By Maayan Lubell, Parisa Hafezi and Steve Holland
JERUSALEM/DUBAI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Explosions were heard over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as sirens sounded on Friday night across Israel following what the country’s military spokesman said was the firing of missiles from Iran.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA said hundreds of ballistic missiles had been launched in retaliation for Israel’s biggest ever attacks on Iran, blasting Iran’s huge underground nuclear site at Natanz and wiping out its top military commanders.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
Israel said the strikes were the start of “Operation Rising Lion”. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Israel of having started the strikes and initiating a war.
U.S. President Donald Trump said it was not too late for Tehran to halt the bombing campaign by reaching a deal on its nuclear programme.
As evening fell on Friday, Iranian media reported explosions on the northern and southern outskirts of Tehran and at Fordow, near the holy city of Qom, a second nuclear site which had been spared in the first wave of attacks.
Air defences were activated across Tehran and explosions could be heard in Isfahan.
Israel’s military said it was striking Iranian missile and drone launching sites, and had struck another nuclear site in Isfahan.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli campaign was aimed at defeating an existential threat from Iran, invoking the failure to halt the Holocaust in World War Two.
Israel’s operation “will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,” he said in a TV address. “Generations from now, history will record our generation stood its ground, acted in time and secured our common future.”
In a phone interview with Reuters, Trump said it was not clear if Iran’s nuclear programme had survived. He said nuclear talks between Tehran and the United States, scheduled for Sunday, were still on the agenda though he was not sure if they would take place.
“We knew everything,” Trump said of the Israeli attack plans.
“I tried to save Iran humiliation and death. I tried to save them very hard because I would have loved to have seen a deal worked out,” Trump said. “They can still work out a deal, however, it’s not too late.”
Earlier, Trump posted on Truth Social: “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left.”
Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said military action by itself would not destroy Iran’s nuclear programme, but could “create the conditions for a long-term deal, led by the United States” to get rid of it.
DECAPITATION
Two regional sources said at least 20 Iranian military commanders were killed, a stunning decapitation reminiscent of Israeli attacks that swiftly wiped out the leadership of Lebanon’s once-feared Hezbollah militia last year. Iran also said six of its top nuclear scientists had been killed.
Among the generals killed on Friday were the armed forces chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, and the Revolutionary Guards chief, Hossein Salami.
Major General Mohammad Pakpour, swiftly promoted to replace Salami as Guards commander, vowed retaliation in a letter to the Supreme Leader read out on state television: “The gates of hell will open to the child-killing regime.”
Iranians described an atmosphere of fear and anger, with some people rushing to change money and others seeking a way out of the country to safety.
“People on my street rushed out of their homes in panic, we were all terrified,” said Marziyeh, 39, who was awakened by a blast in Natanz.
While some Iranians quietly hoped the attack would lead to changes in Iran’s hardline clerical leadership, others vowed to rally behind the authorities.
“I will fight and die for our right to a nuclear programme. Israel and its ally America cannot take it away from us with these attacks,” said Ali, a member of the pro-government Basij militia in Qom.
Iranian media showed images of destroyed apartment blocks, and said nearly 80 civilians were killed in attacks that targeted nuclear scientists in their beds and wounded more than 300 people.
Iran’s ability to retaliate with weapons fired by its regional proxies has been sharply degraded over the past year, with the downfall of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the decimation of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Israel said a missile fired from Yemen – whose Houthi militia are one of the last remaining Iranian-aligned groups still able to fire at Israel – had landed in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Red Crescent said three Palestinian children were wounded by shrapnel there.
‘COWARDLY’
Israel said that Iran had launched around 100 drones towards Israeli territory on Friday, but Iran denied this and there were no reports of drones reaching Israeli targets.
The United Nations Security Council was due to meet on Friday at Tehran’s request. Iran said in a letter to the Council that it would respond decisively and proportionally to Israel’s “unlawful” and “cowardly” acts.
The price of crude leapt on fears of wider retaliatory attacks across a major oil-producing region, although there were no reports that oil production or storage was damaged. OPEC said the escalation did not justify any immediate changes to oil supply.
An Israeli security source said Mossad commandos had been operating deep inside the Islamic Republic before the attack, and the Israeli spy agency and military had mounted a series of covert operations against Iran’s strategic missile array.
Israel also established an attack-drone base near Tehran, the source added. The military said it had bombarded Iran’s air defences, destroying “dozens of radars and surface-to-air missile launchers”.
Israeli officials said it may be some time before the extent of damage to the underground nuclear site at Natanz is clear, where Iran has refined uranium to levels Western countries have long said are suitable for a bomb rather than civilian use.
Iran has long insisted its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only. The U.N. nuclear watchdog concluded this week that it was in violation of its obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.
Tehran had been engaged in talks with the Trump administration on a deal to curb its nuclear programme to replace one that Trump abandoned in 2018. Tehran had rejected the last U.S. offer.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Peter Graff, Michael Georgy and Howard Goller; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Kevin Liffe, Aidan Lewis and Cynthia Osterman)
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