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Israel pounds Iran: Tehran fires 100 drones at Israel in retaliatory attack; IDF moves to intercept

Israel pounds Iran: Tehran fires 100 drones at Israel in retaliatory attack; IDF moves to intercept

Time of India3 days ago

Iran launched about 100 drones towards Israel in retaliation for the kinetic operation Israel carried out at Tehran's nuclear facilities early Friday.
The Israeli army told news agency AFP that the army is working to intercept the drones launched by Iran.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said Israel launched a "targeted military operation" against Iran, striking "at the heart" of Tehran's ballistic missile programme.
The Israeli PM said the attack was to roll back the threat to Israel's "very survival". Netanyahu said Israel's attack on Iran would "continue for as many days as it takes" after Israel announced it had carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites.
"This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat," Netanyahu said in a video statement, naming the operation "Rising Lion", reported news agency AFP.
"We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear enrichment programme. We targeted Iran's main enrichment facility at Natanz... We also struck at the heart of Iran's ballistic missile programme," he said, adding that Israel had also hit Iranian nuclear scientists "working on the Iranian bomb," he said.
Netanyahu on Friday said that Israel struck Iran's main enrichment facility in Natanz.
He said the Israeli forces also attacked Tehran's leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb and ballistic missile programme.
"We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear enrichment programme. We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear weaponisation programme. We targeted Iran's main enrichment facility in Natanz. We targeted Iran's leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb.
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We also struck at the heart of Iran's ballistic missile programme," Netanyahu said in an address shortly after "Operation Rising Lion".
The Israeli offensive on Iran this Friday resulted in injuries to at least 50 individuals, with women and children amongst the casualties, according to state television broadcasts in the Islamic Republic.
In the Israeli attack, high-profile Iranians like Iran Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami, Iran's military chief Mohammad Bagheri, along with several high-ranking military officials were also killed.

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Operation Rising Lion: How Israel's proactive approach should shape Bharat's strategic thinking
Operation Rising Lion: How Israel's proactive approach should shape Bharat's strategic thinking

First Post

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  • First Post

Operation Rising Lion: How Israel's proactive approach should shape Bharat's strategic thinking

Israel's Operation Rising Lion has been an audacious gambit that has so far been successful for the Netanyahu government. More than 20 Iranian military commanders, including Army chief Mohammed Bagheri, have been killed, and several key military assets and nuclear sites destroyed, in the biggest direct conflict between the two nations that started with Tel Aviv's military operation on Friday. Nine scientists working on Iran's nuclear programme too have reportedly been killed. Iran's air defence systems, military airbases and parts of their key nuclear sites were decimated by Israel's military exercise. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD It is still too early to predict the contour of the conflict, but at this point of time it is apparent that Israel has gained a definite advantage over its arch-rival with its timely and precise targeting. What gives Tel Aviv an edge is its undiminished sense of shatrubodh, which, when mixed with its never-give-up attitude and incessant, long-term planning, helps Israel achieve results, historic and unprecedented. Israel's success mantra is simple: Prepare for war in the time of peace. Use that 'free time' to your advantage. In recent memory, the only time Israel goofed up—and goofed up badly—was on October 7, 2023, when more than 1,000 Hamas terrorists stormed into southern Israel and went on a killing spree, murdering 1,200 men, women and children and abducting another 250 people. This aberration apart, this tiny nation of less than one crore people has had splendid successes. In the past year and a half, after the October 7 fiasco, it has emasculated Hamas after flattening Gaza and decapitated the Hezbollah leadership with a never-seen-before usage of civilian technology for military purposes. Coming back to Operation Rising Lion, it has its genesis in Mossad pulling off 'one of the most spectacular exploits in the entire history of espionage on the eve of January 31, 2018', as authors Yonah Jeremy Bob and Ilan Evyatar write in their 2024 book Target Tehran. 'After months of meticulous planning, endless hours of sophisticated electronic surveillance, and the risky infiltration of Israeli agents into Iran, the Mossad team broke into the secret warehouse where Iran's nuclear archive, containing the full record of its efforts to become a nuclear weapons power, was kept,' write the authors. Very little is known in the public about Mossad's 2018 operation, but Target Tehran explains how meticulously planned this exercise was. The Israeli team had 'exactly six and a half hours to find the vast amount of material they needed, load it onto trucks, and make their escape, or they would be discovered, and the mission, with all its months of meticulous planning—data analysis, risky intelligence gathering by agents infiltrated into Iran, and more—would come to naught, and two dozen lives could be lost to the tender mercies of Iranian justice'. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The 2018 operation was a grand success. The revelations of the archive's contents proved that Iran had been lying for years about its nuclear programme, hiding its true military nature by claiming it was only for civilian use. This gave Donald Trump, who was then the US President, an excuse to withdraw the US from the Iran nuclear deal signed with much fanfare in 2015. Israel was well aware that these measures could only delay the nuclear inevitable. The next step would be to give a physical body blow to the project, but in between came the Biden administration. Tel Aviv used this time to strengthen itself, and when Trump 2.0 was inaugurated, the Israeli leadership knew its time had come. Israel is bound by what's famously called the Samson Option, a term named after the Biblical figure who killed himself and thousands of Israel's enemies by bringing down the pillars of the Gazan temple where he was held captive. Given the fact that Israel lacks significant landmass, it has made nuclear weapons the centrepiece of its strategic deterrence, thus conveying to its adversaries in no uncertain terms that it would be willing to cross the nuclear threshold in the event of an existential threat. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD A geographically bigger country like Bharat may think it's not bound by the Samson Option, but given the revolutionary changes taking place in arms and armament, and of course, modern warfare, the difference seems to be mitigating between a big and a small nation. Bharat needs to realise that the era belongs to those who pursue a proactive rather than a reactive policy. Of course, the action has to be a well-calibrated, responsible one, but in today's era, to wait for the act to take place can be too devastating to recover. This should be the next evolutionary stage of Bharat's military tactics. You don't wait. You pre-empt. You ensure that the enemy is neutralised well before it is ready with its first move. Today, Bharat has every reason to rejoice the stupendous success of Operation Sindoor, but, taking a cue from the dear friend Israel, Bharat should start preparing for the worst. The enemy is now well aware of the giant leap taken by Bharat on the military front and is preparing itself accordingly. This is the time for the preparation of Operation Sindoor 2.0. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD As for Israel's Operation Rising Lion, Bharat should give silent support. Though there will be many bleeding-heart commentators in the subcontinent who would bemoan the attack on Iran, the fact of the matter is that the decline of the current Iranian dispensation will weaken the Islamist axis that invariably targets Bharat and its geostrategic interests. There is no denying that Bharat has maintained good relations with Iran, but it has been tactical in nature. Israel, on the other hand, is an all-weather friend. A weakened Tehran is also bad news for Islamabad. Pakistan becomes much less important, geostrategically, for the US. The idea that Pakistan has ever been a reliable supporter of the US is a perception Americans have created to deceive themselves; in reality, Pakistan has harmed US interests far more than it has forwarded them. If Operation Rising Lion is effective in considerably weakening the current Iranian dispensation, if not managing the regime change, Pakistan would believe that it is now next in the line of the Israeli fire. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD One hopes the leadership of Bharat takes adequate lessons from Operation Rising Lion. The country needs to change. It has to change from being a reactive to an assertive power, but without compromising its ethical, moral compass. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.

