Israel hits 'centrifuge site' in Tehran as Trump weighs launching US strikes on Iran
Intense Israeli air strikes targeted Tehran on Wednesday as Donald Trump was said to be considering whether to order US attacks on Iran.
Israel said more than 50 fighter jets took part in the morning strikes and claimed to have hit a centrifuge manufacturing facility in Tehran.
Residents of Tehran fled their homes in droves on the sixth day of Israel's air campaign aimed at Iran's military and nuclear programme - which a human rights group says has killed at least 585 people across Iran and wounded 1,326 others.
Iran has retaliated against Israel's airstrike campaign by launching some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel. So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel.
A major explosion could be heard around 5am in Tehran on Wednesday morning, following other explosions that boomed earlier in the predawn darkness.
Authorities in Iran offered no acknowledgement of the attacks, which has become increasingly common as the Israeli airstrike campaign has intensified since it began on Friday.
At least one strike appeared to target Tehran's eastern neighborhood of Hakimiyeh, where the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has an academy.
Traffic stood bumper to bumper on roads to the west and central Tehran emptied out, with many shops shuttered as well as the ancient Grand Bazaar. The Bazaar has closed only in times of crisis, such as during the 2022 anti-government protests and the coronavirus pandemic.
Israel has also claimed that it had killed Gen. Ali Shadmani, whom it described as Iran's most senior remaining military commander.
Shadmani was little known in the country before being appointed last week to a chief-of-staff-like role as head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters following the killing of his predecessor, Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, in an Israeli strike.
Israel asserts it had to launch its airstrike campaign to stop Iran from getting closer to being able to build a nuclear weapon.
The US president is reportedly considering if the US should join Israeli strikes on Iran.
Trump is weighing a range of options, including a possible strike, following a meeting with his national security team inside the Situation Room, NBC News reported, citing unnamed officials.
The US sent more warplanes to the Middle East as Trump made a series of statements about the conflict that fuelled confusion about the US's role, including demanding 'UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER' in a post on social media.
He also warned Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the US knows where he is hiding but that there were no plans to kill him 'at least not for now.'
Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about the evolving situation over the phone on Tuesday, according to a White House official.
Iran offered no immediate response to the president's posts, but the country's military leaders vowed that Israel would soon see more attacks.
'The operations carried out so far have been solely for the purpose of warning and deterrence,' Gen. Abdul Rahim Mousavi, the commander in chief of Iran's army, said in a video. 'The punishment operation will be carried out soon.'
Israel's military warned the population to stay close to shelters as Iran fired new salvos of missiles on Wednesday, but officials said most were intercepted and Israel's rescue services had no immediate reports of injuries. Sirens blared in southern Israel, including in the desert town of Dimona, the heart of Israel's never-acknowledged nuclear arms programme.
The US State Department announced that the US Embassy in Jerusalem will remain closed through Friday.
Iran has fired fewer missiles in each of its barrages, with just a handful launched into Wednesday. It has not explained the drop in missiles fired, but the decline comes after Israel targeted many Iranian launchers.
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New York Times
24 minutes ago
- New York Times
Live Updates: Trump Says ‘Nobody Knows' His Plans on Iran
News ANalysis Smokes after Israeli airstrikes in Tehran on Tuesday. In Iran, Israel is carrying out the kind of broad and brazen attack that it long threatened but never dared to enact before. For nearly two decades, Israel avoided all-out war with its biggest enemies. It fought contained conflicts with Hamas, but ultimately allowed the group to retain power in Gaza. It maintained an uneasy calm with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, even as its fighters entrenched themselves in southern Lebanon. And despite planning a major assault on Iran, it limited its attacks to smaller, clandestine operations. Israel's massive, ongoing assault on Iran highlights an extraordinary shift in Israeli military doctrine since Hamas, Iran's Palestinian ally, attacked the country in October 2023. It is a change that has redrawn the power dynamics in the Middle East, unraveled Iran's regional alliance and enshrined Israel as the dominant military force in the region. Having given Hamas years to prepare for the Oct. 7 attack, Israel reversed course afterward to unleash one of the most destructive campaigns in recent warfare. It then assassinated most of Hezbollah's leadership and decimated large parts of southern Lebanon. Now, in Iran, it is carrying out the kind of broad and brazen attack that it long threatened but never dared to enact. 'We are changing the face of the Middle East,' said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel during a press briefing on Monday. 'And this could lead to far-reaching changes within Iran itself,' he added. For now, that second claim remains unproven. The Israeli military campaign has weakened Iran, but it has not yet destroyed the country's nuclear program or collapsed its government, and it may still fall short of both. The war could also devolve into an intractable quagmire with no exit strategy or offramp. Image Iranians lined up at gas stations in Tehran on Monday. Credit... Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times Mr. Netanyahu's broader point is harder to contradict. Hamas is no longer a threat to Israel. Hezbollah's influence over Lebanon — let alone the danger it poses to Israelis — is much diminished. The government in Syria, a pillar of Iran's regional alliance, was overthrown last December, in part because Hezbollah could no longer come to its aid. These tectonic shifts also speak to a vast change within the Israeli psyche and strategic outlook since Hamas's attack in October 2023. For Israel's critics, the attack was the inevitable consequence of the country's blockade of Gaza, occupation of the West Bank, and failure to resolve the Palestinian conflict through diplomatic concessions. Many Israelis have drawn the opposite conclusion: They believe that the October attack — the deadliest in Israeli history — stemmed from Israel's failure to pre-emptively and decisively defeat its enemies. 'In the 20 years before Oct. 7, we allowed threats to develop beyond our borders, trusting that our intelligence would give us prior warnings of any attack,' said Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence. 'The trauma of Oct. 7 completely changed that mind-set and made us willing to take risks that we didn't take in the past,' General Yadlin said. 'We will no longer wait to be attacked, and we will not wait to be surprised.' The approach echoes Israel's strategic outlook in the early decades of its existence, when it often acted more swiftly and decisively to remove threats on its borders, General Yadlin said. The clearest example was in June 1967, when Israel pre-emptively attacked Egypt after the Egyptian military moved troops toward the Israeli border. Image Israeli fighter aircraft over the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt in June 1967. Israel's current approach in the Middle East echoes its strategic outlook in the early decades of its existence, when it often acted swiftly and decisively to remove threats on its borders. Credit... Israel Defense Forces, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 'As Egypt massed troops on our southern border, we did not wait to be surprised,' General Yadlin said. 'Now, we are reviving that doctrine.' Israel's new approach is the culmination of months of re-evaluation, during which the military's confidence — crushed by the failures of Oct. 7 — was gradually restored. While Israel's approach to Hamas was immediately wrathful, the country was initially wary of taking on Hezbollah and Iran. Mr. Netanyahu called off a pre-emptive attack on Hezbollah in the first week of the war in 2023, amid fears that Israel would struggle to maintain a multi-front war against the Iran-led alliance. For nearly a year, Israel fought only a low-level border conflict with Hezbollah. Despite increasing clashes with Tehran in 2024, Israel limited its strikes on Iran to avoid an all-out conflict. Israel's approach began to change last September, when a sequence of unexpected moves allowed Israel to decimate much of Hezbollah's senior leadership. That increased Israel's confidence and prompted its leaders to order a more decisive assault on the group. Troops invaded southern Lebanon and the air force killed Hezbollah's secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah. Israel then severely weakened Iran's air defense systems and successfully repelled massive barrages of Iranian missiles, giving Israel greater confidence in its offensive and defensive abilities. More than a year after Oct. 7, Israeli leaders finally concluded that they had a rare window of opportunity to mount a decisive blow against Iran's nuclear program. Image An oil storage west of Tehran was hit by Israeli airstrikes on Sunday. Credit... Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times Though Israel's new approach has undercut Iran's regional influence, it has done little to resolve Israel's oldest and most intractable problem: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Gaza, Israel's retaliation has led to widespread destruction and bloodshed, reinstating a fearsome sense of Israeli might and reducing Hamas's threat for a generation. But the conflict has provided no clear long-term trajectory for either Gaza or the wider Palestinian question. Mr. Netanyahu has consistently ignored opportunities to end the war, balking at the idea of either leaving Hamas's remnants in charge or allowing other Palestinian groups to take over. 'Instead, we are left with only bad options,' said Tzipi Livni, a former Israeli foreign minister. 'Either occupation or chaos, rather than a diplomatic process involving moderate regional and Palestinian stakeholders that could change the reality on the ground for both Palestinians and Israelis.' A similarly aimless dynamic could yet emerge in Iran, analysts said, if the Israeli leadership fails to clearly define its goals there and set an exit strategy. For now, Israeli officials hope the United States will join the attack and help Israel destroy Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities. If the United States stays away, and if Iran refuses to stop the enrichment by choice, it is unclear whether Israel's forceful new doctrine will achieve the kind of game-changing outcomes that many Israelis desire. 'One wonders whether effective military performance is matched by a sober political vision,' said Nimrod Novik, a former senior Israeli official and a fellow at Israel Policy Forum, a research group in New York. 'Or, like in Gaza, we are left without an endgame. Time will tell.' Johnatan Reiss and Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting.
