What has Israel hit in Iran and how has Iran responded?
More than 200 Israeli jets were involved in initial air raids on Friday on at least 100 targets in Iran in five waves of strikes, including at the key Natanz nuclear site as well as at ballistic missile sites. Israel also killed at least nine senior Iranian nuclear scientists and a number of officials, including Iran's most senior military officer and the head of the Revolutionary Guards.
Scores of sites appear to have been attacked in the widening campaign, including in Tehran, Shiraz and Tabriz, and reportedly in Isfahan and Kermanshah.
Strikes at the Natanz nuclear site, Iran's most significant nuclear enrichment facility, about 135 miles (220km) south-east of Tehran, began at just after 4am local time (0130 BST) on Friday.
Video footage posted online appeared to show the aftermath of explosions.
Protected by heavy concrete walls, Natanz's centrifuge facilities are underground and the site has been targeted with sabotage operations at multiple locations. Construction work had been under way to expand the site.
Natanz is where Iran has produced much of its nuclear fuel – including a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that the west has suggested could be used in a future nuclear weapon.
Satellite imagery showed significant damage to two areas of the site: the electrical substation that powers it, and the above-ground pilot fuel enrichment plant, which hosts hundreds of centrifuges.
The fuel enrichment plant, which is equipped with about 15,000 centrifuges, appeared to be undamaged. The IAEA said there had been no reported nuclear contamination.
As the Israeli offensive entered its second day, reports suggested that Israel had hit the area of the nuclear fuel enrichment facility at Fordow, which is deep underneath a mountain, causing limited damage. Israel is not believed to have the type of earth-penetrating bombs required to blow up the mountain and crack open the nuclear facility inside. A nuclear research centre in Isfahan was also hit.
Reports suggested Bid Kaneh, which houses several missile development and production sites, was hit on Friday morning as well as the air defence systems in western Iran.
Iran has confirmed a number of senior military figures and scientists were assassinated, some in strikes on private residences.
Iran has also accused Israel of hitting civilian areas during its assassination attempts, including a claim that 60 people were killed in a strike on a residential building in the Farahzad area of Tehran.
Israel's military said on Saturday it had targeted surface-to-surface missile launchers used to strike Israel and surface-to-air missile infrastructure used to defend Tehran.
Among those killed were the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Gen Hossein Salami, suggesting a broader 'decapitation' strike aimed at weakening the Iranian regime.
On Saturday morning, strikes were reported at Parchin military base and a jet fighter hangar at Mehrabad airport.
On Sunday, Israel's military said it had hit 'more than 80' targets in Tehran, including Iran's defence ministry headquarters, 'nuclear weapons project' infrastructure sites, and other targets, including fuel tankers. The Iranian oil ministry said Israel had targeted two fuel depots in the Tehran area, including a depot at Shahran, in the capital's north-west, where large fireballs erupted.
Later on Sunday, Israel's military said its air force had hit Mashhad airport in north-east Iran, in the longest-range strike of the conflict.
Israel's strikes have killed at least 406 people in Iran and wounded another 654, according to Human Rights Activists News Agency, a Washington-based rights group that has long tracked Iran. The government in Tehran has not offered overall casualty figures.
Both officers were closely associated with the centres of power in Iran's security hierarchy, having risen through the ranks after the Iranian revolution in 1979.
Salami began his career in the IRGC in 1980 during the Iran-Iraq war, becoming deputy commander in 2009, then, a decade later, commander of the 125,000-strong force that has played a key role in Iran's forward foreign policy in the region. Salami had been subject to sanctions by the UN and US for his involvement in Iran's nuclear and military programmes.
Bagheri, who was in his early 60s, had also risen through the IRGC, fighting in the Iran-Iraq war like Salami, with a background in military intelligence before being appointed chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran – the country's highest military position – in 2016. His position made him, formally at least, the second most powerful figure in Iran after the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Gholamali Rashid, the deputy commander in chief of the armed forces, was also reported to have been killed. It was reported that Ali Shamkhani, a key adviser to and confidant of Khamenei, was killed in a strike on an apartment block in Tehran, as well as the head of the IRGC's air force and a number of his senior aides.
Israel has a history of targeting Iranian nuclear scientists, and this attack was no exception, with at least six scientists killed on Friday and three more on Saturday.
The Tasnim news agency named the six scientists killed on Friday, including Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a theoretical physicist who was the president of the Islamic Azad University of Iran.
