IDF Spokesman Effie Defrin on Friday morning told a press conference that Iran had launched over 100 drones toward Israel in recent hours.
He also noted that over 200 IDF aircraft have attacked over 100 targets in Iran with over 330 munitions.
He did not say when they would reach Israel, but in April 2025, it took such drones several hours.
During that Iranian attack and another attack by Tehran on Israel in October 2024, Israel had a wide alliance of US, Briths, French, and other countries helping to defend it.
It was unclear whether Israel had any such alliance this time, given that it launched a preemptive strike, and the other two times it was attacked by Iran first.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is alive and is being continuously briefed about the situation, a security source told Reuters, following an Israeli attack on Iran early on Friday.
Iran is planning to ‘give a harsh response’ to an Israeli attack launched early on Friday against its nuclear programme, an Iranian security source told Reuters.
“The response to the Israeli attack will be harsh and decisive,” the official said, adding that details of Iran’s retaliation “are being discussed at the highest levels” when asked whether the attack would be imminent.
IRGC commander, 2 nuclear scientists killed in Israeli strikes
Iranian state television reported early Friday that Hossein Salami, the chief of the Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was killed in an Israeli strike.
An anchor read a statement saying: “The news of assassination and martyrdom of Gen. Hossein Salami was confirmed.” The anchor did not elaborate.
Another top Guard official was also reported killed along with Salami when the IRGC headquarters in Tehran was hit.
“The martyrdom of… Major General Gholam Ali Rashid is confirmed,” state television said.
A major power center within Iran’s theocracy, with vast business interests and oversees the nation’s ballistic missile arsenal, the IRGC had been accused by Iran’s neighbors of maintaining proxy militias such as the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and those in Iraq.
State television and local media also reported the death of two scientists working on Iran’s nuclear program. They were identified as Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi.
Several children were also reportedly killed in a strike on a residential area in the capital.
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.
In a recorded video message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel targeted Iranian scientists working on a nuclear bomb, its ballistic missile program and its Natanz uranium enrichment facility, in an operation that he said would continue “for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”
“We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history,” Netanyahu said, adding that the targeted military operation was meant to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.
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.
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 defense capabilities.
Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport was closed until further notice, and Israel’s air defense 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,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.