than cooperated with the iaea and it showed the iaea had been in cooperation with the israelis and have nuclear weapons against the non-proliferation treaty. it seems it is just an excuse for the israelis to attack iran in order to expand their power and influence in the region. i am afraid we are out of time, we are right at the top of the hour. hamid gholamzadeh, thank you very much for coming on the programme. thank you. this is bbc news. hello, i'm lewis vaughan-jones. this is our continuing coverage of events overnight. the israeli military says it's intercepted all of more than 100 drones fired

towards its territory by iran. iran launched them after israel conducted waves of air strikes targeting tehran's nuclear programme and other military sites overnight. these pictures show israeli air force jets taking off before the attack. and you can hear the noise of the jets. the idf says it carried out strikes on nuclear sites. this is the moment a blast hit the capital tehran. iranian media say residential areas were hit there and across other cities. iranian state media say the head of the armed forces, mohammad bagheri, and the top commander of the islamic revolutionary guard, hossein salami, were killed in the strikes. two senior nuclear scientists were also killed including fereydoon abbasi, the former head of iran's atomic energy organisation, and mohammad mehdi tehranchi, the president of the islamic azad university in tehran. iran's armed forces say their response will have 'no limits'.

earlier israeli prime minister benyamin netanyahu said israel's the operation could last several days. we targeted iran's main enrichment facility in natanz. we targeted iran's leading nuclear scientists working on the iranian bomb. we also struck at the heart of iran's ballistic missile programme. last year, iran fired 300 ballistic missiles at israel. each of these missiles carries a tonne of explosives and threatens the lives of hundreds of people. soon, those missiles could carry a nuclear payload, threatening the lives not of hundreds, but of millions. iran is gearing up to produce 10,000 of those ballistic missiles within three years. now, just imagine. imagine 10,000 tonnes of tnt landing on a country the size of new jersey. this is an intolerable threat. it, too, must be stopped. let's get some sense

of the geography of what's been happening. in the early hours of the morning israel announced it had launched a major military operation against iran's nuclear programme and senior military commanders. the israeli military targeted dozens of sites in the country. iranian state media says parts of tehran have been hit - and the un's nuclear watchdog, the iaea, confirmed iran's main nuclear enrichment site at natanz was also hit by israeli strikes. israel says iran has launched around a hundred drones at its territory. warning sirens were heard in major cities like tel aviv and jerusalem. since then, those warnings to be close to a shelter has been suspended and according to israeli media all of those drones were intercepted. our middle east correspondent hugo bachega has this update.

we are talking about military facilities, nuclear sites, air defence systems and crucially also senior military leaders and scientists. i think the strategy here is very similar to the israeli strategy in lebanon against hezbollah last year, not only to attack and destroy infrastructure but also to attack the leadership, to destroy the chain of command. we are still getting reports about the identity of those who have been killed, state media in iran has confirmed at least two senior military officers have been killed, assassinated, as a result of these attacks. the israeli military has had more than 200 planes were used in this operation, more than 300 bombs were dropped at 100 sites. a number of locations across iran at least, six cities, where hit as a result of those attacks which happened in several weight during the

morning, including in the capital, tehran. -- which happened on several waves. we are still trying to understand the scale of the destruction on the ground and iran. state media says a residential area of iran was hit and civilians were killed, but i think the details and the statements coming from the israeli authorities suggest that in their view this has been a very successful operation to really damage and destroy the capabilities, the ability of these facilities being used by iran in its nuclear programme. i think we are also getting indications from the israeli authorities that this could be just the beginning of a prolonged offensive, so these attacks are likely to continue in the next few days and even weeks. what about people via, you mentioned the timescale expected to continue, what does that mean for people living in

israel? there is a state of emergency declared in israel and the authorities have been warning the population that they are expecting a large response from iran in terms of drones and missiles being fired. earlier this morning the military said more than 100 drones had been fired by the iranian military, reports now in the last few minutes suggest that all drones had been intercepted by the israeli army. i think the concern is this could be just the beginning of this iranian response that could involve not only drones but missiles in an attempt to try to overwhelm the country's air defence systems. remember this country has a very sophisticated system of protection, but what authorities are telling the population as they should expect a large response from iran following these attacks. gatherings have been banned in

israel, schools are closed, the main airport has also cancelled its flights as the authorities are making preparations for this possible iranian response. thanks to hugo for that. there's been plenty of international reaction. here in the uk prime minister keir starmer said... german chancellor friedrich merz has urged both israel and iran to avoid any "further escalation." let's hear more about germany's reaction and speak to our correspondent damian mcguinness who's in berlin. what are the words there? the german chancellor, friedrich merz, is very much in line with other western partners. he did