Also killed was Fereydoun Abbasi, a former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. Tasnim additionally named Abdolhamid Minouchehr, Ahmadreza Zolfaghari, Amirhossein Feqhi, Motalleblizadeh, as other scientists killed. Iranian state television named the three killed on Saturday as Ali Bakaei Karimi, Mansour Asgari, and Saeed Borji.
Iran has launched a barrage of missiles at Israel, setting off air-raid sirens in Jerusalem and elsewhere. Israeli authorities said on Sunday that 14 people had been killed there since Friday and 390 injured.
These maps show the locations of strikes in both countries since Saturday night.
In northern Israel, rescuers and medics said a strike late on Saturday destroyed a three-storey building in the town of Tamra, killing four women.
Israeli police said six people were killed and at least 180 injured at the site of a missile strike in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv on Israel's Mediterranean coast, in the early hours of Sunday morning.
A strike on the central city of Rehovot injured 42 people.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
An inflation surge could swamp Trump's presidency. This one investment will keep your money safe.
America's financial outlook has darkened under President Donald Trump's leadership. All three major credit-rating agencies now rank U.S. federal debt one notch below triple-A, and Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase JPM, has warned of a crack in the U.S. bond market. With the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield BX:TMUBMUSD10Y at 4.4% on Wednesday and the 30-year rate BX:TMUBMUSD30Y at 4.9%, holders of nominal U.S. debt should be prepared for significant real losses. The principal risk is not U.S. sovereign default, but rather unexpected increases in medium- and long-term interest rates, owing to market expectations of higher inflation. Fiscal policy under Trump is unsustainable, as it was under former President Joe Biden — but even more so if the Trump administration's 'big, beautiful' budget passes in anything like its current form. 'I'm at my wit's end': My niece paid off her husband's credit card but fell behind on her taxes. How can I help her? Why the biggest-ever 'triple witching' options expiration could deliver a jolt to Friday's trading Israel-Iran clash delivers a fresh shock to investors. History suggests this is the move to make. 'I prepaid our mom's rent for a year': My sister is a millionaire and never helps our mother. How do I cut her out of her will? I'm 75 and have a reverse mortgage. Should I pay it off with my $200K savings — and live off Social Security instead? The January 2025 Financial Report of the United States Government makes this clear. The U.S. ratio of federal debt held by the public to GDP at the end of the 2024 fiscal year was around 98%, although $4.7 trillion of the $28.3 trillion in federal debt was held by the Federal Reserve — meaning it is erroneously categorized as held by the 'public,' when really the central bank's accounts should be consolidated with those of the federal government. Under current policy and based on the report's assumptions, federal debt held by the public would reach 535% of GDP by 2099. Stabilizing the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio requires that the annual primary federal deficit (excluding interest payments) fall by an average of 4.3% of GDP over the next 75 years. And yet, the federal deficit and primary deficit were 6.4% and 3.3% of GDP, respectively, in fiscal-year 2024 — far above what can be justified with the economy near full employment. Read: America's debt is at a breaking point — Trump's tax bill might just push it over the edge With the U.S. Congress so dysfunctional, no one has any faith that it will deliver the required deficit reduction. Democrats do not do permanent spending cuts, and Republicans do not do permanent tax increases. The federal government does own about 28% of U.S. land (roughly 640 million acres), as well as other real commercial assets that could yield significant additional nontax revenues if properly managed. But neither party — nor even the misnamed Department of Government Efficiency — appears to have considered this option, so the federal deficit as a share of GDP is likely to rise over the next few years. With no foreseeable improvement in fiscal policy, there are two possible outcomes. First, the U.S. government could default. There has long been a small, but recurrent, risk of a technical, short-lived default if Congress fails to raise, suspend, extend, revise or abolish the federal debt ceiling on time. Fortunately, it has averted this scenario 78 times since 1960, and we expect it to continue doing so. As matters stand, the debt ceiling (including debt held by federal agencies) is set at $36.1 trillion, and debt subject to the limit is also $36.1 trillion. If needed, the Treasury has a highly liquid asset (the Treasury General Account held with the Fed) worth $332.9 billion that it can use to meet its obligations, and it may temporarily use 'extraordinary measures to continue to borrow additional amounts for a limited time.' The second, more likely possibility is that the Fed will monetize enough federal debt to prevent default. Since U.S. federal debt is serviced in dollars, 'printing money' is always an option. But, as the Fed well knows, a large-scale monetization of federal