Shortly before sunrise in Iran on Friday, Israel launched the first strikes of its operation against the regime’s nuclear program.

That operation, called “Rising Lion,” had two prongs: Heavy airstrikes against at least one of Iran’s enrichment sites, and more targeted strikes in Tehran to decapitate the regime’s military leadership. It aimed to halt what Israel said was Tehran’s rapid progress in developing nuclear weapons.

Israel’s attack came after years of threats and days of heightened speculation – but without the United States’ blessing. The Trump administration stressed that Israel acted unilaterally and that Washington was “not involved.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation would continue “for as many days as it takes” to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat. Tehran, which insists its nuclear program is peaceful, says it has “no option but to respond.”

Here’s what you need to know.

Where and when did Israel strike?

Shortly after explosions rocked Tehran, Israel also struck elsewhere in the country. Israel’s military said it used jets to strike “dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets in different areas of Iran.”

An explosion was reported at Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) south of Tehran.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), confirmed that Natanz had been hit, but said it had not observed an increase in radiation levels in the area.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the IAEA, said other nuclear facilities in Iran – Isfahan, Bushehr and Fordow – were not impacted. The Fordow site is buried under a mountain, and is considered a much harder target for Israel.

What did Israel say?

In a televised address, Netanyahu said Israel had taken action to “roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival,” and said it would continue its operation for as long as it takes “to remove these threats.”

Netanyahu claimed that Iran had in recent years produced enough highly enriched uranium for nine nuclear weapons.

“Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year, it could be within a few months,” he said. “This is a clear and present danger to Israel’s survival.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also said it had destroyed Iran’s ballistic missile launch sites and stockpiles.

Who did Israel kill?

Several of the most important men in Iran’s military and its nuclear program were killed in Israel’s strikes.

Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the secretive Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was the highest-profile of those killed.

Israel also said it killed Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces; Ali Shamkhani, a close aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; and Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s air force.

How might Iran hit back?

Iran’s retaliation has already begun. The IDF said Tehran has fired more than 100 drones toward Israel and that Israeli defenses were working to intercept the drones.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian urged the Iranian people to remain unified and trust Iran’s leadership.

“The nation needs unity… more than ever,” he added.

After a series of lethal and embarrassing Israeli blows against the Iranian regime, it is not clear how Tehran might attempt to exact retribution.

Following previous Israeli attacks against Iran and its proxies in the region, Tehran fired back with huge salvos of ballistic missiles.

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington DC, said this time it was “possible that Israel somehow disrupted Iran’s response by targeting Iran’s ballistic missile launch sites and stockpiles.”

How has the US responded?

The Trump administration – which has been pursuing a diplomatic path with Iran in recent weeks – sought to distance itself from Israel’s attack.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel’s actions were “unilateral.” Although Israel notified the US ahead of its strikes, Rubio said the US was “not involved” in the attack.

“Our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” he added. Earlier this week, the US had made efforts to arrange the departure of non-essential personnel from various countries in the Middle East, leading to speculation that an Israeli attack on Iran could be imminent.

US President Donald Trump urged Iran to agree to a new nuclear deal “before there is nothing left,” suggesting that follow-up Israeli attacks on the country would be “even more brutal.”

Trump said he had given Iran “chance after chance” to make a deal. “JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” he wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.

What happened to the last Iran nuclear deal?

Under a 2015 nuclear deal struck by former US President Barack Obama, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed to drastically limit its number of centrifuges and cap uranium enrichment at levels far below those required to make weapons, in exchange for sanctions relief.

But during his first term as president in 2018, Trump withdrew from the JCPOA, saying the “rotten structure” of the agreement was not enough to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb. He ramped up sanctions on Iran and threatened to sanction any country that helped the regime to obtain nuclear weapons.

In his second term, Trump has revived efforts to strike a new nuclear deal with Iran. Just hours before Israel’s strikes, the president cautioned Israel against launching an attack while US-Iran talks are ongoing.

“As long as I think there is an agreement, I don’t want them going in because that would blow it. Might help it, actually, but also could blow it,” Trump said.

After decades of threats, Israel on Friday launched an audacious attack on Iran, targeting its nuclear sites, scientists and military leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation had “struck at the head of Iran’s nuclear weaponization program.”

