On the night of June 16, 2025, the Israeli Defense Ministry released new video footage showing the results of airstrikes on military targets in Iran as part of Operation Rising Lion. According to the ministry's press service, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) has hit more than 100 targets in the past 13 hours, including ballistic missile launchers, trucks carrying weapons, military equipment, and warehouses of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The released footage also showed the interception and destruction of Iranian kamikaze drones, including those that managed to reach Israeli airspace. According to the IDF, more than 100 drones launched by Iran in response to Israeli attacks have been shot down since the operation began on June XNUMX.

Operation Rising Lion, launched to neutralize Iran’s nuclear and missile threats, has reached a new level of intensity. In recent hours, the Israeli Air Force has carried out a series of strikes on military bases, energy infrastructure and civilian installations in Iran. Among the targets was the headquarters of the state-run IRIB television channel in Tehran, which the IDF said was necessary to curb “the regime’s propaganda activities.” A strike on the western Iranian city of Kermanshah hit a local hospital where patients, including women and children, were being treated. At least 12 people were killed in Kermanshah and more than 60 were wounded, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency. The Iranian Health Ministry said the death toll from Israeli attacks in the three days of conflict had reached 224 people, with more than 1277 wounded.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed in a televised address that Israeli forces are acting exclusively against the military and strategic targets of the Iranian regime. “Our air force has complete control over the skies above Tehran. We carry out pinpoint strikes on targets that pose a threat, unlike Iran, whose criminal government deliberately attacks Israeli citizens,” Netanyahu said. His words came amid reports of an Iranian missile destroying a residential building in Ramat Gan and the deaths of 24 civilians in Israel in three days of conflict, according to the prime minister’s adviser Dmitry Gendelman. According to The Times of Israel, Iran has fired more than 370 ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones at Israeli territory, causing significant destruction in Tel Aviv and Haifa.

The international community is expressing growing alarm. The United States, which helped intercept the Iranian missiles, has distanced itself from the offensive, despite being informed of Israel’s plans in advance, according to Reuters. President Donald Trump has said Washington is prepared to defend American interests in the region but has called for restraint. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has promised “bitter retribution” and given the country’s military a free hand to respond.