Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Israel launched a flagrant attack on the heart of the Iranian nuclear and military temple on Friday, where warplanes and drones were smuggled into the country to target the main facilities and kill scientists and higher scientists – a barrage that he said was necessary before their opponent approached any weapon in construction.
The process sparked a possibility of a comprehensive war between the countries and the region, already on the edge of the abyss, has pushed a larger revolution.
Iran soon retreated, and sent a drone squadron to Israel, where the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamna warned of a “severe punishment.” Iran was oversight by the United Nations atomic control authority a day ago to not comply with the obligations aimed at preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Israel has long threatened such a strike, and successive American administrations have sought to prevent it, for fear that it would ignite a wider conflict in the Middle East and may be ineffective in destroying the dispersed nuclear program from Iran.
However, the convergence of the developments resulting from Hamas on October 7, 2023 created the attack of President Donald Trump, the circumstances that allowed Israel to finally follow its threats.
Israel told the Trump administration that the large -scale attacks are coming, and officials in the United States and Israel said, provided that its identity was not disclosed to describe special diplomatic discussions.
On Wednesday, the United States withdrew some American diplomats from the capital of Iraq and offered a voluntary evacuation of the families of the American forces in the broader Middle East. On Friday, the United States began changing military resources, including ships, in the region as Israel is ready for more revenge, two US officials said.
The countries of the region condemned the Israeli attack, while leaders all over the world called for immediate disposal of both sides. Iran requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
The Israeli army said about 200 aircraft involved in the initial attack on about 100 targets. The Mossad Spy Agency has placed drones and fine weapons inside Iran early, and used them to target Iranian air defenses and missile launchers near Tehran, according to two security officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The officials’ claims could not be confirmed independently.
Among the main sites attacked by Israel is the main nuclear enrichment facility in Iran in Natanz, where black smoke can be seen rising in the air. Israel also said it had destroyed dozens of radar facilities and surface missile launchers in western Iran.
Military spokesman Israel Dean. General Evi Deferene said that the Natanz facility was “damaged greatly” and that the operation “is still at first.”
Among the dead were three senior military commanders in Iran: the person who supervised the entire armed forces, General Muhammad Baghri; The person who led the semi -military revolutionary guards, General Husen Salami; And the head of the ballistic missile program for the guard, General Amir on the barn.
Iran has confirmed all the three deaths, and major strokes governing theocratic that would complicate the efforts made to revenge. Khamna said that senior military officials and scholars were also killed.
In its first response, Iran launched more than 100 drones in Israel. Israel said that drones were intercepted outside their air range, and it was not immediately clear whether anything had happened.
The Israeli army said that it summoned the reserve soldiers and began to localize the forces in “all combat arenas” throughout the country, as it prepared for more revenge against the Iranian or Iranian agent groups on its borders.
US President Donald Trump urged Iran to reach an agreement with Washington on its nuclear program, warning of his social platform in fact that Israel’s attacks “will get worse.”
“Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing, and save what was known as the day of the Iranian Empire,” he wrote. “No more death, no more destruction, just do it, before it is too late.”
Earlier this week, Washington officials have warned Israel against any attack so as not to disrupt American negotiations with Iran over the nuclear enrichment program. On Friday, they stressed that the United States did not participate in the attack, and warned of any revenge targeting interests or employees of the United States.
Israel calls for preventive strikes on the Iranian nuclear program
Israeli leaders have been attacked on an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs, although it is unclear how close the country is to achieve this or whether Iran is already planning a strike. Iran maintains its nuclear program for civil purposes only.
“This is a clear and present danger to the survival of Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that he pledged to follow up the attack as long as necessary “to remove this threat.”
It is widely believed that Israel is the only nuclear armed state in the Middle East, but it has never recognized the existence of such weapons.
Over the past year, Israel targeted Iranian air defenses, and hit a Russian air defense radar system in April 2024, surface missile sites and missile manufacturing facilities in October.
Friday, the Israelis rushed to supermarkets in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other places to buy bottles in bottles and other supplies. However, otherwise, the streets and gardens were mostly deserted.
Iran says Israel is targeting residential areas
For Netanyahu, the operation is paid attention to the continuous and increasingly destroyed war in Gaza, which is more than 20 months old.
There is a wide consensus in the Israeli public that Iran is a major threat, and the leader of the Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, a strong critic of Netanyahu, “his full support” of the mission against Iran. But if Iranian revenge causes heavy Israeli injuries or major disturbances in daily life, public opinion may change quickly.
The Iranian -backed Lebanese party group issued a statement of condolences and condemned the attack, but it did not threaten to join Iran in its revenge. The Hezbollah war with Israel-which killed many of the leadership of the Supreme Group-ended with a ceasefire in the United States in November.
Khamnai, the Iranian supreme leader, said in a statement that Israel “opened its evil and blood -stained hand for a crime in our beloved country, and revealed its malicious nature more than ever through residential centers.”
Netanyahu expressed his hope that the attacks would lead to the fall of Iran’s theocrats, saying that his message to the Iranian people was that the battle was not with them, but with the “brutal dictatorship that pressured you for 46 years.”
He said, “I think the day of your liberation is close.”
The strike on Iran prompted the Israeli army to its borders, which requires the use of air frequency to the air because combat aircraft approach enough to attack. It was not immediately clear whether Israeli aircraft had entered the Iranian airspace or just launched the so -called “confrontation missiles” on another country. People in Iraq heard the combat aircraft at the time of the attack.
Tension was growing for weeks before the attacks
The capabilities of the attack were clear for weeks, as anxiety was built on the Iranian nuclear program.
The Israeli designer for preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, a source of concern was put on Thursday when the International Atomic Energy Agency for the first time in 20 years control Iran because of its rejection with its inspectors. Iran immediately announced that it would establish a third site for fertilization and install advanced centrifugal devices.
However, there are multiple assessments about the number of nuclear weapons that Iran can build, if it chooses to do so. Iran will need months to assemble and test any weapon, which he has said so far has no desire to do. The US intelligence agencies evaluate Iran does not have a weapons program at this time.
Once the attacks are underway, the American embassy in Jerusalem issued an alert informing American government workers and their families of the appendix until further notice.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Israel had taken “unilateral action against Iran” and that he believed that strikes are necessary for self -defense.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Iran’s uranium attachment to Natanz, and said it was closely monitoring the levels of radiation.
Trump is scheduled to attend a meeting of the National Security Council on Friday in the White House room.
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Inform Vedman and Frankel from Jerusalem. The Associated Press Nasser Karimi, Amir Fahdat and Mahdi Fathai in Tehran, Iran; Melanie Laidman, Medal Midnik in Tel Aviv, Israel; Matthew Lee and Eric Taker in Washington; Bassem MROUE and Abby Seweell in Beirut; Edith Leeder at the United Nations and David Resong in Bangkok contributed to this report.