But international assessments, including by the US intelligence community, say that Iran’s nuclear program isn’t currently weaponized. Tehran has also repeatedly insisted it isn’t building a bomb.

Still, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t if it chose to.

Iran has spent decades developing its nuclear program and sees it as a source of national pride and sovereignty. It maintains the program is solely for peaceful energy purposes and plans to build additional nuclear power plants to meet domestic energy needs and free up more oil for export.

Nuclear plants require a fuel called uranium – and according to the UN nuclear watchdog, no other country has the kind of uranium that Iran currently does without also having a nuclear weapons program.

That has fueled suspicions that Iran isn’t being fully transparent about its intentions. Tehran has used its stockpile of weapons-grade uranium as a bargaining chip in talks with the United States, repeatedly saying it would get rid of it if US-led sanctions are lifted.

So, what exactly is uranium’s role in a nuclear weapon, and how far is Iran from weaponizing its program? Here’s what you need to know.

When did Iran’s nuclear program start?

The US launched a nuclear program with Iran in 1957. Back then, the Western-friendly monarch – the Shah – ruled Iran and the two countries were still friends.

With backing from the US, Iran started developing its nuclear power program in the 1970s. But the US pulled its support when the Shah was overthrown during the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Since the revolution, which transformed Iran into an Islamic Republic, Western nations have worried the country could use its nuclear program to produce atomic weapons using highly enriched uranium.

Iran has maintained that it does not seek to build nuclear weapons. It is a party to the UN’s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), under which it has pledged not to develop a bomb.

Here’s where its nuclear facilities are located.

Why is the program so controversial?

At the heart of the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program is its enrichment of uranium – a process used to produce fuel for power plants that, at higher levels, can also be used to make a nuclear bomb.

In the early 2000s, international inspectors announced that they had found traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian plant in Natanz. Iran temporarily halted enrichment, but resumed it in 2006, insisting it was allowed under its agreement with the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

It prompted years of international sanctions against Iran.

After years of negotiations, Iran and six world powers in 2015 agreed to a nuclear deal that limited Iran’s nuclear threat in return for lighter sanctions.

The deal required Iran to keep its uranium enrichment levels at no more than 3.67%, down from near 20%, dramatically reduce its uranium stockpile, and phase out its centrifuges, among other measures.

Uranium isn’t bomb-grade until it’s enriched to 90% purity. And nuclear power plants that generate electricity use uranium that is enriched to between 3.5% and 5%.

Does Iran have nuclear weapons?

It’s unclear how close Iran might be to actually building a nuclear bomb, if at all, but it has made significant progress in producing its key ingredient: highly enriched uranium. In recent years, it has sharply reduced the time needed to reach weapons-grade levels – now requiring just about a week to produce enough for one bomb.

In 2018, Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and initiated new sanctions on the regime to cripple its economy.

Tehran in turn said it would stop complying with parts of the agreement, and started increasing uranium enrichment and uranium stockpiles, and using advanced centrifuges.

It removed all of the IAEA equipment previously installed for surveillance and monitoring activities.

The Biden administration then kicked off more than a year of indirect negotiations with Iran aimed at reviving the deal, but those broke down in 2022.

In 2023, the IAEA said uranium particles enriched to 83.7% purity – close to bomb-grade levels – were found at an Iranian nuclear facility. Its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60% had also grown to 128.3 kilograms, the highest level then documented.

And last year, the US shortened Iran’s so-called “breakout time” – the amount of time needed to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon – “to one or two weeks.”

An IAEA report sent to member states late last month said Iran’s stock of 60% purity enriched uranium had now grown to 408 kilograms. That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick.

The IAEA has long accused Iran of violating its non-proliferation obligations, but on Thursday – for the first time in almost 20 years – its board passed a resolution officially declaring Iran in breach of those obligations. Iran promised to respond by escalating its nuclear activities.

What exactly is enriched uranium?

Enrichment is a process that increases the amount of uranium-235, a special type of uranium used to power nuclear reactors or, in much higher amounts, to make nuclear weapons.

Natural uranium is mostly uranium‑238 – about 99.3%, which isn’t good for power or bombs. Only about 0.7% is uranium‑235, the part needed to release energy.

