The Israel Defense Forces has “severed the head of the Iranian octopus” and is now working to “crush and cut off its tentacles,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday.
Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck targets of the Islamic regime “with significant force” overnight on Monday and continue “to degrade missile-launch capabilities and strategic assets throughout Iran,” according to the statement.
“The combined Israeli-American attack on Iran, led by U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is unprecedented in its scope, precision and power,” Katz said.
The operation will continue “as long as necessary,” he added, until Jerusalem and Washington completely dismantle the regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.
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Other goals include protecting the Israeli home front and U.S. forces across the region, as well as creating the conditions for the people of Iran to “remove the murderous, oppressive regime of the ayatollahs,” according to Katz.
The Israeli and U.S. militaries carried out preemptive airstrikes targeting the Islamic Republic on Saturday morning to neutralize the threat posed by Tehran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the opening shot of the aerial campaign that Jerusalem dubbed “Operation Rising Lion.”
As of Monday afternoon, IAF fighter jets had dropped a total of some 2,500 munitions on more than 600 regime targets in Iran.
