Israel attacked Iran early on Friday in strikes that took out top military officers and hit nuclear and missile sites, raising the potential for an all-out war between the two bitter Middle East adversaries.
It appeared to be the most significant attack Iran has faced since its 1980s war with Iraq.
Simmering tensions over Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme boiled over and Iran quickly retaliated, sending a swarm of drones at Israel as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of “severe punishment”.
Countries in the region condemned Israel’s attack, while leaders around the globe called for immediate de-escalation from both sides.
Israel’s military said about 200 aircraft were involved in the initial attack on about 100 targets.
Two security officials said the country’s Mossad spy agency was also able to position explosive drones inside Iran ahead of time and then activate them to target missile launchers at an Iranian base near Tehran.
They said Israel had also smuggled precision weapons into central Iran as well as strike systems on vehicles, which were activated as the attack began to hit Iranian air defences.
The Israeli attack hit several sites, including Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz, where black smoke could be seen rising into the air.
Later in the morning, Israel said it had also destroyed dozens of radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers in western Iran.
Among those killed were three of Iran’s top military leaders, one who oversaw the entire armed forces, General Mohammad Bagheri, one who led the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, General Hossein Salami, and another who ran the Guard’s ballistic missile programme, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Moments ago, Israel launched Operation “Rising Lion”, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.
This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.
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Statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: pic.twitter.com/XgUTy90g1S
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) June 13, 2025
Iran confirmed all three deaths, which were a significant blow to Tehran’s governing theocracy and will complicate efforts to retaliate against Israel.
Khamenei said other top military officials and scientists were also killed.
In response, Iran fired more than 100 drones at Israel, with both Iraq and Jordan confirming they had flown over their airspace.
Israel said the drones were being intercepted outside its airspace, and it was not immediately clear whether any got through.
In his first public comment about the attacks, US President Donald Trump again urged Iran to reach a deal with Washington on its nuclear programme, warning on his Truth Social platform that Israel’s attacks “will only get worse”.
Without saying whether he was privy to specific Israeli plans, Mr Trump said “there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end”.
“Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire,” he wrote. “No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
Washington had cautioned Israel against an attack during continued negotiations over Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme.
It said the US had not been involved and warned against any retaliation targeting US interests or personnel.
It seemed likely the US suspected an attack could be in the offing, however, as Washington on Wednesday pulled some American diplomats from Iraq’s capital and offered voluntary evacuations for the families of US troops in the wider Middle East.
Israeli leaders cast attack as necessary to head off an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs, though it remains unclear how close the country is to achieving that or whether Iran had actually been planning a strike.
Iran maintains its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only.
“It could be a year. It could be within a few months,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed, as he vowed to pursue the attack for as long as necessary to “remove this threat”.
“This is a clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival,” he said.
Nervous Israelis rushed to supermarkets in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and elsewhere to buy bottled water and other supplies, and circulated messages on WhatsApp groups advising each other to prepare their shelters for potential long-term use.
Israel “opened its wicked and blood-stained hand to a crime in our beloved country, revealing its malicious nature more than ever by striking residential centres”, Khamenei said in a statement.
For Mr Netanyahu, the operation distracts attention from Israel’s ongoing and increasingly devastating war in Gaza, which is now more than 20 months old.
Mr Netanyahu expressed hope the attacks would trigger the downfall of Iran’s theocracy, saying his message to the Iranian people was that the fight was not with them, but with the “brutal dictatorship that has oppressed you for 46 years”,
“I believe that the day of your liberation is near,” the Israeli leader said.