debt would result in significantly above-target inflation. We believe the Fed will do this without its operational independence being revoked by Trump. To get the Federal Open Market Committee to do something it does not want to do, the president would need to control the majority of its 12 voting members. These include the seven members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and five (out of 12) regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents who vote at any given FOMC meeting. Neither the president nor Congress can appoint or fire Federal Reserve Bank presidents. The Board of Governors must approve them, and only the board can remove them. The president nominates board members, but the Senate must confirm them. Board members' current term limits imply that, assuming none are fired, Trump will have the opportunity to nominate only two new members. True, with the power to fire board members 'for cause' — meaning 'inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance' — Trump could try to replace a majority of the members with loyalists. But this seems unlikely. Whether the 'for cause' criterion has been met will be contested in the courts, and the Senate would have to confirm Trump's appointees. Read: Trump's pick to replace Fed Chair Powell could rock your mortgage and retirement. Buckle up. Similarly, Congress could revise the Federal Reserve Act to replace the Fed's monetary-policy objectives with a mandate to buy or sell sovereign debt according to the wishes of the Treasury. But this, too, is unlikely. And the same goes for a scenario in which the Treasury sets a rapidly depreciating exchange-rate target for the dollar DXY that can be achieved only through large-scale Fed purchases of U.S. public debt that generate high inflation. However, fiscal dominance — indeed, fiscal capture — is very likely, because the need to avoid a domestic and global financial crisis will force the FOMC's hand. It will do whatever is necessary to prevent a U.S. government default, because the Fed's financial-stability mandate (the Financial Stability Act of 2010 mentions the Fed 179 times) undoubtedly trumps its monetary-policy mandate of maintaining maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates. The Fed cannot credibly threaten to refuse to monetize debt and deficits to compel fiscal retrenchment by the Treasury, let alone Congress. Thus, the Fed will have no choice but to engage in sovereign-debt purchases that it knows to be incompatible with its monetary-policy objectives. With nominal interest rates for medium- and long-term U.S. sovereign debt far below the levels consistent with realistic expectations of future inflation, serious capital losses on nominal debt instruments (public and private) are likely. The inflation surge could be no more than three years away. As the prospect of fiscal capture comes into view, investing in Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) and other indexed public and private debt instruments will become increasingly attractive. Willem H. Buiter, a former chief economist at Citibank and former member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, is an independent economic adviser. Anne C. Sibert is professor emerita of economics at Birkbeck, University of London. This commentary — 'U.S. Debt Holders Should Brace for Impact' — is published with the permission of Project Syndicate. Read: 'You are going to panic,' Jamie Dimon tells regulators about what will happen when the bond market cracks More: What's at stake if world's most powerful market finally buckles after decades-long U.S. debt splurge 20 companies in the S&P 500 whose investors have gained the greatest rewards from stock buybacks Israel-Iran conflict poses three challenges for stocks that could slam market by up to 20%, warns RBC I'm 51, earn $129K and have $165K in my 401(k). Can I afford to retire when my husband, 59, draws Social Security at 62? 'It might be another Apple or Microsoft': My wife invested $100K in one stock and it exploded 1,500%. Do we sell? Why the stock market will be performing a high-wire act over the summer, according to UBS
Bloomberg
20 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Bloomberg Surveillance: Israel, Markets, Supply Chains
Watch Tom and Paul LIVE every day on YouTube: Bloomberg Surveillance hosted by Tom Keene & Paul Sweeney June 20th, 2025 Featuring: 1) Dan Williams, Bloomberg News reporter, on President Donald Trump signaling he would give diplomacy a chance before deciding whether to strike Iran, dialing back on recent comments that suggested military action could be imminent. 2) David Katz, President and CIO of Matrix Asset Advisors, on why he is hopeful there will be some clarity in the current conflict in the upcoming months. After that, however, we will then return to the week to week and month to month uncertainties with Tariff and the current tax and spending bill that's making its way through congress. 3) Alisa Rusanoff, CEO at Eltech, on what risks lender are currently facing in the shipping space. 4) Lisa Mateo joins with the latest headlines in newspapers across the US, including a WSJ story on how side hustles nowadays are more about necessity than a passion. Plus, a Bloomberg report about Capital One's New JFK Lounge Makes a Play for Premium Travelers
Forbes
22 minutes ago
- Forbes
Can Diplomacy Bring The Iran-Israel Conflict To An End?
