The Israel Defense Forces’ unprecedented, large-scale preemptive military operation against Iran overnight on Friday eliminated senior Iranian military commanders and severely damaged its weapons program.
The historic operation, codenamed “Rising Lion,” involved approximately 200 Israeli aircraft striking more than 100 targets across the Islamic Republic, dropping more than 330 munitions, according to military officials.
In a series of statements, the IDF confirmed it had successfully targeted and killed Iran’s most senior military and security figures. The dead included the chief of staff of the armed forces of the Iranian regime, Mohammad Hossein Bagheri; the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami; and the commander of the Iranian Emergency Command, Gholam-Ali Rashid.
Simultaneously, a separate strike on an underground command center eliminated the senior leadership of the IRGC’s Air Force as they gathered to plan an attack on Israel, the IDF said on Friday afternoon.
Those killed included the commander of the IRGC’s Air Force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh; the commander of the IRGC’s UAV Force, Taher-pour; and the commander of the IRGC’s Aerial Command, Davoud Shaykhian. The IDF noted that Hajizadeh was personally responsible for the direct missile and UAV attacks against Israel in October and April 2024. These officials were also behind the Iranian drone attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities in September 2019.
International media reported the elimination of senior Iranian nuclear scientists, including Dr. Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, a former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization who had survived a past assassination attempt.
The IDF revealed that the operation was necessitated by intelligence showing Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons as part of a concrete, multi-pronged plan to annihilate the State of Israel. Additionally, the IDF said, materials collected by the IDF Intelligence Directorate exposed a coordinated effort between Tehran, Hamas and Hezbollah to rearm terror proxies for a simultaneous ground offensive against Israel from multiple fronts, in parallel with the nuclear effort.
IDF Spokesperson addresses nation
IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin addressed the nation on Friday, providing details on the scope of the attack and initial attempts by Iran at retaliation.
“Earlier, we warned of a widespread barrage of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] into our territory. Most of the targets were intercepted. Starting this night, hundreds of Air Force aircraft took off and completed a series of strikes on hundreds of military targets and targets from the nuclear program,” he said.
Defrin said the attacks were carried out in various regions throughout Iran.
Showing video graphics, he then added, “Now I will reveal to you the Natanz nuclear site that we attacked earlier. In the last few hours, we attacked the largest uranium enrichment site in Iran, within a range of 1,500 kilometers from the State of Israel. This facility was used by the Revolutionary Guards to advance the Iranian project to obtain a nuclear weapon.”
Pointing to the videos, he said, “As you can see, the site is located in the Natanz area, a subterranean space containing a multi-story enrichment hall with centrifuges, electrical rooms, and other supporting infrastructure. We attacked the subterranean space and we attacked other vital infrastructure at the site that enables its continued operation. We hit this site significantly.
“For many years, the people of the Iranian regime have been working to obtain a nuclear weapon. This site contains the necessary infrastructure for enriching uranium to a military grade. For years, the world tried to stop the regime in every possible way from developing a nuclear weapon, but the regime refused to stop. We were left with no choice but to act against this threat.”
Defrin added, “The Iranian regime continues to strive for the destruction of the State of Israel. We cannot allow this.”
According to Defrin, “The elimination of the Iranian regime’s security leadership and nuclear scientists was carried out thanks to precise and high-quality identification by the Intelligence Directorate and precise execution by the Air Force. At this hour, the IDF is continuing with the attack plan against the operation’s objectives, alongside a strong defense of the State of Israel. This morning was the opening shot of the operation. We decided to give a warning to all citizens of the State of Israel out of the understanding that there could be an immediate response on the home front.
Addressing Israelis directly, he said, “We updated you to allow for sufficient warning for a variety of scenarios. Even at this hour, the Air Force is operating to thwart and neutralize threats. You, the public, are required to continue to act with composure and responsibility. The air defense systems are strong and are operating at their fullest; the systems are operating all over the country to identify the speed of threats from Iranian territory, but the defense is not hermetic.”
The IDF Home Front Command has declared a special situation alert for the Israeli civilian domain.
‘Historic preemptive strike’
Earlier on Friday, a military official described the assault as a “historic preemptive strike aimed at removing an existential threat.”
He said, “The Iranian regime threatens to destroy the state of Israel. We have been following the intelligence closely and we have seen that the Iran regime is approaching the point of no return and rapidly advancing towards obtaining a nuclear weapon. We struck the Iranians, we struck their nuclear plan, and we struck military targets before they had the ability to have the means of mass destruction strike us with nuclear weapons. We had no other choice, and we launched this operation now because this is the most appropriate time in light of this concrete threat.”
Iran had obtained sufficient uranium for 15 nuclear bombs, the official stated.
“In the first stage, we carried out this operation with around 200 fighter jets over 2000 kilometers away from Israel. That included dozens of strikes on military targets, nuclear targets and facilities, and senior members of the Iranian General Staff and leaders of the nuclear program. This also includes targeting their aerial defense systems and targeting their ballistic missiles—manufacturing [sites] and ballistic missiles ready to be fired towards Israel. For the first time ever, 200 fighter jets took off in unison, striking precisely targets we have never struck before,” said the official.
The official noted, “This was a very planned operation carried out by the Israeli forces with approximately 200 aircraft operating simultaneously in different parts of Iran carrying out strikes against different targets. Our mission is very clear: To remove an existential threat.”
He added, “We are prepared for this to keep going on for days. And I don’t want to speak more about our operations. In response to a question about American assistance, the official stated, “This was an Israeli operation; Blue and White.”
Also on Friday, the head of the Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, spoke from the IDF’s command center in Tel Aviv, from where the strikes were directed, stating, “We are entering a campaign that is no less than existential, against an enemy that seeks to destroy us, that seeks to develop nuclear capabilities, and is advancing rapidly in its nuclear development. It also seeks to develop conventional weapons in extremely large quantities.
“This is the threat we want to degrade, disrupt, and eliminate…. The Intelligence Directorate has worked extremely hard to provide the warning on the nuclear advancement and the quantities of ballistic missiles. The Intelligence Directorate is prepared for this mission, is at a very high level of alert, and is, I believe, strongly positioned for the start of the campaign we are now entering.”
Israeli media reports detailed a series of covert operations attributed to the Mossad that took place on the ground inside Iran to complement the air campaign. One reported operation involved Mossad commando units deploying pre-positioned precision-guided missile systems in open areas near Iranian surface-to-air missile batteries.
These were activated remotely as the Israeli air strikes began, firing simultaneously at their targets. In another operation, sophisticated attack systems were reportedly secretly installed on vehicles, which were then used to destroy Iranian air defense systems.
A third operation involved a swarm of explosive drones, which had been reportedly smuggled into Iran long before the attack, being launched from a base near Tehran to destroy strategic surface-to-surface missile launchers at a base.
In the hours following the initial strikes, Iran launched over 100 UAVs (drones) toward Israel, most of which were intercepted. Iranian state media initially denied the deaths of its top commanders but later officially confirmed the eliminations of Bagheri, Salami and Rashid. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed temporary replacements, naming General Habibollah Sayyari as the new chief of staff and General Ahmad Vahidi, a former minister wanted by Argentina for the 1994 AMIA bombing, as the new commander of the IRGC.