JERUSALEM (VINnews) — After long weeks of escalating regional tensions and increasing threats of war, Israel and the US launched a major joint strike on Iran on Saturday morning, with waves of attacks on sites across the Islamic Republic continuing throughout the day, according to a Times of Israel report.

Strikes targeted Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian, an Israeli official said. Other top regime and military commanders were also targeted, according to the official. The results of the strikes were not yet clear, but Israel estimated that Khamenei was hit and likely eliminated in the strikes. Khamenei’s body was found late on Saturday in his private compound which was totally destroyed. Khamenei’s son-in-law and daughter-in-law were also reported dead in the strike.

Targets in the campaign, which began at 8:10 Israel time, also included Iran’s military leaders, symbols of government and intelligence targets, according to an official briefed on the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic information on the attack.

Several senior Revolutionary Guards commanders and political officials were killed, an Iranian source close to the establishment told Reuters. Among them were the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, and Iranian defense minister Amir Nasirzadeh, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

US President Donald Trump announced that the US had begun “major combat operations in Iran,” calling the campaign “a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.”

“We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally… obliterated. We are going to annihilate their navy,” he said in a video statement posted on his Truth Social account.

“We are going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces.”

Trump indicated that the goal was to topple the regime, and he called on the Iranian people to seize the opportunity and take over their government.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his own video message to the public that the operation was launched “to remove the existential threat” posed by the Islamic Republic, and “create the conditions” for Iranians to change their destiny.

“The time has come for all parts of the Iranian people… to cast off the yoke of tyranny and bring about a free and peace-seeking Iran,” the premier said.

Iran vowed a crushing response to the military campaign and launched repeated missile barrages at Israel starting at around 10 a.m., sending millions into shelters repeatedly as air defenses worked to intercept the threats. As of 6:50 p.m., at least 60 missiles had been launched at Israel, but there were no reports of direct impacts in residential areas.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it treated a total of 89 people who were lightly injured as a result of Iran’s missile attacks, the vast majority of them indirectly.

MDA said a 16-year-old was hurt by shrapnel in Kfar Qasim, a man in his 50s was injured by a blast shockwave in Ka’abiyye-Tabbash-Hajajrem, and a 53-year-old was wounded after falling from height following a missile fragment impact in Tirat Carmel.

The other 86 were injured after falling over while running to shelters, MDA said. Six others were treated for acute anxiety.

Iran also reportedly launched missile attacks on multiple countries hosting some of the tens of thousands of American troops deployed across the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain.

Iran was in near total internet blackout, monitor Netblocks said, adding the move “matches measures used during last year’s war with Israel.”

The attack came despite Washington and Tehran having ostensibly agreed on Thursday to continue nuclear negotiations next week, with US President Donald Trump saying Friday that he was “not happy” with Iran’s conduct but that he hadn’t yet made a decision on whether to authorize a military strike. In retrospect, this was apparently an act of misdirection.

Israel said it had named its operation against Iran “Roaring Lion.” Washington, meanwhile, said its name for the campaign was “Epic Fury.”

The United States has assembled over the past two months a vast fleet of fighter jets and warships in the region to try to pressure Iran into a deal over its nuclear program. US strikes were being carried out by air and sea, a US official said.

First news of the assault came in Israel at 8:13 a.m., when sirens blared throughout the country to alert Israelis to the start of the campaign and to warn them to stay close to shelters, ahead of an expected Iranian retaliation. A similar practice was employed at the start of the June 2025 12-day war, when sirens were activated across the country to notify Israelis that an attack had been launched.

Shortly thereafter, reports emerged of strikes taking place in Tehran and in other locations throughout Iran. Iranian media reported strikes nationwide.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that Israel had “launched a preemptive strike against Iran to remove threats to the State of Israel.” A US official told The Times of Israel that the strikes were being carried out jointly by the US and Israel.

Katz said he’d declared an “immediate state of emergency throughout the entire country.” The IDF’s Home Front Command warned civilians to stay close to bomb shelters and avoid non-essential travel. It also said that all educational activities, gatherings, and work, except for essential sectors, will be prohibited.

Israel said it had closed its airspace to civilian flights until further notice.

An unnamed security source told Channel 12 that the operation had been jointly planned for months. The source said Israel was going “all out” in this operation, and the US was “on the same page.” The source also said the “initial phase” of the joint attack was planned to last for four days.

The TV report said the timing of the initial strikes for the morning hours was designed to surprise the Iranians, who would not have expected a daytime attack.