When Israel And India Nearly Bombed Pakistan's Kahuta Nuclear Site, But Indira Gandhi Backed Out
When Israel And India Nearly Bombed Pakistan's Kahuta Nuclear Site, But Indira Gandhi Backed Out

News18

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When Israel And India Nearly Bombed Pakistan's Kahuta Nuclear Site, But Indira Gandhi Backed Out

Last Updated: According to a TOI report, Israel had drawn up a dramatic blueprint in the early 1980s to replicate its infamous 1981 airstrike on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor The ongoing war between Israel and Iran, marked by missile exchanges and intensifying hostilities, has revived memories of a covert operation that was once poised to redraw the nuclear map of South Asia. In the shadow of Tel Aviv's current offensive against Iran's nuclear assets, a nearly executed strike plan from the 1980s has returned to global discourse, a joint Israeli-Indian mission to destroy Pakistan's burgeoning nuclear program. According to a detailed report published by The Times of India, Israel had drawn up a dramatic blueprint in the early 1980s to replicate its infamous 1981 airstrike on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor, targeting Pakistan's highly guarded Kahuta facility. The plan was more audacious than its predecessor, involving Israeli F-15 and F-16 fighter jets taking off from airbases at Jamnagar and Udhampur, supported by India's own Jaguar aircraft. The central fear driving Israel's proposal was the possibility of Pakistan passing nuclear know-how to hostile nations. Then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin even expressed alarm to his British counterpart, Margaret Thatcher, over growing ties between Islamabad and Tripoli. There was deep anxiety in Tel Aviv that Pakistani scientists could transfer atomic secrets to Libya, a regime then seen as a nuclear wild card. India's then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi initially greenlit the operation, giving the impression of a rare military and strategic alignment between India and Israel. But the plan was eventually abandoned, just weeks later. The domestic situation in India was spiraling as Bhindranwale's separatist movement was gaining ground in Punjab, unrest was spreading in Jammu and Kashmir, and India's standoff with Pakistan over the Siachen Glacier was heating up. Moreover, the geopolitical risks were deemed too great. US intelligence reportedly caught wind of the plan and subtly passed warnings to Pakistan, which promptly threatened retaliatory airstrikes using its newly acquired American F-16s. The US, then deeply enmeshed in backing Pakistan's efforts in Afghanistan against Soviet forces, was unlikely to support any action that destabilised Islamabad. Indira Gandhi, wary of triggering a full-blown war in the subcontinent, backed off. After her assassination in 1984, the plan was buried for good. Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded her as Prime Minister, formally shelved the operation. By then, Pakistan's nuclear program had made significant advances, and the window for pre-emption had closed. In a twist of diplomatic restraint, both countries took a historic step in 1988. India and Pakistan signed an agreement pledging not to attack each other's nuclear facilities. Since then, the two rivals have exchanged lists of their nuclear installations every January 1 as part of a confidence-building measure that still holds, even amid border skirmishes and political tensions. First Published: June 16, 2025, 17:06 IST

Tehran fires 100 missiles at Tel Aviv; nuclear tensions rise
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Time of India

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Tehran fires 100 missiles at Tel Aviv; nuclear tensions rise

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