not criticise the israeli strikes directly, he said israel had a right to defend itself, he expressed concern about iran's nuclear programme, but he also said he called on both sides to avoid any steps that could lead to, as he put it, destabilising the situation or escalation. i think what we are seeing in germany is quite a marked shift towards an increased willingness to potentially call on restraint to israel, because what is interesting about the german position is historically germany is very, very reluctant to criticise israel. one of the founding principles of the modern german state after the holocaust and the crimes of the nazis is to always support israel, but what we have seen from the chancellor over the last few weeks is by german standards in quite mild criticisms of israel's actions in gaza. i think that it's a very new ship to what we are

seeing in germany, i think it will be interesting to see how mr mertz continues reacting to as well, because no direct criticism of the strikes but certainly calling on israel as well as iran to avoid anything that could escalate the situation still further. i think germany being one of israel's staunchest supporters plays a key role here, i think that will be interesting to watch over the next few days if these actions carry on. just as we are chatting, french president emmanuel macron saying he will hold a defence cabinet meeting on friday, this is after the attacks. i'm assuming there will be a fairly unified voice diplomatically across european capitals. what kind of overall impact to calls

for diplomacy, calm and restraint in these moments actually make? certainly within western europe, a call for unity and from chancellor merz's statement it was clear he would act with western partners and what we are seeing from statements out of france and germany and the uk, very similar statements calling for a step back from potential escalation, calling for more diplomatic efforts stop featured mertz was informed by mr netanyahu early this morning about this military action straightaway called the security meeting for the cabinet in berlin and it seems from his statement like he is already in close contact with western partners, but what they can physically do to prevent any escalation is difficult because europe is not

traditionally, or certainly recently, played much of a big role here. i think that is the difficulty europe faces. until very recently it has not been talking in one voice. now things are shifting in germany because there is a new chancellor, he is a more assertive figure, he is willing or seems more willing than the previous chancellor to speak out on international affairs and he is very keen on european cooperation. i think if with a new government in germany, a more assertive government potentially with a more assertive character in charge, we might see a little bit more cooperation between western countries, certainly in europe and potentially that might lead to a slightly larger impact of the larger european voice in the middle east, but obviously compared to other voices, particularly the us, europe does not really play a huge role and i think that is the reality european leaders

already know about. thank you very much for that. let's look at what we know, what we don't know and exactly what we are working on. let's cross the newsroom and join merlyn thomas from bbc verify. hi. our team has been working through the night to verify videos across iran as israel had a range of strikes. this is what appears to be a residential building on fire in the capital, tehran, this is where most of our footage is from. this video also shows the same building films at a different angle. we have also seen videos from west of the capital showing multiple plumes of smoke rising from an area close to a base of around's most elite military force, the

islamic revolutionary guard corps, it is also believed to be a storage site. this map shows nuclear facilities in iran, the country has long maintained that nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only but many countries and the atomic energy agency watchdog are not convinced. we are also watching the air space. look at this year, this is the most up to date flight tracking data we have which shows there are no commercial flights flying across this area. this is obviously a developing story and our team is working to verify more footage. meanwhile israel's military has said iran has fired about 100 drones towards its territory, so you can keep up to date with us on the bbc verify live page and on the bbc website. thank you for that, talking us through what we know and what we do not know right now. the role of the us is crucial. the us said they were not directly involved in the strikes.

earlier i asked cbs correspondent jarred hill about the us' response to the strikes. the trump administration overnight put out a statement saying that they were not involved in this operation, saying they were not made necessarily aware of the operation, although over the past couple of days, really, especially the past day or so, we have seen president trump make a number of statements that seem to allude to some sort of inkling that this type of operation would happen pretty quickly. we know that just yesterday in fact the united states told any nonessential, non-emergency personnel as well as any family members of any people who might be essential that they should maybe think about leaving spaces in iraq because there was the possibility that israel would launch some type of attack in iran pretty soon and that iran had been promising to retaliate on the united states, potentially in us bases, potentially, if that were to happen.

