TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s massive strike on Iran on Friday morning came after decades of mutual hostility and a long-running shadow war of covert strikes and sabotage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long identified Iran as its greatest threat, citing the country’s nuclear program, its hostile rhetoric and support for anti-Israel militant groups across the region. Iran has championed the Palestinian cause and portrayed Israel as a malicious Western encroachment on the Middle East.
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An Iranian protester holds up a poster of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an anti-Israeli gathering in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The top floor of an apartment building damaged in an Israeli army strike is seen in Tehran, Iran's capital, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo)
Firefighters work the scene of an explosion at a residence compound in northern Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A firefighter calls out his colleagues at the scene of an explosion in a residence compound in northern Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Firefighters work the scene of an explosion at a residence compound in northern Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Firefighters and people clean up the scene of an explosion at a residence compound after Israeli attacks in Tehran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises up to the sky, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Debris from an apartment building is seen on top of parked cars after a strike in Tehran, Iran, early Friday, June 13, 2025. Israel attacked Iran's capital early Friday, with explosions booming across Tehran.(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The latest escalation was set in motion by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which sparked a crushing Israeli response and eventually drew in Iran's other allies, who were in turn crippled by successive waves of Israeli strikes, leaving Iran largely alone in facing Friday's onslaught.
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Following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the country’s leadership immediately identified the U.S., Britain and Israel as its main enemies because of their ties to Iran's deposed monarch and the long history of Western colonialism and military interventions in the Middle East.
Over the past two decades, Israel has repeatedly accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons and is believed to have carried out numerous covert attacks on its nuclear program, including cyberattacks and the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists — while rarely acknowledging such operations.
Iran insists its nuclear program is entirely peaceful, but the U.N. atomic watchdog agency has warned that Tehran has enough uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade levels to make “several” nuclear bombs if it chooses to.
The International Atomic Energy Agency and Western nations assess Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program until 2003. Iran insists its program is peaceful while still enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels.
Israel sees a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat and had long aspired to breaking up Iran’s regional network of allies — including Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who was overthrown in December.
“For decades, the tyrants of Tehran have brazenly, openly called for Israel’s destruction,” Netanyahu said Friday. “They backed up their genocidal rhetoric with a program to develop nuclear weapons.”
Over the past four decades, Iran built up a network of militant proxy groups it called the “ Axis of Resistance ” that wielded significant power across the region in recent years but has suffered major setbacks since the Oct. 7 attack.
Hamas' military capabilities have been decimated in more than 20 months of ongoing war that has also killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroyed much of the Gaza Strip, displaced around 90% of its population and raised fears of famine.
Hezbollah traded strikes with Israel for nearly a year before Israel clobbered it with a sophisticated attack involving pagers and walkie-talkies, targeted strikes that killed most of its leaders and an air and ground campaign that devastated southern Lebanon.
The weakening of Hezbollah contributed to the downfall of Assad, which paved the way for Israel to seize parts of southern Syria and carry out strikes that destroyed much of its military assets.
Iran itself was weakened after two previous exchanges of fire with Israel, both linked to the war in Gaza. A wave of Israeli strikes last October destroyed missile sites and weakened Iran's air defenses.
Netanyahu said time was running out to strike Iran, alleging Iran had taken recent steps to weaponize enriched uranium. “If not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon within a very short time,” he said.
The United States and Israel have long vowed to take military action if necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, but President Donald Trump has been seeking a diplomatic solution after scrapping an earlier nuclear agreement with Iran during his first term.
A sixth round of talks was scheduled in Oman on Sunday, but it was unclear if they would be held in the aftermath of the strikes.
Israel has long been skeptical of such efforts, fearing they give Iran time to develop a weapon, and has said it would only accept an agreement in which Iran gives up its entire nuclear program — something Iran has vehemently ruled out.
On Thursday, for the first time in 20 years, the board of governors at the IAEA censured Iran for not working with its inspectors. Iran immediately announced it would establish a third enrichment site and swap out some centrifuges for more advanced ones.
Trump said he had asked Netanyahu not to attack Iran while the negotiations are ongoing, but the president has provided unprecedented support to Israel over the years, and his administration has so far expressed no opposition to Friday's strikes.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
An Iranian protester holds up a poster of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an anti-Israeli gathering in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The top floor of an apartment building damaged in an Israeli army strike is seen in Tehran, Iran's capital, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo)
Firefighters work the scene of an explosion at a residence compound in northern Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A firefighter calls out his colleagues at the scene of an explosion in a residence compound in northern Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Firefighters work the scene of an explosion at a residence compound in northern Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Firefighters and people clean up the scene of an explosion at a residence compound after Israeli attacks in Tehran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises up to the sky, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Debris from an apartment building is seen on top of parked cars after a strike in Tehran, Iran, early Friday, June 13, 2025. Israel attacked Iran's capital early Friday, with explosions booming across Tehran.(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — Federal immigration authorities said Friday they arrested about 200 immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally in raids a day earlier on two California cannabis farm sites. Protesters engaged in a tense standoff with authorities during an operation at one of the farms where a farmworker was gravely injured.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that authorities executed criminal search warrants in Carpinteria and Camarillo, California, on Thursday. They arrested immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally, and there were also at least 10 immigrant children on site, the statement said.
