Israeli military says latest missiles from Iran incoming as explosions heard
Both Israel's military and Iran state television announced the latest round of missiles as explosions were heard overhead in parts of Israel, including Tel Aviv.
Israel's military quickly noted that it was currently striking 'military targets' in Tehran.
Israeli security forces inspect destroyed houses that were struck by a missile fired from Iran, in Rishon Lezion, Israel (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)
Jordan said it has closed its airspace.
Israel's ongoing 'widespread strikes' in Tehran and elsewhere have left Iran's surviving leadership with the difficult decision of whether to plunge deeper into conflict with Israel's more powerful forces or seek a diplomatic route.
Oman's foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, said on social media the sixth round of indirect nuclear talks on Sunday 'will not now take place', adding that 'diplomacy and dialogue remain the only pathway to lasting peace'.
Although the talks are off for now, 'we remain committed to talks and hope the Iranians will come to the table soon', said a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomacy.
Israel and Iran signalled more attacks are coming, despite urgent calls from world leaders to deescalate and avoid all-out war.
The attack on nuclear sites set a 'dangerous precedent', China's foreign minister said.
The region is already on edge as Israel makes a new push to eliminate the Iranian-backed militant group Hamas in Gaza after 20 months of fighting.
Israel — widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East — said its hundreds of strikes on Iran over the past two days killed a number of top generals, nine senior scientists and experts involved in Iran's nuclear programme.
Demonstrators carry posters of top Iranian commanders killed in Friday's Israeli strikes in Tehran, Iran (Vahid Salemi/AP)
Iran's UN ambassador has said 78 people were killed and more than 320 wounded.
Iran retaliated by launching waves of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel, where explosions lit the night skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and shook buildings.
Israel said three people were killed and over 170 wounded.
'If (Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front — Tehran will burn,' defence minister Israel Katz said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made the destruction of Iran's nuclear programme his top priority, said Israel's strikes so far are 'nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days'.
In what could be another escalation if confirmed, semi-official Iranian news agencies reported an Israeli drone struck and caused a 'strong explosion' at an Iranian natural-gas processing plant.
It would be the first Israeli attack on Iran's oil and natural gas industry. Israel's military did not immediately comment.
The extent of damage at the South Pars natural gas field was not immediately clear. Such sites have air defence systems around them, which Israel has been targeting.
Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only, and US intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran was not actively pursuing the bomb.
But its uranium enrichment has reached near weapons-grade levels, and on Thursday, the UN's atomic watchdog censured Iran for not complying with obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran's top diplomat said on Saturday the nuclear talks were 'unjustifiable' after Israel's strikes.
Abbas Araghchi's comments came during a call with Kaja Kallas, the European Union's top diplomat.
The Israeli airstrikes were the 'result of the direct support by Washington', Mr Araghchi said in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency. The US has said it is not part of the strikes.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump urged Iran to reach a deal with the US on its nuclear programme, adding that 'Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left'.
– US helps to shoot down Iranian missiles
Iran launched waves of missiles at Israel late on Friday and early on Saturday.
Iranians awoke to state television airing repeated clips of the strikes, as well as videos of people cheering and handing out sweets.
Israeli security forces inspect destroyed residential buildings that were hit by a missile fired from Iran, in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv (Ariel Schalit/AP)
The Iranian attacks killed at least three people and wounded 174, two of them seriously, Israel said.
The military said seven soldiers were lightly wounded when a missile hit central Israel, without specifying where — the first report of Israeli military casualties since the initial Israeli strikes.
US ground-based air defence systems in the region were helping to shoot down Iranian missiles, said a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the measures.
Israel's main international airport said it will remain closed until further notice.
– Indications of a new Israeli attack
Israel's army spokesman, Brigadier General Effie Defrin, said Israel had attacked more than 400 targets across Iran, including 40 in Tehran, where dozens of fighter jets were 'operating freely'.
He said it was the deepest point Israel's air force had operated.
Brig Gen Defrin said fighter jets struck over 40 'missile-related targets and advanced air defence array systems' across Iran.
