TEL AVIV/DUBAI/WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Iran launched retaliatory airstrikes at Israel on Friday night, with explosions heard in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the country’s two largest cities, following Israel’s biggest-ever military strike against its longstanding enemy.
Air raid sirens sounded across Israel as authorities urged the public to take shelter. Missiles were seen over Tel Aviv’s skyline, with the military saying Iran had fired two salvos.
Israel’s military said Iran fired fewer than 100 missiles and most were intercepted or fell short. The U.S. military helped shoot down Iranian missiles headed for Israel, two U.S. officials said.
Israel’s Channel 12 said two people were critically injured, eight moderately and 34 slightly from shrapnel.Several buildings were struck in the attack including an apartment block in a residential neighbourhood in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv.
Another building in central Tel Aviv was also struck, causing significant damage to multiple floors.
The Israeli strikes on Iran throughout the day and the Iranian retaliation raised fears of a broader regional conflagration, although Iran’s allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have been decimated by Israel.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA said Tehran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel after Israel blasted Iran’s huge Natanz underground nuclear site and killed its top military commanders. Iran says its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes.
Israeli officials said it may be some time before the extent of damage at Natanz was clear. Western countries have long accused Iran of refining uranium there to levels suitable for a bomb rather than civilian use.
The above-ground pilot enrichment plant at Natanz has been destroyed, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council on Friday. He said the U.N. was still gathering information about Israeli attacks on two other facilities, the Fordow fuel enrichment plant and at Isfahan.
