What to know about Israel’s strikes and Iran’s retaliation
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
By Farnaz Fassihi, Aaron Boxerman, Ephrat Livni, Euan Ward and Lynsey Chutel
The fierce fighting between Israel and Iran is now in its fourth day, as the heavily armed countries exchange deadly airstrikes.
The Israeli military attacked the headquarters of Iran’s state broadcaster in Tehran on Monday evening. It warned people in a district of northeastern Tehran to immediately leave that part of the Iranian capital, saying it planned to target “military infrastructure” in the area “in the coming hours.”
Iran continued to return fire by launching ballistic missiles at Israel. It struck several Israeli cities early Monday, killing at least eight people, according to Israeli officials.
The leaders of both countries have vowed to intensify their attacks, defying international calls for a de-escalation and stirring anxiety over the prospect of a wider conflict that could draw in the United States.
Iran’s Health Ministry said at least 224 people have been killed and more than 1,400 injured since Friday. In Israel, retaliatory strikes have killed at least 24 people and wounded dozens more.
Talks between the United States and Iran about the future of Iran’s nuclear program, which were scheduled for Sunday in Oman, were canceled.
What happened in Iran?
Israel attacked at least six military bases and highly secured housing complexes for military commanders around Tehran, according to four senior Iranian officials. Israel has killed at least six senior commanders from Iran’s top military chain of command since Friday.
Explosions were also reported at military and industrial complexes in the Iranian cities of Isfahan, Arak and Kermanshah. Some of the strikes targeted Iran’s most important nuclear facilities.
Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, said that on Friday Israel had targeted the Natanz site, where Iran produces most of its nuclear fuel, work that has put the country on the cusp of being able to produce a nuclear weapon. Iran says that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes. Israel’s attack destroyed the aboveground part of the fuel enrichment plant.
But there was no indication of further damage to Iran’s nuclear sites since then and the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, had not identified any damage to Iran’s best-protected nuclear site, Fordo, which is deep inside a mountain near the city of Qom, Grossi said Monday. He added in a report to the agency’s board of governors that Israel had also not attacked the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Iran’s western coast.
Israel also targeted Iran’s critical energy infrastructure at gas and petrochemical refineries Saturday, according to Iran’s Oil Ministry.
The ministry said Israeli drones had targeted a section of the South Pars Gas Field in Bushehr province. South Pars is one of the world’s largest gas fields and a critical part of Iran’s energy production. The Fajr Jam Gas Refining Co. was also targeted, the ministry said, as was a major fuel depot in the capital’s north.
Grossi also said Israel appeared to have hit two other facilities, in Isfahan and Fordo, at which Iran has been working to produce weapons-grade uranium, in a strike. The extent of the damage is unknown.
The Fordo site, built deep underground to thwart such an attack, is where Iran has stockpiled weapons-grade uranium and could quickly produce a bomb, experts said.
Israel’s wide-ranging initial attack was the product of years of intense spycraft that enabled Israel to degrade Iran’s defenses while bombing sensitive nuclear targets and killing top commanders, according to three Israeli officials with knowledge of the operations.
Who was killed in Israel’s attack?
Israel killed at least six of Iran’s top generals and five nuclear scientists.
They included Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, the powerful chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces; Gen. Hossein Salami, commander in chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard; and Gen. Gholamali Rashid, the deputy commander of Iran’s armed forces, according to Iranian news media reports.
Ali Shamkhani, an influential Iranian politician overseeing the nuclear talks with the United States, was also killed Friday, according to three senior officials and Iranian news media reports. Two prominent nuclear scientists, Mohammad Mehdi Tehranji and Fereydoun Abbasi, were killed when Israel attacked their homes.
On Sunday, the Tasnim News Agency, which is closely affiliated with Iran’s government, said the Revolutionary Guard reported that Mohammad Kazemi, who led the Guard’s intelligence organization, and Hassan Mohaqiq, his deputy, had been killed in Israel’s strikes. The Guard also confirmed that several senior commanders in the airspace unit died in an airstrike Friday.
Civilians bore the brunt of the attacks as Israeli missiles hit apartment buildings and residential complexes in Tehran. In one instance, Iran’s state television reported that an Israeli strike had killed 60 people, including 20 children, in one residential building in Tehran. Residents who spoke to the Times said they had not experienced attacks like this in a generation, with some recalling the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.
What happened in Israel?
Twelve people in Israel were killed during multiple Iranian missile barrages beginning overnight Saturday. At least 13 have been killed since Friday, with dozens injured.
Video from Tel Aviv showed at least one large explosion on the ground from an apparent missile strike and at least one building on fire. In Tamra, an Arab town in northern Israel, four women from the same family were killed when an Iranian missile struck a house.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a video address Saturday that Israel “will strike every site and every target of the ayatollah’s regime.”
Israeli air defense systems were intercepting Iranian ballistic missiles as explosions lit up the sky over Jerusalem. Images on Israeli television indicated that many of the missiles fired in the latest barrage from Iran were also aimed at the northern city of Haifa.
Israel has invested billions of dollars in sophisticated systems to shoot down rockets, missiles and drones.
Why did Israel attack Iran?
Israeli officials described the strike as “preemptive,” although there had been no immediate indication that Iran was planning to attack.
An Israeli military official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity to comply with protocol said the strikes had targeted elements of Iran’s nuclear program and the regime’s long-range missile abilities.
He said that Iran had been advancing a secret program to assemble a nuclear weapon, according to Israeli intelligence, and that it had enough material to assemble 15 nuclear bombs within days. The official did not provide details to support the assessment.
How did the U.S. respond?
U.S. officials have said the United States was not involved in the strikes on Iran. But President Donald Trump warned Iran that Washington would respond with overwhelming force if Iran responded to the Israeli attacks by attacking the United States.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry, however, has said the attack could not have happened without “coordination and authorization” from Washington. The ministry said the United States would also be responsible for the consequences.
The Israeli strike followed months of disagreement between Trump and Netanyahu over how to handle Iran. The president had discouraged Israel from attacking Iran while U.S.-Iran nuclear talks were ongoing.
What comes next?
The two countries have said they will continue fighting for as long as necessary. The conflict appears set to last for at least a week, with both Israel and Iran ignoring routes toward deconfliction.
Israel seems motivated to continue until the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, either by force or renewed negotiations. Yet Iran has shown no sign of voluntarily ending enrichment, a process crucial to building a nuclear bomb, and Israel has no known ability to destroy a pivotal enrichment site that is buried deep underground.
“We’re weeks rather than days away from this ending,” said Daniel B. Shapiro, who oversaw Middle Eastern affairs at the Pentagon until January.
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