It was around three o’clock in the morning when the first sounds of explosions could be heard across Tehran.

Many in Iran’s capital were jolted awake as missiles descended on the city.

Soon afterwards, images of apartment blocks crumbling to the ground started to surface on social media.

It was the start of a three-pronged attack that included precision missile strikes on generals, fighter jet attacks on nuclear sites and Mossad agents infiltrating the country.

So far, strikes on more than a dozen sites across the Islamic Republic have been confirmed.

While most in Iran already knew who was responsible, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, put any uncertainty to rest by confirming the attacks within the hour.

Mr Netanyahu said “Operation Rising Lion” had been successfully carried out to “roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival”.

He warned: “We will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”

Credit: Reuters

How attack played out, hour by hour

3am (12:30am BST)

The attacks appeared to have begun with between six and nine explosions in Tehran that were concentrated on neighbourhoods hosting military personnel as well as nuclear scientists.

In Mahallati, a residential area in the north-eastern part of the capital in which large numbers of military officials live, the top floors of an apartment complex were blown out.

In Narmak, a residential area near Mahallati, huge smoke clouds were seen rising from buildings. At least five people have been confirmed dead in the neighbourhood, with another 20 injured.

Videos also showed apartment buildings in flames in the Farahzad neighbourhood of Tehran.

The top layer of Iran’s military command was being decapitated.

4am (1:30am BST)

Explosions were heard in the cities of Isfahan, Arak and Kermanshah, and videos later showed plumes of smoke billowing into the sky. All three cities host important nuclear sites.

Arak hosts the IR-40 heavy water nuclear reactor and has the capacity to produce plutonium, a key ingredient to build nuclear weapons.

Isfahan is also home to a number military facilities, including nuclear sites, a major airbase and factories associated with Iran’s drone programme and other military production.

Smoke was also seen coming from Kermanshah’s missile site, which is near the Iraq border and stores Iran’s ballistic missiles.

People in Isfahan took to the streets to demand revenge for the attacks on their city. In Kermanshah, long lines of cars were seen queuing for petrol.

4:30am (2am BST)

Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, became one of the first senior international officials to speak out on the attacks when he published a statement denying any US involvement and telling Iran it “should not target US interests or personnel”.

Shortly after the attacks on the residential parts of Tehran, Israel also reportedly targeted six military bases that surround the capital, including Parchin, a massive complex located approximately 20 miles south-east of Tehran and known to produce chemical weapons.

Around this time, there were also reports a of strikes in the western city of Piranshahr, near the Iraq border. Footage of the scene showed several secondary explosions as the strikes hit a munitions storage.

Iraq, which shares a long border with Iran, announced that it had closed its airspace.

5am (2:30am BST)

Another round of attacks began at around 5am.

Immediately after news of the strikes on the capital, reports of attacks against Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility emerged. The site, one of the country’s key enrichment facilities, is approximately three hours south of Tehran.

Videos captured clouds of smoke rising from the facility, which is partially above ground and partially below.

Iran’s atomic energy agency said the facility was damaged, but the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors nuclear weapons, later said there was no sign of increased radiation levels.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has since claimed a significant victory in its attack on the site, the largest uranium enrichment facility in Iran.

A spokesman said Israeli bombers managed to damage the underground floors of the complex, as well as supporting infrastructure.

On Friday afternoon, the first satellite images showed multiple damaged buildings and multiple impact sites.

Nuclear sites at Khorramabad and Khondab were also targeted, according to Iran International English news agency. Simultaneous strikes were also reported in Hamedan, a mountainous city in western Iran.

At this time, Iranian state TV also reported that Israel had hit the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), part of the armed forces and one of the most powerful organisations in the country.

State media said Major General Hossein Salami, the head of the IRGC, was killed in the attack – a major scalp for Israel.

Meanwhile, early reports surfaced of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, leading a series of covert sabotage operations inside Iran.

5:30am (3am BST)

General Salami was the first senior Iranian official to be confirmed dead.

Around this time, General Gholam Ali Rashid, the deputy commander-in-chief of Iran’s armed forces, as well as two nuclear scientists, Fereydoun Abbasi and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, were all confirmed dead. A total of six Iranian nuclear scientists are confirmed to have died.

Tehranchi was the head of the Islamic Azad University, while Abbasi was the former chief of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.