US officials told The New York Times that the current bombing campaign will likely be much more extensive than Operation Midnight Hammer, in which US bombers struck key Iranian nuclear sites amid the 12-day war. A US official was also cited by The Times saying the US strikes were currently focused on military targets.

The Israeli military said it had called up some 20,000 reservists, mainly in the Israeli Air Force, Intelligence Directorate, Home Front Command, and Israeli Navy. This was in addition to the some 50,000 reservists currently on duty.

The IDF said its strikes with the US included attacks on “dozens of military targets, and were carried out as part of a wide, coordinated, and joint offensive against the regime.”

In a statement, the military said the “joint, broad, and powerful operation” with the US is “aimed at a thorough strike against the Iranian terror regime and at eliminating existential threats to the State of Israel over time.”

“The Iranian regime has not abandoned its plan to destroy Israel,” the military says, adding that in recent months, “despite the severe blow” Iran sustained during June 2025’s war, “the IDF identified that the regime continued its attempts to fortify, shield, and conceal its nuclear programs, alongside the rehabilitation of its missile production process.”

“In addition, the regime continued financing, training, and arming its operatives positioned along Israel’s borders. These are actions constituting an existential threat to the State of Israel and pose a threat to the Middle East and the world at large,” the military said.

The IDF said that in the months preceding the operation, “close and joint planning was conducted” between the IDF and the American military, which enabled the execution of the broad strike with maximum synchronization and coordination between the armies.”

“The IDF, across all its branches, undertook a meticulous and long-term preparation process for the operation, both in defensive arrays and in various attack plans,” the military says.

It also issued footage of some strikes, including on missile launchers primed to fire at the Jewish state.

Ahead of the assault, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir told Israeli Air Force pilots this morning that they were “making history.”

“Saturday dawn, Operation Roaring Lion begins — you are authorized to carry out (the mission), strike your targets — you are making history. I trust you. Good luck to us all,” Zamir wrote in a note that was delivered to the pilots ahead of the strikes.

Zamir oversaw the strikes from the IAF’s underground command center with IAF chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar and other top commanders.

About 200 fighter jets completed a large-scale strike this afternoon against the missile array and air defense systems of the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran.

This was the largest strike formation in the history of the Israeli Air Force, carried out after meticulous planning with high-quality intelligence and synchronized coordination of hundreds of aircraft operating simultaneously.

Israeli Air Force jets dropped hundreds of munitions on approximately 500 targets, including air defense systems and missile launchers, across several regions in Iran at the same time. Strikes on the air defense systems enabled the expansion of aerial superiority over Iranian skies and severely damaged the regime’s most central offensive capability — its launch sites in western Iran. One of the sites targeted was established in the Tabriz area in western Iran.

The site was used by a surface-to-surface missile unit and was intended to launch dozens of missiles toward the Israeli home front. The completed strike formation neutralized numerous threats to Israeli Air Force aircraft and to Israel’s civilian population. The Air Force, in cooperation with Military Intelligence and the Operations Directorate, continues to operate in Iranian airspace.

President Trump spoke directly to the Iranian people and to its leaders.

“To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the police. I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or in the alternative, face certain death,” Trump said in an eight-minute video statement.

“Lay down your arms. You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death,” Trump said. “To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere.

“When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”

The US Embassy in Qatar implemented shelter-in-place guidelines for all its personnel, recommending that all of its citizens to do the same until further notice.

The Mossad spy agency, on its official Persian-language Telegram channel, called on Iranians to help “return Iran to its glorious days.”

“Our Iranian brothers and sisters, you are not alone! We have launched a highly secure and dedicated Telegram channel especially for you. Together we will return Iran to its glorious days,” the statement said. Mossad called on Iranians to “share photos and videos of your just struggle against the regime with us.”

Shortly before the strikes began, footage posted to social media purported to show missiles flying low over Iraq.

Israeli opposition leaders gave their support to the campaign.

“I want to remind us all: The people of Israel are strong. The IDF and the Air Force are strong. The strongest power in the world stands with us,” wrote Opposition Leader Yair Lapid.

“In moments like these we stand together – and we win together,” he wrote, in English. “There is no coalition and no opposition, only one people and one IDF, with all of us behind them.”

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman referenced the upcoming Purim festival, set to begin Monday evening, in which Jews celebrate deliverance from a threat of destruction by Persian villain Haman.

“We overcame Haman, we will overcome Khamenei too,” Liberman wrote.