Israel has been targeting specific infrastructure and personnel in Iran since the start of its attacks on 13 June.
Israel’s president told Sky News that the country’s unprecedented attacks, which have killed more than 240 people according to Iranian officials, are necessary because Tehran has been proceeding “dramatically” towards a nuclear bomb.
But who and what has been targeted, and what is Israel’s strategy?
Here is what you need to know.
High-ranking military leaders
Israel hit many of its targets on the first night of the attacks, the most high-profile of them being Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, the chief of staff of the armed forces of the Iranian regime.
He was the highest-ranking military officer in Iran and the second-highest commander after the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
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His involvement in the military dated back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Israel has also killed Hossein Salami, who was the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s primary military force, and Mohammed Kazemi, the intelligence chief of the IRGC.
The latter was killed in the Israeli strikes along with his deputy, Hassan Mohaqiq.
The strikes also killed Gholam-Ali Rashid, who was head of the IRGC’s emergency command headquarters.
He was replaced by Ali Shadmani, who was killed days later, with Israel’s military claiming a “sudden opportunity” arose to attack him.
Nuclear scientists
Israel says six top nuclear scientists were among those killed in the initial strikes last week.
One of the most high-profile of them was Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, who was head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation from 2011 to 2013 and a member of parliament from 2020 to 2024.
Another was Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, who was also a theoretical physicist and president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran.
Four other scientists killed in the strikes were Abdolhamid Manouchehr, Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari, Amirhossein Feghi and Motalibizadeh.
Israel has hit military, nuclear, government, oil and gas infrastructure and civilian areas across Iran, including in Tehran, Iran’s capital, and other major cities.
The nuclear sites targeted so far are Natanz, the country’s main uranium enrichment facility located 135 miles southeast of Tehran, the nearby Isfahan nuclear facility and the Fordow uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom.
It has been speculated that Fordow will require a ‘bunker busting’ bomb to cause significant damage.
A missile airbase in the western province of Kermanshah operated by the IRGC has also been hit.
The attacks also targeted the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran.
Many of the high-profile targets were killed in their homes or in meetings.
According to Sky’s experts, Israel’s intentions appear to be to thwart Iran’s nuclear efforts, but also to significantly weaken the regime, in the hope of triggering a regime change in the country.
International affairs editor Dominic Waghorn says Israel’s destruction of Iran’s air defences has left the country’s skies vulnerable, and that it has allowed Israeli jets to “destroy target after target with pinpoint accuracy”.
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He suggests that in order for the attack to be successful long-term, Israel “must destroy both Iran’s ability to develop the bomb, but more importantly, its will to do so” – hence its targeting of both nuclear sites and key personnel.
He explains that the Iranian nuclear programme is too far developed to be completely destroyed, and that experts and students there have too much knowledge to rule out the country’s ability to build a bomb in the future.
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“Toppling the regime will be the surest way of achieving Israel’s aims if it ushers in a replacement not determined to go nuclear,” he says.
Israel has also been attacking energy infrastructure, which Waghorn says will be aimed at raising energy prices to spark social unrest and dissent.
Defence and security analyst Professor Michael Clarke says Israel’s strategy appears to be similar to the one it used against the Shia political and military faction Hezbollah in Lebanon last year.
The Israeli military carried out several cross-border attacks, killing top senior leaders including the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.
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Comparing that scenario to Israel’s attacks on Iran, Prof Clarke said: “In terms of the Israeli attacks, they very much follow what we might call the Hezbollah playbook.
“They’ve attacked fairly specific targets, coupled with a series of assassinations against senior leaders.
“They’re trying to decapitate the command structure while they attack air defence to open up Iranian air defence and then attack Iran.”
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Israeli intelligence correspondent Ronen Bergman has reported that Israel has developed the ability to monitor Iran’s top officials “in real time”, allowing them to eliminate many of Iran’s military and intelligence commanders quickly.
But Iran’s long-time supreme leader Khamenei is not among the officials killed.
In a Truth Social post on 17 June, US president Donald Trump called the 86-year-old an “easy target” but said the US would not kill him – “at least not for now”.
“But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers,” he added. “Our patience is wearing thin.”
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The comments came days after reports that Mr Trump rejected a plan proposed by Israel to kill Khamenei, who has led the regime since 1989.
Mr Trump has called for Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’ but it is thought that his administration is keen to keep Israel’s operation aimed at targeting the nuclear programme rather than at the regime, with fears over further escalation in the conflict.
Before Israel’s attack began, the US had been negotiating with Iran over a nuclear deal.
Mr Trump is now considering a US strike on Iran, according to multiple current and former administration officials.
The president is considering a range of options, including a possible strike, following a meeting with his national security team inside the Situation Room, the officials told Sky’s US partner network NBC News.
Iran, which has always denied it is planning to make a nuclear bomb, has launched sustained retaliatory strikes against Israel since 13 June.
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In recent days Iran has shot some 370 missiles and hundreds of drones, with the majority being intercepted by the country’s defence systems.
The attacks have mainly focused on areas around the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, which are densely populated by civilians.
At least 24 people are reported to have been killed in Israel and some 500 people injured.
