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Early Friday morning, local time, Israel launched dozens of strikes against Iran and declared a state of emergency, according to Defense Minister Israel Katz.
“Following the State of Israel’s preemptive strike against Iran, a missile and drone attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate future,” Katz said in a statement.
Air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv following the announcement.
The U.S. did not provide any assistance or have any involvement in the Israeli strike, a U.S. official told ABC News.
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin says that “Iran launched approximately 100 UAVs towards Israeli territory, which we are working to intercept.”
Israel says it is planning to use its air defenses to intercept the drones.
The state of emergency means nobody is allowed to be out on the streets and almost all businesses, including schools, offices and supermarkets, have also been shut as the airspace over Israel is closed.
Iran confirms death of general, several top scientists
Iran has confirmed the deaths of the top general of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as well as several top scientists, according to the general staff of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Hossein Salami, the IRGC commander-in-chief, has been confirmed to have been killed along with Gholamali Rashid, deputy chief of the general staff of the armed forces of Iran, Dr. Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, physicist and president of Islamic Azad University, and nuclear scientist Dr. Fereydoun Abbasi, Iran said.
Ali Shamkhani, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran, was seriously injured but is still alive, Iran said, and the status of Dr. Abdolhamid Minouchehr, the head of nuclear engineering at Iran’s Shahid Beheshti University, is yet to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, Iranian State TV is reporting that several residential neighborhoods and apartment complexes were hit and says that there were casualties of civilians and children in the attack. However, numbers have yet to be confirmed.
