In a brazen act of pre-emptive self-defense, Israel executed a devastating strike against Tehran, decimating critical infrastructure associated with Iran's nuclear ambitions and eliminating key military figures, including Generals Hossein Salami and Mohammad Bagheri, marking the most profound incursion into Iranian territory since the Iran-Iraq War; this operation, justified by Israeli strategists as a necessary measure to neutralize an impending nuclear threat, elicited a swift retaliatory drone launch from Iran and a bellicose pronouncement of "severe punishment" from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, even as Israeli warplanes systematically dismantled approximately one hundred strategic targets, notably the principal nuclear enrichment complex, precipitating a cascading closure of regional airspace across Israel, Iran, Iraq, and Jordan, and engendering a precipitous surge in Brent crude futures, whilst Defense Minister Israel Katz ominously foreshadowed imminent and forceful Iranian counter-measures.