The Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck Iranian nuclear sites for the first time and other military targets throughout Iran during a multi-wave air raid early on June 13.

Israel’s Operation Rising Lion combined air strikes, covert sabotage, and Mossad infiltration to target Iran’s nuclear and missile sites.

Veteran nuclear scientists Mohammad-Mehdi Tehranchi and Fereydoon Abbasi have also been killed in separate attacks, Iranian state-owned Press TV reported. Khamenei condemned the targeted airstrikes on Iran's military and nuclear sites and vowed Tehran's severe retaliation against Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation, dubbed “Rising Lion,” did not have a set deadline. Defense officials quoted in Israeli media estimated that the conflict could last for weeks. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the military targeted over 100 sites in the Islamic Republic.

Early Friday morning, local time, Israel launched dozens of strikes against Iran and declared a state of emergency, according to Defense Minister Israel Katz.

Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran's vows of reprisals have brought the two Middle East adversaries closer to an all-out war, which also threatens to draw in the United States, at least to some degree.

Israeli air defenses repelled an Iranian airborne assault launched in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes aimed at preventing Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.

OPERATION RISING LION: Claiming that Iran was on the verge of producing as many as nine nuclear bombs, Israel launched what it said would be a multiday campaign to degrade Iran’s nuclear facilities and eliminate key military leaders and nuclear scientists.

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