A governor of Eastern Azerbaijan province in north-western Iran said 30 troops and a rescuer had been killed there, with 55 others wounded.
The Isfahan enrichment facility in Iran after being hit by Israeli airstrikes (Maxar Technologies via AP)
Governor Bahram Sarmast's remarks were the latest acknowledgment of mass casualties.
Iranian state television reported online that air defences were firing in the cities of Khorramabad, Kermanshah and Tabriz.
Footage from Tabriz showed black smoke rising.
The sound of explosions and Iranian air defense systems firing at targets echoed across central Tehran.
Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported a fire at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport.
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The Herald Scotland
30 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
'Tehran will burn,' Israel's defense minister warns
Iranian state TV reported that around 60 people, including 20 children, had been killed in an attack on a housing complex, with more strikes reported across the country as Israel said it had attacked more than 150 targets. Air raid sirens sent Israelis into shelters as missiles streaked across the sky and interceptors rose to meet them, killing at least three people. An Israeli official said Iran had fired around 200 ballistic missiles in four waves. Despite U.S. help in shooting down incoming missiles, Iranian fire hit residential districts. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Iran had crossed a line. "If Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn," he said in a statement, singling out Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. President Donald Trump has lauded Israel's strikes and warned of much worse to come unless Iran quickly accepts the sharp downgrading of its nuclear program the U.S. has demanded in talks that had been due to resume on June 15. But with Israel saying its operation could last weeks, and urging Iranians to rise up against their Islamist clerical rulers, fears have grown of a regional war dragging in outside powers, with global economic and financial repercussions. Iran had vowed to avenge the June 13 Israeli onslaught, which gutted Tehran's nuclear and military leadership and damaged nuclear plants and military bases, killing 78 people - including civilians, according to Iran's U.N. envoy. Tehran warned Israel's allies that their regional military bases would come under fire too if they help shoot down Iranian missiles, Iranian state television reported. Iran's allies falter Iran's own ally, the Yemeni Houthi group, fired missiles at Israel the night of June 13; at least one appeared to go astray, injuring five Palestinians, including three children, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. However, 20 months of war in Gaza and a conflict in Lebanon last year have decimated Tehran's strongest allies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, reducing its ability to project power across the region along with its options for retaliation. "Iran spent decades building up its so-called Axis of Resistance that was supposed to be the vanguard that made Israel think twice about attacking Iran," Mohamad Bazzi, director of New York University's Middle East center, told USA TODAY. "That's disappeared." Iranian proxy Hezbollah, once considered the most powerful non-state actor in the world, "raced to announce it was staying on the sidelines" in its sponsor's current conflict with Israel, Bazzi noted. Gulf Arab states that have long mistrusted Iran but fear coming under attack in any wider conflict have urged calm as the price of crude rose by about 7% on June 13. Blasts and fear in Israel and Iran Iran's overnight fusillade included hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones, an Israeli official said. Three people, including a man and a woman, were killed and dozens wounded, the ambulance service said. In Rishon LeZion, south of Tel Aviv, emergency services rescued a baby girl trapped in a house hit by a missile, police said. Video showed teams searching through the rubble of one home. And in the western suburb of Ramat Gan, near Ben Gurion airport, Linda Grinfeld described her apartment being damaged: "We were sitting in the shelter, and then we heard such a boom. It was awful." The Israeli military said it had intercepted surface-to-surface Iranian missiles as well as drones, and that two rockets had been fired from Gaza. With Iran's air defences heavily damaged, Israeli Air Force chief Tomer Bar said "the road to Iran has been paved." In preparation for possible further escalation, reservists were being deployed across Israel. Army Radio reported units had been positioned along the Lebanese and Jordanian borders. In Iran, explosions were heard overnight across the capital, state media reported. State television reported that a 14-story housing complex, Shahid Chamran, had been flattened by a missile. It said 60 people were been killed, though there was no immediate official confirmation. Israel's military did not immediately comment on that report. Iran's U.N. envoy Amir Saeid Iravani said 78 people had been killed in Israel's June 13 strikes and more than 320 wounded, most of them