As Israel braces for possibly lengthy war with Iran, Houthis threaten U.S. targets

TEL AVIV — Israel’s military said Saturday it was preparing for the possibility of a lengthy war, while Iran’s foreign minister warned that U.S. military involvement “would be very, very dangerous for everyone.”

The prospect of a wider war threatened, too. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they would resume attacks on U.S.-allied vessels and warships in the Red Sea if the Trump administration actively joins Israel’s military campaign against Iran. The Houthis had paused such attacks in May as part of a deal with the administration.

The U.S. ambassador to Israel announced the U.S. has begun “assisted departure flights,” the first such flights from Israel since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s military said it struck an Iranian nuclear research facility overnight and killed three senior Iranian commanders in targeted attacks as it pursued its goal to destroy Iran’s nuclear program. Smoke rose near a mountain in Isfahan, where the province’s deputy governor for security affairs, Akbar Salehi, confirmed Israeli strikes damaged the facility.

The target was a centrifuge production site, Israel’s military said. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, confirmed the attack.

Iran again launched drones and missiles at Israel, but there were no reports of significant damage.

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity under army guidelines to brief reporters, estimated that Israel’s military has taken out more than half of Iran’s launchers.

“We’re making it harder for them to fire toward Israel,” he said.

The Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, later said that Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir told the army to be prepared for a “prolonged campaign.”

U.S. tankers on the move

President Trump is weighing direct U.S. military involvement in the war, and was set to meet with his national security team Saturday evening. He has said he would put off his decision for up to two weeks.

On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, “I think that it would be very, very dangerous for everyone.” He spoke on the sidelines of an Organization of Islamic Cooperation meeting in Turkey. Araghchi said he was open to further dialogue but emphasized that Iran had no interest in negotiating with the U.S. while Israel continues to attack.

Barring a commando raid or even a nuclear strike, Iran’s underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility is considered out of reach to all but America’s “bunker-buster” bombs. The U.S. has configured and programmed only its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to deliver such bombs, according to the Air Force.

On Saturday, U.S. aerial refueling tankers were spotted on commercial flight trackers flying patterns consistent with escorting aircraft from the central U.S. to the Pacific. B-2 bombers are based in Missouri. It was not clear whether the aircraft were a show of force or preparing for an operation. The White House and Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment.

The war erupted June 13, with Israeli airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 722 people, including 285 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2,500 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group.

One Tehran resident, Nasrin, writhed in her hospital bed as she described how a blast threw her against a wall in her apartment. “I’ve had five surgeries. I think I have nothing right here that is intact,” she said Saturday. Another resident, Shahram Nourmohammadi, said he had been making deliveries when “something blew up right in front of me” at an intersection.

A number of Iranians have fled the country. “Everyone is leaving Tehran right now,” said one who did not give his name after crossing into Armenia.

For many Iranians, updates remained difficult. Internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org said Saturday that limited internet access had again “collapsed.” A nationwide internet shutdown has been in place for several days.

Iran has retaliated by firing more than 450 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Israel’s multi-tiered air defenses have shot down most of them, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded.

Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but it is the only nonnuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60% — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear weapons program, but has never acknowledged it.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel’s military operation will continue “for as long as it takes” to eliminate what he called the existential threat of Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missile arsenal.

No date was set for a new round of talks after ones in Geneva on Friday failed to produce a breakthrough.

More attacks on Iranian military commanders

Israel’s defense minister said Saturday the military has killed a paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander who financed and armed Hamas in preparation for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the ongoing 20-month war in the Gaza Strip.

Iranian officials did not immediately confirm Saeed Izadi’s death, but the Qom governor’s office said there had been an attack on a four-story apartment building and local media reported two people had been killed.

Israel also said it killed the commander of the Quds Force’s weapons transfer unit, who it said was responsible for providing weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Behnam Shahriyari was killed while traveling in western Iran, the military said.

Iran threatens U.N. nuclear watchdog head

Iranian leaders say IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi’s statements about the status of Iran’s nuclear program have prompted Israel’s attack.

On Saturday, a senior advisor for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, Ali Larijani, said in a social media post, without elaboration, that Iran would make Grossi “pay” once the war is over.

Grossi warned Friday at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council against attacks on Iran’s nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr.

“In case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity,” Grossi said. “This is the nuclear site in Iran where the consequences could be most serious.”

Israel has not targeted Iran’s nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country’s Arak heavy water reactor southwest of the capital.

Iran previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal in exchange for sanctions relief. But after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium up to 60% and restricting access to its nuclear facilities.

Iran has insisted on its right to enrich uranium — at lower levels — in recent talks over its nuclear program. But Trump, like Israel, has demanded Iran end its enrichment program altogether.

Rising and Mednick write for the Associated Press and reported from Dubai and Tel Aviv, respectively. AP writers Mehmet Guzel in Istanbul, Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Farnoush Amiri, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Matthew Lee in Washington and Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed to this report.