For nuclear energy use, that tiny amount of useful uranium-235 needs to be concentrated. To do this, uranium is first turned into a gas, then spun at high speeds in machines called centrifuges. These machines help separate uranium-235 from the more common uranium-238. That is what enrichment is.

Uranium used in nuclear power plants is typically enriched to about 3.67%. To make a nuclear bomb, it needs to be enriched to around 90%. Iran has enriched uranium to 60% – not enough for a bomb, but a major step closer to weapons-grade material.

Centrifuges are essential for enriching uranium. The more advanced the centrifuge, the faster and more efficiently it can separate uranium-235 from uranium-238 – shortening the time needed to produce nuclear fuel or, potentially, weapons-grade material. Iran has spent decades improving its centrifuge technology, starting with its first-generation IR-1 model in the late 1980s. Today, it operates thousands of machines, including advanced models like the IR-6 and IR-9.

According to the Arms Control Association, Iran’s current centrifuge capacity could allow it to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a bomb in less than two weeks.

How has Iran’s nuclear program been hit?

Israel says it’s targeting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure in its attack.

The nuclear complex there, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) south of the capital Tehran, is considered Iran’s largest uranium enrichment facility. Analysts say the site is used to develop and assemble centrifuges for uranium enrichment, a key technology that turns uranium into nuclear fuel.

The IAEA said three nuclear sites, Fordow, Isfahan and Bushehr, had not been impacted.

Six of Iran’s nuclear scientists were also killed in Israel’s strikes, Iranian state-affiliated Tasnim news agency said.

Some facilities are buried deep underground to put them out of reach of Israel’s weapons.

The Israeli military has warned that “all of Israel is under fire” after Tehran launched retaliatory strikes on Friday, following Israel’s attacks on Iranian military and nuclear targets.

Iran confirmed Friday evening local time that it had fired “hundreds of various ballistic missiles” towards Israel, in what it called the “beginning” of its “crushing response.”

“Moments ago, with the launch of hundreds of various ballistic missiles toward the occupied territories, the operation of decisive response to the savage attack of the Zionist regime has begun,” Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, reported.

Iranian munitions have fallen on at least one community within Tel Aviv, but no injuries have been reported so far, according to an Israeli police spokesperson.

“A short time ago, the Israel Police received reports of fallen munitions in one of the communities within the Tel Aviv District. At this stage, no injuries have been reported, but property damage has occurred,” the spokesperson said.

“Police officers and bomb disposal experts are currently working to isolate the impact sites,” the spokesperson added.

The Iranian barrage comes after Israel launched a massive two-pronged attack on Iran early Friday morning local time, with strikes aimed at destroying Iranian nuclear sites and decapitating its military leadership in Tehran.

Israel’s attack culminated years of threats and days of heightened speculation – but was executed without the blessing of Israel’s closest ally: the United States. The Trump administration has stressed that Israel acted unilaterally and that Washington was “not involved.”

Iran’s retaliation Friday evening began just as a press briefing with Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials was underway.

Effie Defrin, spokesperson for the IDF, was answering questions from journalists when an announcement was played over a speakerphone. The broadcast of the briefing was then cut short.

Defense systems are operating to intercept the missiles, a statement from the Israel Defense Forces read. It has instructed the public to seek shelter.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Investigators have recovered equipment from this week’s tragic plane crash in Ahmedabad, India, which could shed light on the final moments on the flight deck.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, which were recovered from on top of the medical college hostel building where the plane crashed, could put to rest some of the speculation into the investigation that killed 241 people aboard the aircraft, according to aviation industry experts.

The flight data recorder was recovered from the rear end of the plane.

“It’s quite dramatic,” Goelz said. “It looked to me like the plane was trying to land at the end. It was flaring, but we just won’t know until we get the boxes back.”

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau of India is in possession of the recorders and other potential pieces of evidence for the investigation. The data recorders are expected to give some insight into what happened during the flight’s final moments, when pilots were making critical decisions.

Less than a minute after takeoff, staff on the plane gave a mayday call to air traffic control, Indian civil aviation authorities said.

