The U.S. says it wasn’t involved in the strikes on Iran, but three American officials told NBC News the U.S. is assisting in shooting down Iranian missiles and projectiles targeting Israel.

The Israeli military launched a massive attack on Iran on Friday in a dramatic escalation of their long-running conflict that drew a retaliatory missile assault from Tehran and raised the risk of another war in the Middle East.

The Israeli strikes took out a significant swath of Iran’s top military leaders and senior scientists, as Israel unleashed more than 200 fighter jets across roughly 100 targets. They were aimed at Iran’s main enrichment facility and targets associated with the country’s ballistic missile program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

In a firm response Friday evening local time, Iran launched missiles toward Israel, the nation’s defense forces said, prompting its highly sophisticated defense systems to “intercept the threat.

Heavy smoke appeared in the night sky over Tel Aviv as incoming rockets from Iran descended on the city, with many intercepted by Israel’s missile defense systems. Before the retaliatory attack began, the Israel Defense Forces directed residents across the country to remain close to protected spaces, minimize movement in public areas and avoid public gatherings.

Police officers and bomb disposal experts responded to reports of fallen projectile debris, according to the Israeli Police, which advised people to report “suspicious findings” to an emergency hotline.

Israel’s emergency service, Magen David Adom, said it was providing medical treatment to 34 injured people following a rocket strike in Israel’s central region.

The Israeli paramedic organization also said it was providing treatment and evacuating at least 21 people after a strike south of Tel Aviv.

Iran later launched a fresh wave of missiles in the early hours of Saturday morning local time, Israel Defense Forces said.

A Tel Aviv hospital treated seven people with injuries following the early morning attack, The Associated Press reported.

Israel’s strikes have killed 78 people so far, including senior military officials, and injured 320 people, according to Iranian ambassador to the United Nations Ali Bahreini. Residential buildings were among the structures damaged in Tehran.

Loud explosions in Iran were heard in the northern part of the capital on Friday night, while state media reported attacks in Qom, located south of Tehran and a holy city for Shia Muslims. Fars reported on X that explosions could be heard in the area of the heavily fortified nuclear site of Fordow, which is located deep underground near Qom.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei swiftly vowed retaliation, telling his nation in a televised address Friday evening local time that Israel would be punished.

Air defense systems were activated in central Tehran, home to Khamenei’s compound and presidential office, reported the Iranian semiofficial Mehr news agency.

Soon after the strikes, Iran launched more than 100 drones toward Israel, Israeli Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said. The Israel Defense Forces said it was attacking missile launchers and unmanned aerial vehicles launched from Iran, and a military spokesman said on X that strikes were conducted on the nuclear plant in Isfahan in central Iran.

Iran has long denied that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

The United States, which had been publicly urging Israel to hold off on such an attack as the Trump administration continues talks with Tehran on its rapidly advancing nuclear program, said it was not involved in the strikes on Iran and was not assisting with the attacks.

But three U.S. officials told NBC News later Friday that the U.S. is assisting in shooting down Iranian missiles and projectiles targeting Israel. The Pentagon moved a number of military assets into the region in recent days, including Navy destroyers to be positioned off the Israeli coast to help shoot down missiles and other aerial attacks expected after the Israelis launched their initial attack, according to another U.S. official.

President Donald Trump told NBC News in an interview Friday he was pleased with the manner in which the strikes were conducted.

“They had the finest equipment in the world, which is American equipment,” he said.

According to a U.S. official, Trump and Netanyahu spoke Friday.

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The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, earlier said Iranian authorities had confirmed Natanz, Iran’s largest nuclear site in Isfahan, had been struck but that there was no increase in radiation levels observed there.

Defrin confirmed that Israel struck an underground area of Natanz that targeted critical infrastructure linked to its continued functioning and “inflicted significant damage on this site.”

Other targets appeared to be residential compounds for top military officials. A main building for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), founded in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend the regime against internal and external threats, also appeared to have been attacked and could be seen burning on state television.

Among those killed in Israel’s strikes was Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, Iran’s most senior military official, multiple Iranian state news outlets reported. Bagheri, who was chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, had a status equivalent to that of Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s secretive Quds Force who was assassinated by the U.S. in a drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020.

The Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran said in a statement on Telegram that at least five professors from the school’s community had been killed, including nuclear scientist Mohammad-Mehdi Tehranchi. It said some family members of professors were also killed, but did not share their identities or further details.