The outbreak of direct hostilities between Israel and Iran in June represents one of the most significant geopolitical escalations in the Middle East in recent history. What began as a calculated pre-emptive strike by the Israel Defense Forces against Iranian nuclear facilities, under the codename Operation Rising Lion, swiftly evolved into a multi-theater war involving cyber, air, and naval engagements.
Within days, the United States entered the conflict through Operation Midnight Hammer, employing more than 125 aircraft and seven B-2 Spirit bombers — the latter dropping 14 bunker-buster bombs, 30,000 pounds each, against Iranian nuclear infrastructure. U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine described the operation as the “largest B-2 operational strike in U.S. history.”
Iran retaliated through a mixture of ballistic missile and drone strikes, as well as cyber attacks. It would have loved to utilize the firepower of its once robust network of armed non-state proxies in the region — Hizballah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Palestinian Territories, the Houthis in Yemen, and the militias in Iraq — but it couldn’t because Israel had done a terrific job of massively degrading their military capabilities (at least Hizballah and Hamas). During the brief but intense Iranian-Israeli confrontation, those proxies remained largely silent either because they couldn’t get into the fight in a meaningful way or because they were unwilling due to domestic political constraints.
While a fragile ceasefire was brokered after 12 days of combat, the nature of the conflict underscored the transformation of modern warfare — hybrid, decentralized, and fought across physical and digital domains.
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