Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated yesterday that assassinating Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would not escalate hostilities, but would end the conflict between the two countries; he warned that they would eliminate Iranian leaders one by one and indicated that Israel is well coordinated with the United States, as air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv after Tehran threatened to be preparing the largest and most intense missile attack in history on Israeli soil, which would last until dawn.
During the early hours of yesterday, it was reported that Iranian armed forces began a new round of missile attacks in dozens of cities in Israel, although no casualties were reported. Hours earlier, several explosions were recorded in the east and southeast of Tehran, reported The Jerusalem Post.
Witnesses also reported on social media attacks in Iranian cities such as Ahvaz, Bushehr, Dezful, Bandar Abbas, and Parchin, while traffic jams were recorded on the roads due to residents' attempts to leave the capital.
As this edition closed, reports from The New York Times indicated that President Donald Trump is deliberating whether to enter the conflict against Iran to bomb its main uranium enrichment facility, essential material for atomic weapons and nuclear energy generation, in the Fordo region, which could only be penetrated using the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, the largest bunker-buster explosive in the United States.
Earlier, The Times of Israel reported that Israeli defense forces intercepted Iranian missiles in Lakhish, Dan, Sharon, Shfela, Yarkon, and Shefelat Yehuda, on the fifth day of aerial attacks in Israel's Operation Iron Swords and Iran's True Promise 3.
Tel Aviv authorities report that yesterday 24 civilians died and 594 were injured, according to the Iranian Ministry of Health, and the Islamic Republic reported that the death toll in its territory is 224 people, 90 percent of whom are civilians; more than 1,800 injured have arrived at its hospitals.
Meanwhile, the IDF reported yesterday that two high-ranking Iranian military officials were killed at the Revolutionary Guard Intelligence headquarters in Tehran on Sunday: Moshen Bakri, head of Intelligence for the Quds Forces, and his deputy Abu al Faid Nikuei. In this context, Tehran stated that it is prepared for a prolonged conflict and emphasized that its nuclear program 'is alive,' following an attack on its state television, which, according to Tel Aviv, was carried out because its facilities were being used for military purposes, reported the Qatari news network Al Jazeera.
The Islamic Republic claimed that the Iranian public television, IRIB, was bombed during a live broadcast. The sound of an explosion was heard, and the presenter Sahar Emami interrupted her live broadcast and left the studio while debris fell from the ceiling and dust rose. Off-camera, shouts of 'Allahu Akbar!' or 'God is the greatest!' were heard, and the broadcast abruptly changed to pre-recorded programming. Later, Emami returned to the air and stated that there were corpses of journalists. The television station confirmed the death of two employees.
The spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Minister, Esmaeil Baqaei, denounced the act as a war crime and called on the international community on social media platform X to demand justice for the attack.
For its part, Iran continued its retaliatory missile offensives against the most populated areas of Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv and the port of Haifa.
In the Israeli capital, a missile fell near the U.S. consulate and caused minor damage, reported U.S. Ambassador Michael Huckabee on social media.
Both countries have attacked each other's oil and gas facilities, increasing the threat of an environmental disaster; yesterday explosions were reported near oil refineries in southern Tehran.
Earlier, Iran threatened to withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), after Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Bagqaei announced that Parliament was preparing a bill that would withdraw the country from the 1968 NPT, which obliges it to renounce nuclear weapons and submit to international inspections to verify compliance.
The country's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, also insisted that Iran had no intention of developing nuclear weapons, but would exercise its right to nuclear energy and research, and emphasized that Khamenei issued a religious edict against weapons of mass destruction.
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