Israeli warplanes have struck Iran, delivering what officials said is a major assault against Tehran’s nuclear and missile programs.
The Israeli military launched a large-scale preemptive strike against Iran early Friday in an attempt to crush the country’s ability to build a nuclear weapon, officials said.
The operation marked a major escalation, and Iran retaliated early Friday by launching an attack against Israel using 100 drones. The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, said the drones were mostly intercepted.
“By God’s grace, the powerful arm of the Islamic Republic’s Armed Forces won’t let them go unpunished,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said after the Israeli strikes.
The IDF said hundreds of aircraft were involved, attacking military targets, including “nuclear targets” in different areas across Iran.
Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, an IDF spokesperson, said around 200 Israeli jets participated in the operation, striking around 100 targets.
The IDF said the strikes were based on “high-quality intelligence” and intended to damage Iran’s nuclear program.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement that the operation, nicknamed “Rising Lion,” will continue for “as many days as it takes” to remove what he characterized as an existential threat to his country.
AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
Netanyahu said Iran has made enough highly enriched uranium for nine atom bombs and has taken unprecedented steps in recent months to weaponize the material and produce a weapon in a short time. He did not provide evidence to support his claim.
The Israeli leader said that his forces targeted Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, its nuclear weaponization programs, its main enrichment facility of Natanz, its top nuclear scientists, and its ballistic missile program.
The extent of the damage is unclear; some of Iran’s critical nuclear facilities are buried deep underground, making them particularly challenging targets.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, shared footage and photos of damage purportedly caused by the Israeli strikes, including partially damaged buildings and plumes of smoke rising from neighborhoods. Business Insider could not independently verify the imagery.
Tasnim also reported that Major General Hossein Salami, IRGC commander-in-chief, was killed in an Israeli strike on his headquarters.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US was not involved in the Israeli strikes against Iran. In a statement, he said the Trump administration has taken steps to protect its forces in the Middle East and warned Iran not to retaliate against American assets in the region.
ajid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The strikes are likely to derail ongoing talks between the US and Iran to reach a new nuclear deal and could draw a significant military response from Tehran, which has already launched two major missile attacks on Israel since October 7, 2023, the day a Hamas massacre against Israel sent the region spiraling into war and violence.
The Trump administration and Netanyahu have very different views on how to handle Iran, with the Israeli leader long pressing for military action. The White House, however, has favored the diplomatic route.
Even so, in a TruthSocial post on Friday morning, President Donald Trump said he had given Iran “chance after chance to make a deal.”
He added that “the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it.”
Israeli officials have long said that they will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. Tehran, meanwhile, asserts that its nuclear program is for civilian, not military, purposes.
Defrin, the IDF spokesperson, said that the country had “no choice” but to attack Iran.
Without presenting specific evidence, Defrin said that Tehran’s nuclear program is an “imminent and existential threat” that could pose a global threat.
