Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on the evening of March 12 that Israeli forces had recently struck “several” senior Iranian nuclear scientists and that Israel would mount an offensive against Iran with “unprecedented force.” He framed the campaign as part of a broader effort to “crush” the Iranian regime and to degrade its regional proxies, especially Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Netanyahu said he had overseen a mix of overt and covert operations aimed at preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. He credited earlier military actions with substantially weakening Iran’s capabilities and reiterated that recent attacks targeted senior figures in Iran’s nuclear program. Israel’s campaign of sabotage, cyber operations and targeted killings is well known; the 2020 killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a senior Iranian nuclear scientist widely attributed to Israeli operatives, is the most prominent precedent.
The prime minister portrayed these measures as existentially necessary. For Israel, the combination of Iran’s expanding uranium enrichment, its ballistic missile development and its network of armed proxies presents a multifaceted threat that Israeli leaders say cannot be left unchallenged. Netanyahu’s language—promising to strike Iranian nuclear infrastructure, missile arrays, military headquarters and “centres of power”—signals an intention to pursue an expansive campaign rather than isolated, surgical hits.
That approach risks widening the conflict beyond clandestine strikes. Hezbollah, which Israel identified explicitly as a target, possesses a significant rocket and missile arsenal in southern Lebanon and has sparred repeatedly with Israel in recent years. Iran’s response options include stepped-up missile and drone strikes, escalation via its proxy networks across the region, or intensified clandestine retaliation, any of which could produce broader military confrontations and threaten commercial shipping in the Gulf and Mediterranean.
The international ramifications are immediate and complex. Targeted killings and cross-border strikes raise questions of sovereignty and international law and complicate relations with powers that favour de‑escalation. Washington and European capitals will face pressure to either restrain or condone Israeli actions while managing their own strategic interests in preventing a wider Middle Eastern war. For the time being, Netanyahu’s statements harden Israel’s public posture and make a period of heightened regional risk all but certain.