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Hours after dozens of Israeli airstrikes struck various parts of Iran, the Iranian government retaliated by launching missiles into Israel, most targeting the capital, Tel Aviv.
The Israeli military confirmed on Friday that it had detected dozens of missiles and intercepted many of them.
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Air raid sirens sounded across Israel, with the BBC reporting plumes of smoke across Tel Aviv.
Iran first launched about 100 drones, possibly to test Israeli defences, before firing about 100 ballistic missiles.
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Although many of the missiles were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence, and with US support, others struck various parts of Tel Aviv, with officials saying at least 40 people were injured, including some in critical condition.
Bloomberg reported that Israel’s military stated that “all of Israel” was “under fire” as a result of the missiles fired at the country.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Iranian forces “carried out its crushing and precise response against dozens of targets, military centres and airbases,” Al Jazeera reports.
Apart from the drones and missiles, Iranian media also reported that Iran shot down two Israeli fighter jets, although that has yet to be independently verified.
Israel attacked Tehran earlier in the day, after the US-Iran talks on nuclear development stalled and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors censured the country for the first time in two decades over its lack of cooperation with inspectors.
Multiple reports from Iran indicated that loud explosions were heard in various parts of Iran.
Confirming the attack, the Israeli military officials stated that the Israeli Air Force targeted Iranian nuclear and military sites. Images circulating in the media showed that the airstrikes also destroyed buildings in residential areas.
Israeli strikes targeted nuclear facilities and missile sites in Iran. It also killed three military commanders, including the Chief Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Hossein Salami and six nuclear scientists. Dozens of Iranians are believed to have been killed in the attacks.
Following the Israeli attacks, which Israel has vowed to continue, the Iranian government vowed to launch a swift and forceful retaliation.
The Iranian spokesperson for the Armed Forces’ General Staff, Abolfazl Shekarchi, said both the US and Israel will pay a “heavy price” for the “deadly airstrikes” against the country. However, the US has said it was not involved in the attacks.
Mr Shekarchi declared that Israel “will pay a heavy price and should await a strong response from the Iranian armed forces.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is demanding that Iran agree to a nuclear deal with the US before it is too late.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that he had earlier stated that Israel’s missile attacks on the country and its nuclear facilities are only likely to worsen.
Mr Trump claimed that he had tried to prevent the attacks through diplomacy, but the Iranian government did not “take the chance.”
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to “just do it,” but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done.
“I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it,” he said.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that many world leaders, including those of Saudi Arabia, Russia and Oman, condemned Israel for the attacks and called for a de-escalation, while others simply called for a de-escalation of the violence and the rhetoric.
This newspaper will present updates of the situation in the Middle East in subsequent reports.
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