CNN
24 minutes ago
- CNN
Anxiety grips Gulf Arab states over threat of nuclear contamination and reprisals from Iran
Concern is rising in Gulf Arab states about the possibility of environmental contamination or reprisal attacks if Israel or the United States strikes Iran's nuclear facilities just across the Persian Gulf. In Oman, users on messaging apps circulated advice on what to do in the event of a nuclear incident. Residents are instructed to 'enter a closed and secure indoor space (preferably windowless), seal all windows and doors tightly, turn off air conditioning and ventilation systems' if the worst were to happen. In Bahrain, 33 shelters are being prepared for emergencies, and sirens were tested nationwide, the state news agency said Tuesday. Concern about nuclear fallout has also risen over the past week, with news outlets across the Middle East publishing guides on how to deal with radiation leaks. Elham Fakhro, a Bahraini resident and fellow at the Middle East Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School, said people are 'definitely concerned' about the prospect of Israeli and US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. Iran's only functional nuclear power plant, in Bushehr, is closer to several US-allied Arab capitals then it is to Tehran. 'Primarily there is fear of environmental contamination, especially in shared waters,' Fakhro said. She added that other concerns include 'the possibility of an Iranian reprisal on US military facilities in the Gulf states, which could impact civilians, and extended airspace closures.' Despite its improved relationship with Arab neighbors, Iran has implicitly warned that it would target nearby US interests if it were struck by the American military. Bahrain, for example, hosts the US Naval Forces Central Command, which could be a target. The Gulf Cooperation Council, an economic and political bloc that comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, on Monday activated its Kuwait-based Emergency Management Centre, to ensure that all 'necessary preventive measures are taken at environmental and radiological levels.' The UAE's foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, warned 'against the risks of reckless and miscalculated actions that could extend beyond the borders' of Iran and Israel. The Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson also warned of 'uncalculated' strikes that could affect the waters of Gulf countries. Almost 60 million people in Gulf Arab countries rely on desalinated sea water from the Persian Gulf for drinking, washing and usable water. Regional leaders have warned that contamination from Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, if attacked, could have severe environmental consequences for this critical water source. In March, US journalist Tucker Carlson asked Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani what would happen if the Bushehr nuclear plant were 'blown up.' '(The water) would be entirely contaminated … No water, no fish, nothing, it has no life,' Al Thani said. The Qatari prime minister said at the time that his country previously ran a risk exercise to analyze how a damaged Iranian nuclear power plant could affect them. 'The water we use for our people is from desalination … We don't have rivers and we don't have water reserves. Basically, the country would run out of water in three days … That is not only applied for Qatar … this is applied for Kuwait, this is applied for UAE. It's all of us,' he said. Qatar has since built massive water reservoirs for protection. US President Donald Trump appears to be warming to the idea of using US military assets to strike Iranian nuclear facilities and souring on the possibility of a diplomatic solution to end the conflict, two officials told CNN on Tuesday. This represents a shift in Trump's approach, though the sources said he remains open to a diplomatic solution – if Iran makes concessions. 'I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do,' Trump said Wednesday. Gulf states, including the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, are attractive destinations for businesses and foreign expatriates, offering no income tax, high salaries and a stable political environment. People CNN spoke to in Kuwait and the UAE said there isn't a feeling of panic amongst residents, and trust remains that regional authorities have safe contingency plans. 'I don't feel worried or concerned, I have an unwavering trust in my safety here,' said an American woman living in Abu Dhabi. 'I would, however, feel worried if the US decides to strike (Iran) because of the uncertainty in what happens next.' Another Egyptian resident of Dubai, who chose to remain anonymous, said she feels 'very safe' and 'in the right country' but her anxiety is now heightened over the news she's reading on escalation and war. 'Everyone is stressed out … and it's becoming very real,' she said. 'The situation is not something to be taken lightly and war feels nearby.'
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