Israel’s Operation Focus: What’s Happening Now

Israel’s military and intelligence operation against Iran that began Thursday night is unprecedented in scale and scope. In the hours before the strike, some insiders said they thought Israel could be rattling sabers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast Israel’s operation as pre-emptive strikes to destroy an existential threat. Iran’s advance, he declared, was “at the 90th minute” towards the development of a nuclear bomb.

Israel Strikes Iran: How We Got Here

Early Friday local time, Israel finally did what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been threatening to do for years: It launched a massive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, killing top Iranian military leaders and scientists and destroying an aboveground nuclear enrichment plant near Natanz. The Israeli operation didn’t just include air strikes. Israel’s Mossad intelligence service has operatives on the ground conducting covert sabotage operations on missile and air defense sites, officials said. Israel is expected to keep pounding Iran’s underground nuclear facilities in the coming days, along with other targets. Israel launched at least six waves of air strikes in what it is calling Operation Rising Lion. More are expected in the next hours and days. The first, at around 3.30am Iran time, struck command.

Iran’s Response and What’s Next

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has warned that Israel faces a ‘bitter and painful’ fate following the attack. Tehran has said it considers Israeli strikes on military leaders and nuclear sites to be a “declaration of war.” Iran launched retaliatory strikes on Israel after Netanyahu said Israel began an operation to push back on Iran’s “threat to Israel’s very survival.”