Iran-Israel War: A New Era of Direct Confrontation in the Middle East

The Israeli offensive, involving over 200 fighter jets and more than 330 munitions on approximately 100 targets, aimed to decimate the upper ranks of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, target its ballistic missile arsenal, and strike nuclear sites. Satellite images later showed significant damage at sites like Fordo, a nuclear facility built under a mountain. Israel claimed these strikes aimed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, asserting that Tehran was within reach of a nuclear weapon, despite previous U.S. intelligence assessments and IAEA warnings about lost "continuity of knowledge" regarding Iran's nuclear program.