Later on Friday, more details emerged on the covert Mossad mission deep into Iranian territory. It appears Israel managed to build a drone base near Tehran and then smuggle weapons parts and commandos to it ahead of the operation.

Credit: Mossad via Sent Defender / X

In addition, vehicles carrying missile systems were smuggled into Iran. These took out air defences, giving Israeli jets easier access to their targets on the ground.

Meanwhile, the drones were activated overnight, striking surface-to-surface missile sites.

Reports of attacks in Tabriz, a commerce hub in north-western Iran, and Ilam, a city in the west, not far from the Iraq border, also began trickling in.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN told CNN that Israel had an ongoing dialogue with the US, but that its strikes against Iran were an independent decision. He also cautioned against speculation about whether the US would assist Israel in the event of a retaliatory attack.

Israel announced that Tel Aviv airport would be shut until further notice.

6am (3:30am BST)

A third wave of attacks began around 6am, targeting radar and air defences across the country.

Explosions were heard in Ahvaz, a city in southern Iran, which is home to one of the richest oil fields in the world.

Shortly before 6am, reports surfaced that Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, and a secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, had been critically injured in a targeted strike against his home in Tehran. He was later confirmed to have died.

Images showed his apartment, on the top floors of an 11-storey tower, covered in dust.

At around 6am Iranian time, Donald Trump, the US president, announced that he would convene a national security meeting in five hours to discuss Israel’s attacks.

Abolfazl Shekarchi, the spokesman for Iran’s armed forces, also made his first public statement, saying that Israel and the US wuld “receive a forceful slap” and “a retaliation attack is definite”. He said Israel would pay a “heavy price”.

Iran announced that it would be closing its air space until further notice. It had already suspended all flights in and out of Tehran.

6:30am (4am BST)

Iran fired 100 drones towards Israel, General Effie Defrin, an IDF military spokesman, confirmed, but these would take several hours to reach Israel.

Khamenei delivered his first statement following the attacks, saying Israel would receive a harsh punishment for its “wicked and bloody hand in a crime against Iran”.

Social media

He also said that “Israel has prepared a bitter fate for itself” and the attacks revealed the country’s “vile nature”.

Eyal Zamir, Israel’s military chief of staff, also announced that the country was “mobilising tens of thousands of soldiers and preparing across all borders”.

7am (4:30am BST)

Israel confirmed that it used 200 jets to strike approximately 100 targets.

11:30am (9am BST)

An IDF official told CNN that Israel had started to intercept the Iranian drones and shoot them down.

Friday afternoon

As Friday progressed, it became clear that Israel’s operation was no one-off nighttime raid, with reports of further strikes as the day went on.

By the afternoon, the IDF said they were focusing on surface-to-surface missile arrays, an indication that, having stirred the hornets’ nest, their aim was to reduce Iran’s ability to retaliate against Israeli civilians.

This included the targeting of missile sites in western Iran with a “unique” launch mechanism, embedded within shipping containers.

Shortly before 6pm, Benjamin Netanyahu went on television again and said that he had given the order to target Iran as far back as November 2024.

Credit: Reuters

He said he believed that the assassination of Hezbollah leader Nassan Nasrallah in Lebanon would push Iran to quicken its nuclear programme, given the collapse of its proxy network.

Over the afternoon, significant strikes were also reported at Nojeh airbase and Tabriz airport, as well as the Alman Ali missile base near Khorrumuad.

By this time, Iran’s leaders had rallied at least enough to issue more verbal threats against Israel.

Mohammad Pakpour, newly appointed commander of the IRGC said the “gates of hell” will open on the Jewish state.

Red flags flew above buildings in Tehran, indicating revenge.

President Trump made a number of comments to reporters on the strikes. Urging Iran to return to the negotiating table, he said he had tried to save them from “humiliation and death”.

The president added that he was not concerned about the risks of a regional war.

He also pushed back against suggestions that the US had been tipped off at the last minute, insisting he had been kept fully informed.

Shortly after 7pm local time in Israel, video began to come through purporting to show airstrikes on the Fordow enrichment site.

The facility is buried deep beneath a mountain and is far harder to destroy than the Natanz plant that was hit the night before.

It is considered the crucial piece of the jigsaw if Israel wants to claim it has meaningfully set back Iran’s programme.