Two senior Arab officials told NBC News that an initial strike on Tehran appears to have targeted a barracks or office and a weapons depot.
The Israel Defense Forces said it is striking military targets in Iran in response to attacks from “the regime in Iran.”
The Israel Defense Forces said tonight that it is conducting “precise strikes on military targets in Iran.”
The strikes, it said, were in response to months of attacks from Iran against Israel. World leaders have been awaiting Israel’s response to a barrage of missiles that were fired from Iran at Israel on Oct. 1.
“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th — on seven fronts — including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” the IDF said in a statement. “Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond.”
Iranian state media are reporting explosions inside the country’s capital of Tehran.
The Iranian State Television Service, or IRIB, reported sounds of explosions in the city.
Jordan, one of the United States’ closest allies in the Middle East, confronted Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday with a stark and unwelcome assessment: Israel is ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Gaza.
Blinken was in London after holding meetings in Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, during which he pressed the need for a cease-fire and the return of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.
“We do see ethnic cleansing taking place” in Gaza, Blinken’s Jordanian counterpart, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, said, speaking to the American delegation in front of journalists. “It has got to stop.”
