One of the most daring military operations to hit the region in decades has to be the joint American-Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025. It was not just an air raid at all, but a calculated risk – a move to stop Iran’s nuclear progress, issue a warning, and hope the consequences do not escalate into a larger conflict. While Washington referred to it as Operation Midnight Hammer, Israel was running its part under the name Operation Rising Lion. These two attempts together marked the largest effort to stop Iran’s nuclear ambition.
The point could have been very far from this. Over the past few months before the attacks, there was already a clear tense mood. It was revealed that Iran was not following the rules according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Apart from that, an enrichment plant and a number of advanced centrifuges made the situation even more alarming.
Israeli intelligence assessment was that Iran had sufficient enriched uranium for numerous nuclear weapons, whereas American analysts assumed that Iran had not taken the last steps to actually create one. So with diplomacy at a halt and Israeli leaders referring to the situation as existential, military planners started preparing for action.
The event, when it happened, represented how well two forces could work together. It was notable that the U.S. sent 125 different aircraft, including the stealthy B-2 bombers, which carried the huge GBU-57 bunker-busting bombs. A few hours before the bombers made their move, Tomahawk missiles had been launched from a submarine in the Gulf of Oman just to neutralize Iran’s air defenses. Just as the bombers were on their way, they were also protected by electronic decoys that had confused the radar installations. First, the action was at Fordow, the most deeply buried site in Iran, then Natanz and Isfahan came shortly after. Less than an hour, fourteen out of the thirty 30,000-pound bombs were dropped.
Before the U.S. bombs made the impact bigger, the Israeli air force had already taken care of Natanz, targeting the electrical substations that provided power to underground chambers. In the areas surrounding Fordow, there were craters as a result of the strikes, and missiles were hurled at uranium-conversion plants in Isfahan. The official statements released by both governments labeled the results as conclusive, whereas the intelligence briefings talked of a slight delay of the nuclear program in Iran by a few months, mainly because the Iranian regime had prepared for a strike by dispersing its uranium stockpiles across different locations.
The human cost was tremendous. Many of the leading Iranian nuclear scientists and top security officers were among those killed in the Israeli bombings. Besides the high civilian death toll, Iranian officials have reported that hundreds of civilians have been injured. To be more specific, these two gradually inflicted heavy blows on Iran’s nuclear establishment: first by the destruction of the high-tech equipment, and then by the loss of the technical experts.
The answer from Iran was quick. Within a few days, rockets fell on cities in Israel, killing innocent people in Tel Aviv. The Revolutionary Guard informed the American military across the Middle East that they were going to be targeted. The Gaza and Yemen militants declared that they were available to join the fight, whereas Tehran did not hesitate to say that the Strait of Hormuz would be closed again, after which global energy markets would be shocked.
There was unease in major world capitals. The strike was referred to in Israel as a necessary act of survival by the leaders. The president in Washington declared the mission to be a major success; however, he stressed that the objective was deterrence and not a total war. Other nations were against it to various degrees.
The Russian government criticized the attacks as irresponsible, the United Nations called for restraint, and the European countries issued a warning that the escalation could bring the diplomatic settlement chances to zero. The Arab countries called for calm in the hope that they would not be engulfed in the firestorm of the region.
It’s still unclear what the long-term effects of the strikes will be. On the one hand, the strikes bought time strategically; on the other hand, they didn’t wipe out Iran’s nuclear goals. Some analysts even view it as the attack that might propel other countries to secretly continue or speed up their programs so as not to be targeted while cooperating. For the U.S. and Israel, one short-lived triumph was delivered by the operation, but the unpredictable cycles of retaliation became accessible.
Presently, the Middle East is on the brink. The region is perpetually uneasy since Iran still has the capabilities of cyberattacks, terrorism, and proxy warfare to respond. Notably, energy markets are still volatile, and the overall nonproliferation system looks compromised. Time will tell if this operation will be recalled as the strike that averted disaster or the spark that ignited a much worse one.