Iran fires ballistic missiles at Tel Aviv, videos show impacts and sirens

Iran launched ballistic missiles and armed drones at Israel and U.S. facilities on Feb. 28, 2026, producing videos that circulated widely showing impacts in the Tel Aviv area and triggering air-raid sirens and sheltering orders across northern and central Israel. Authorities said many incoming threats were intercepted, but social media footage and media reports described explosions, shockwaves and at least minor damage to a U.S. Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv.

Israel declared a special state of emergency as its army said it was intercepting a new wave of Iranian missiles and urged residents to take shelter in bunkers. Photographs published by the Associated Press showed people sitting in shelters after warning sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and long lines of vehicles in Tehran following earlier U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. Videos posted online were cited by local media and analysts as evidence of impacts in the Tel Aviv area; those clips and their geolocation remain under verification.

The exchanges followed a coordinated U.S.-Israeli operation that President Donald Trump described as “a massive operation to destroy the country’s military capabilities and eliminate the threat of it creating a nuclear weapon.” Mr. Trump also called on Iran’s military to lay down their weapons and urged Iranian civilians to “take over your government,” while posting on Truth Social that the U.S. was “undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.” The U.S. military has moved additional ships and aircraft toward the region, and U.S. officials named the assault Operation Epic Fury, according to media reporting.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it launched counterattacks, firing drones and missiles at Israel and strikes aimed at U.S. military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. Al Jazeera reported that most of those attacks were intercepted. The United States also shot down two one-way attack drones near the U.S. Consulate General in Erbil, Iraq, according to official accounts compiled in public reporting.

Casualty and damage claims on both sides are contested. A Wikipedia entry cited a minor shockwave injury to a U.S. Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv and quoted Ambassador Mike Huckabee saying “no one was injured at the branch office.” Iranian state media and domestic agencies reported heavier losses inside Iran, including a statement that an Israeli strike hit an elementary girls’ school in Minab and killed at least 51 people, and another report that at least two students were killed in a strike east of Tehran. Those figures are reported by state and semi-official outlets and have not been independently confirmed by international agencies in the initial hours after the strikes.

The attacks drew swift diplomatic rebukes. Russia’s Foreign Ministry called the U.S.-Israeli strikes “a preplanned and unprovoked act of armed aggression against a sovereign and independent U.N. member state.” The Arab League said the strikes were “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of countries that advocate for peace and strive for stability,” and Saudi Arabia said it “condemns and denounces in the strongest terms the treacherous Iranian aggression and the blatant violation of sovereignty.”

Military officials warned of broader escalation. An Israeli Defense Forces official told reporters the country had identified “a sharp acceleration” in Iran’s missile program and that Iran was “beginning to make dozens of ballistic missiles a month,” while adding there had been “no significant hits in Israel” in the official’s early assessment. As ground and open-source verification continue, the immediate public-health threats include potential civilian injuries, strain on hospitals and schools, and displacement from sheltering and infrastructure damage. International and local authorities said they were monitoring developments and assessing humanitarian needs as the situation unfolds.