civilians. Iran nuclear sites damaged Israel sees Iran's nuclear programme as a threat to its existence, and said the bombardment was designed to avert the last steps to production of a nuclear weapon - even though U.S. intelligence says it has seen no sign that this is imminent. Israeli U.N. envoy Danny Danon called the strikes "an act of national preservation." Israel said it had killed nine Iranian nuclear scientists, and that the damage to the nuclear facilities at Esfahan and Natanz would take "more than a few weeks" to repair. Tehran insists the program is entirely civilian in line with its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and that it does not seek an atomic bomb. However, it has repeatedly hidden parts of its program from international inspectors, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has reported it's in violation of the NPT. Israel, which is not an NPT signatory and is widely understood to have developed a nuclear bomb, has said it cannot let its main regional foe gain atomic weapons. Iranian talks with the United States to resolve the nuclear dispute have stuttered this year. Tehran implied that it would not attend the round that was scheduled for June 15 in Oman, but without definitively refusing. "The other side (the U.S.) acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime (Israel) to target Iran's territory," state media quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying. "It is still unclear what decision we will make on Sunday in this regard." In Rome, Pope Leo appealed "to responsibility and to reason." Contributing: Reuters
The Independent
44 minutes ago
- The Independent
Israel and Iran trade strikes for a third day as nuclear talks are called off
Israel unleashed airstrikes across Iran for a third day on Sunday and threatened even greater force as some Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses to strike buildings in the heart of the country. Planned talks on Iran's nuclear program, which could provide an off-ramp, were called off. The region braced for a protracted conflict after Israel's surprise bombardment of Iran's nuclear and military sites on Friday killed several top generals and nuclear scientists, and neither side showed any sign of backing down. Israel reportedly targeted a gas installation, raising the prospect of a broader assault on Iran's heavily sanctioned energy industry that could affect global markets. U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed full support for Israel's actions while warning Iran that it can only avoid further destruction by agreeing to a new nuclear deal. New explosions echoed across Tehran and were reported elsewhere in the country early Sunday, but there was no update to a death toll put out the day before by Iran's U.N. ambassador, who said 78 people had been killed and more than 320 wounded. In Israel, at least 10 people were killed in Iranian strikes overnight and into Sunday, according to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service, bringing the country's total death toll to 13. Israeli strikes targeted Iran's Defense Ministry early Sunday after hitting air defenses, military bases and sites associated with its nuclear program. The killing of several top generals and nuclear scientists in targeted strikes indicated that Israeli intelligence has penetrated Iran at the highest levels. Death toll mounts in Israel In Israel, at least six people, including two children, were killed when a missile hit an apartment building in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. Daniel Hadad, a local police commander, said 180 people were wounded and seven are still missing. An Associated Press reporter saw streets lined with damaged and destroyed buildings, bombed out cars and shards of glass. Responders used a drone at points to look for survivors. Some people could be seen leaving the area with suitcases. Four people were killed when a missile struck a building in the northern Israeli town of Tamra and another 24 were wounded. A strike on the central city of Rehovot wounded 42 people. The Weizmann Institute of Science, an important center for research in Rehovot, said 'there were a number of hits to buildings on the campus.' It said no one was harmed. Israel has a sophisticated multi-tiered missile defense system that is able to intercept most projectiles fired at it, but officials have always said it is imperfect. Urgent calls to deescalate World leaders made urgent calls to deescalate. The attack on nuclear sites set a 'dangerous precedent,' China's foreign minister said. The region is already on edge as Israel seeks to annihilate Hamas, an Iranian ally, in the Gaza Strip, where the war is still raging after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off such calls, saying Israel's strikes so far are 'nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days.' Israel, the sole though undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East — said it launched the attack to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Iran has always said its nuclear program was peaceful, and the U.S. and others have assessed it has not pursued a weapon since 2003. But it has enriched ever larger stockpiles of uranium to