Iran claims it has downed two Israeli jets

Iran claims to have shot down two Israeli planes and that its reaction to Friday night’s strikes on nuclear and military sites is underway.

The allegations came as smoke rose from Tel Aviv following Iran’s missile firing toward the Israeli capital.

Air raid sirens were sounded throughout Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as the rockets approached Israel.

Footage shows Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, which employs radar to identify and intercept short-range rockets, missiles, and drones, preventing Iranian missiles from hitting the city.

However, the footage implies that some rockets made it through.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Army announced in a statement that its “defense forces successfully hit and destroyed two F-35 fighter jets belonging to the zionist entity, in addition to a large number of small drones.”

“The fate of the two fighter pilots remains unknown and is being investigated,” the statement continued.

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The escalation in the area comes after Israel conducted a massive strike on Iran on Friday, claiming it was intended at undermining the country’s nuclear goals and weakening its military.

Israel was able to strike critical sites and assassinate senior generals and scientists.

It stated that bombings were required before its foe moved any closer to developing an atomic weapon.

As Israel readied for reprisal, Iran’s main news agency, IRNA, reported Thursday evening that the country’s reaction had begun.

It happened as a correspondent for the Iranian Tasnim news agency reported that missiles had been fired from Shiraz and Isfahan in Iran toward Israel.

The hospital stated that the injuries ranged from minor to major.

Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical service, had stated that it had treated one person in moderate condition and four others who had been mildly injured by shrapnel. It’s unclear whether they’re the same patients that were treated at Sheba Medical Center.

Sky News correspondent Mark Stone, who used to be based in Jerusalem, has said Iran is trying to “overwhelm the Iron Dome defence system, which has to be manually reloaded again and again”.

He added: “[The Iron Dome] can be overwhelmed. We saw a number of instances in the videos a moment ago where it was clearly overwhelmed and some of those ballistic missiles hit targets in Tel Aviv.”

Three American officials have told Sky’s US partner network NBC that the US military helped Israel down some Iranian missiles this evening.

As the barrage of missiles was fired at Israel, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote on X: “The Zionist regime (Israel) will not remain unscathed from the consequences of its crime.

“The Iranian nation must be guaranteed that our response will not be half-measured,” he said, adding Iran will “inflict heavy blows” on Israel.

Mr Khamenei also said that Israel has initiated a war and that Tehran will not allow it to conduct “hit and run” attacks without grave consequences.