Iran and Israel targeted each other with missiles and airstrikes early on Saturday after Israel launched its biggest-ever air 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, Israel’s two largest cities, sending residents rushing into shelters as successive waves of Iranian missiles streaked across the skies. The military said its air defence systems were operating, Reuters reported.

“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 working at a number of locations across the country where fallen projectiles were reported, without commenting on casualties.

In Iran, several explosions were heard in the capital Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

The Fars news agency said two projectiles hit Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, and Iranian media said flames were reported there. Close to key Iranian leadership sites, the airport hosts an air force base with fighter jets and transport aircraft.

Israeli media said a suspected missile came down in Tel Aviv, and a Reuters witness heard a loud boom in Jerusalem. It was unclear whether Iranian strikes or Israeli defensive measures were behind the activity.

The Fars news agency said Tehran launched waves of airstrikes on Saturday after two salvos on Friday night. One of the waves targeted Tel Aviv before dawn on Saturday, with explosions heard in the capital and Jerusalem, witnesses said.

Those were in response to Israel’s attacks on Iran early on Friday against commanders, nuclear scientists, military targets and nuclear sites. Iran denies that its uranium enrichment activities are part of a secret weapons programme.

In central Tel Aviv, a high-rise building was hit, damaging the lower third of the structure in a densely populated urban area. An apartment block in nearby Ramat Gan was destroyed.

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.

The U.S. military helped shoot down Iranian missiles headed for Israel on Friday, two U.S. officials said. Israel’s military said Iran fired fewer than 100 missiles on Friday and that most were intercepted or fell short. Several buildings in and around Tel Aviv were hit.

The Israeli strikes on Iran throughout the day and the Iranian retaliation raised fears of a broader regional conflagration, although Iran’s allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have been decimated by Israel.

TRUMP SAYS: NOT TOO LATE

Iran’s state news agency IRNA said Tehran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel after Israel blasted Iran’s huge Natanz underground nuclear site and killed its top military commanders. Iran says its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes.

Israeli officials said it may be some time before the extent of damage at Natanz was clear. Western countries have long accused Iran of refining uranium there to levels suitable for a bomb rather than civilian use.

The above-ground pilot enrichment plant at Natanz has been destroyed, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council on Friday. He said the U.N. was still gathering information about Israeli attacks on two other facilities, the Fordow fuel enrichment plant and at Isfahan.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Israel of starting a war. A senior Iranian official said nowhere in Israel would be safe and revenge would be painful.

Iran’s U.N. envoy Amir Saeid Iravani said 78 people, including senior military officials, were killed in Israel’s strikes on Iran and more than 320 people were wounded, most of them civilians.

He accused the U.S. of being complicit in the attacks and said it shared full responsibility for the consequences.

Israel’s U.N. envoy Danny Danon said intelligence had confirmed that within days Iran would have produced enough fissile material for multiple bombs. He called Israel’s operation “an act of national preservation.”

Iran has long insisted its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only. The U.N. nuclear watchdog concluded this week that it was in violation of its obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.

U.S. President Donald Trump said it was not too late for Tehran to halt the Israeli bombing campaign by reaching a deal on its nuclear programme.

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 rejected the last U.S. offer.

The talks are due to resume in Oman on Sunday but Iran signalled it might not join.

“The other side (the U.S.) acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday. “You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime (Israel) to target Iran’s territory.”

Israel said it targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders on Friday at the start of what it warned would be a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon.

Iranian media and witnesses reported explosions including at the country’s main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, while Israel declared a state of emergency in anticipation of retaliatory missile and drone strikes, Reuters reported.

Iranian state television reported that Hossein Salami, the chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards corps, had been killed and the unit’s headquarters in Tehran had been hit. Several children had been killed in a strike on a residential area in the capital, it said.

“We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded video message.

“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.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement that Israel had “unleashed its wicked and bloody” hand in a crime against Iran and that it would receive “a bitter fate for itself”.

