Israel strikes Iran for second night in a row

Israel launched renewed attacks on Iran as evening fell on Friday, after its biggest ever attack against its longstanding foe blasted Iran’s huge underground nuclear site at Natanz and wiped out its entire top echelon of military commanders.

Iran said that in retaliation “the gates of hell will open”, while Israel said the strikes were only the start of “Operation Rising Lion”. U.S. President Donald Trump said it was not too late for Tehran to halt the bombing campaign by reaching a deal on its nuclear programme.

As evening fell on Friday, Iranian media reported explosions on the northern and southern outskirts of Tehran and at Fordow, near the holy city of Qom, a second nuclear site which had been spared in the first wave of attacks.

Air defenses were activated across Tehran and explosions could be heard in Isfahan. Israel’s military said it was striking Iranian missile and drone launching sites, and had struck another nuclear site in Isfahan.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli campaign was aimed at defeating an existential threat from Iran, invoking the failure to halt the Holocaust in World War Two.

Israel’s operation “will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,” Netanyahu said in a TV address. “Generations from now, history will record our generation stood its ground, acted in time and secured our common future.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel had “unleashed its wicked and bloody” hand, and would suffer “a bitter fate”. Earlier, President Trump posted on Truth Social: “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left.”

Two regional sources said at least 20 Iranian military commanders were killed, a stunning decapitation reminiscent of Israeli attacks that swiftly wiped out the leadership of Lebanon’s once-feared Hezbollah militia last year. Iran also said six of its top nuclear scientists had been killed.

Among the generals killed on Friday were the armed forces chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, and the Revolutionary Guards chief, Hossein Salami. Major General Mohammad Pakpour, swiftly promoted to replace Salami as Guards commander, vowed retaliation in a letter to the Supreme Leader read out on state television: “The gates of hell will open to the child-killing regime.”

Iran’s ability to retaliate with weapons fired by its regional proxies has been sharply degraded over the past year, with the downfall of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the decimation of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Israel said that Iran had launched around 100 drones towards Israeli territory on Friday, but Iran denied this and there were no reports of drones reaching Israeli targets.

The United Nations Security Council was due to meet on Friday at Tehran’s request. Iran said in a letter to the Council that it would respond decisively and proportionally to Israel’s “unlawful” and “cowardly” acts.

The world is at the precipice of a very volatile situation. There are a number of ways that this could go, but there are off ramps that could prevent this leading to a fully fledged war between Jerusalem and Tehran.