Israel launched missile strikes on Iran overnight, targeting nuclear enrichment facilities and killing at least three senior Iranian military leaders, according to Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson Effie Defrin. Iran responded by launching more than 100 drones toward Israeli territory, with rocket sirens sounding in northern Jordan as the country intercepted several Iranian drones in its airspace. The Israeli attack marks the largest assault on Iran since the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.
Iranian state news agency Tasnim reported a fresh wave of Israeli strikes on a military airport in the northwestern city of Tabriz. U.S. President Donald Trump urged Iran to reach a deal “before it’s too late” in his first comments on the attacks on Truth Social. News of the strikes sent oil prices surging as much as 13%, with global benchmarks surpassing $78 a barrel at one point.
Israeli assault escalates Mideast tensions
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the opening strikes on dozens of Iranian sites as “very successful” and warned that Israelis may have to spend “far longer periods in shelters than we were accustomed to until now.”
The U.S. State Department stated it was not involved in Israel’s overnight strikes on Iran, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling the actions unilateral and urging Iran not to target U.S. interests or personnel in the region. However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry warned it would hold Washington responsible for the consequences of Israel’s actions.
Friday’s strikes and the Iranian response are likely just the beginning in a rapid cycle of escalation, according to regional analysts. Firas Maksad, managing director for the Middle East and North Africa practice at Eurasia Group, told CNBC that this is probably still the opening salvo and that Israel may have to take successive rounds of action to take out what’s left of Iran’s nuclear program if Iran does not return to the negotiating table. The strikes happened just one day after the IAEA Board of Governors passed a resolution declaring Iran in noncompliance with its nuclear safeguards obligations for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed a heavy response to Israel’s attacks on social media platform X, stating that the “powerful arm of the Islamic Republic’s Armed Forces won’t let them go unpunished.”
It is not yet known how and to what extent Iran will be able to deploy its arsenal of ballistic missiles and network of regional armed proxies in its efforts at retaliation. The conflict has raised concerns about the potential for a wider war in a region that accounts for one-third of the world’s oil supply.