The deadly crash has drawn even more global attention to air safety and spurred on public anxieties about flying. There have already been several aviation tragedies and incidents this year — including January’s midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet — that have prompted calls to increase safety measures.

Boeing’s Dreamliner

Boeing’s 787-8 Dreamliner is highly regarded by many aviation experts for its reliability and engineering. In the last 14 years, the fleet has carried more than 1 billion total passengers, according to Boeing.

“It truly is an amazing airplane, and when they engineered it, it was completely off the normal production line of what Boeing usually creates,” said Erika Armstrong, a pilot and director of marketing at Advanced Aircrew Academy.

For years, the company has drawn increasing scrutiny for crashes involving its planes, leading to the 20-month grounding of its MAX aircraft following two deadly crashes, quality concerns and financial woes.

Golez said the tragedy “couldn’t happen at a worse time for Boeing,” which is part of the investigation along with GE Aerospace, the engine manufacturer for the plane.

In the United States, the plane maker will be in the hot seat at the end of the month, when investigators are set to determine the probable cause of an in-flight separation of a mid-exit door plug on a Boeing 737-9 commercial plane near Portland, Oregon, last year.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg has also reportedly canceled plans to attend the Paris Air Show, a major aviation industry event where the company typically shows off its aircraft.

“This accident is a further challenge,” Goelz said.

The Dreamliner is popular for international routes, with the 787-8 configuration fitting up to 248 passengers, according to Boeing.

What happens next

Jeff Guzzetti, president of consulting firm Guzzetti Aviation Risk Discovery and former NTSB official, said these investigations typically hold an “organizational meeting” where all of the technical experts will gather, recalling his own experience with accidents.

“They will form specialty groups” assigned to analyze different areas, such as the engines or the flight data recorder, he said. “They’ll put representatives from the different organizations on these groups, and they will begin to methodically document the wreckage and download the recorders.”

The crash falls under the jurisdiction of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the United Nations agency that helps 193 countries work together in air travel.

Guzzetti said the investigation is in its fact-finding phase, which includes wreckage clean up and interviews of those who trained the pilots. The captain and first officer’s background will be looked at, he said, which could range from how much sleep they got to what their flight record was like.

The black box recovery is critical, many experts say, at this point, because the technology will point to what pilots were saying before they made the mayday call.

“This will not be a mystery for more than another week or so if they got the data recorded, and the voice recorder will also explain what the pilots thought they were dealing with,” Goelz said. “Pilots sometimes make mistakes, you don’t know.”

Israel launched a wave of unprecedented strikes on Iran shortly before sunrise Friday morning, hitting key sites in the nation’s nuclear program as well as residential areas in upscale neighborhoods of Tehran and killing some of the country’s highest-ranking military leaders.

Israel’s military said it used 200 fighter jets in the operation, called “Rising Lion.” Based on a review of strike targets, the attack had several prongs: Heavy strikes against at least one of Iran’s uranium enrichment sites as well as its stockpiles of ballistic missiles, and more targeted strikes in Tehran to decapitate the regime’s military leadership. It aimed to halt what Israel said was Tehran’s rapid progress in developing nuclear weapons.

The Israeli operation came after years of threats and days of heightened speculation.

Earlier in the week, the US had made efforts to withdraw non-essential personnel from locations around the Middle East, with one official citing “developing tension” in the region. On Thursday, US President Donald Trump told reporters in the White House that he did not want Israel to target Iran while talks to reach a new agreement to limit Iranian nuclear enrichment were ongoing.

In retaliation, Iran launched over 100 drones toward Israeli territory, Israel’s military said, and then a barrage of ballistic missiles.

Here’s what we know about how Israel’s attack unfolded, minute by minute. All times are local to Iran.

Pre-dawn: First strikes

Seven miles west of those buildings – still in the north of the city – another video showed damage from a strike on the upscale Chamran Town neighborhood. An entire wall had been stripped off one of the buildings, with people seen climbing through the rubble inside.

One strike hit centrally near Laleh Park, the site of protests over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died after Iran’s morality police detained her for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly.

Beyond the capital, a video showed a strike on the Piranshahr military base in western Iran, some 350 miles (about 560 kilometers) away from Tehran. The video showed the dark night sky being lit up by a series of rapid explosions, with smoke rising in the distance.

