Key Points
- Iran launched retaliatory airstrikes at Israel on Friday night, injuring dozens according to ambulance services.
- Israeli strikes killed nearly 80 people in Iran, according to the UN.
- Israel’s ‘Operation Rising Lion’ is its biggest ever attack on Iran.
Iran and Israel targeted each other with airstrikes early on Saturday after Israel launched its biggest-ever offensive against its longtime foe in a bid to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the country’s two largest cities before dawn, sending residents rushing into shelters. The military said its air defence systems were operating, seeking to intercept Iranian missiles.
“In the last hour, dozens of missiles have been launched at the state of Israel from Iran, some of which were intercepted,” the Israeli military said.
It said rescue teams were operating at a number of locations across the country where fallen projectiles were reported, without commenting on casualties.
Several explosions were heard in the Iranian capital Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
Israel’s ambulance service said 34 people were injured on Friday night in the Tel Aviv area, most with minor injuries. Police later said one person had died.
Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani said 78 people, including senior military officials, were killed in Israel’s strikes on Iran on Friday, and more than 320 people were wounded, most of them civilians.
Iran warns ‘nowhere in Israel will be safe’
The unprecedented Israeli strikes on Iran and the subsequent Iranian retaliation raised concerns about a broader regional conflagration, although Iran’s allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have been decimated by Israel.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused Israel of having initiated a war. A senior Iranian official said that nowhere in Israel would be safe, and revenge would be painful.
Netanyahu’s appeal to Iranians
Israel’s operation “will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a TV address.
Netanyahu, who for decades has raised the alarm about Iran’s nuclear program, said he authorised the air assault in an effort to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. Israel and its Western allies have said this is Tehran’s objective but Iran has denied it.
In a video issued by his office, Netanyahu appealed to the Iranian people to stand up against their leaders. “I am with you, the Israeli people are with you,” he said.
“Generations from now, history will record our generation stood its ground, acted in time and secured our common future.”
Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only. The UN nuclear watchdog concluded this week that it was in violation of its obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.
How have world leaders reacted?
US officials said they were helping Israel defend against the missile attacks, even as Washington insisted it had nothing to Israel’s strikes on Iran.
US President Donald Trump said was not too late for Tehran to halt the Israeli bombing campaign by reaching a deal on its nuclear programme.
Trump agreed on a call with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer that “dialogue and diplomacy” were needed to calm the crisis, Starmer’s office said.
Trump also spoke with Netanyahu on Friday, US officials said, without elaborating.
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 US offer.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron urged the US and Iran to resume nuclear talks following Israel’s strikes against Iran.
“We call for the resumption of dialogue and the reaching of a deal.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said any escalation in the region was concerning.
“We, of course, are very conscious of the threat that Iran becoming a nuclear state would represent to peace and security in the region as well,” he told reporters in Fiji on Friday.
“We want to see these issues resolved through dialogue and the United States have been playing an important role there.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the conflict risked further destabilising a volatile region.
“We call on all parties to refrain from actions and rhetoric that … would further exacerbate tensions,” she said.
Some of Iran’s most powerful men killed
The strikes killed Iran’s highest-ranking military officer, armed forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri, and the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, Iranian media reported.
Khamenei swiftly appointed new commanders to replace those killed, while state media said a senior adviser to the supreme leader had himself been wounded.
“The senior chain of command of the air force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had assembled in an underground command centre to prepare for an attack on the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said, adding that its attacks had killed most of them.
Iran confirmed that the Guards’ aerospace commander had been killed, along with “a group of brave and dedicated fighters”.
Tasnim news agency said six nuclear scientists were among the dead.
IAEA confirms radiation levels ‘unchanged’ in Natanz
The violence raised questions as to whether Sunday’s sixth round of talks planned between the US and Iran to seek a deal on Iran’s nuclear program would go ahead in Oman.
Trump said Washington was “hoping to get back to the negotiating table”.
Iran confirmed that above-ground sections of the Natanz enrichment plant had been destroyed, but the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said radiation levels outside the site “remained unchanged”.
“Most of the damage is on the surface level,” said the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran’s spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi.
Iran said there was only limited damage to the Fordo and Isfahan nuclear sites.
The United States and other Western governments have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, an ambition it has consistently denied.
Netanyahu said Israeli intelligence had concluded that Iran was approaching the “point of no return” on its nuclear program.
Israel had called for global action after the IAEA accused Iran on Thursday of non-compliance with its obligations.
Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 per cent, far above the 3.67-per cent limit set by a largely moribund 2015 agreement with major powers, but still short of the 90 per cent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead.
