Israel and Iran trade fire and threats on fifth day of conflict
Israel said on Tuesday morning that it conducted "extensive strikes" overnight on military sites in western Iran, as open warfare between the countries entered a fifth straight day.
The Israeli military also claimed to have killed a top Iranian general who it described as the "most senior military figure in the regime". About 20 Iranian ballistic missiles struck Israel in the morning, injuring five people, the military said.
Tehran, meanwhile, said three people were killed in Israel's attack on the headquarters of the state television channel in the capital on Monday night. The incident forced a presenter for Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting to flee in the middle of her broadcast.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted in a press conference late on Monday that his campaign against Iran was "changing the face of the Middle East". He added that the military was eliminating Iran's security leadership "one after the other".
But Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would not bow to military force. "Our enemies must know that they cannot reach a solution militarily and cannot force the Iranian nation to accept their demands," he was quoted as saying by state news agency Irna.
Mr Araghchi condemned the attack on the TV station, calling it the "height of cowardice".
Decades of enmity between Israel and Iran broke into open conflict on Friday when Israel launched a surprise attack on Iranian nuclear and military sites. Israel says it is acting to prevent Iran from advancing a nuclear weapons programme, which Tehran says it has no intention of doing.
Iran has launched several waves of missiles in retaliation for Israel's attacks, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps saying on Monday evening that the attacks would continue "without interruption until dawn".
On Tuesday morning, rocket warning sirens sounded in the Tel Aviv area, near Haifa and in the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva. Medics said they were searching areas where there had been reports of missile strikes.
"A short while ago, sirens sounded in several areas across Israel following the identification of missiles launched from Iran towards the state of Israel," the military said in a statement. It added that the air force was "operating to intercept and strike where necessary to eliminate the threat".
Israel's fire service reported that one missile hit a car park in the centre of the country, setting an empty bus alight. Medics said five people were injured.
Israel said its strikes overnight into Tuesday hit "surface-to-surface missile storage and launch infrastructure". Drone storage sites were also struck in western Iran, the military added in a statement.
It said Maj Gen Ali Shadmani, chief of Iran's armed forces emergency command, was killed in the attacks on Tehran overnight. He had only been in the post since Friday, after the death of his predecessor, Maj Gen Gholam Ali Rashid.
The Israeli army described Maj Gen Shadmani as "the man closest to" Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran has yet to comment.
Israel has called on 330,000 residents of one neighbourhood in central Tehran to leave the area. The Iranian capital is one of the largest cities in the Middle East, with a population of about 10 million, which is equal to the entire population of Israel.
US President Donald Trump also called on people in Tehran to flee. "Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran," he said in a post on social media.
On the diplomatic front, the White House said Mr Trump left the G7 summit in Canada a day early due to the crisis in the Middle East, but he later clarified that statement, saying his departure had "nothing to do" with reaching a ceasefire.
French President Emmanuel Macron "mistakenly said that I left the G7 summit, in Canada, to go back to DC to work on a 'ceasefire' between Israel and Iran. Wrong!" Mr Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Mr Macron called on Israel and Iran to end strikes on civilian areas and warned that pushing to overthrow the Tehran regime through force would be a "strategic error". The G7 nations expressed support for Israel in a statement issued late on Monday and described Iran as a source of instability, while calling for a de-escalation in hostilities.
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