so it seems as if there was at least some sort of inkling that this might happen. meanwhile, we have seen in statements this morning, i guess you could say overnight, that the iranians are pointing some blame at the united states for this. we will have to wait and see what type of reaction comes from the white house as more information comes out around all of this. thanks to jarred hill for that view from the us. with me is. parham ghobadi from bbc persian. what do we know what is happening? one of the local news agencies has reported that a metropolitan city in the north-west of iran has been attacked, we do not know if it is another wave of attacks on israelis or not but that has been... the iranian media say that city has been targeted. that is literally in the just last few minutes? yes. at 330 local time iranians heard explosions from the north, west

and east of iran and the pictures of residential buildings were shared on social media, on high-rise buildings they were targeted, usually on the top floors, and later the name of the iranian military top commanders who were killed were published. hossein salami was one of them, the head of the iranian revolutionary guards. for those who do not know what the revolutionary guards are, iran has basically two armies, what is the conventional army they have and the other is the revolutionary guard that is loyal to iran's supreme leader and they have all the things a normal army has, a parallel army, and the head of that was killed in last night's attacks. two other iranian military officials, senior military officials, were killed, and the former head of the iranian nuclear agency was also killed. afterwards, what

we hear is nissans, one of the main iranian nuclear facilities, was also targeted and iranians confirm that -- that natanz. we heard another nuclear facility in central iran was also confirmed that it was attacked. so right now we have some top iranian commanders killed and some nuclear facilities targeted. given those details you spelt out for us, taking a step back, how significant is this, how big a blow? unprecedented. for those who have lived in iran, they cannot remember anything quite like this. the last ten residents of tehran had seen attacks like that was during the iran iraq war in the 80s, the last time israelis attacked iran was the first time after that, but residential buildings were not targeted like this. the pictures on social media,

we see residential building rubble on the streets, cars that are destroyed and damaged and iranian media, they say civilians were also killed, including women and children. we cannot independently verify that. like i said, for iranians it is a total shock. what will this do for public opinion? we spoke to one person in tehran in the last hour who was woken by the strikes and he is hoping, he says, for swift retribution. he wants swift action not just against israel but the us. will that view be shared? not really, iranians are really divided. things might change in the coming days because of what they see on social media and the effect of the attacks but right now you see iranians are divided, obviously there are some that they want retribution, others

want revenge, but there are some iranians who think because they have suffered under this regime they welcome anything that can damage that. however, things are fluid, things might change when they see the building next door is attacked, when they see if women and children are killed, that may change the feelings of people. really delicate hours and days ahead. if there is a response from iran, what is the assessment of the capabilities, of the options of what they might or might not do? iran has a few options. when one general was killed they just attacked a few military bases in iraq, but iran has lodged two attacks against israel which included drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. drones take six or seven hours to reach as well, cruise missiles one or

two others but ballistic missiles can reach within ten or 12 minutes. some of them managed to pass the anti-air defence system of israel and landed there, the israelis say it did not damage, there is no serious damage, but they reached israel. right now israelis say they managed to target iranian ballistic missiles before they were launched inside iran. however, this is one of the iranian options to launch another attack with missiles and drones, but the iranian commanders including the ones who were killed last night used to say they might even attack us military bases in the region and that includes the friendly country qatar for iranians, and also in saudi arabia. i can change the whole dynamic because the entire region could be changed. i will let you get back to your sources and will speak to you again a little later, thank you, parham

ghobadi. the un secretary-general has condemned the military to show "maximum restraint." antonio guterres warned that the region could not afford more conflict. our correspondent in bern imogen foulkes has more on his warning. antonio guterres is really appealing, like other leaders are this morning, for both israel and iran to dial down this conflict. unfortunately it does not really look as if either side is quite ready to do that at the moment. for the united nations, which has warned for a long time that this part of the world is very, very unstable, is very fragile, that it doesn't need a widening conflict. we have lebanon precarious, we had syria emerging from more than a decade of conflict. we have jordan, all of these countries let alone gaza, palestine, all very, very fragile and stable and this kind of conflict just

risks tipping the whole region into something very, very dangerous. and who suffers then? ordinary people. not so much the military, the political leaders, but ordinary people across the region and that is again what antonio guterres' fear is, it is his agencies, the big humanitarian agencies, already struggling in gaza, in other parts of the world, sudan, for example, another conflict there that would cause unimaginable suffering to hundreds of thousands, millions of people. just talk us through the diplomatic levers and tools that could or could not be pulled in situations like this? i think this is a really difficult one and it's one that me and my colleagues in geneva have quite often with diplomats here, not just the un humanitarian

chiefs but ambassadors who will say privately that they have pleaded with israel for months to show more restraint in gaza, for example, at the same as they have called repeatedly for the release of the hostages. we heard that washington, the united states, had suggested to israel we are trying to get iran back on track about its nuclear programme, so hold off. that did not happen, did it? israel seems very determined to shape the map the way it sees the map should look for its own security, and unfortunately the end result of that, many people would say, is not security at all but more conflict, and we see in new york at the un security council constant disagreement. look at the five permanent members who each have a veto, we have russia, we have

