According to multiple reports circulating on social media, Israel has launched a flurry of attacks targeting Iran's senior military leaders and the country's nuclear facilities.

Several videos online show plumes of smoke rising over Tehran, purportedly following airstrikes from Israel Defense Forces (IDF) aircraft.

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A spokesperson for the IDF, BG Effie Defrin, confirmed the strikes in a statement posted to X, noting the start of 'Operation Rising Lion'. "We have no choice. We are operating against an imminent and existential threat," he said.

"We cannot allow the Iranian regime to obtain a nuclear weapon that would be a danger to Israel and the entire world."

A statement from IDF Spokesperson BG Effie Defrin on the preemptive Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear targets pic.twitter.com/IJNT5LXz6o

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 13, 2025

The reported strikes come 61 days after President Trump gave Iran 60 days to reach an agreement on ramping down its development of potential nuclear weapons.

“Iran should have listened to me when I said — you know, I gave them, I don’t know if you know but I gave them a 60-day warning and today is day 61,” he told CNN.

According to the IDF, the strikes also targeted Iran's long-range ballistic missile capabilities.

Responding to the attacks, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei stated that "the Zionist regime has prepared for itself a bitter, painful fate, which it will definitely see."

A member of the IDF who spoke with Fox News after the strikes began said that Thursday evening's attacks are necessary to keep Israelis safe.

Prime Minister Netanyahu also spoke about the strikes: “We struck the senior command, we struck senior scientists that advance development of nuclear weapons, we struck nuclear installations.”