near weapons-grade levels in recent years and was believed to have been able to develop multiple weapons within months if it chose to do so. The U.N.'s atomic watchdog censured Iran last week for not complying with its obligations. Semiofficial Iranian news agencies meanwhile reported that an Israeli drone strike had caused a 'strong explosion' at an Iranian natural-gas processing plant, in what could be the first Israeli attack on Iran's oil and natural gas industry. Israel's military did not immediately comment. The extent of damage at the South Pars natural gas field was not immediately clear. Such sites have air defense systems around them, which Israel has been targeting. Iran calls nuclear talks 'unjustifiable' The Arab Gulf country of Oman, which has been mediating indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program, said a sixth round planned for Sunday would not take place. 'We remain committed to talks and hope the Iranians will come to the table soon,' a senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks. Iran's top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, said Saturday that the nuclear talks were 'unjustifiable' after Israel's strikes, which he said were the 'result of the direct support by Washington.' In a post on his Truth Social account early Sunday, Trump reiterated that the U.S. was not involved in the attacks on Iran and warned that any retaliation directed against it would bring an American response 'at levels never seen before.' 'However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!' he wrote. 'More than a few weeks' to repair nuclear facilities In Iran, satellite photos analyzed by AP show extensive damage at Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz. The images shot Saturday by Planet Labs PBC show multiple buildings damaged or destroyed. The structures hit include buildings identified by experts as supplying power to the facility. U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to have been hit, but the loss of power could have damaged infrastructure there, he said. Israel also struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan. The International Atomic Energy Agency said four 'critical buildings' were damaged, including its uranium conversion facility. 'As in Natanz, no increase in off-site radiation expected,' it added. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with official procedures, said that according to the army's initial assessment 'it will take much more than a few weeks' for Iran to repair the damage to the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. The official said the army had 'concrete intelligence that production in Isfahan was for military purposes.' ___ Lidman and Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
Times
an hour ago
- Times
1,200 miles apart, two cities quake as missiles rain down
When the first Israeli missiles hit Tehran at 3.30am on Friday, Shahram woke to find he had nowhere to hide. As explosions ripped through his home, shaking the walls and rattling the windows, the journalist and his wife could only take shelter under the dining room table and pray. It was the second time, Shahram said, that he had felt that kind of terror. The first was when he was a child, during the Iran-Iraq War in the late 1980s, when Iraqi forces fired on the Iranian capital. 'Back then, at least, we had sirens and shelters,' he said in a telephone interview. 'Now, we don't even have that. There is no good in war.' On Saturday morning residents of another city 1,200 miles away ventured out into a landscape that was suddenly different from the one they had always known, one now marked with empty streets, mangled cars and the rubble of collapsed buildings. Gone was the illusion of impenetrable immunity from the troubles on Israel's borders. Gone, too — for some hours, at least — was the carefree, liberal energy that sets Tel Aviv apart. Iran's missiles had arrived hours earlier with a severity that Yael Weinreb, who works in the city's start up scene, had never heard before. 'The booms were different to usual,' she said. 'We have reception in our bomb shelter downstairs, so it means that we saw the video of Tel Aviv at the moment of impact — and I just turned to my husband and said, 'What the f**k?'' Deadly new reality After years of proxy conflict waged in battlefields from Sanaa to Beirut, this weekend the shadow war between Israel and Iran has burst open in the hearts of Tehran and Tel Aviv, as tit-for-tat missile strikes put the two enemies on the brink of a devastating regional war. Among the most haunting images to emerge from the devastation was that of a woman's long black hair splayed across a crushed pink mattress, trapped between collapsed slabs of concrete. The blood trails from her scalp continued along the mattress. Her name was Parnia Abbasi, 23, a poet and English teacher who was killed alongside three members of her family when an Israeli missile hit their block of flats in the Shahrara neighbourhood of Tehran, causing it to collapse. Her friends told the Hammihan newspaper that she was sensitive and artistic. Parnia Abbasi Yaran Ghasemi, a two-month-old boy, was the youngest victim of the strikes. Mehdi Pouladvand, a talented rider