The Natanz nuclear facility includes two large underground halls believed to hold centrifuges for enriching uranium, according to a 2003 report from the Institute for Science and International Security, which includes satellite imagery of the site under construction in 2002. Based on that imagery, the latest attacks do not appear to have hit the underground buildings, but the full extent of the damage is not yet known.

Iran’s atomic energy agency said its primary nuclear enrichment facility “did not encounter serious damage” and there were “no radiation leaks that would cause concern to the people” after Israel attacked it. The spokesperson of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said on Iranian state media that the damage was on the ground level away from the underground facility at the plant.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a statement that “radiation levels outside the Natanz facility remained unchanged” but added that there was “radioactive contamination present inside the facility,” which “can be managed with appropriate protective measures.”

4:14 a.m.: IDF speaks

Soon after the first explosions rocked Tehran, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced it had launched preemptive strikes against Iran’s nuclear program.

It said it used jets to strike “dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets in different areas of Iran.”

The statement came at 3:44 a.m. in Israel, which is 30 minutes behind Iran’s time zone.

4:35 a.m.: Rubio distances US

Within minutes, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed that the US was “not involved” in Israel’s strikes and that Israel’s actions were “unilateral.”

“Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel,” Rubio said in a statement on X, anticipating a potential Iranian response.

Sunrise: Strikes continue

Just one mile west of the strikes on Chamran Town, daylight video showed the aftermath of a strike on Tehran’s Chizar neighborhood. A huge hole had been blown in the top two floors of a building, with twisted iron bars hanging from the concrete structure.

A 17-year-old Iranian, who asked to remain anonymous, said people were “screaming” in the streets. “I didn’t know what was happening. It was really scary,” the teenager said.

5:17 a.m.: Netanyahu announces Operation ‘Rising Lion’

As evidence of Israel’s strikes began to pour in, Netanyahu gave a televised address, saying that Israel had acted to “roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.” He said the operation would continue for as long as it takes “to remove these threats.”

Netanyahu claimed Iran had produced enough highly enriched uranium for nine nuclear weapons. In a report sent to member states May 31, the IAEA also judged that Iran had enough uranium enriched to 60% purity, near weapons-grade, potentially to make nine nuclear weapons.

“Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year. It could be within a few months,” Netanyahu said. “This is a clear and present danger to Israel’s survival.”

The prime minister claimed Israel had struck Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz, which was corroborated by video of the site.

Past 6 a.m.

As the sun rose, the full scope of Israel’s attack became clearer. Videos published after 6 a.m. showed the aftermath of a strike on a military base and a cargo terminal in the western Kermanshah region, which borders Iraq, over 250 miles from Tehran and 167 miles from Baghdad.

6:26 a.m.: IAEA ‘concerned’

After Netanyahu claimed Israel had targeted the nuclear facility at Natanz, the UN nuclear watchdog confirmed that Natanz had been hit.

“The IAEA is closely monitoring the deeply concerning situation in Iran,” it said.

The agency said it was in contact with Iranian authorities regarding radiation levels in the area. In a later statement, it said it had not observed an increase in radiation.

8:35 a.m.: IDF announces killings

The Israeli military said it had killed three of the most senior men in Iran’s military and its nuclear program.

Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the secretive Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was the highest-profile of those killed. In its initial statement, Israel also said it killed Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, and Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, leader of Iran’s emergency command.

Later, the IDF said it had killed Ali Shamkhani, a close aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s air force.

Many of the strikes on Tehran appear to have been targeting these senior officials. Last year, Israel demonstrated its ability to assassinate its adversaries in highly targeted attacks on Iranian soil. In July 2024, it killed Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas – the Iran-backed militia in Gaza – by remotely detonating a bomb that had been hidden in his room in Tehran.

While Friday’s strikes appeared extremely targeted, there have been reports of civilian casualties.

8:48 a.m.: Iran responds

The IDF said that Iran had launched more than 100 drones towards Israeli territory, and that Israel’s air defenses were preparing to intercept them.

“We’re expecting difficult hours,” it said.

Following previous Israeli attacks against Iran and its proxies in the region, Tehran fired back with huge salvos of ballistic missiles.

