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Documenting Israel's Strikes on Iran

James Byrne, Joe Byrne, Alessio Armenzoni, Nathan Hunt
16 June 2025

The first 72 hours of Israel's attack on Iran established air superiority and achieved significant tactical advantages. Satellite imagery offers critical visibility into fast-moving developments on the ground.

_{Video Source: Israel Defence Force}

Shattered Skies

In the early hours of 13 June, the Israeli strikes began. In the days that followed, high-resolution imagery from Iranian airbases such as Hamadan and Tabriz began to reveal the scale of the Israeli offensive.

Operation Rising Lion represents the largest aerial assault on Iran since the Iran-Iraq War. The initial 24 hours reportedly saw over 200 Israeli combat aircraft, including Israeli F-15I, F-16I, and F-35I stealth fighters, hit hundreds of targets across the country.

Images taken on 14 June at Hamadan and Tabriz airbases indicate that Israel likely grounded Iranian aircraft by cratering the runways and hitting hardened aircraft shelters.

_{Source: Airbus Defence and Space, Open Source Centre.}

_{Source: Airbus Defence and Space, Open Source Centre.}

_{Source: Satellogic, Open Source Centre.}

_{Source: Satellogic, Open Source Centre.}

The attack was not an isolated event, but a critical first step in a long and likely meticulously planned campaign. To strike other targets deep inside Iran, Israel first had to dominate the skies.

Other reported attacks on radar installations and air defence sites across western Iran and around Tehran were designed to achieve air superiority from the outset. This allowed Israeli strike aircraft to operate with a freedom that enabled the rest of the operation, turning much of Iranian airspace into a free-fire zone where even Israeli Heron surveillance drones were later seen operating openly .

_{Source: Airbus Defence and Space, Satellogic, Open Source Centre.}

Striking the Archer

With the skies secured, Israel pursued a core tenet of its strategy: shooting the archer, as well as the arrow. Lacking a modern air force, Iran has for decades embraced ballistic missiles as its primary long-range strike capability and placed these at the heart of its deterrence strategy.

The Iranian arsenal, while the largest in the Middle East, has significant vulnerabilities. Many of its medium-range missiles, such as the Shahab-3, are liquid-fuelled - requiring hours of vulnerable, on-the-ground preparation before launch, unlike more advanced solid-fuel missiles which can be fired at short notice.

High-resolution images of two missile facilities at Kermanshah and Bid Kaneh show Israel targeted a range of buildings at both sites, including the entrances to underground structures at the Kermanshah missile base.

The Ghost War

Underpinning the conventional assault was a successful covert action campaign, reportedly enabled by commando teams already inserted inside Iran, striking air defences and missile launchers from within.

In parallel to the targeting of key military and nuclear facilities, Israel also killed a number of senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel , nuclear scientists, armed forces personnel and reportedly even the senior adviser to the Supreme Leader.

Nuclear Facility Strikes

Some of Israel’s primary targets were Iran’s most important nuclear facilities at Natanz and Isfahan. Originally designed to test centrifuges before industrial-scale use, the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) at Natanz evolved into a critical component of the entire programme, serving as the primary testing ground for Iran's most advanced centrifuges. The facility was reportedly being used to enrich 60% uranium-235.

While the likely destruction of the PFEP is a major setback to Iran, the broader strategic picture is complex. The main Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz, located in hardened underground halls, has no confirmed damage. Similarly, the Fordow FEP — buried some 80-90 metres underground — was also targeted, although the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed no damage was observed.

OSINT in the Fog of War

Imagery of strikes on non-military targets like oil depots and refineries near Tehran suggest that Israel is applying broader pressure on the regime, aiming not just to degrade its nuclear capabilities but to weaken the pillars of its economic and political power.

Strategic outcomes remain uncertain. What is clear, however, is the continuing need for civil society to use OSINT to verify events on the ground and provide objective analysis in an increasingly contested information space.