and member of the Alborz provincial equestrian team, was killed along with his father, mother, and sister. Parsa Mansour, a padel player, was also among those killed in Tehran. These casualties occurred after Israeli missile strikes targeted more than 200 locations across Iran, including the homes of senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, scientists and regime officials, hitting neighbouring residential buildings occupied by civilians as well as nuclear and defence sites across the country. Iranian officials said 78 people were killed and more than 320 injured in the attacks, which a Middle Eastern official who opposes Iran said he believed was the biggest blow to the country since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Mourning dead generals in Tehran ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH/EPA Israel itself is a nation well versed in the threat of conflict with Iran and steeped in warnings of attacks from Tehran's regional proxies. Yet the sense of dread that met Binyamin Netanyahu's announcement of the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities was palpable. 'I'm once again asking you to strictly follow the guidelines of the home front command,' the prime minister told the nation in the early hours of Friday. 'It's very possible that you will need to stay in protected spaces for an extended period of time, much longer than we've been used to until now. 'Please make sure to stock up, as I'm sure you're already doing — with supplies, food, clothing and more. But above all, stock up on patience, on faith in the justice of our cause and in confidence in our victory.' Confidence was in short supply at 3.03am on Friday, when the country woke up with a jarring new phone notification sound. Ask a local in Tel Aviv what they do when they hear sirens in the middle of the night and they may admit they sleepily close their phones and roll over, going back to sleep. This time, given the direct threat from Iran, lights went on in apartments across the boulevards of the city and parents woke their children after turning on their televisions. Many of the old Bauhaus buildings in Tel Aviv do not have safe rooms in their homes or fortified basements in their buildings. Doors of new-builds are usually left open for those in need to find shelter at the time of an attack. But timing is key. 'The amount of time from the warning to the siren isn't enough to get up, get ready and go,' said Irit, a documentary film-maker. She lives with her husband and two children and dog in Tel Aviv, with no shelter near by. They sought safety in an underground car park. 'By the third attack, we didn't get a warning, we just heard the siren. By the time we got ourselves together, we found ourselves on the street outside for the duration of the attack,' she said. At that point, where the missile falls is a matter of luck. The Israel Defence Forces said three Iranian military commanders, including the head of the IRGC, were among those killed in the first day of strikes. Attacks carried on into the weekend as Netanyahu pledged to continue for days or weeks in an attempt to 'eliminate' Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities. In Tehran too there was a deadly new reality to reckon with. Through years of war with militias in Lebanon and Gaza, many in the Iranian capital have lived relatively insulated from the battles fought by the Iranian regime in the region. Friday's attacks changed that. Amin, who works at a pastry shop in central Tehran and lives near the home of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, was half asleep when he heard the first explosions. 'I didn't think it was serious. I assumed, like previous times, they were targeting military sites around Tehran. But suddenly, a massive blast shook my entire house — not just the windows but the walls, like an earthquake. I quickly got dressed and sat in the doorway. Then I realised they were striking all over Iran,' he said over the phone, as the boom of another explosion sounded in the background. 'I was having a panic attack. My whole body was shaking. I grabbed my backpack and threw in my documents, hard drive and laptop. My brain had shut down, I didn't know what to do.' Hypocrisy exposed Amin sat in the doorway until 9am, when he went to work. In the streets, he could see a large number of security force personnel gathering across the city on motorcycles. It felt extremely tense, he said, yet cafés, shops and restaurants stayed open. Petrol station queues were longer than usual but people were going about their lives. For many in Iran, the strikes brought the hypocrisy of their leaders into the spotlight. Islamic Republic officials publicly maintain that they live humble lifestyles as devout revolutionaries. Iran's supreme leader holds speeches and meetings in a modest hall without chairs or furniture to project a simple way of living. But Israel's targeting of luxury penthouses in parts of northern and northeastern Tehran laid bare the opulent lives of the regime and IRGC elites in the city's most expensive districts. These are neighbourhoods where morality police patrols rarely appear, where Tehran's elite and regime officials live untouched by