Tehran has vowed a ‘crushing’ response in retaliation for a daylight missile strike by the United States and Israel, as Israeli citizens were seen fleeing to their shelters amid w@rnings of several incoming missiles launched by Iran.

Explosions have also been heard across Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi sparking fears the Middle East may now be on the brink of all out w@r. In Bahrain, officials confirmed the headquarters of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet had been targeted by a missile attack.

Shortly after 8am, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said it had identified ballistic missiles launched from Iran tow@rd Israel, with defensive systems operating to ‘intercept the threat’.

The IDF updated minutes later to w@rn ‘an additional barrage’ had also been detected. Several areas have reported missile fragments falling to the ground, but no injuries have so far been reported.

The Home Front Command in Israel had sent alerts to mobile phones in the areas thought to be targeted w@rning citizens to head for their safe rooms and shelters.

Sirens originally sounded across Tel Aviv, with the alerts later heard in Jerusalem, as well as across northern and southern Israel.

Israel has also called up 20,000 reservists, in addition to the 50,000 reservists currently on duty.

The IDF has told civilians that they must remain in bomb shelters until further notice, The Times of Israel reported.

‘You are requested to continue following the Home Front Command instructions and the guidelines distributed to you. You must remain in a protected area until an official notice is given,’ the army said.

Images emerging show hospital patients being placed in a car park at Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv for safety, following the sounding of sirens.

Today’s joint operation, which follows weeks of knife-edge tensions building up between the two countries, happened near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Shortly after 8.20am, President Benjamin Netanyahu said the purpose of the operation was to remove the ‘existential threat’ posed by Iran.

He said: ‘My brothers and sisters, citizens of Israel, a short time ago, Israel and the United States embarked on an operation to remove the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran.

‘I thank our great friend, President Donald Trump, for his historic leadership. For 47 years, the Ayatollah regime has been shouting ‘D3ath to Israel,’ ‘D3ath to America.’

‘It has spilled our blood, murdered many Americans, and massacred its own people. This murderous terrorist regime must not be armed with nuclear weapons that would allow it to threaten all of humanity. Our joint action will create the conditions for the courageous Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands.

‘The time has come for all segments of the Iranian people – the Persians, the Kurds, the Azeris, the Baluchis, and the Ahwazis – to throw off the yoke of tyranny and bring about a free and peaceful Iran.

‘I appeal to you, the citizens of Israel, to listen to the instructions of the Home Front Command. In the coming days, in Operation ‘The Roar of the Lion,’ we will all be required to have endurance and fortitude.

‘Together we will stand, together we will fight, and together we will ensure the eternity of Israel.’

In a statement around 9am, the IDF said its troops are on high alert ‘for attacks across all fronts and against any adversary’. It added that the operation ‘will continue as long as necessary.’

It added: ‘The IDF and the U.S Armed Forces have launched a broad and joint operation to thoroughly degrade the Iranian terrorist regime and to remove existential threats to Israel over time.

‘The Iranian regime has not abandoned its plan to destroy Israel. The regime has continued financing, training, and arming its proxies positioned on Israel’s borders.

‘These actions constitute an existential threat to Israel and pose a danger to the Middle East and the world as a whole.’

Today’s action comes just over eight months since Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel in revenge for strikes on its nuclear sites.

At that time Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei vowed to ‘inflict heavy blows’ in a chilling threat to civilians in Tel Aviv, having blamed Israel for starting a w@r.

Iran claimed they fired ‘hundreds’ of missiles, however the IDF insisted fewer than a hundred were launched, with most either ‘intercepted or fallen short’.

Israel has named its latest operation ‘Lion’s Roar’, following on from its previous operation in June, which was named ‘Rising Lion’.

The US meanwhile has named its military operation ‘Epic Fury’.

President Trump announced the United States had begun ‘major combat operations’ in Iran with explosions heard in five cities across the country.

In a video posted to Truth Social, he claimed Iran had continued to expand its nuclear programme and has plans to develop missiles to reach the US.

‘We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground, it will be totally, again, obliterated,’ Trump said in his announcement.

‘We’re going to annihilate their navy, we’re going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilise the region or the world and attack our forces, and no longer use their IEDs or roadside bombs as they are sometimes called, to gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans.

‘And we will ensure that Iran does not attain a nuclear weapon – a very simple message: They will never have a nuclear weapon.’

The latest strikes come as Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said they were a necessity ‘to remove threats’.

In his analysis, Amos Yadlin, Israel’s former intelligence chief, told Israel’s Channel 12 that ‘you cannot bring down a regime from the air,’ but that it could be ‘restricted’ from what it could do.

He added there was ‘no doubt’ the Iranian regime would be looking to respond to the military strikes seen this morning.

Several hospitals in Israel have launched their emergency protocols, including moving patients and surgeries to underground facilities.

As events unfold this morning, exiled Iranian prince Reza Pahlavi urged Iranians to prepare to return to the streets as he claimed the Islamic Republic was ‘collapsing’.

In a message to the nation, Pahlavi called on members of the military, police and security forces to break with the clerical regime and back what he described as a ‘stable and secure’ transition.

Addressing security forces directly, Pahlavi said they had sworn to defend Iran and its people, not the Islamic Republic, w@rning they would ‘sink’ with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei if they failed to switch sides.

He described the US action as a ‘humanitarian intervention’ targeting the regime’s repression apparatus rather than the Iranian nation, and appealed to President Donald Trump to exercise maximum caution to avoid civilian casualties.

The United States and Israel launched strikes on targets in several Iranian cities on Saturday, sending explosions and plumes of smoke over the capital, Tehran.

UK nationals in Qatar have also been w@rned by the British Embassy in Doha to shelter in place following this morning’s strikes.

The UK withdrew its diplomatic staff from Iran on Friday due to security concerns.

The Foreign Office has also moved some staff based at the British embassy in Tel Aviv and their dependents to another location in Israel.

In Bahrain an emergency alert has been issued, with all citizens urged to take shelter in the nearest safe location.