Israel’s unprecedented attacks on Iran had at their core an elusive and high-risk goal: eradicating the country’s controversial nuclear program.

Iran and Israel continued to exchange attacks into Monday amid the latest round of conflict between the two nations.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel claimed Tuesday to have killed a top Iranian general as it traded more strikes with its longtime foe, and U.S. President Donald Trump warned residents of Tehran to evacuate while suggesting that the United States could give up on negotiations.

Israel has escalated its bombardment of Iranian cities, including Tehran's state television headquarters; Iranian missiles have struck Tel Aviv.

Iran has two known underground nuclear enrichment sites, the one Israel attacked on the first day of its assault at Natanz, and another at Fordo. Both sit south of Tehran in central Iran, but Fordo has long been the Iranian nuclear facility of most concern to international monitors and experts.

President Trump spent the first months of his term holding back Israel’s push for an assault on Iran’s nuclear program. With the war underway, his posture has gyrated as he weighs sending in the U.S.

Iran launched retaliatory strikes on Israel after Netanyahu said Israel began an operation to push back on Iran's "threat to Israel's very survival."

If the U.S. decides to support Israel more directly in its attack on Iran, one option for Washington would be to provide the “bunker-buster” bombs believed necessary to significantly damage the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant,

The recent flare-up of military action started after Israel launched a “precise and integrated preemptive strike” against Iranian nuclear facilities and military targets in the early hours of Friday morning.

Trump indicates US involved in Israeli attacks on Iran in social media post. "We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran."

As Israel pounds Iran with airstrikes targeting military facilities and its nuclear sites, officials in Tehran have proposed a variety of steps the Islamic Republic could take outside of launching retaliatory missile barrages.