- Israeli military says it launched a wave of strikes against Iranian military and nuclear sites in a major escalation. Strikes have also hit central Tehran.
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned Israel that it “must expect severe punishment” following the “crime” of attacking Iran and killing several top-level military commanders and six nuclear scientists.
- Israeli military says Iran launched 100 drones shortly after strikes, army is working to intercept them.
- Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the military operation will continue as long as necessary.
- United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the US is “not involved” in the strikes and warns Iran against attacking American bases in the region.
These are the top commanders, the top people in power in Iran for many, many years. They are very well-known figures. They have a long history inside Iran and a military background, either from the IRGC or the army, so their assassination is an alarming development.
It means that Israel is not just targeting nuclear facilities, but also top military commanders as well as nuclear scientists who used to be active in Iran’s nuclear programme.
For example, Fereydoun Abbasi [the former head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran]. He survived an assassination attempt in 2010, and he has been sort of in the periphery of the establishment for a few years.
Mohammad Bagheri was the second in command of the entire country’s forces, the army and the Revolutionary Guard.
Hossein Salami was somebody who was always heavily guarded, so for him to die in this kind of specific attack means Israel has had people on the ground inside Iran who have been working towards these clandestine operations for a long time.
All Israeli pilots returned home safely from Iran mission, official says
All Israeli pilots involved in this morning’s strikes on Iran have returned safely home, an Israeli military official said, as the country’s armed forces continued assessing the results of the operation.
The official, speaking to a group of foreign reporters on condition of anonymity, said the air force had launched simultaneous strikes on multiple targets, including Iranian ballistic missiles that were pointed towards Israel.
“We have already achieved a lot,” he said.
Israel is prepared for the confrontation to continue over several days, depending in part on how Iran responds, he said, adding that Iran had already launched more than 100 drones towards Israel, many of which had already been intercepted
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Iran’s supreme leader names new IRGC chief
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has appointed Major General Mohammad Pakpour as the new commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after the killing of Hossein Salami, the Tasnim news agency reports.
As we reported earlier, the former head of the military branch was assassinated in Israeli strikes along with several other key military figures.
Israelis ‘hysterical’, panic buying as they await Iran’s response
Israeli political scientist Ori Goldberg has told Al Jazeera that the Israeli government’s warning to citizens to stock up on enough essentials to last for two weeks seems to have been taken to heart.
“I live above a small grocery store [in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv]”, he said. “I went down there at around 10am (07:00 GMT). It was like the fall of Saigon.
“There was a line stretching out forever and only the meanest dry goods left. It’s profoundly hysterical, but at the same time, people are rallying around the flag,” he added.
Iran launched more than 100 drones towards Israel as an initial response to its strikes, but a much stronger response is expected in the coming hours.
Israeli attack on Iran serves Netanyahu’s political ambitions
Ori Goldberg, an Israeli political commentator, says Israel’s attack on Iran serves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political goals.
“Israel, under Netanyahu, thrives on the notion of a Forever War, as well as on borders that are as blurry as possible and on the idea that Israel deserves a full and complete impunity for whatever it chooses to do,” Goldberg told Al Jazeera.
“In that sense, a deal between the United States and Iran would have been highly disruptive to what Israel considers to be its interests at the moment,” Goldberg said, referring to ongoing negotiations between the US and Iran on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The attack, Goldberg said, is also the result of a rapprochement between Netanyahu and the Israeli army after a year of tension over the war in Gaza.
“Both the [Israeli army] and Netanyahu hoped to find redemption in the strike against Iran,” Goldberg said, noting that the list of targets suggests that the goal was not decapitating Iran’s nuclear program, but carrying out assassinations of senior Iranian leaders, which has been a goal of the Israeli army for a long time.
“This is mainly for domestic purposes to restore faith in Netanyahu and make him potentially eligible for the next elections, or perhaps even to be acquitted at his trial, but also for the IDF and the Israeli defense establishment and for the general populace to rally around the flag and to leave behind disagreements about questions like the fate of the hostages”.