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, DC, said it was “possible that Israel somehow disrupted Iran’s response by targeting Iran’s ballistic missile launch sites and stockpiles.”

Around midday

Early afternoon, Iranian media reported that Israel had launched a fresh strike on the northwestern city of Tabriz. Tamsin news agency said the Tabriz Airport had come under “heavy Israeli attack.”

12:26 p.m.: Trump posts

After learning the extent of Israel’s attack, Trump urged Iran’s leaders to agree to a new nuclear deal “before there is nothing left” of their country.

Trump said he had given Iran “chance after chance” to make a deal. “JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” he wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.

Under a 2015 nuclear deal struck by President Barack Obama, Iran agreed to drastically limit its number of centrifuges and cap uranium enrichment at levels far below those required to make weapons, in exchange for sanctions relief.

But during his first term as president in 2018, Trump withdrew from the deal, saying the “rotten structure” of the agreement was not enough to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb. He ramped up sanctions on Iran and threatened to sanction any country that helped the regime obtain nuclear weapons.

In his second term, Trump has revived efforts to strike a new nuclear deal with Iran.

Just hours before Israel’s attack, the president on Thursday cautioned Israel against launching a strike while talks are ongoing. US officials have held several rounds of high-stakes nuclear talks with Iran in recent weeks, demanding that Tehran stop all uranium enrichment activity.

Iran has long claimed that its nuclear program is peaceful. It has said it wants to keep enriching uranium for civilian purposes, like building a nuclear reactor, and not for weapons.

“Zero nuclear weapons = we DO have a deal. Zero enrichment = we do NOT have a deal,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an X post last month, setting out Tehran’s red lines in the talks.

Before Israel launched an unprecedented wave of strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities and top military leaders this week, its spies were already on the ground in enemy territory.

Israeli intelligence agency Mossad had smuggled weapons into Iran ahead of the strikes, according to Israeli security officials, and would use the weapons to target Iran’s defense from within.

The officials said Israel established a base for launching explosive drones inside Iran, and the drones were later used to target missile launchers near Tehran. Precision weapons were also smuggled in and used to target surface-to-air missile systems, clearing the way for Israel’s Air Force to carry out more than 100 strikes with upward of 200 aircraft in the early hours of Friday local time.

The plan to disable Iranian defenses seems to have been effective; Israel said all of its aircraft returned safely from the first waves of strikes, appearing to show Israeli air superiority over parts of a country hundreds of miles away.

Intelligence gathered by the Mossad in Iran also gave Israel’s air force the ability to target senior Iranian commanders and scientists.

In an incredibly rare move, the Mossad released video from some of its operations, showing drones attacking what appear to be unsuspecting missile launchers.

It is the latest operation to show how deeply Israel’s intelligence services, including the Mossad, have penetrated some of Iran’s most closely guarded secrets. The operations have made the Mossad appear a nearly unstoppable force in Iran, capable of hitting at some of its highest-ranking officials and most sensitive sites.

“Mossad has treated Iran like its playground for years now,” said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute and curator of the Iranist newsletter.

“From assassinating top nuclear scientists to sabotaging Iranian nuclear facilities, Israel has proved time and time again that it has always had the upper hand in this shadow war that has now been playing out in the open since the first tit-for-tat strikes in April 2024.”

An Israeli security source said the latest operation required commando forces operating deep within Tehran and across the country while avoiding detection from Iran’s security and intelligence agencies. The source said Mossad teams targeted air defense missiles, ballistic missiles, and missile launchers as the attack from the Israeli Air Force began.

A second Israeli security source said the Mossad operations were years in the making, involving both intelligence-gathering efforts and the deployment of Mossad commandos deep behind enemy lines.

Some of the Mossad commando forces operated in the Iranian capital itself, according to the security source.

In addition to the drone base established by the Mossad long before Wednesday’s attack, Mossad commandos deployed “precision-guided weapons systems” near Iranian missile air defense systems, which were activated at the same time as the Israeli air force began striking its targets. A second operation deployed sophisticated vehicle-mounted weaponry to target other Iranian defense systems.

The Mossad operation also involved assassinations of top Iranian officials.

