Tehran has responded to Israeli attacks by launching retaliatory missile barrages against Israel, setting blasts over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Throughout Friday into Saturday, both Israel and Iran have traded airstrikes and missile attacks, raising fears of an all-out war that could drag the Middle East into more turmoil.
Tehran Retaliates
Iran launched waves of ballistic missiles against Israel late Friday and early Saturday, activating air raid sirens across Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and sending citizens into shelters, reported the Associated Press (AP).
The Iranian strikes killed at least three people and wounded dozens, causing severe damage to many buildings in Tel Aviv area. The Israeli military said it had intercepted some of the Iranian missiles. Moreover, the US ground-based air defense systems across the region helped in intercepting Iranian missiles, the AP reported citing a US official.
The Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused Israel of starting a war, vowing revenge. “We will not allow them to escape safely from this great crime they committed,” he said in a recorded message on Friday.
Crossing Red Lines
In response to Iranian missile strikes, the Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said that Tehran had “crossed red lines” by targeting civilian population centers, warning that it would “pay a heavy price” for its actions, reported CNN.
On Friday evening, Iran said it had fired hundreds of ballistic missiles towards Israel in what it described as the “beginning” of its “crushing response.”
Moreover, Tehran said that its missiles hit Israeli military-industrial centers used for missile and military equipment production, adding that “field reports, satellite imagery and intercepted intelligence indicate that dozens of ballistic missiles effectively hit strategic targets.”
On the other hand, the spokesperson for the Israeli military, Effie Defrin, said that the Iranian missiles achieved only limited impact, some of which was caused by interception debris.
Israel’s Attack on Iran
Israel has launched a series of airstrikes across various Iranian cities, using warplanes and pre-smuggled drones to destroy Tehran’s nuclear program and prevent it from building a bomb.
According to Iran’s envoy to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, the Israeli strikes against Iran killed 78 people, including senior military officials, and wounded more than 320 people.
The initial attack involved around 200 warplanes that hit about 100 targets, the Israeli military said. Moreover, Mossad agents put explosive drones and precision weapons inside Iran in advance and used them to strike Iranian air defenses and missile launchers near Tehran, the AP reported citing two security officials.
Scale of Damage
The Iranian state media reported that the Israeli strikes killed many of Iran’s most powerful commanders, including the Commander-in-Chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Gen. Hossein Salami, and Iran’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri.
The Israeli attacks also killed Khamenei’s political advisor, Ali Shamkhani, and the head of the IRGC’s Air Force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, in addition to six of Iran’s nuclear scientists.
Importantly, the Israeli strikes hit Iran’s nuclear facilities in Natanz, Fordo and Isfahan. In the light of this, the IAEA’s Chief, Rafael Grossi, said that the above-ground pilot enrichment plant at Natanz had been destroyed, and that the UN was still assessing Israeli attacks on the two other facilities, the Fordo fuel enrichment plant and at Isfahan.
US Involvement
At a UN Security Council meeting on Friday, Iran’s envoy to the UN accused the US of being complicit in Israel’s attacks against Iran, saying that Washington shared full responsibility for the consequences.
Although the US State Secretary, Marco Rubio, denied any US involvement in the Israeli operation, the US President, Donald Trump, said that that he and his team had known about the attacks in advance.
“We knew everything, and 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 told Reuters in an interview on Friday.
The US President also called the Israeli strikes “excellent” and “very successful” in several interviews on Friday, saying that he supported Israel against Iranian counterattacks. “We’ve been very close to Israel. We’re their number one ally by far. We’ll see what happens,” he told Reuters.
Furthermore, Trump suggested that Israel used American weaponry in its military operation against Iran. “I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
US-Iran Nuclear Talks
The Israeli attack came right after the IAEA‘s resolution that declared Iran in breach of its nuclear obligations. The US and Iran were supposed to hold a sixth round of nuclear talks in Oman on Sunday. However, the ongoing escalation has cast its shadows on the negotiations.
Iran has signaled it might not join the upcoming round of talks. “The other side acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing (Israel) to target Iran’s territory,” the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday.
Meanwhile, Trump urged Tehran to make a deal before things get worse. “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire,” he wrote on Truth Social, warning that Israel’s planned attacks could be “even more brutal.”