the united states, we have china, france and the uk and the only two who particularly agree quite well at the moment are france and the uk and the others disagree and use their veto. so it makes it very hard for a traditional body which we have a look to for 80 years to try to resolve conflict, that is the united nations, it is not succeeding. in fact, it is failing. thanks to energy and focus for that. i want to quote sources in iran from the afp news agency responding to that attack saying that attack is a declaration of war. iran describing israel's attack overnight as a declaration of war. we will get plenty more response to that reaction. shashank joshi is defence

editor at the economist. this is perhaps something of a surprise because it pre-empts us iran nuclear talks due for this weekend, so clearly israel preferring the element of surprise rather than waiting those talks to conclude. secondly, the americans very clearly stating they were not involved and trying to stay out of this, although they may well be dragged into the aerial defence of israel from any retaliation. and the third point, this is critical, this is very early days. we are probably only seeing the first waves of what will be a multi-day israeli campaign. i note with interest israel has not yet attacked iran's most deeply buried nuclear site, but i would be surprised if that remains the case in the coming hours and days. you mentioned the timing took many by surprise. what about the reasoning behind striking like this now? the israeli public claim is that iran was

accelerating work towards a nuclear bomb. in my opinion, whilst iran has conducted some weapons-related activity since 2003 when it shut down its former weapons programme, i don't believe that is the real trigger for this attack. i believe the real trigger is israel sees an historic opportunity to act politically in a period where us iran talks were looking relatively unsuccessful, in which iran was looking exceptionally weak, in which its principal ally in the region, hezbollah in lebanon, had been decimated by israel last year and in which iran's nuclear programme, particularly its stockpile of enriched uranium, was expanding dramatically. all of those factors together i think made israel decide this was the time to take the great risk of attacking those nuclear sites, but also clearly much more widely than just nuclear sites, iran's military leadership.

just give us an assessment of the words overnight from benjamin netanyahu describing of course the repeated line we know about the country facing an existential threat from iran. what about your assessment of the state of the nuclear programme in iran right now? iran has had a nuclear weapons programme since the 1980s, and in the 1990s it authorised a decision to build a number of nuclear bombs and to test them, but in 2003 american intelligence judges that they halted that programme, possibly because america was of course at that time invading countries on both sides of iran, iraq and afghanistan. that programme was halted and as recently as march the director of national intelligence in america said american intelligence judged it was still halted, it had not

made a decision to build a bomb. but that does not mean iran was not dabbling in elements needed for a nuclear bomb, if we can introduce that nuance. it was for example looking at things like computer modelling of how a nuclear implosion might work, it was looking at plastic explosives for use in a nuclear device. for the israelis, that was viewed to be an unacceptable progress towards a bomb. i think in general iran has not moved significantly closer to a bomb in the last few months, it has accumulated more uranium, but the key change took place in 2018 when donald trump pulled out of a nuclear deal, the jcpoa, and at that point onwards around's enrichment capacity and stockpile of uranium has grown, and that was the real shift after 2018, i would say. let's speak now to a senior fellow at an independent israel

-based think tank which focuses on the israeli state, he is also the author of israel versus iran and shadow strike, which looked at israel bombing syria's nuclear reactor in 2007. what is your reaction to the overnight strikes? israel has been preparing and warning of this for a long time. iran has been building illicitly a nuclear weapon for at least 20 years and has at the same time made this into such a potential existential threat to israel is that not only was it creating the bomb but at the same time was calling for the annihilation and the destruction of israel, openly declaring we want to wipe israel off the month. this is something israel had prepared for, had won the world against, that iran needed to stop, and we heard a couple of days ago from the un nuclear watchdog the iaea that iran is violating the non-proliferation treaty and is accumulating stockpiles

of highly enriched uranium which is a jump away from the military grade uranium it would need for multiple nuclear devices, this needed to be dealt with and i would say hopefully it israel succeeds at the world is a safer place today. that same organisation you quoted also said today nuclear facilities must never be attacked. regardless of context or circumstance. it could harm both people and the environment, such attacks have serious implications for nuclear safety. this is no doubt and something that has to be taken into consideration. but this is a country that was calling to destroy the place where i live, where my children live and where my family has been raised and 10 million israelis live. they were calling to destroy them and build that capability. while there could be problems now with the potential fallout, i don't know exactly from