An Israeli military official said Israel was striking “dozens” of nuclear and military targets including the facility at Natanz in central Iran. The official said Iran had enough material to make 15 nuclear bombs within days.

The United States said it had no part in the operation, which raises the risk of a fresh escalation in tensions in the Middle East, a major oil producing region.

Alongside extensive air strikes, Israel’s Mossad spy agency led a series of covert sabotage operations inside Iran, Axios reported, citing a senior Israeli official. These operations were aimed at damaging Iran’s strategic missile sites and its air defence capabilities.

Iranian state media reported that at least two nuclear scientists, Fereydoun Abbasi and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi were killed in Israeli strikes in Tehran.

Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport was closed until further notice, and Israel’s air defence units stood at high alert for possible retaliatory strikes from Iran.

“Following the pre-emptive strike by the State of Israel against Iran, a missile and UAV (drone) attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate time frame,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

Israeli military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said tens of thousands of soldiers had been called up and “prepared across all borders”.

“We are amidst a historic campaign unlike any other. This is a critical operation to prevent an existential threat, by an enemy who is intent on destroying us,” he said.

Israeli Minister Gideon Saar was holding “marathon of calls” with counterparts around the world regarding Israel’s attack on Iran, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

U.S. “NOT INVOLVED”

U.S. President Donald Trump would convene a meeting of the National Security Council on Friday morning, the White House said.

Iran’s armed forces spokesperson said Israel and its chief ally the United States would pay a “heavy price” for the attack, accusing Washington of providing support for the operation.

An Israeli official told Israel public broadcaster Kan that Israel had coordinated with Washington on the strikes.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio however said the United States was not involved and Tel Aviv had acted unilaterally for self-defence.

“We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Rubio said in a statement.

“Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel,” he added.

The State Department issued an advisory saying that all U.S. government employees in Israel and their family members should “shelter in place until further notice”.

The attacks triggered sharp falls in stock prices in early Asian trade on Friday, led by a selloff in U.S. futures, while oil prices jumped as investors scurried to safe havens such as gold and the Swiss franc.

NUCLEAR TALKS DEADLOCKED

U.S. and Iranian officials were scheduled to hold a sixth round of talks on Tehran’s escalating uranium enrichment program in Oman on Sunday, according to officials from both countries and their Omani mediators. But the talks have appeared to be deadlocked.

Trump said on Thursday an Israeli strike on Iran “could very well happen” but reiterated his hopes for a peaceful resolution.

A source familiar with U.S. intelligence reports said there has been no recent change in the U.S. intelligence assessment that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei has not authorised the restarting of the nuclear weapons program that was shuttered in 2003.

Even so, U.S. intelligence had indicated that Israel was preparing a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The U.S. military was planning for the full range of contingencies in the Middle East, including the possibility that it might have to help evacuate American civilians, a U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A Boeing 787‑8 Dreamliner, Air India Flight AI 171 bound for London Gatwick, crashed moments after take off from Ahmedabad international airport shortly after 1:35 pm India time today, Thursday June 12. 

Early reports indicate the plane was carrying 242 on board including two pilots and 10 crew.  

The aircraft lost radar contact near 625 feet altitude and plunged into the Meghani Nagar residential area five minutes after takeoff.

Eyewitnesses and local media reported large explosions and thick black smoke emerging from the crash site. 

Emergency services personnel at the scene have indicated that the casualty toll will probably be quite high, but numbers remain unconfirmed. 

At least three national disaster relief teams along with Ahmedabad firefighting units, ambulances, and police have been dispatched to the area.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu described himself as “shocked and devastated,” stating that “all aviation and emergency response units are on highest alert”; he is coordinating personally from the site, local media reported. 

Air India Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran expressed “deepest condolences” and confirmed that emergency support centres have been set up for family members.

The aircraft, registration VT‑ANB, was carrying 169 Indian, 53 British, 7 Portuguese and 1 Canadian passengers, Reuters reported. 

Ahmedabad Airport remains closed as authorities divert flights to nearby hubs .