TEL AVIV — Dawn broke on Friday over Tel Aviv with Israelis — and the world —  taking the measure of the Jewish state’s extraordinary overnight airstrikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The theocracy’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vows those acts are tantamount to a declaration of war and warns that Israel “should anticipate a harsh punishment.”

This dispatch is being written from a bustling cafe. Friday is a weekend day here. The patrons and staff, though — along with not a few pets — spent hours overnight huddled in designated bunkers, checking their phones for news of the astounding developments in the skies. This correspondent found shelter at a so-called safe room across the street from where he was staying. Some enterprising — and experienced — citizens brought bottles of water in case the stay underground would be a long one.

With cellphone service limited underground, people lingered by the stairs, watching the news or scrolling through X. Some nervously scanned firmament. By Friday, though, the pre-Sabbath buzz was back, and sentiment seemed to have swung behind the sense that Israel had pulled off a coup. The alerts the night before signposted Israel’s seizure of the initiative.

Word came at about 11 on Friday morning that Israelis no longer needed to huddle close to bomb shelters, where they had been instructed to shelter since about 4 a.m. The sounding of a siren and the wailing of warning apps were the first signs that a major military operation had been launched. The Pride Parade, which was  to have been held on Friday, at Tel Aviv, was soon canceled. Its flags still flutter all around the city. 

“Operation Rising Lion,” as Jerusalem is calling it, was launched even as negotiations appeared to be ongoing between President Trump and Iran over its nuclear program. Now, in an offensive that appears to have been years in the planning, three of Iran’s security chiefs and several of its top scientists have been killed. Israel unleashed some 200 warplanes against 100 or so targets. Other military and intelligence assets — including Israeli commandos smuggled inside Iran — are believed to have been mobilized as well.   

Blows have also been struck against Iran’s air defenses and its main uranium enrichment facility, at Nantaz. Israel’s Channel 12 reports on Friday that the facility has been crippled. Israel’s Mossad reportedly built a drone base inside Iran that it used to wreak further havoc. The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grassi, said in a statement that nuclear sites at Isfahan and Fordow were not affected.  

The all-clear alert comes even as Iran launched some 100 drones toward the Jewish state, a barrage that has been intercepted by Israel’s air force. Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed: “What we do today will be etched into the annals of Israel and of all nations as a struggle for the triumph of good over evil, of light over darkness.” He also warned that the fighting would “last as many days as it takes.”

The American secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said in a statement that “Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense.” Mr. Netanyahu declares: “Together, with God’s help, we will ensure Israel’s eternity.”

Iran’s chain of command is in tatters. The Israel Defense Forces have announced that among the dead are reportedly Major General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the armed forces. He reports only to the supreme leader. Also slain are the commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, General Hossein Salami, and the deputy commander of the armed forces, General Gholamali Rashid.

An unnamed army general told Army Radio overnight: “If this opening strike succeeded, then what we did to senior Hezbollah officials over 10 days we did to Iran in 10 minutes.”

The operation’s name comes from the biblical Book of Numbers. The verse reads, “Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.”