Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to attack Iran for “as long as necessary” after his forces launched devastating air strikes against Tehran’s nuclear programme and military facilities, triggering a new war in the Middle East.
The assault, which came after years of tensions between the two states, struck facilities long at the heart of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, killed Iran’s top three military commanders, as well as leading scientists, and sought to disable the country’s air defences.
The Israeli military on Friday evening said Iran had launched retaliatory strikes using ballistic missiles. Israel’s defence systems were operating to intercept the missiles and the public had been instructed to enter protected spaces, it added.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened Israel with “heavy blows” and said it would not be allowed to escape unscathed after provoking a war.
“They should not assume that they hit [us] and it is over. No. They were the ones to start it and waged a war,” he said in a pre-recorded televised message late on Friday.
In a video broadcast earlier on Friday, Netanyahu said Israel’s strikes would continue for “as long as necessary, to distance and remove the threat as much as we can”.
On his Truth Social platform, US President Donald Trump warned Tehran that the next “already planned attacks” on it would be “even more brutal”, adding that “Iran must make a deal [on its nuclear programme], before there is nothing left”.
In a later post, he added: “Two months ago I gave Iran a 60-day ultimatum to ‘make a deal’. They should have done it! Today is day 61.”
For more than two decades, Israel has viewed Iran’s nuclear activities as an existential threat and has long been opposed to efforts by the US and other powers to negotiate with Tehran, which insists its programme is purely peaceful.
A series of US administrations going back to George W Bush has sought to prevent an Israeli strike on the Islamic republic for fear of escalation into a wider conflict, but Trump has signalled fewer misgivings.
Speaking to ABC News, he said of the Israeli attack: “I think it’s been excellent.”
An Israeli military official said the attacks could last for as long as two weeks, while another said dozens of strikes had already been carried out.
After massive explosions rocked Tehran at about 3.30am local time on Friday, state television also showed smoke rising from the main command headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards, the regime’s most powerful military force, in eastern Tehran.
Further strikes took place later on Friday, according to local media reports.
Iran’s state news agency said several senior military figures including Major General Hossein Salami, head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, were killed. Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, was also killed, state television reported, while Israel said it had killed the IRGC air force commander.
Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a prominent physics professor, and Fereydoon Abbasi, a former head of Iran’s atomic organisation, also died, the state news agency said.
Unofficial estimates quoted by the Iranian media suggested that 78 people were killed and 329 injured by the Israeli strikes on military sites and residential areas in Tehran province. But they did not specify how many of the casualties were civilians.
The S&P 500 fell 1.2 per cent, its lowest level in more than a week, following reports of Iran’s retaliatory strikes. Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, earlier surged as much as 12.5 per cent before paring back to trade 5.4 per cent higher at $73.08 a barrel in London after Israel’s attack.
The Israel Defense Forces said it had damaged an underground facility in Natanz, the country’s main site for uranium enrichment, which can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons-grade material.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation subsequently said there had been some radiation and chemical contamination at the underground facility.
On Friday evening the IDF added that it had also hit Isfahan, another major site in Iran’s nuclear programme.
In an indication that Israel was seeking to establish air supremacy, the IDF said it had also carried out a large-scale strike against Iran’s air defences.
Israeli security officials added that Mossad operatives had smuggled explosive drones and precision weapons into Iran that were then used to target missile launchers and surface-to-air missile systems.
The attack came ahead of a sixth round of negotiations on Sunday between the Trump administration and Iran in an effort to resolve the nuclear crisis.
Trump said on Thursday that Washington was “fairly close to a pretty good agreement”, adding that he did not want Israel to attack Iran because it could “blow” the chances of a deal. But in comments before and after the attack he also suggested strikes could help progress towards an agreement.
Netanyahu, who had been lobbying the US to support military action against Iran, said in a video statement that Tehran was buying time, alluding to US and Israeli demands that Iran halt its nuclear enrichment programme.
“That is why we have no choice but to act and act now,” he said.
Israel’s strikes drew swift condemnation from Saudi Arabia, Oman and Turkey. Riyadh said the attack violated international laws.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said Washington was “not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region”.
“Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defence,” Rubio added. “Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel.”
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the strikes could not have happened without a green light from the US, adding that Washington was “responsible for the dangerous repercussions of this aggression”.
Earlier this week, Tehran reiterated warnings that the republic could also target American bases across the region if it was attacked.
Tehran has for several years been enriching uranium close to weapons grade. Both Israel and the US have vowed to prevent the republic developing nuclear weapons.
While Tehran says its programme is for civilian purposes, it has the capacity to produce sufficient fissile material required for a nuclear weapon in less than two weeks.
The board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN atomic watchdog, declared on Thursday that Iran was in breach of its non-proliferation obligations, the first such censure in two decades.
The strikes cap nearly two years of conflict across the Middle East that began with the war between Israel and Hamas triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel.
Additional reporting by Bita Ghaffari in Tehran and Jamie Smyth and Steff Chávez in New York
