Israel’s defence ministry announced a “preemptive strike” against Iran on Saturday as sirens sounded in Jerusalem and people across the country received phone alerts about an “extremely serious” threat.
“The State of Israel has launched a preemptive strike against Iran.
Defence Minister Israel Katz has declared a special and immediate state of emergency throughout the country,” read a statement from his ministry
Two loud blasts were heard in Tehran on Saturday morning by AFP journalists, and two plumes of thick smoke were seen over the centre and east of the Iranian capital.
The type of explosions suggests that this is a missile attack,” the Fars news agency reported, without immediately providing further details.
Meanwhile, Israel has immediately closed its airspace to civilian flights.
Following the security developments, the Minister of Transportation has ordered the Director of the Israel Civil Aviation Authority to close the airspace of the State of Israel to civilian flights,” the minister, Miri Regev, announced.
Iran has also closed its airspace until further notice, following multiple blasts in the capital Tehran and elsewhere, the civil aviation agency said.
“The airspace of the entire country is closed until further notice,” announced the spokesman of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation, quoted by Tasnim news agency.
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Qatar has issued a shelter-in-place order for personnel.
