Sirens in Israel
As sirens sounded and a state of emergency was declared in Israel, the Israeli military said it had issued a “proactive alert to prepare the public for the possibility of missiles being launched toward the state of Israel”.
The Israel Airports Authority announced its airspace had been closed to all civilian flights and urged the public not to come to the airport.
According to an Israeli defence official quoted by Reuters, the attacks had been planned for months and the launch date decided weeks ago, even as the US and Iran carried out negotiations.
Mehran Kamrava, director of the Iranian studies unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and professor at Georgetown University in Qatar, said Israel “appears to have launched an attack designed to derail the negotiations”.
‘Joint US-Israeli action’
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks on Iran aimed to remove an “existential threat”. Netanyahu projected that “joint action” by Israel and the US “will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their fate into their own hands” and praised Trump for his “historic leadership”.
A US official told Al Jazeera earlier that the attacks were carried out as a joint military operation between Israel and the US, which has assembled a vast fleet of fighter jets and warships in the region to try to pressure Iran into a deal over its nuclear programme. A US official told Reuters that attacks were being carried out by air and sea.
One of the areas targeted in Iran’s capital was near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported The Associated Press. Khamenei is not in Tehran and has been transferred to a secure location, according to an official quoted by Reuters.
A look at the military strikes Trump has ordered in his second term
President Donald Trump launched a new level of attacks against Iran today, but his second term — just over a year in — has been marked by a bevy of military strikes. Here’s a recap:
- In February 2025, Trump announced that he “ordered precision Military air strikes on the Senior ISIS Attack Planner and other terrorists he recruited and led in Somalia.”
- The following month, Trump announced that the US military, in coordination with the Iraqi and Kurdish governments, killed “the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq.”
- Also in March 2025, Trump ordered strikes against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen in response to attacks on the USS Harry Truman.
- Over the summer, Trump launched Operation Midnight Hammer, targeting three Iranian nuclear facilities, which he said were “obliterated.”
- On Christmas, ISIS terrorists in Nigeria were targeted by the US military, as Trump accused them of “slaughtering” Christians.
- In early January, Trump launched airstrikes against Venezuela, capturing Nicolas Maduro. The attack also occurred on an early Saturday morning, while Trump was at Mar-a-Lago.
- On January 10, the US announced it struck ISIS targets in Syria, in continued response to the killing of two US service members who hailed from Iowa. “Operation Hawkeye Strike” launched in December, according to US Central Command, striking “more than 70 targets at multiple locations across central Syria with fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery.”
