Israel strike on Iran live updates: People in Iran’s capital Tehran woke up to loud explosions as the Israeli Air Force conducted airstrikes on Iran, targeting its nuclear and military sites under ‘Operation Rising Lion’. The attack comes amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran over the latter’s progressing work on its nuclear program.
Following the strikes, Israel is anticipating a retaliation from Iran and said it was declaring a state of emergency, Reuters reported.
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said in a statement after the strikes, “Following the preemptive strike by the State of Israel against Iran, a missile and UAV (drone) attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate timeframe.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country’s strikes on Iran are aimed at hurting its nuclear infrastructure, its ballistic missile factories and many of its military capabilities.
“Moments ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,” he said.
During the strikes, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami was killed, reported the local media.
“Major General Hossein Salami, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was martyred in the Israeli regime’s attack on the IRGC headquarters,” reported a news agency Tasnim.
Iran’s chief of staff of armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, was also killed in the strikes, reported Iranian state television.
Reacting to the attack, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned Israel of ‘bitter and painful fate’ and said that the country will suffer severe consequences.
“With this crime, the Zionist regime has set itself for a bitter and painful fate and it will definitely receive it,” Khamenei said in a statement, reported AFP.
The strikes come after the United States made it clear that they do not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon under any circumstances and also started withdrawing their personnel from the Middle-East.
According to an Israeli PM Netanyahu, “In recent years, Iran has produced enough highly enriched uranium for nine atom bombs.”
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