Israel bombs nuclear and military facilities in Iran, killing head of Revolutionary Guard

Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran early Friday morning, a decision with unpredictable consequences. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which has dubbed the offensive Operation Rising Lion, claims to have deployed some 200 combat aircraft against some 100 targets related to one of Tehran’s most sensitive elements: its nuclear program. Over the course of several hours, the attack struck nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories, and military officials. The objective, according to Netanyahu, is to prevent Iran from obtaining atomic weapons, something it could achieve “in less than a year.” Tehran, which has promised a “severe” counterattack, subsequently launched around 100 drones toward Israeli territory.

Among the fatalities, according to the Iranian regime itself, is the head of the Revolutionary Guard, General Hossein Salami, who just hours earlier had declared that his forces were ready to “counter any aggression.” Other military officials and at least six scientists from the nuclear program were also killed. The Iranian news agency Tasnim identified them as Abdolhamid Minouchehr, Ahmadreza Zolfaghari, Amirhossein Feqhi, Motalleblizadeh, Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, and Fereydoun Abbasi. The Mehr news agency reported the deaths of at least nine people in Israeli airstrikes between Tehran, the capital, Tabriz, in the northwest of the country, and Shiraz, in the southwest. Both Iran and Israel have closed off their airspace.

Meanwhile, Israel is under a state of national emergency. Cell phone messages were issued, warning the population to take cover in case of a possible response from Iran. The Israeli army’s top commander acknowledged these threats, and shortly afterward, a military spokesman announced that Iran had launched 100 drones toward Israeli territory, which they were attempting to intercept.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei said in a message to the nation that the consequences of the Israeli attack launched in the early hours of the morning have been severe, including attacks on residential areas, but that the Jewish state must expect a “severe response.” Khamenei confirmed that several military commanders and scientists were killed in the bombings, but that “their successors and colleagues will resume their work immediately.”

Israel targets uranium enrichment site

“Our brave pilots are attacking a large number of targets across Iran,” Netanyahu announced in a video, detailing that the objective is “to attack Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, ballistic missile factories, and military capabilities.” Specifically, the Israeli prime minister referred to the bombing carried out on the Natanz nuclear facility in Isfahan province, where a uranium enrichment program up to a level of 60% purity has been in place since 2021. Iranian official sources acknowledge that the attacks hit these facilities several times.

As part of the offensive, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, the Mossad, carried out a series of sabotage operations to disable Iranian air defenses and missile installations, according to Axios reporter Barak David, speaking to CNN. No U.S. forces participated in the mission, but Netanyahu welcomed the role President Donald Trump is playing in curbing Tehran’s arms race.

“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,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In any case, Washington was previously informed of the attack, according to Israeli media.

Netanyahu recalled the attacks carried out by Tehran — the first of their kind in history — against Israel last April and October, and how they defended themselves by striking inside Iranian territory. The ballistic missiles used then, whose production capacity has increased to 10,000 in three years, “could carry a nuclear payload,” soon he warned, describing what he called an “intolerable threat” that could spread the “nightmare of nuclear terrorism” even to Europe and America. “Remember, Iran calls Israel the small Satan. It calls America the great Satan.” As in previous attacks, Netanyahu sought to send a message to the Iranian people, whom he claims he is trying to free from the yoke of their current regime. “I believe that the day of your liberation is near,” he declared.

Israeli authorities have declared a national state of emergency, allowing critical services to operate, and school classes and non-essential commercial activity have been suspended. “We have been preparing for this operation for a long time,” and “unprecedented efforts have been made,” but “I cannot promise absolute success” because “the Iranian regime will try to attack us in response,” acknowledged General Eyal Zamir, head of the Israel Defense Forces. Despite this thorough preparation, the order for the June 13 attack came from Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday. A “point of no return” had been reached, according to Zamir.

Netanyahu linked the Holocaust suffered by European Jews at the hands of the Nazis 80 years ago with the “nuclear Holocaust” that Iran supposedly intends to unleash. He believes that the first attempt to wipe out Israel has failed. This began with the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed in Israeli territory. That day opened the door to a new phase of the regional conflict in which the Jewish state maintains open fronts in addition to Iran — which it considers the leader of the so-called axis of evil — in Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria. Tehran, according to Netanyahu, is now seeking another avenue of attack, which is nuclear, and that is why he justified Friday’s preemptive strike.

In this sense, Netanyahu wants to establish himself as a regional savior by blocking Iran’s allies like Hezbollah in Lebanon, allowing that country to have a new government today. Something similar, he said, occurred with the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, and he also claims similar intent with his attempt to liquidate Hamas in Gaza, where more than 55,000 people have been killed by Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023.

Throughout Thursday, Israeli authorities had maintained a cautious silence regarding the operation and its imminence. With the complicity of its main ally, the United States, the possibility of striking Tehran had been sown through various media outlets in that country. As if it were all part of the perennial dialectic of war, the leaks alluded to the Jewish state’s readiness. President Donald Trump expressed his opposition to such an offensive and counted on the possibility of reaching an agreement with the Iranian regime. At the same time, Netanyahu warned that Israel was ready to respond should Iran launch a counterattack. The operation, the Israeli prime minister added, will continue for as many days as necessary to quell what they consider the Iranian threat, which Israel believes is capable of developing nuclear weapons “in less than a year.”

Both administrations had announced a sixth round of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear weapons program for this Sunday in Muscat, the capital of Oman. Previously, the White House envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, was set to meet with a high-level Israeli delegation led by Israeli Foreign Minister and Netanyahu’s right-hand man, Ron Dermer, and the head of the Mossad intelligence service overseas, David Barnea.

All of that has been blown out of the water by the Israeli strikes. Netanyahu justified the attack thus: “Today, it is clear that Iran is just buying time. It refuses to agree to this basic requirement of peaceful nations. That is why we have no choice but to act. And act now. The hardest decision any leader has to make is to thwart a danger before it is fully materialized.” The prime minister concluded his speech with further references to Nazism and the lessons learned throughout history, before resorting to the Holy Scriptures: “As the Bible teaches us, when someone comes to kill you, rise and act first. This is exactly what Israel has done today.”

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