‘Significant damage’ after IDF headquarters hit by Iranian missile attack as Islamic Republic launches barrage of missiles at Tel Aviv
Israel’s military headquarters were struck after Iran’s Islamic Republic unleashed a barrage of missiles on central Tel Aviv late Friday night, causing “significant damage” to the Jewish state’s equivalent of the Pentagon.
Alarming footage shared on social media — and verified by The New York Times — showed a strike slamming into an area that houses several military sites, including the Israel Defense Forces’ main command center.
The dramatic clips captured interceptor missiles firing into the sky moments before a blinding flash, a thunderous boom, and the explosion of an incoming warhead.
The videos suggest that at least one Iranian missile breached Israel’s air defenses and hit a sensitive command site in the heart of Tel Aviv.
“This is Israel’s version of the Pentagon, the Kiryat, and the building on this compound was just hit,” according to Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst, who was at the scene.
“There is significant damage.”
Yingst, who was forced to run for cover as a “massive amount” of Iranian missiles rained down earlier, said that the country also used around 150 ballistic missiles to target residential areas and military installations around Tel Aviv.
“These ballistic missiles make the rockets that were being fired from Gaza look like toys,” he added.
The IDF has not confirmed whether its headquarters were hit, but released raw footage showing Iran firing off waves of ballistic missiles at the Jewish state for hours on Friday.
“The IDF cannot, and will not, allow Iran to attack our civilians,” the military agency posted on X.
Israel launched large-scale airstrikes against Iran Friday aimed at obliterating Iranian nuclear and military facilities, as well as a swath of top military commanders.
The surprise attack killed at least 20 senior Iranian commanders, sources said, including the head of its Revolutionary Guard.
Six nuclear scientists have also been confirmed killed in the strikes.
Two Iranian senior generals were killed in Israeli strikes Saturday morning, according to the Times of Israel, citing Iranian state media.
Iran’s deputy head of intelligence of the armed forces general staff, General Gholamreza Mehrabi and deputy head of operations, General Mehdi Rabbani died in attacks on Iran’s nuclear and air defense systems, the outlet reported.
At least three Israelis were killed in Iran’s retaliatory barrage, officials said just before 9 a.m. local time on Saturday.
Two died when missiles struck in Rishon Lezion, just south of Tel Aviv, Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom told CNN.
A woman was killed in the city’s eastern suburb of Ramat Gan, a police spokeswoman confirmed to the New York Times. CNN later reported that she was struck by a weapon fragment.
At least 43 others have been injured, officials said.
The strikes came after talks to reach a deal on Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program failed, escalating Israeli fears that the country would produce a nuclear weapon.
Iran quickly responded hours later by launching hundreds of missiles in three waves of attacks at the Jewish state, killing one and injuring at least 34 people, officials announced.
The Islamic Republic called the retaliation a “declaration of war.”
Search-and-rescue operations are underway in Israel where missiles
that slipped past defenses reportedly landed, the Israeli military
said.
No comments:
Post a Comment