Israel Launches Pre-Emptive Strikes on Iran, Cites "Existential Threat"

The remarks came hours after Israel launched a "pre-emptive" strike against Iran. Israel and the United States have launched a joint operation aimed at neutralising what they describe as the existential threat posed by Iran.

Responding to a question from ANI on whether regional players, including India, had been informed beforehand, Israeli military officials said they are in regular touch with partners.

"As always, we remain in contact with our different allies in the region and keep them updated. Some are involved in defence cooperation, as they have been in various ways before in relation to Iran," the officials said, without naming specific countries.

The military officials also expressed appreciation for India. "First of all, I want to say that we love the Indian people. For many years, we have seen your support, and we truly value and appreciate it," an official said.

Following weeks of peace negotiations and anticipation regarding a military strike against Iran, Israel launched 'pre-emptive' air strikes in Tehran on Saturday morning. "The State of Israel launched a pre-emptive attack against Iran to remove threats to the State of Israel," said Defence Minister Israel Katz.

Military officials said that Israel's objective is "to degrade the Iranian regime's capabilities and remove existential threats to the State of Israel."

Explaining the timing of the operation, Israeli military officials said that the Iranian regime has "not abandoned its plan to annihilate the State of Israel -- what they call amongst themselves the destruction of Israel."

They said the threat is "three fold -- the nuclear threat, the ballistic threat and the proxy threat."

The officials said that in recent months, intelligence identified "a sharp acceleration" in Iran's missile production programme, with "dozens of ballistic missiles each month, and their pace of production is getting faster and faster." The officials claimed Iran is "moving forward towards producing thousands of missiles in the coming years -- a dramatic expansion of an already dangerous arsenal."

The officials further claimed that Iran spent "somewhere around 700 to 900 million dollars" over the past year on proxies, "most of it going to Hezbollah," adding, "They have not abandoned it. While people in Iran have nothing to drink, they are sending money to their different proxies around the Middle East to make sure that they are leaving the fire on on this plan of them to destroy the State of Israel."

Referring to the October 7 terror attack, an official said, "Our main lesson for October 7 is to deal with existential threats in a proactive and preemptive manner. The cost of inaction is too heavy. Timing was crucial, because waiting would have meant allowing a threat to mature further, quantitatively and qualitatively."

Massive explosions were heard in Iran's capital in the morning. The attack comes after a US military build-up surrounding Iran. Following the strikes, US President Donald Trump said, "A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. It's menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world."

- ANI