Israel, braced for retaliation and claimed to have intercepted most of the drones outside its borders. The high-stakes escalation marks one of the most dangerous flashpoints in the region in years.

Israel started evacuations in areas that were hit. Air raid sirens sounded in several parts of Israel as the country’s army said it has detected a missile from Yemen. People in Israeli capital Tel Aviv rushed to bomb shelters after hearing the sirens.

The fresh escalation comes after Israeli armed forces took Iran by surprise and conducted multiple overnight airstrikes, targeting Iran nuclear and military sites under ‘Operation Rising Lion’. Justifying the strikes, Israel has said that it had intel indicating that Iran’s nuclear programme had almost reached ‘point of no return’.

Iran lost several commanders and six nuclear scientists in the attacks. The chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, was also killed in the strikes, reported Iranian state television.

After attacking Iran, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said in a statement that they were expecting retaliation.“Following the preemptive 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 timeframe.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country’s strikes on Iran are aimed at hurting its nuclear infrastructure, its ballistic missile factories and many of its military capabilities.

Calling the attack a “targeted military operation”, Netanyahu said that the operation aimed “to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,” he said.

Reacting to the attack, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned Israel of ‘bitter and painful fate’ and said that the country will suffer severe consequences.

“With this crime, the Zionist regime has set itself for a bitter and painful fate and it will definitely receive it,” Khamenei said in a statement.

The strikes come after the United States made it clear that they do not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon under any circumstances and also started withdrawing their personnel from the Middle-East.

According to an Israeli PM Netanyahu, “In recent years, Iran has produced enough highly enriched uranium for nine atom bombs.”

Israel-Iran conflict: Key updates 

• The United States has said that Israel’s strikes on Iran is the country’s ‘unilateral’ action and the US is not involved. However, reports sya they were involved in intercepting drones on behalf of Israel.
• “We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement released by the White House.
• Both Iran and Israel have closed their airspace following the strikes.
• While it wasn’t immediately clear what had been hit, smoke was seen rising from Chitgar, a neighborhood in western Tehran, reported AP.
• “This operation will take as long as is needed to complete the task of fending off the threat of annihilation against us,” said Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu in a recorded video message.
• World leaders urged restraint as Israel-Iran tensions escalated. UN chief asked “both sides to show maximum restraint”. China also expressed deep concerns over the situation. France also urged the two countries to “avoid any escalation that could undermine regional stability”.