Israel said it carried out a pre-emptive strike on Iran on Saturday, escalating tensions across the Middle East and further undermining prospects for a diplomatic resolution to Tehran’s long-running nuclear standoff with Western powers.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was reportedly not in Tehran and had been moved to a secure location.
The operation followed a 12-day air conflict between Israel and Iran in June and came after repeated warnings from Israel and the United States that further military action would be taken if Iran continued advancing its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
“The State of Israel launched a pre-emptive attack against Iran to remove threats to the State of Israel,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said.
An Israeli defence official said the operation had been planned for months in coordination with Washington, with the timing of the strike decided several weeks ago.
Iranian media reported explosions in Tehran on Saturday, while sirens sounded across Israel at around 08:15 local time. The Israeli military said the alerts were issued as a precaution to prepare the public for the possibility of incoming missile attacks.
Israeli authorities ordered the closure of schools and workplaces, except for essential services, and imposed a ban on public airspace. Civilian flights were suspended, and the airports authority urged the public not to travel to any of the country’s airports.
The United States and Iran resumed negotiations in February in an effort to resolve the decades-old dispute through diplomacy and avert a military confrontation that could destabilise the region.
Israel has insisted that any agreement between Washington and Tehran must involve the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, rather than merely halting uranium enrichment, and has pressed for limits on Iran’s missile programme to be included in the talks.
Iran has said it is willing to discuss restrictions on its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions but has rejected linking the issue to its missile capabilities.
Tehran has also said it would defend itself against any attack and warned neighbouring countries hosting U.S. forces that they would face retaliation if American bases were used to strike Iran.
In June, the United States joined an Israeli military campaign targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, marking the most direct U.S. military action against the Islamic Republic to date.
Iran responded by launching missiles toward the Al Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East.
Western powers have warned that Iran’s ballistic missile programme poses a threat to regional stability and could be used to deliver nuclear weapons. Iran denies seeking to develop atomic bombs.
