Israel strikes Iran's 'propaganda' TV station during live broadcast

Euronews

5 hours ago

An Iranian state television reporter had to stop a live broadcast on Monday when an explosion occurred an hour after Israel issued a warning to evacuate the area of Tehran where the TV studios are located.
Smoke was seen rising from at least three sites in the Iranian capital.
The reporter for the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network said the studio was filling with dust after "the sound of aggression against the homeland, the sound of aggression against truth and righteousness."
Anchor Sahar Emami rushed off-camera as the screen behind her cut out and people were heard saying "Allahu akbar," Arabic for God is great.
The broadcast quickly switched to pre-recorded programmes. Later, state TV aired live video of the building on fire.
Soon, Emami came back live from another studio and was seen speaking with another anchor. She said that "bodies of reporters" were at the site of the initial broadcast, and images showed smoke and flames in the sky.
Israel's defence minister Israel Katz took credit for the attack as he called it a strike on the "propaganda broadcast authority."
"The Iranian regime's propaganda and incitement broadcasting authority was attacked by the IDF after a widespread evacuation of the area's residents. We will strike the Iranian dictator everywhere," he said in a statement.
An hour earlier, the Israeli military had issued an evacuation warning affecting up to 330,000 people in a part of central Tehran that includes the country's state TV and police headquarters, as well as three major hospitals.
In response to the attack, Iran also issued evacuation warnings for Israeli news channels, Iranian state TV reported.
The attack came on the fourth day of the escalating conflict, as the IDF claimed it had achieved air superiority above the Iranian capital and could fly over the city without facing major threats.
Israel and Iran exchanged a barrage of airstrikes on Monday, the fourth day of fighting in an escalating conflict that began after an unprecedented Israeli attack on Tehran last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the aerial attack targeting Iran's nuclear, missile, and military complex that his forces carried out early Friday was an operation to "roll back" the Iranian threat to Israel's survival.
According to a former Israeli spokesperson, Eylon Levy, the current Israeli campaign may go on longer than expected.
Speaking in an interview with Euronews, Levy said, "We are likely to be looking at several weeks at least of Israeli military action because the Iranian regime's nuclear program is massive."
"Let's remember the Iranian Regime hasn't built one or two reactors to develop uranium for medical isotopes or civilian energy. It built its nuclear facilities often underground; Fordow is under a mountain because it's part of a nuclear weapons programme."
Levy added that Iran began the war with 360 ballistic missile launchers. Israel has destroyed one-third of them, he said.
"It started with 2,000 ballistic missiles. Most of them are still intact. So this is going to take Israel time to neutralise the regional threat of the Iranian regime, but so far, Israel has been working very quickly," Levy explained.
As of Monday afternoon, at least 220 people have been killed across Iran by Israeli strikes, while the death toll from Iran's missile strikes in Israel was at least 24.
As concerns about the conflict widening into a regional war grow, Iran has said it won't negotiate a ceasefire while under Israeli attack. But Levy believes Tehran is not in any position right now to dictate the terms of a negotiation.
"Israel has killed the head of its military, the head of its air force, and the intelligence; it's taken out a third of its ballistic missile launchers, and it controls the skies of Iran, and it is bombing Iran's illegal nuclear weapons facilities at will," he said.
"If the Iranian regime wants to peacefully dismantle the enrichment program it built in order to build nuclear weapons in order to destroy Israel, it is welcome to do so. But it's not going to get an unconditional ceasefire so that it can go back to dragging out time and holding fake negotiations while racing towards a nuclear bomb".
Tehran accuses the United States of being complicit in Israel's attacks on the Islamic Republic, something Washington denies, despite conflicting statements from US President Donald Trump.
During late Friday's emergency session at the United Nations Security Council, the US urged Tehran that it would "be wise" to negotiate over its nuclear programme.