Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based NGO, tells JNS that critics are misapplying international law as Israel and the United States target Tehran's military, nuclear and regime infrastructure.
The world is watching as Israel and the United States conduct massive, targeted strikes against Iranian military, nuclear and regime infrastructure. For many years, Israel fought proxy wars with Iran through groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. But Israel’s June 2025 operation—a direct confrontation with the Islamic Republic—changed the paradigm.
Israel damaged Iran’s uranium-enrichment facilities at Natanz and Isfahan, followed by a 12-day war that ended in a fragile ceasefire. Iran’s renewed efforts to develop its nuclear and ballistic capabilities prompted the Feb. 28 joint U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials, including IRGC commanders, in the opening salvo.
Iranian retaliatory missile barrages have struck Israeli cities and even U.S. bases in the region, prompting global condemnation and emergency U.N. Security Council sessions—but not necessarily for the reasons one might expect.