Israel’s airstrikes on Iran Friday focused Iranian nuclear services, scientists and senior navy commanders, the Israeli navy stated.
Israel Protection Forces stated 200 fighter jets struck greater than 100 targets in Iran and that the operation would proceed for days. These preliminary targets included a number of websites in Iran’s capital, Tehran, and Natanz, a key uranium enrichment web site, officers stated.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to as Israel’s strikes “a focused navy operation to roll again the Iranian menace to Israel’s very survival” in a video assertion Friday.
In response, Iran launched greater than 100 drones at Israel, lots of which have been intercepted by Israel’s air defenses.
In Natanz, “the underground space of the location was broken,” the IDF stated in a press release.
“This space comprises a multi-story enrichment corridor with centrifuges, electrical rooms, and extra supporting infrastructure,” the IDF stated. “As well as, vital infrastructure enabling the location’s steady operation and the Iranian regime’s ongoing efforts to acquire nuclear weapons have been focused.”
No improve in radiation ranges had been noticed exterior the Natanz web site after the strikes, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog company, the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company, stated Friday morning.
One other enrichment web site in Fordow had not been hit as of Friday morning, in keeping with Iran and the U.N. company.
Sylvie Husson by way of Getty 
Israel’s strikes additionally killed nuclear scientists and navy leaders, the IDF stated, together with Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Workers Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, Commander in Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Hossein Salami, IRGC Senior Commander Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, and Maj. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the top of the IRGC’s missile program.
Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu by way of Getty Photos 
The U.S. was not concerned within the Israeli strikes, Secretary of Sate Marco Rubio stated.
The strikes got here because the Trump administration has been making an attempt to barter an settlement to restrict Iran’s nuclear program. President Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff was set to to carry a sixth spherical of talks in Oman over the weekend, however it was not instantly clear if these would nonetheless occur.
On Friday, Mr. Trump urged Iran to “make a deal, earlier than there may be nothing left.”
Iran’s President Mahsoud Pezeshkian stated Friday on Iranian TV that the nation would “strongly take motion” in opposition to Israel in response to the assaults.
“The Iranian nation and the nation’s officers is not going to stay silent within the face of this crime, and the reliable and highly effective response of the Islamic Republic of Iran will make the enemy remorse its silly act,” he stated.
Margaret Brennan
contributed to this report.
