Israel says it has launched retaliatory attacks in Iran

The Israel Defense Forces said tonight that it is conducting “precise strikes on military targets in Iran.”

The strikes, it said, were in response to months of attacks from Iran against Israel. World leaders have been awaiting Israel’s response to a barrage of missiles that were fired from Iran at Israel on Oct. 1.

“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th — on seven fronts — including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” the IDF said in a statement. “Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond.”

Iranian state media are reporting explosions inside the country’s capital of Tehran.

The Iranian State Television Service, or IRIB, reported sounds of explosions in the city.

LONDON — Jordan, one of the United States’ closest allies in the Middle East, confronted Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday with a stark and unwelcome assessment: Israel is ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Gaza.

Blinken was in London after holding meetings in Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, during which he pressed the need for a cease-fire and the return of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.

“We do see ethnic cleansing taking place” in Gaza, Blinken’s Jordanian counterpart, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, said, speaking to the American delegation in front of journalists. “It has got to stop.”

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The Beirut-based pan-Arab network Al-Mayadeen TV said two of its journalists were killed and Hezbollah-owned broadcaster Al-Manar said one of its camera operators was also killed in an Israeli strike that hit a compound housing journalists.

An NBC News crew was in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis where they filmed a crowd of desperate civilians trying to get bags of bread.

The situation is worse in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have been besieging the Jabalia refugee camp and hunger has been rampant.