Beirut, June 14: Tensions are high in the Middle East as Israel and Iran attack each other within 24 hours.On Friday, Israel launched an airstrike on Iran’s capital. It targeted Iran’s nuclear program. It killed 78 people, including top military officials, and injured over 320, the majority of them civilians, Iran’s ambassador told the UN Security Council on Friday.
One of the main targets was Iran’s nuclear facility in Isfahan. Explosions were also heard near the Fordow nuclear site.
In response, Iran fired hundreds of missiles at Israel. Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Loud explosions were heard in both cities.
Israel’s Air Force said they are still striking missile launchers and infrastructure in Iran.
The situation is tense and may lead to a bigger conflict between the two countries.
World leaders have called for calm, warning that continued attacks could spark a major war in the region.
The United Nations has urged both countries to show restraint and avoid further escalation. Meanwhile, civilians in both Iran and Israel are living in fear, with many seeking shelter as tensions rise by the hour.
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.
Israel’s ongoing airstrikes and intelligence operation and Iran’s retaliation raised concerns about all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval.
Countries in the region condemned Israel’s attack, while leaders around the globe called for immediate deescalation from both sides.
Israel had long threatened such a strike, and successive American administrations sought to prevent it, fearing it would ignite a wider conflict across the Middle East and possibly be ineffective at destroying Iran’s dispersed and hardened nuclear program.
But a confluence of developments triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack — plus the reelection of U.S. President Donald Trump — created the conditions that allowed Israel to finally follow through on its threats. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the U.S. was informed in advance of the attack.
