israeli attack was limited to military targets is important to Washington’s efforts to prevent the conflict between Israel and Iran from escalating into a confrontation that could lead ever closer to all-out war.

The US was waiting for details of the attack to be released to see if Israel’s targets were limited to military targets or if they included facilities linked to Iran’s nuclear program – which could trigger another major response from Tehran.

For now – with the scant evidence available – Israel appears to have heeded Washington’s warnings and scaled back some of its more aggressive plans to inflict maximum damage on the Iranian authorities.