A timelapse video posted by Flightradar24 has gone viral capturing the dramatic exodus of flights leaving Iranian and Iraqi airspace after Israeli airstrikes on Iran. The footage depicts the instantaneous and swift clearing of skies after Israel conducted what it termed as a ‘preemptive, precise, combined offensive’ on Iran’s military and nuclear infrastructure.
One of the social media users, who shared the viral video, captioned it, “This time-lapse of air traffic over the Middle East shows how civilian airspace cleared after Israel’s operation against Iran began.” Since then, the clip has been extensively shared on social media.
Corroborating the flight trends, Flightradar24, the global real-time flight monitoring web platform, tweeted on X: “Flights clearing Iran and Iraq after airspace closures in both countries following strikes by Israel in Iran.”
Israeli Airstrikes Hit Military Sites
On X, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) posted, “The IDF conducted a preemptive, targeted, multi-domain attack to hit Iran’s nuclear program. Dozens of IAF aircraft carried out the first phase that involved attacks on dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets in various regions of Iran.”
They went on to justify the operation by saying, “Today, Iran is closer than ever to acquiring a nuclear weapon.”. Weapons of mass destruction in the Iranian regime’s hand pose an existential threat to the State of Israel and to the world at large. The State of Israel has no alternative but to discharge the responsibility of acting in its people’s defense and will continue to do so wherever it is obligated to do so, as we have in the past.”
Top Iranian Military Leaders Allegedly Killed
In a second update, the IDF said in the strikes, “Chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Commander of the IRGC and the Commander of Iran’s Emergency Command” were all ‘eliminated’.
“These are three brutal mass murderers with international blood on their hands. The world is a better place without them,” read the post.
The consequences of the attack remain to cause international controversy, with analysts closely monitoring the shifting tensions between Iran and Israel, particularly in the wake of the visible proof of severed air traffic routes throughout the region.