Why Israel named strikes against Iran 'Operation Rising Lion'? A Bible connection
Following the strikes on Iran, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that Operation Rising Lion "will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat".
Israel on Friday launched a series of massive strikes against Iran, targeting its nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories, and military commanders.
The Israeli strikes killed Iran's top military officials, including the chief of staff of its armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, and Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guard's missile programme in Iran. Follow Israel-Iran strike live updates
Soon after the strikes on Tehran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "Moments ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat."
Why the name ‘Operation Rising Lion’?
Israel took the name 'rising lion' from a biblical verse, which promises the victory of the Israeli people.
The context grows clearer as Netanyahu was on Thursday photographed putting a handwritten note into a crack of Jerusalem's Western Wall, one of the holiest prayer sites in Judaism.
The Israeli PM's office released a photo of the note on Friday, which read: "the people shall rise up as a lion".
ALSO READ | Israel kills Iran's top military chiefs, strikes nuclear facility; Tehran says revenge ‘soon’ | Top points
The phrase comes from the Bible's Book of Numbers, verse 23:24. The verse says, "Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain."
This is a part of non-Israeli prophet and diviner Balaam's first oracle, in which he predicts the strength and power of Israel and compares it to a lion that will not rest until it has satisfied its hunger.
An Israeli official said that the military was ready to keep on going for days with the offensive, a move which would depend partly on Iran's response.
Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Israel's attack on Tehran as "satanic". He warned Jerusalem of "severe punishment".
Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi described the attack as a "declaration of war".
(with Reuters inputs)
