Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Tuesday, 24 June 2025) [translated from Hebrew]: “Dear citizens of Israel, In the 12 days of Operation Rising Lion, we achieved a historic victory, which will stand for generations. We removed two existential threats: The threat of annihilation by nuclear weapons and the threat of annihilation by 20,000 ballistic missiles. Had we not acted now, the State of Israel would have soon faced the danger of annihilation. But this did not happen because at the decisive moment, we rose up and stood like lions, and our roar shook Tehran and echoed around the world. In the scriptures, it is said: ‘By stratagems shall you make war.’ The surprise opening blow of Rising Lion will go down in the annals of Israel’s wars and will be studied by every military in the world. In one strike, in one blow, we eliminated Iran’s senior command, including three chiefs-of-staff and many other senior officers. And in those same moments, we eliminated Iran’s leading nuclear scientists – those who held the knowledge, led the nuclear program and sought to bring upon us destruction and death. We destroyed the main enrichment facility in Natanz, the uranium conversion plant in Isfahan and the heavy water installation in Arak. Our friend, President Trump, stood alongside us in an unprecedented manner. On his order, the US military destroyed the enrichment facility deep underground at Fordo. We attacked dozens of installations of the Iranian nuclear program, including laboratories and factories for producing centrifuges. You certainly remember seven years ago, how in a brilliant Mossad operation, we brought to Israel the heart of Iran’s secret nuclear archive. We revealed Iran’s secret nuclear program for the annihilation of the State of Israel to President Trump, to the entire world and to you, citizens of Israel. Indeed, today, now, in this operation, we completed the work and struck the entire archive. This archive concentrated within it Iran’s overall knowledge for producing atomic bombs. We also did this. For decades, I have promised you that Iran would not have nuclear weapons. And indeed, in all of the swift actions that our soldiers carried out, we sent Iran’s nuclear project to oblivion. And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild this project – we will act with the same determination and the same force to cut off any such attempt. I reiterate: Iran will not have nuclear weapons. With the same force and determination, we destroyed Iran’s industry for producing ballistic missiles. We destroyed dozens of missile production factories. We struck hard at their stock of missiles. We destroyed most of their launchers. In many cases, we destroyed them minutes before they could launch their missiles of death at Israel. Iran’s malicious intention, to threaten – within a few years – the existence of Israel with tens of thousands of ballistic missiles – this threat has also been removed. Regarding the Iranian regime, we struck crushing blows at this wicked regime. We eliminated many senior commanders. We destroyed command centers. We attacked Revolutionary Guards bases. We attacked Basij bases. We struck the symbols of the regime. Today, this morning, a few hours before the ceasefire, we struck the ayatollahs’ regime with the hardest blow of all since the start of the war, with the hardest blow in its history. […]