We've moved our live coverage to a new page - but you can keep up with the latest developments as tensions between Iran and Israel continue to rise
Aftermath of strike on Israel's Bat Yam
A spokesperson for Iran's armed forces has said that the US and Israel will pay a "heavy price" for the strikes, Reuters reports.
"The armed forces will certainly respond to this Zionist attack," said Iranian spokesperson, Abolfazl Shekarchi.
Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Persian
I was up late in London when I got several messages from people I know in Tehran: “I heard some loud bangs. Have you seen any reports? Was it Israel again?”
Most of the people I know couldn’t get back to sleep the whole night, and were sending videos to one another or asking each other if their district in Tehran had been hit.
This time, unlike the previous attacks in October and April 2024, verified videos show that some of the attacks were on what appears to be residential buildings in Tehran.
Instagram, Facebook, X and most other major social media platforms are banned in Iran, but people access them via VPNs and other methods to circumvent the censorship. People in Iran were even quicker to share the videos of the attacks than state media.
Iran’s state TV still tried to downplay the attacks by saying that the situation is “calm” and the fire in residential buildings is under control.
As of now, the number of casualties has not been announced by Iran, but state media has been quick to point the finger at the US, accusing them of being complicit in the attack that they say has killed children.
Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent
It has been clear that there has been growing tension between Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump over the possibility of this attack. Trump has been telling the Israeli leader that he doesn’t want him to do this now – and urged him to wait while the US administration continues nuclear negotiations with the Iranians.
Clearly the Israelis thought that they now had their opportunity. They believe that the Iranians are as debilitated as they are going to be in the region after last year’s degradation of Hezbollah in Israel's neighbour, Lebanon.
The Americans don’t like it – that’s clear from the statement from Marco Rubio. They are so far distancing themselves from it, trying to signal they mean to stay out of this fight for the moment.
Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent
The US had advanced warning of Israel’s attack on Iran. The Trump administration’s rapid move to protect American personnel in the region was evidence of that.
It’s also fairly clear that US officials are not happy with this development. Their cold response so far to the Israeli action, notable for its emphasis on a US lack of involvement in planning or support, underlines that.
American negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme were ongoing. Steve Wikoff, Donald Trump’s diplomatic Jack-of-all-trades, was set to meet with the Iranians in Oman on Sunday. While a diplomatic breakthrough appeared more distant than it had in recent weeks, there was still the possibility of an agreement that the US president could herald as a signature foreign policy achievement.
Needless to say, that’s much less likely now.
Trump may be reluctant to publicly acknowledge this, but Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to green light Israeli strikes on Tehran and other targets is a dramatic stiff-arm to the US efforts to reach an accord with the Iranians – and to the US president himself.
Trump may style himself as Israel’s best friend, but the Israeli prime minister is going to operate on his own timetable, not one set by Americans.
While the Middle East teeters on the brink of a larger conflict, Trump will now have to come to grips with this new diplomatic crisis. While he has spoken hopefully of a new Middle East peace, Israel's latest action underlines the American president's limited power to shape the region’s fate.
There has been a new explosion at the Natanz nuclear facility, Iranian state television reports, according to the Reuters news agency.
The Natanz nuclear facility is located about 225km south of Tehran.
Iranian state TV has named two senior nuclear scientists killed in the Israeli strikes.
As we just reported, one is Fereydoon Abbasi, the former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI). The AEOI is responsible for Iran's nuclear facilities.
Abassi survived an assassination attempt on a Tehran street in 2010.
The other is Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, the president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran.
Image source, Getty ImagesHossein Salami, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, is perhaps the most senior Iranian leader killed in the Israeli strikes.
Salami first joined the Revolutionary Guards in 1980 during the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War.
As he rose through the military ranks, he became known for his strong rhetoric against the US and its allies.
Since the 2000s, he has been sanctioned by the UN Security Council and the US for his involvement in Iran's nuclear and military programmes.
He was the head of the Revolutionary Guards in 2024 when Iran staged its first-ever direct military attack on Israel, deploying more than 300 drones and missiles.
As tensions with Israel soared in recent days, Salami said on Thursday that Iran was "fully ready for any scenarios, situations, and circumstances".
"The enemy thinks it can fight Iran the same way it fights defenceless Palestinians who are under an Israeli siege," he said. "We are war-tested and experienced."
Jake Kwon
North America Correspondent
Since the news of US evacuation of some of its staff from Baghdad after being told that Israel was "fully ready" to attack Iran, the media here have been watching the Trump administration closely for clues as to when such attack might come.
