Israel's military said it targeted Iranian nuclear facilities and research scientists in dozens of preemptive airstrikes early Friday morning local time, the first wave of what it said could be a days-long attack — and leading Iran to launch a wave of more than 100 drones at Israel in retaliation. The Israel Defense Forces said its air defenses were "working to intercept the threats."
The Iranian drones could take as long as nine hours to reach Israel's airspace, but Israel has previously intercepted Iranian weapons before they get that close. The timing of the Iranian drone launch was not clear, but Israeli media said some were expected to start arriving in the country's airspace by about midday local time, which would be about 4 a.m. Eastern.
In a video statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Israel's strikes — dubbed "Operation Rising Lion" — as "a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival."
Iranian state television said the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, was killed in the strikes, as was Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of the staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.
Netanyahu said the strikes "will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat."