TEHRAN, IRAN - JUNE 13: An excavator removes debris from a residential building that was destroyed ... More in today's attack by Israel in Tehran, on June 13, 2025 in Tehran, Iran. Early this morning, Iran was hit by a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting military and nuclear sites, as well as top military officials. (Photo by) Just over twenty years ago I had lunch in a roadside café near Natanz in Iran (on the way back from Isfahan to Tehran). At the time, it was well known that Natanz was a nuclear research site, and a location that was becoming more of a geopolitical focal point given George W Bush's inclusion of Iran in the 'Axis of Evil' (despite large 'Death to America' murals in Tehran, it had offered to assist the US in the war against the Taliban). Up until then, Iran was the host of one of the larger Jewish populations in the world (roughly 80,000 then) and historical ties between Iran and Israel were strong, as I outlined in a note last year entitled 'Persepolis', and I still believe that socially and culturally the populations of Tel Aviv and Northern Tehran have more in common than many would think. This speaks to the potential that Iran owes to its heritage, but that has been smothered by a small, inward looking and harsh theocracy, aided and abetted by the Revolutionary Guard who exert de facto control over the Iranian economy as well as other sectors. They were notoriously responsible for the death of Masha Amini in 2022, and on average the Iranian state has killed 2-3 of its young people every week, something that should really elicit more anger from students across Europe and Asia. What happens to Iran is now an open question. During the week I had the benefit of hosting a call for a group of investors with Ambassador Dennis Ross, the authority on the region from a Western point of view. His sense is that granted Israel views the threat from Iran's nuclear programme as existential (the jawboning of the former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did much to reinforce this), the permanent dismantling of Iran's nuclear program is the de minimus goal of Israel. It is reported that Iran has been reaching out to other countries in the region to signal that it is ready to negotiate, and a negotiation process that is stewarded by Russia for example would help the Iranian regime avoid embarrassment (I recall the advice of Seamus Mallon, a key participant in the Good Friday Accord, who said that a good negotiator makes sure that his opposite number 'can get up with his pants on'). If Iran is ready to offer serious, verifiable concessions, it is possible that this conflict can come to an end, something that may please Donald Trump who has been quicker to associate himself with the success of the Israeli operation than to offer Israel unconditional military support. Indeed, the next few weeks are a test of Trump's mettle and credibility. In reality his two week pause is yet another sign of indecision. A joint US/Israeli strike on the Fordow mountain nuclear centre, near the holy city of Qom, and strikes across the wider Iranian theatre may provoke a counter-reaction by Iran, notably so against the Emirates and Saudi Arabia and might ignite a response from other quarters that have been relatively quiet (Iraq and Yemen for example). There is very energetic communication from the Gulf to Washington that a US strike could have very negative consequences for the region and might lead to a broader, less predictable conflict. The tail-risk for the regime in Iran is a deeper recession, financial crisis and internal political strife, though it is most likely that the succession around Ayatollah Khamenei provides the best opportunity for a political turning point. Most Western observers vastly underestimate how difficult it would be to foment regime change in Iran, as much as that is highly desirable. On a more positive tack, an agreement from Iran that removes the existential risk to Israel might also provide the geopolitical climate to bring an end to hostilities in Gaza, and for a meaningful calm across the region with the potential of an economic recovery. This might well be the catalyst for my 'Fourth Pole' thesis of an increasingly coherent economic zone in the Middle East, whose diplomatic centre is Abu Dhabi, geopolitical and technological power is Israel, and where the populations of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Iran, to name a few, contribute to a growing regional economy. Europe would likely benefit from this, though my sense is that it is increasingly less relevant as a diplomatic power in the Middle East. Emmanuel Macron for instance has lost enormous sway in Israel, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. In this regard, there are two lessons for Europe to bear in mind relating to Israel's operation in Iran. The first, in parallel to Ukraine's resistance to Russia, is the demonstration that Israel has offered in military strategy and the multifaceted uses of technology. The second lesson is that Israel's action is also illegal and contributes to an increasingly lawless international geopolitical climate. Finally, Russia and China have been discretely critical of Israel, though they will be dismayed at the ease with which Iran's defences have been dismantled, and they should be cognisant of the role that corruption has played here. Losing Iran as a member of their club (the 'Shanghai Cooperation Organisation') would constitute a major blow, but in the short-run their attention will be focused on how America responds to Israel's move. Have a great week ahead, Mike