Four U.S. citizens were arrested for “assaulting or resisting officers,” the department said. Authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of one person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents. At least one worker was hospitalized with grave injuries.
During the raid, crowds of people gathered outside Glass House Farms at the Camarillo location to demand information about their relatives and protest immigration enforcement. A chaotic scene emerged outside the farm that grows tomatoes, cucumbers and cannabis as authorities clad in military-style helmets and uniforms faced off with the demonstrators. Acrid green and white billowing smoke then forced community members to retreat.
Glass House, a licensed California cannabis grower, said in a statement that immigration agents had valid warrants. The company said workers were detained, and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” the statement said.
It is legal to grow and sell cannabis in California with proper licensing. State records show the company has multiple active licenses to cultivate cannabis.
At least 12 people were injured during the raid and protest at the farm in Camarillo, said Andrew Dowd, a spokesperson for the Ventura County Fire Department. Eight were taken to Saint John's St. John’s Regional Medical Center and the Ventura County Medical Center, and four were treated at the scene and released. Dowd said he did not have information on the extent of the injuries of those hospitalized.
On Friday, about two dozen people waited outside the Camarillo farm to retrieve the cars of loved ones and speak to managers about what happened. Relatives of Jaime Alanis, who has worked picking tomatoes at the farm for 10 years, said he called his wife in Mexico during the raid to tell her immigration agents had arrived and that he was hiding with others inside the farm.
“The next thing we heard was that he was in the hospital with broken hands, ribs and a broken neck,” Juan Duran, Alanis’ brother-in-law, said in Spanish, his voice breaking.
It was not immediately clear how Alanis was injured. A doctor at Ventura County Medical Center told the family that those who brought Alanis to the hospital said he had fallen from the roof of a building.
Alanis had a broken neck, fractured skull and a rupture in an artery that pumps blood to the brain, said his niece Yesenia, who didn’t want to share her last name for fear of reprisal.
“They told us he won’t make it and to say goodbye,” Yesenia said, crying.
The hospital did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
After immigration agents arrived at Glass House's farm in Camarillo on Thursday morning, workers called family members to let them know authorities were there. Relatives and advocates headed to the farm some 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles to try to find out what was going on, and began protesting outside.
Federal authorities formed a line blocking the road leading through farm fields to the company's greenhouses. Protesters were seen shouting at agents wearing camouflage gear, helmets and gas masks. The billowing smoke drove protesters to retreat. It wasn’t clear why authorities threw the canisters or if they released chemicals such as tear gas.
Ventura County fire authorities responding to a 911 call of people having trouble breathing said three people were taken to nearby hospitals.
At the farm, agents arrested workers and removed them by bus. Others, including U.S. citizens, were detained at the site for hours while agents investigated.
The incident came as federal immigration agents have ramped up arrests in Southern California at car washes, farms and Home Depot parking lots, stoking widespread fear among immigrant communities.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Friday that the investigation into immigration and potential child labor violations at the farm is ongoing. No further details of the allegations were provided.
The agency said hundreds of demonstrators attempted to disrupt the operations, leading to the arrest of four Americans.
“We will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who assaults or doxes federal law enforcement,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection were both part of the operation, the statement said.
Relatives of other workers said they got similar calls Thursday. The mother of an American worker said her son was held at the worksite for 11 hours and told her agents took workers’ cellphones to prevent them from calling family or filming and forced them to erase cellphone video of agents at the site.
The woman said her son told her agents marked the men’s hands with ink to distinguish their immigration status. She spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because she feared reprisals from the government.
United Farm Workers said in statement that some U.S. citizens are not yet accounted for.
Maria Servin, 68, said her son has worked at the farm for 18 years and was helping to build a greenhouse. She said she spoke to her son, who is undocumented, after hearing of the raid and offered to pick him up.
“He said not to come because they were surrounded and there was even a helicopter. That was the last time I spoke to him,” Servin, a U.S. citizen, said in Spanish.
She said she went to the farm anyway but federal agents were shooting tear gas and rubber bullets and she decided it was not safe to stay. She and her daughter returned to the farm Friday and were told her son had been arrested Thursday. They still don’t know where he is being held.
“I regret 1,000 times that I didn’t help him get his documents,” Servin said.
Taxin reported from Orange County, California, and Rodriguez reported from San Francisco.
An exterior of Glass House Farms is shown, a day after an immigration raid on the facility, on Friday, July 11, 2025, in Camarillo, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Sergio Madrigal works on a farm field Friday, July 11, 2025, in Camarillo, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Juan Duran cries outside of Glass House Farms, where a relative was injured during a previous day immigration raid, on Friday, July 11, 2025, in Camarillo, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
People embrace outside of Glass House Farms, a day after an immigration raid on the facility, on Friday, July 11, 2025, in Camarillo, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Federal immigration agents toss tear gas at protesters during a raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
Federal immigration agents toss tear gas at protesters during a raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY - Protesters standoff against federal immigration agents during a raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
Arturo Rangel hugs Judith Ramos whose father works at the greenhouse in the background as federal immigration agents block access during a raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
Rebecca Torres stands in front of a military vehicle approaching a federal immigration agents raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
