Mr. Trump, whose administration has been holding nuclear talks with Iranian officials, said on Friday that Tehran “must make a deal, before there is nothing left.”

For years, Israel has fought Iran’s proxy forces across the Middle East, and more recently it has exchanged volleys of strikes with Iran. Yet Friday’s strikes were the first time it openly attacked Tehran’s nuclear facilities, including Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz, which an Israeli military spokesman said had suffered “significant damage.”

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that Israel “should anticipate a harsh punishment.” Later on Friday morning, the Israeli military announced that Iranian forces had fired about 100 drones at Israel, as Mr. Netanyahu vowed the fighting would last “as many days as it takes.” The Israeli military said it was using fighter jets and missile boats to intercept the Iranian attack, and by Friday afternoon it said that it had successfully shot many of them down. There were no immediate indications of any significant damage in Israel caused by the drones.

Here’s what else to know:

• Top Iranians killed: Iran confirmed that Mohammad Bagheri, the commander in chief of the military and the second-highest commander after the supreme leader, was among those killed, as was Gen. Hossein Salami, commander in chief of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Ali Shamkhani, a leading politician who was overseeing the nuclear talks with the United States, was also killed, officials said. Mr. Khamenei moved quickly to appoint some replacements, aiming to avoid the appearance of a leadership vacuum. Read more ›

• What was hit: Rafael Grossi, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed that Iran’s nuclear facility in Natanz had been hit but said that no radiation leak had been detected. There were no indications of attacks at the deep-underground uranium enrichment center at Fordow or the Isfahan nuclear fuel site, he said. Israel also attacked military bases and residences housing military commanders around Tehran, Iranian officials said. Read more ›

• Intelligence coup: Israel’s assault was years in the making, the result of extensive intelligence gathering on Iran’s nuclear sites as well as on top military officials and scientists, according to three Israeli officials with knowledge of the operations. Read more ›

• Iran’s proxies: Few analysts expect Iran’s network of armed proxies to respond meaningfully to the attack, illustrating how degraded the groups have become. Since the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel, the Israeli security services have launched operations that have severely weakened Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Assad dictatorship in Syria, a key ally of Iran, collapsed last December. Read more ›

• Countries on edge: Residents of Tehran, the Iranian capital, reported hearing huge explosions, and Iranian state television broadcast images of smoke and fire billowing from buildings. Dozens were killed in Iran and more than 300 others injured, according to unofficial figures cited by the Fars news agency. Israelis were instructed to stock up on essentials, and all gatherings have been banned as the country nervously anticipates retaliation. Read more ›

• Oil prices rise: The strikes shook global markets, as oil prices surged and stocks tumbled on worries that the attacks could set off a broader Mideast conflict. Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, rose 7 percent, its biggest daily gain this year, and the S&P 500 slipped nearly 1 percent in early trading. Read more ›

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https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06/12/world/israel-iran-us-nuclear