Iran launched retaliatory strikes into Israel on Friday night in response to a major Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites.
“The Iranian attack is ongoing. Dozens of additional missiles were launched toward Israel,” Israel Defense Forces wrote on X. IDF warned that “all of Israel” is under threat by Iranian airstrikes.
The retaliatory strikes come after Israel launched several waves of airstrikes into Iran early Friday, targeting the country’s nuclear facilities and killing top military leaders, officials and nuclear scientists.
In a video statement on Friday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack on Iran was “in the works for months” since September, following Israel’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, in Beirut.
Netanyahu said he was concerned that once the region’s “Iranian axis” was broken, Iran would accelerate its nuclear program. The attack on Iran was supposed to occur in April but it was postponed, Netanyahu added.
Top Iranian military leaders, government officials and nuclear scientists killed Israel’s attack on Iran comes after the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Thursday declared that Iran wasn’t complying with nuclear non-proliferation agreements aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons. Iran reacted, saying it would create a new uranium enrichment facility. Iran says its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful purposes.
The Israeli strikes killed three top Iranian military leaders and several other officials and nuclear scientists ahead of planned negotiations in Oman on Sunday aimed at addressing international concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Earlier on Friday, Netanyahu said Israel targeted Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz as part of its operation “Rising Lion.”
“We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history,” Netanyahu said in a recorded video message, adding that the operation would “roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s survival.”
He said the operation would continue for “as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”
The Israeli spy agency Mossad smuggled precision weapons and explosive drones into Iran ahead of Friday’s attack, which were used to strike Iranian air defenses, according to Israeli security officials.
The top Iranian officials killed in Friday’s attack include the military’s chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri, a major blow to Iran’s military chain of command.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, said it was holding an emergency meeting to discuss the strikes.
Rafael Grossi, the chief of the IAEA, said the agency was in contact with Iranian officials to monitor radiation levels at the Natanz enrichment facility. The extent of damage at the facility is not yet clear.
In the hours following the airstrikes, oil prices surged.
Israel had been bracing for attacks
Earlier on Friday, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin had said the military was working to intercept about 100 of Iranian drones heading toward Israel.
At the time, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel had “prepared for itself a bitter, painful fate” and vowed a “harsh punishment.”
Air raid sirens went off across Israel at around 3 a.m. local time Friday as a preemptive warning to Israelis to prepare for Tehran’s response. Supermarkets were packed with people stocking up on water and other supplies. Schools were closed and major events, including the Tel Aviv Pride Parade, were canceled.
Jordan, Israel, Iran and Iraq closed their airspace to civilian traffic, while other countries diverted or canceled flights due to the risks potentially posed by missiles.
Air raid sirens sounded in Jordan with announcements from mosques advising Jordanians to seek shelter. The government of Jordan, which neighbors Israel, said it had intercepted several missiles and drones overflying the country Friday morning.
Trump urges Tehran to strike a deal “before it is too late”
On Friday, President Trump said on social media he has been urging Iran to reach a nuclear deal.
“Two months ago I gave Iran a 60 day ultimatum to ‘make a deal.’ They should have done it!” he wrote on Truth Social. “Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!”
In a separate post earlier on Friday, Trump warned Iran that “it will only get worse” and urged Tehran to “make a deal, before there is nothing left.”
Trump said he was giving the nation “chance after chance to make a deal” on its nuclear program and said that the alternative “would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told.”
Trump is slated to meet with his National Security Council on Friday in the Situation Room, according to his daily schedule, the White House said.
Earlier on Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the administration would not tolerate an Iranian nuclear weapons program but that the U.S. was “not involved” in the Israeli attack on Iran.
“We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Rubio said in a statement early Friday.
“Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense. President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners. Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
This comes after the State Department, on Wednesday, said it had ordered all non-essential personnel from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad to evacuate over rising tensions with Iran. It also authorized the departure of military dependents at other sites across the Middle East due to heightened security concerns.
Source: www.npr.org