Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not allow the "world's most dangerous regime to get the world's most dangerous weapons" following its strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
"Moments ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat," Netanyahu said in a video address. "Iran plans to give those weapons, nuclear weapons, to its terrorist proxies. That would make the nightmare of nuclear terrorism all too real."
Earlier, Israeli airstrikes targeted three military sites in Iran's northwest, resulting in the deaths of General Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces and the chief commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami, according to Iranian state television.