Israel launches ‘preemptive’ strike on Iran
"A missile and drone attack against the state of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate future," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated.
Israel attacked Iran on Thursday, with explosions reportedly heard in Tehran. Israeli media reported, citing the Israeli air force, that dozens of Iranian nuclear and military sites were hit.
“Following the State of Israel’s preemptive strike against Iran, a missile and drone attack against the state of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate future,” Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister stated, per Axios.
Sirens were heard throughout Israel. The Israel Defense Forces announced “a prohibition on educational activities, gatherings and workplaces, except for essential sectors.”
Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, stated that he is at the embassy in Jerusalem and monitoring the situation closely. “We will remain here all night,” he wrote. “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”
A few hours before the strike, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that “we remain committed to a diplomatic resolution to the Iran nuclear issue.”
“My entire administration has been directed to negotiate with Iran,” the president stated. “They could be a great country, but they first must completely give up hopes of obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
“Game on. Pray for Israel,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) stated. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) stated that he is “proud to stand with Israel.”
Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, told JNS that “these strikes telegraph to Ayatollah Khamenei that there is a cost to his decades of sitting comfortably in Tehran while his proxies set the region on fire.”
“These Israeli operations will make it a little less comfortable for the ayatollah,” he told JNS. “It also underscores that a deadline is a deadline under President Trump and there are consequences to Iran’s stalling and rejecting the U.S. nuclear proposal.” (Brodsky noted on social media that the U.S. president’s two-month deadline expired on June 12.)
Zineb Riboua, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East, stated that there were reported explosions “in Natanz and Fordow, Iran’s major nuclear facilities.” PJC
This is a developing story.
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