Israel has shown – flaunted even – the Mossad’s ability to operate with near impunity in Iran in the past.

Starting in the early-2010s, Iran accused Israel of carrying out a campaign of assassinations against the country’s nuclear scientists. Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon tacitly acknowledged the targeted killings when he said in 2015 that Israel cannot be held responsible “for the life expectancy of Iran’s nuclear scientists.”

From 2007 to 2012 Israel allegedly carried out five covert assassinations, nearly all in Tehran, through remote-controlled bombings, or remote-controlled machine guns. Only one of Iran’s key nuclear scientists survived the assassination attempt, Fereydoon Abbasi.

Just last month, Abbasi told Iranian state media that any attack on production sites would have little impact on the timeline of developing a bomb, saying, “our capabilities are spread all over the country. If they target production sites, it will be inconsequential to our timetable, because our nuclear materials are not stored above ground for them to hit.”

Abbasi was one of the scientists killed in Israel’s early morning attack in Tehran.

The Mossad’s actions soon became much more public.

In early-2018, Israel stole Iran’s nuclear archive from Tehran, displaying the intelligence coup in a live broadcast from Jerusalem. Speaking in English, Netanyahu showed off the archive, including what he said were copies of 55,000 pages of Iranian nuclear information and a display of discs he said were 55,000 files.

Iran tried to dismiss Netanyahu’s comments as “childish” and “laughable,” but the plundering of the archive showed the confidence Israel had in the Mossad’s ability to function in Tehran. The operation, which would have required extensive planning and an intimate knowledge of the archive’s location and security, pushed the first Trump administration to withdraw from the original nuclear agreement with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Israel wasn’t done yet.

In November 2020, Israel assassinated Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s chief nuclear scientist, while he was in a bulletproof car traveling with his wife. Fakhrizadeh’s car was moving in a convoy with three security vehicles when he came under fire. Iranian state media said a remote-controlled machine gun opened fire on the nuclear scientist, who had been a long-time target for Israel.

The operation, which Israel has not publicly acknowledged, was carried out with remarkable precision, and it displayed a deep knowledge of Fakhrizadeh’s pattern of life.

And yet despite its repeated inability to stop the Mossad, Iran has proven incapable of improving.

Ram Ben Barak, the former deputy director of the Mossad, said the organization’s continued success is “due to a very, very disliked regime, even hated by most of the public, so this allows for intelligence penetration on one hand, and on the other, you have the sophistication and professionalism of the Israeli intelligence personnel.”

After the start of the war in Gaza, Israel assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in the heart of Tehran. A source familiar with the matter said Israel planted an explosive device in a guest house where Haniyeh was known to stay. The bomb was concealed in the room for two months before the targeted killing and detonated remotely once Haniyeh was in the room.

Former England football captain David Beckham, Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman and The Who front man Roger Daltrey are among the prominent figures awarded knighthoods in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours list.

Beckham, 50, was recognized for his services to sport and charity. A global soccer icon and former Manchester United midfielder, Beckham has represented England 115 times and clinched league titles across four countries.

He was appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2003 and has since expanded his influence beyond the pitch. He has worked as an ambassador for the worldwide children’s charity UNICEF since 2005 and has been an ambassador for the King’s Foundation since last year.

As a result of his knighthood, his wife, fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, will now be formally styled Lady Beckham.

Co-founder and lead singer of legendary British rock band The Who, Daltrey, 81, was honored for his services to charity. Alongside his storied musical career, Daltrey has served as a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust since 2000, spearheading its annual concert series at London’s Royal Albert Hall for more than two decades.

The Who, formed in London in 1964, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. Of the band’s four founding members, only Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend are still alive.

Oldman, 67, who played Harry Potter’s godfather Sirius Black in several of the movies in the franchise, was awarded a knighthood for services to drama. In 2018, the Hollywood star won an Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the film “Darkest Hour.”

Most honors in the UK are awarded twice a year – on the monarch’s official birthday in June, and in the New Year. The list is compiled by the government and signed off by King Charles, with nominations reviewed by independent panels across different sectors.

The most recent New Year Honours list saw knighthoods conferred on actor Stephen Fry, former England soccer manager Gareth Southgate and London mayor Sadiq Khan.