Israel has launched wide-scale strikes against Iran today Friday, saying it targeted nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders and that this was the start of a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon.
Iran had launched about 100 drones towards Israeli territory in retaliation, which Israel is working to intercept, Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said.
Israel said 200 Israeli fighter jets took part in the strikes, hitting over 100 targets in Iran.
Iranian media and witnesses reported explosions including at the country’s main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, while Israel declared a state of emergency in anticipation of retaliatory missile and drone strikes.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards corps said its top commander, Hossein Salami, was killed and state media reported the unit’s headquarters in Tehran had been hit. Several children had been killed in a strike on a residential area in the capital, it said.
“We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded video message.
“Moments ago Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”
Defrin said 200 Israeli fighter jets took part in the strikes, hitting more than 100 targets in Iran.
Israel could now confirm that the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards and the commander of Iran’s Emergency Command were all killed in the strikes across Iran, he told an online briefing.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement that Israel had “unleashed its wicked and bloody” hand in a crime against Iran and that it would receive “a bitter fate for itself”.
Airlines cleared out of the airspace over Israel, Iran and Iraq and Jordan on Friday after the Israelis strikes, Flightradar24 data showed, with carriers scrambling to divert and cancel flights to keep passengers and crew safe.
An Israeli military official said Israel was striking “dozens” of nuclear and military targets including the facility at Natanz in central Iran. The official said Iran had enough material to make 15 nuclear bombs within days.
The United States said it had no part in the operation, which raises the risk of a fresh escalation in tensions in the Middle East, a major oil producing region.
Alongside extensive air strikes, Israel’s Mossad spy agency led a series of covert sabotage operations inside Iran, Axios reported, citing a senior Israeli official. These operations were aimed at damaging Iran’s strategic missile sites and its air defence capabilities.
Iranian state media reported that at least two nuclear scientists, Fereydoun Abbasi and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi were killed in Israeli strikes in Tehran.
The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said the country’s oil refining and storage facilities did not sustain damages and their activities were ongoing.
Iran closed its airspace and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport was closed until further notice.
Israeli military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said tens of thousands of soldiers had been called up and “prepared across all borders”.
“We are amidst a historic campaign unlike any other. This is a critical operation to prevent an existential threat, by an enemy who is intent on destroying us,” he said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar was holding a “marathon of calls” with counterparts around the world regarding Israel’s attack on Iran, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
REUTERS
