Netanyahu says 'changing face of Middle East' as Israel and Iran trade blows
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel's campaign against Iran was "changing the face of the Middle East," as the two countries traded heavy strikes for a fifth day early Tuesday.
Netanyahu's remarks Monday came hours after a dramatic attack on an Iranian state TV building, which forced a presenter to flee midbroadcast and prompted a threat of retaliation against Israeli news channels.
After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war, Israel launched a surprise aerial campaign against Iran last week, with the stated aim of preventing Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons — an ambition it denies.
The sudden flare-up has sparked fears of a wider conflict, with U.S. President Donald Trump urging Iran back to the negotiating table after Israel's attacks derailed ongoing nuclear talks.
While Trump has maintained that Washington has "nothing to do" with its ally's campaign, he issued an extraordinary warning on Monday for all residents of Tehran to "immediately evacuate" — echoing a narrower warning by Israel's army for people to flee the capital district where the TV station was later hit.
Israel's strikes have killed at least 224 people, including top military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians, according to Iranian authorities.
Netanyahu told a news conference Monday evening that Israel was eliminating Iran's security leadership "one after the other."
"We are changing the face of the Middle East, and that can lead to radical changes inside Iran itself," he said.
Smoke billows from an explosion on Monday in Tehran, where Iran's state broadcaster was briefly knocked off the air by an Israeli strike. |
AFP-JIJI
Iran has launched several waves of missiles in retaliation for Israel's attacks, with Iran's Revolutionary Guard boasting Monday evening that the attacks would continue "without interruption until dawn."
Inhabitants of Tel Aviv were briefly told to seek shelter early Tuesday, a day after Iranian strikes on multiple Israeli cities pushed the death toll above two dozen in Israel.
Earlier, the live feed of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) was interrupted when an Israeli strike hit its Tehran building Monday.
The presenter was in the midst of lambasting Israel when an explosion rocked the facility, causing the monitors behind her to cut out and sending debris raining from the ceiling.
Prior to the strike, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Iran's "propaganda and incitement megaphone is about to disappear."
IRIB resumed its broadcast shortly after the strike, with a senior official at the service saying "the voice of the Islamic Revolution ... will not be silenced with a military operation."
Iran later "issued an evacuation warning for the N12 and N14 channels of Israel," state TV reported, calling the order a "response to the hostile attack" on IRIB.
Iranian missiles struck Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak, Petah Tikva and Haifa on Monday, leaving behind shattered homes, smouldering wreckage and stunned residents picking through debris.
"I have four children, four boys. We're very scared, but everyone is OK," said Idan Bar, whose building in Petah Tikva was among those hit.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews look at the site of a missile attack from Iran in Bnei Brak, Israel, on Monday. |
REUTERS
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said a nearby missile strike lightly damaged a building used by the American embassy in Tel Aviv, while the U.S. State Department warned citizens on Monday not to travel to Israel due to security concerns.
The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz was also leaving Southeast Asia on Monday after cancelling plans to dock in Vietnam, amid reports it was headed to the Middle East to boost the U.S. presence there.
International calls for calm have mounted.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters at the Group of Seven summit in the Canadian Rockies on Monday that he believed his fellow leaders were united in wanting de-escalation, adding the "risk of the conflict escalating is obvious."
French President Emmanuel Macron called for both sides to "end" strikes on civilians and warned that aiming to overthrow Tehran's clerical state would be a "strategic error."
China called on Israel and Iran to both "immediately take measures to cool down the tensions" and avoid plunging the region into deeper turmoil.
Trump had initially urged Iran to come back to the negotiating table, but then wrote on his Truth Social platform: "Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!"
Shortly afterward, the White House said Trump would return to Washington, cutting short his stay at the G7 summit and hinting at greater U.S. involvement in the conflict.
The United States and Iran had engaged in several rounds of indirect talks on Tehran's nuclear program in recent weeks, but Iran said after the start of Israel's campaign that it would not negotiate while under attack.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Monday that "absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue."
"It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu. That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy," he wrote on X.
A senior U.S. official said Trump had intervened to prevent Israel from carrying out an assassination of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But Netanyahu did not rule out the possibility when asked about the reports during an interview with ABC News.
"It's not going to escalate the conflict, it's going to end the conflict," he said.
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