inflation, sanctions, or danger. Luxury shops sell Louis Vuitton and Chopard, and it is common to see the children of regime officials cruising the streets in BMWs and Porsches. Now they have been faced with the reality of war. Maryam, a housewife in northeast Tehran, said: 'A building near us was destroyed. The explosion was so powerful it shook all the windows … I still can't believe a missile hit our neighbouring alley and that I saw bodies on the street. We could have died.' Elsewhere in the country, the fallout from the attacks was becoming clear. In the city of Natanz, the centre of Iran's uranium enrichment programme, Israeli strikes were confirmed to have hit an underground nuclear facility. All roads in and out of Natanz have been blocked, and the 50,000 people living in the area were essentially trapped. No public guidance has been issued for dealing with chemical or radioactive exposure. One woman whose family is from Natanz said that she was afraid it would become Iran's Chernobyl. The second night By Friday evening, Iran's air defence systems were responding to the Israeli attacks, raising questions about why they failed to activate during the previous night's bombardments. Throughout the night the deafening sounds of missile strikes, drones and anti-aircraft fire filled the skies. Sleep, said the people we interviewed, was impossible. On Saturday morning, Tehran was a city cloaked in death. Dust hung in the air as police urged shopkeepers and business owners to shut their doors. The city, gripped by explosions and aerial attacks, found itself in a de facto lockdown — under siege, with few shelters and nowhere to hide. In Israel the losses were much smaller: three people were killed and 76 injured from Iranian missile strikes on Friday night. The military warned citizens to be ready for continued attacks that could continue for days. They said Israeli airspace might be closed for weeks. One British family found themselves stranded having come to Tel Aviv for a wedding. David Seal said that their visit changed from strolling through the old cobblestoned neighbourhood of Neve Tzedek, which he likened to 'Shoreditch on the Sea', its tables at restaurants 'brimming' at midnight, to a war zone threatened by Iranian 'hellfire.' On Friday night, with the wedding off, Seal, his wife and daughter went down to the bomb shelter in the hotel where they are staying. 'Again, we're scrolling through the phone, see what's going on, realise that parts of Tel Aviv have been hit badly with casualties and buildings destroyed. So again, you're very concerned, but that was 15 minutes in the middle of the night. Came in, back upstairs. You don't sleep properly because you're trying to doze off, or you try to avoid dozing off into a deep sleep, because you're concerned [that] if something happens, you sleep through it. So you wake up six in the morning, tired, exhausted and frankly, concerned. That was our night. 'I'd like to go home now. But I can't see how we're going to get out of here any time soon,' Seal said, adding that the British embassy had been 'useless' in rescuing its citizens. • Israel travel advice: is it safe to visit right now? The days ahead Netanyahu, who has long championed a large-scale attack designed to cripple Iran's nuclear facilities, called on Friday for Iran's country's population to rise up against the regime. 'The time has come for the Iranian people to unite around its flag and its historic legacy, by standing up for your freedom from the evil and oppressive regime,' he said. His oft-repeated call was met with frustration by many in Iran, even those who despise the regime. Mina Akbari, a journalist and film-maker, wrote on Instagram: 'My generation grew up during the Iran-Iraq War, listening to sirens and running to shelters. Those who speak of saving Iran through war either haven't studied history or benefit from destruction. 'Democracy doesn't arrive on fighter jets. Military strikes mean deeper repression, silencing opposition and postponing freedom. Democracy is built through grassroots movements — not precision missiles. War only builds graves.' The Israeli leader does not enjoy anything like majority support at home either. There can be little doubt that Israel as a whole is tired of war. Most people want a ceasefire deal to return the hostages and end the conflict in Gaza. In Tel Aviv especially there has long been an awkward dissonance between the death and suffering just down the coast in Gaza and the relative comfort of their own beaches, plentiful jobs and buzzing bars and coffee shops. But something changed in recent days. The sporadic threat of rocket fire, and the constant bleak awareness of the kidnapped civilians held by Hamas in underground tunnels, were one thing. The uncertainty and fear felt now over what could happen next is something else entirely. On Saturday evening the city prepared again to hunker down at dusk, not knowing what the night would hold. 'What's about to happen is even scarier, as it's going to get worse. The more we're exposed to these attacks, the more fear and anxiety we'll suffer,' said Irit. 'It's not clear how the coming days will look, how we'll cope with the new reality. It's apocalyptic here. Just total uncertainty.'