Some speculated that the evacuation was simply a tactic to put pressure on the Iranians in the upcoming round of talks on Sunday – and that the Israelis would wait to see whether a deal could be reached first.
Even hours before the airstrikes, President Donald Trump has been posting on social media that the US remains committed to diplomacy.
Trump told reporters he wants to avoid conflict and that an Israeli attack would "blow" the negotiation.
All these point to the likelihood that the White House was also surprised by how quickly this attack came.
Israel says it has "struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear enrichment programme". But what is that?
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only. It has several facilities around Iran, at least some of which have been targeted in the Israeli strikes.
But many countries - as well as the global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - are not convinced Iran's programme is for civilian purposes alone.
This week, the board of governors of the IAEA formally declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years.
It cited Iran's "many failures" to provide full answers about undeclared nuclear material and Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium.
An earlier IAEA report said Iran had enriched uranium to 60% purity, enough near weapons grade uranium to make nine nuclear bombs.
Iran said the resolution was "political".
Iran Revolutionary Guard chief Hossein Salami has been killed in an Israeli strike, Iranian state media is reporting.
He is among several senior leaders who have died in the attack.
Fereydoon Abbasi, the former head of head of the Atomic Energy Organization has also been killed, state media has reported.
As we reported earlier, an Israeli official said that its strikes targeted "Iran's nuclear programme and other military targets".
Israel has launched multiple strikes on Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the attack "struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear enrichment programme" and will "continue for as many days as it takes".
It is currently just after 05:30 in Tehran and just after 05:00 in Tel Aviv.
Here is what we know so far:
More now from Javed Ali, a counter-terrorism expert and who previously worked in counter-terrorism under the first Trump administration.
He says that it's currently unknown what will happen to the nuclear talks between Iranian and US officials - these talks were set to go for a sixth round over the weekend.
Iran has said that it would hold the US responsible if Israel attacked it and try to hit US bases, Ali tells the BBC News Channel.
"That hasn't happened yet, and that would then trigger a heavy US response," he says, pointing to "complex issues" at play.
"Right now, Iran doesn't want to draw the US into this fight," he says.
Iran's state television is reporting that the Revolutionary Guards headquarters in Tehran has been hit in the Israeli attacks.
Local media is also reporting fire and smoke coming out of the site.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards is a branch of Iran's armed forces and one of the country's most powerful organisations.
We're getting some photos now from Tehran.
They show people gathering in the aftermath of Israeli strikes on the Iranian capital.
Image source, ReutersPeople gathering in Tehran following Israeli strikes
Image source, ReutersEmergency vehicles in Tehran street
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's attack "struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear enrichment programme".
Israel struck Iran's main enrichment facility in the Iranian city of Natanz, around 225km south of Tehran, Iran's capital, Netanyahu said.
In April 2021, Iran blamed Israel for an cyber attack on the same facility.
He said that Israel had targeted Iranian scientists "working on the Iranian bomb".
The strikes "would continue for as many days as it takes," Netanyahu added.
Watch: Netanyahu says Israel targeted Iran's nuclear and military sites
Iranian state media is reporting that Israel had struck residential areas in Tehran and other cities.
Children were among those killed, Reuters reported Iran state TV as saying.
Tom Bennett
Reporting from Jerusalem
An Israeli security source says "there is a growing likelihood" that senior Iranian nuclear scientists and military officials were killed in tonight's strikes.
Over on the BBC News Channel, we've just been hearing from Javed Ali, a former senior director for counter-terrorism at the National Security Council, who says he is not surprised by tonight's events.
He tells the programme that what sent the message to him that the situation was "in an operational window for these attacks to commence" was the partial evacuation of the US embassy in Iraq.
This, combined with the ordered departure of military families from military bases in the region, as well as "other things in the region on the US side that aren't being discussed publicly...That for me was the big indicator that these attacks were going to happen very soon".
Israeli forces have just issued a stark warning to its residents, saying the country is facing "powerful and complex days".
"In this campaign, widespread warnings are expected," says the head of the Home Front Command Maj Gen Rafi Milo in a post on X, referring to the emergency alerts that are sent to residents.
People must seek shelter when emergency alerts are sent out, he says, which include military sites, protected spaces in educational institutions and public shelters.
In that address a short while ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also thanked Donald Trump for "confronting Iran's nuclear weapons program".
"He has made clear time and again that Iran cannot have a nuclear enrichment program," Netanyahu said.
As we've reported, Donald Trump had earlier on Thursday said he hoped "to avoid a conflict".
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also said that Washington has not been involved in the strikes.