Israeli Airstrikes Rock Tehran, as Israel Bombs Residential, Military Sites

Tehran awoke to chaos on Friday as Israeli warplanes launched the largest airstrikes on the city’s suburbs since the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, targeting residential areas, military sites, and nuclear facilities.

The strikes, which lasted several hours, killed at least six nuclear scientists, including a former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, and top military commanders like Mohammad Bagheri, Hossein Salami, and Ali Akbar Hajizadeh.

A residential building near 62-year-old Roya’s home in Marzdaran was among those hit, leaving her shaken.

“It was absolutely terrifying, my heart was beating out of my chest,” she told Al Jazeera, noting smoke on the horizon and the proximity of the destruction.

Civilian Toll and Infrastructure Damage

The attacks claimed civilian lives, including children, and destroyed homes, with some catching fire.

Journalist Fatemeh Kalantari mourned her friend Najmeh, killed in the strikes, tweeting, “She was no military personnel, nuclear figure, or an official. She was just a girl who loved cycling and nature.”

Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility faced extensive bombing, though no nuclear pollution was reported.

Power plants and other civilian infrastructure were also hit, prompting long queues at petrol stations as residents feared shortages.

The Information and Communications Technology Ministry imposed temporary internet restrictions, and all cultural events were canceled, with some Eid al-Ghadir celebrations repurposed as protests against the “criminal and terrorist” strikes.

Tensions Soar Amid Calls for Revenge

Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed retaliation, blaming Israel and the U.S. for escalating tensions toward all-out war.

The strikes, which Israel justified as “preemptive” to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, disrupted planned nuclear talks in Muscat.

Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami criticized the IAEA for failing to condemn the attacks, calling it a tool of Western pressure.

As some residents, like 51-year-old Masoud Mousavi from Shiraz, planned to flee to Turkey, others, like 64-year-old Fariba Besharati in Tabriz, expressed exhaustion: “Haven’t we endured enough suffering?”

State-backed demonstrations condemned the strikes, while fears of further Israeli attacks gripped the nation.