This picture shows rocket trails in the sky above Netanya, Israel, on June 13, 2025. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
This is a developing story.
Israelis are staying close to bomb shelters Friday evening after at least one Iranian missile fell in Tel Aviv amid a barrage responding to Israel’s early-morning attack on Iran’s nuclear program. Israel killed several major military commanders and nuclear scientists in the attack.
Iran fired than 100 missiles in a first barrage, and a second wave were on their way toward Israel, officials said. Sirens sounded across the entire country.
The United States is helping Israel to shoot down the missiles, according to multiple media reports. Israel is home to hundreds of thousands of Americans.
President Trump called Israel’s attack “excellent,” and told Axios’ Barak Ravid it “likely improved the chances of a U.S.-Iran nuclear agreement.”
“I gave Iran 60 days, today is day 61,” Trump told Ravid. “They should have made a deal.”
There were reports of people in Israel seriously injured by the strikes, with three hospitals treating 40 wounded, according to The New York Times. Videos showing the impacts circulated on social media but many were deleted quickly amid exhortations by Israeli leaders to shield location data that could aid in the Iranian attack.
The attack came as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gave a televised address. “Today, we must give a strong response to the evil, despicable, terrorist Zionist identity,” he tweeted simultaneously. “God willing, we will respond with strength, and will show no mercy to them.”
Israeli authorities had warned that it was possible that some missiles and drones could evade the country’s air defense systems, which have largely deflected missiles sent on earlier occasions by Iran and more recently and regularly by Iran’s proxies in the Middle East.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in America, said in a statement released just before the attack began, “The Iranian regime’s stated policy has long been to destroy Israel and Jewish communities around the world. I have long said that Israel has a right to defend itself and that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Ensuring they never obtain one must remain a top national security priority.”
JTA contributed to this report.
