While the Israeli military attacks on Iranian nuclear and military targets that began in the early hours of 13 June 2025 might have come as a surprise to some – including possibly US President Donald Trump – they can otherwise be regarded as inevitable.
Ever since 7 June 1981, when the Israeli Air Force destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak near Baghdad, Israel has shown that it is fully prepared to strike decisively at the nuclear facilities of hostile states deemed to present a clear and present threat to the Jewish state’s existence.
Then, following deployment of the Stuxnet malicious computer worm sometime around 2007, the centrifuges at Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Natanz were significant damaged in early 2009. More recently, on 11 April 2021, the centrifuges were again sabotaged.
In parallel with these Israeli actions to roll back Iran’s nuclear weapon programme, international diplomacy aimed at limiting Iran’s nuclear activities has failed. Iran has been repeatedly breached its Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations, while the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed by Iran with the UN Security Council’s five permanent members plus Germany, which took effect on 20 January 2016 and under which Iran agreed to limits its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief and other provisions, fell into abeyance when President Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in May 2018, during his first term.
Prior to 13 June it was presumed that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, key parts of which are buried underground, would require US assistance with provision of the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP): a 13,600 kg ‘bunker buster’ munition first delivered to the US Air Force in September 2011.
However, it appears that the Israeli government proceeded regardless with its attack on Iran as President Trump tried and failed to return Tehran to the negotiating table for a new deal regarding its nuclear weapon programme.
Moreover, in an offensive that hit scores of Iranian targets, including nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow, Israel also targeted a key component of the Iranian nuclear weapon programme that cannot easily be replaced: Iran’s nuclear scientists. Among those killed in the Israeli raids are: Fereydoon Abbasi, a former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation who had publicly stated he was prepared to build an Iranian nuclear bomb; nuclear scientist Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, who was also the head of Azad University in Tehran; Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari, a nuclear engineering professor at Shahid Beheshti University; and Amirhossein Feqhi, a nuclear professor who also worked at Shahid Beheshti University.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) posted on X on 14 June that nine senior Iranian nuclear scientists had been killed.
The Israeli strikes also killed around 20 senior Iranian military leaders, including: Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the Iranian armed forces’ chief of staff; Major General Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC); Major General Gholam Ali Rashid, commander of the IRGC’s Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters, which is responsible for joint Iranian military operations; and Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Forces, which control’s Iran’s strategic missiles.
The Israeli airstrikes, which began around 0330 local time on 13 June and reportedly involved more than 200 strike aircraft, initially struck at least 100 targets, including nuclear facilities, military and radar sites, and the residential homes of Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists.
Grainy footage released on social media by Mossad, Israel’s Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, also revealed that its operators were active in Iran just prior to the Israeli air strikes, using drones and other weapon systems to attack and destroy Iranian air defence sites and possibly other targets.
By the evening of 13 June Iran had responded by launching ballistic missiles and bomb-laden unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at Israel. Images on social media of large plumes of smoke engulfing the Tel Aviv skyline suggested that at least some Iranian ballistic missiles had penetrated Israel’s considerable, multi-layer air defences. IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted on X that Iran had launched less than 100 missiles in two waves towards Israel. This is much less than the barrage of more than 300 missiles and UAVs that Iran launched against Israel on 13 April 2024, which was in response to an Israeli air strike on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus on 1 April 2024 that killed Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, commander of the Quds Force of the IRGC, along with other IRGC commanders.
As Israel and Iran continued to trade blows on the evening of 13 June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Iranian people in a televised press conference, claiming that the Israeli strikes were directed at the Iranian regime, rather than its people. “We are in the midst of one of the greatest military operations in history: Operation ‘Rising Lion’, said Netanyahu. “The Islamic regime, which has oppressed you for nearly 50 years, threatens to destroy my country, the state of Israel. The objective of Israel’s military operation is to remove this threat, both the nuclear threat and the ballistic missile threat to Israel, and as we achieve our objectives we are also clearing the path for you to achieve your objective, which is freedom.
“In the past 24 hours we’ve taken out top military commanders, senior nuclear scientists, the Islamic regime’s most significant enrichment facility, and a large portion of its ballistic missile arsenal. More is on the way,” Netanyahu warned.
It thus appears clear that Netanyahu’s relentless pursuit of Israel’s strategic objectives – which in Gaza against Iran-supported Islamic militant group Hamas has seen Israel internationally accused of war crimes, given the killing of thousands of innocent civilians – is being conducted entirely unilaterally, with the US Trump administration reduced to becoming a mere bystander to events.
Soon after the Israeli strikes began US Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a statement asserting that Israel had taken “unilateral action” and stating, “We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel.”
Whether or not the US government was notified in advance of the Israeli offensive against Iran is almost irrelevant. However the situation pans out in the coming weeks, it appears clear that Netanyahu is in the driving seat.
