Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept missiles over Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Tomer Neuberg)

Iran launched missile strikes against Israel early Saturday, resulting in the deaths of at least two individuals and injuring several others. This was a response to intense Israeli offensives targeting Iran's nuclear infrastructure and military leaders.

Israel conducted its aggressive operation using fighter jets and covertly infiltrated drones, aiming for critical installations and eliminating prominent generals and scientists.

Israel justified its onslaught as pre-emptive action against Iran's potential advancement towards acquiring a nuclear weapon. However, specialists and U.S. officials have indicated that prior to the attacks, Iran was not actively pursuing such weaponry.

In retaliation, Iran deployed drones followed by a series of ballistic missile strikes across Israel, lighting up the night skies in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv with explosions, and causing tremors in the buildings below. Amidst the ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli military advised people to seek shelter for an extended duration.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, stated in a recorded message on Friday: "We will not allow them to escape safely from this great crime they committed."

Paramedics evacuate a woman from a site that was struck by a missile fired from Iran, in Rishon Lezion, Israel, on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Late Friday into early Saturday, Iran continued to launch missiles at Israel.

A hospital in Tel Aviv treated seven people wounded in the second Iranian barrage; all but one of them had light injuries. Israel's Fire and Rescue Services said they were injured when a projectile hit a building in the city.

Hours later, an Iranian missile struck near homes in the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, killing two people and injuring 19, according to Israel's paramedic service Magen David Adom. Israel's Fire and Rescue service said four homes were severely damaged.

Meanwhile, the sound of explosions and Iranian air defense systems firing at targets echoed across central Tehran shortly after midnight on Saturday. An Associated Press journalist could hear air raid sirens near their home.

Paramedics evacuate a wounded woman from a building struck by a missile fired from Iran, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Tomer Appelbaum)

Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported a fire at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport, with a video posted on X of a column of smoke and orange flames rising from what the outlet said was the airport.

Israel's paramedic services said 34 people were wounded in the barrage on the Tel Aviv area, including a woman who was critically injured after being trapped under rubble. In Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv, an AP journalist saw burned-out cars and at least three damaged houses, including one where the front was nearly entirely torn away.

U.S. ground-based air defense systems in the region were helping to shoot down Iranian missiles, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the measures.

Israel's ongoing airstrikes and intelligence operations, coupled with Iran's retaliation, have heightened fears of a full-scale war between the two nations, pushing an already tense region into further turmoil.

Regional countries have condemned Israel's attack, while global leaders are calling for immediate deescalation from both sides.

Israel has long threatened such a strike, and successive U.S. administrations have tried to prevent it, fearing it could spark a broader conflict across the Middle East and potentially fail to destroy Iran's dispersed and fortified nuclear program.

However, a series of events triggered by Hamas' attack on Oct. 7, 2023, along with the reelection of U.S. President Donald Trump, created the conditions that allowed Israel to finally act on its threats. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the U.S. was informed in advance of the attack.

On Thursday, the U.N.'s atomic watchdog censured Iran for not complying with obligations designed to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

Israel's military reported that about 200 aircraft were involved in the initial attack on approximately 100 targets. Its Mossad spy agency had positioned explosive drones and precision weapons inside Iran beforehand, using them to target Iranian air defenses and missile launchers near Tehran, according to two security officials who spoke anonymously.

The officials' claims could not be independently verified.

Israel has launched a series of attacks on key Iranian sites, including the main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, where plumes of black smoke were seen billowing into the sky. Reports also suggest a second, smaller nuclear enrichment facility in Fordo, approximately 60 miles southeast of Tehran, was hit, as per an Iranian news outlet close to the government.

In addition, Israel claimed it targeted a nuclear research facility in Isfahan and destroyed numerous radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers in western Iran. Iran has confirmed the strike at Isfahan.

Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin stated that the Natanz facility suffered "significant damage" and emphasized that the operation was "still in the beginning."

U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Grossi informed the Security Council that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was obliterated. He reported that all electrical infrastructure and emergency power generators were destroyed, along with a section of the facility where uranium was enriched up to 60%.

While the main underground centrifuge facility seemed untouched, Grossi suggested that the power outage could have caused damage to the infrastructure there.

Smoke rises up after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

An anonymous Israeli military official indicated that the initial wave of strikes provided Israel with "significant freedom of movement" in Iran's airspace, paving the way for potential further attacks.

Over the past year, Israel has been strategically targeting Iran's air defenses, successfully striking a radar system for a Russian-made air defense battery in April 2024 and hitting surface-to-air missile sites and missile manufacturing facilities in October.

An official revealed that Israel is ready for an operation that could span up to two weeks, although no concrete timeline has been set.

The strikes resulted in the deaths of three of Iran's top military leaders: Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, who oversaw the entire armed forces; Gen. Hossein Salami, the leader of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard; and Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guard's ballistic missile program.

In this photo released by the Iranian Red Crescent Society rescuers work at the scene of an explosion after an Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (Iranian Red Crescent Society via AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu disclosed that the attack had been months in the planning. In a video statement released to journalists on Friday, he revealed that he ordered plans for the attack last November, shortly after the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, one of Iran's strongest allies.

The attack was initially planned for April but was delayed.

In retaliation on Friday, Iran launched over 100 drones at Israel. Israel reported intercepting the drones outside its airspace, with it remaining unclear whether any managed to penetrate.

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In anticipation of further retaliation from Iran or its proxy groups, Israel's military has called up reservists and begun deploying troops throughout the country.

Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Friday, pressing Iran to strike a deal with the U.S. regarding its nuclear ambitions, cautioning that without action, Israel's strikes "will only get worse.

"Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire," he penned.