Iran Launches Missile Strikes Against Israel Amid Escalating Tensions

By Alexander Cornwell, Parisa Hafezi and Steve Holland

TEL AVIV/DUBAI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Iran launched retaliatory airstrikes at Israel on Friday night, with explosions heard in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the country's two largest cities, following Israel's biggest-ever military strike against its longstanding enemy.

Air raid sirens sounded across Israel as authorities urged the public to take shelter. Missiles were seen over Tel Aviv's skyline, with the military saying Iran had fired two salvos.

Israel's military said Iran fired fewer than 100 missiles and most were intercepted or fell short. The U.S. military helped shoot down Iranian missiles headed for Israel, two U.S. officials said. 

Israel's Channel 12 said two people were critically injured, eight moderately and 34 slightly from shrapnel.

Several buildings were struck in the attack including an apartment block in a residential neighbourhood in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. Another building in central Tel Aviv was also struck, causing significant damage to multiple floors.

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.

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.

'AS MANY DAYS AS IT TAKES'

Israel's operation "will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a TV address. 

"Generations from now, history will record our generation stood its ground, acted in time and secured our common future."

Netanyahu, who for decades has raised the alarm about Iran's nuclear programme, said he authorised the assault to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. Israel and its Western allies have said this is Tehran's objective but Iran denies it. 

Israel's U.N. envoy Danny Danon said intelligence had confirmed that within days Iran would have produced enough fissile material for multiple bombs.

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 price of crude leaped on fears of wider retaliatory attacks across the oil-producing region, although there were no reports that oil production or storage was damaged. OPEC said the escalation did not justify any immediate changes to oil supply.

'WE KNEW EVERYTHING,' TRUMP TELLS REUTERS

In a phone interview with Reuters, Trump said nuclear talks between Tehran and the United States, scheduled for Sunday, were still on the agenda though he was not sure if they would take place.

"We knew everything," Trump said of the Israeli attack plans.

"I tried to save Iran humiliation and death. I tried to save them very hard because I would have loved to have seen a deal worked out," Trump said. "They can still work out a deal, however, it’s not too late."

Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said military action by itself would not destroy Iran's nuclear programme, but could "create the conditions for a long-term deal, led by the United States" to get rid of it.

Two regional sources said at least 20 Iranian military commanders were killed, a stunning decapitation reminiscent of Israeli attacks that swiftly wiped out the leadership of Lebanon's once-feared Hezbollah militia last year. Iran also said six of its top nuclear scientists had been killed. 

Among the generals killed on Friday were the armed forces chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, and the Revolutionary Guards chief, Hossein Salami. 

Major General Mohammad Pakpour, promoted to replace Salami as Guards commander, vowed retaliation in a letter to the Supreme Leader read on state television: "The gates of hell will open to the child-killing regime."

MOSSAD OPERATED DEEP IN IRAN

An Israeli security source said Mossad commandos had been operating deep inside the Islamic Republic before the attack, and the Israeli spy agency and military had mounted a series of covert operations against Iran's strategic missile array. 

Israel also established an attack-drone base near Tehran, the source added. The military said it had bombarded Iran's air defences, destroying "dozens of radars and surface-to-air missile launchers".

Iranians described an atmosphere of fear and anger, with some people hurrying to change money and others seeking a way out of the country to safety.

"People on my street rushed out of their homes in panic. We were all terrified," said Marziyeh, 39, who was awakened by a blast in Natanz.

While some Iranians quietly hoped the attack would lead to changes in Iran's hardline clerical leadership, others vowed to rally behind the authorities.

"I will fight and die for our right to a nuclear programme. Israel and its ally America cannot take it away from us with these attacks," said Ali, a member of the pro-government Basij militia in Qom.

Iran's ability to retaliate with weapons fired by its regional proxies has been sharply degraded over the past year, with the downfall of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the decimation of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Israel said a missile fired from Yemen - whose Houthi militia are Iran-aligned - had landed in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Red Crescent said three Palestinian children were wounded by shrapnel there.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Howard Goller, Peter Graff and Michael Georgy; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Kevin Liffey, Aidan Lewis, Cynthia Osterman and Daniel Wallis)