In a televised address following the airstrikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel had launched a “targeted military operation” aimed at countering what he called an existential threat from Iran. Loud explosions and air raid sirens were reported across Tehran, with several districts in the Iranian capital shaken by blasts. Unconfirmed reports suggest that high-ranking Iranian military officials — including IRGC commander Hossein Salami and military chief Mohammad Bagheri — may have been killed, along with senior nuclear scientists.
Iran retaliated late on Friday by unleashing scores of ballistic missiles on Israel, where explosions flared in the skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and shook the buildings below. “We will not allow them to escape safely from this great crime they committed,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a recorded message in which he vowed revenge.
