Iran is holding its ground and, for the fifth consecutive day, has once again struck back at Israel. In the morning, it hit several areas of Israel's two main cities, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, with missiles, and in the afternoon it launched another wave. No casualties have been reported in either case. The Jewish state, which has also intercepted around thirty Iranian drones throughout Tuesday, claims that the ayatollahs' regime is directly attacking civilians (24 people have died since last Friday). Tehran is focusing on highlighting military targets and maintains that in the last few hours it has managed to strike at facilities of the Israeli secret service agency abroad, the Mossad, a sensitive element for Israel. This elite corps has been extensively involved for months in the preparations for the offensive against Iran, even with some of its agents deployed in Iranian territory. The Israeli government remains officially silent on whether the headquarters has been hit, although it acknowledges that the enemy has hit"military and civilian targets." Amid these exchanges, US President Donald Trump has spoken out about the conflict, demanding Iran's"unconditional surrender" and asserting that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is "an easy target."
What the Israeli army does provide details about are the so-called targeted assassinations among senior Iranian regime officials, as well as the military, nuclear, and energy targets it manages to bomb. Israel claims to have eliminated Ali Shadmani, chief of staff, who assumed the post last Friday after the assassination of his predecessor in the first hours of the offensive. This death, coupled with that of other senior officials in recent days in Israeli attacks, has left Khamenei without the support of much of his entourage at a difficult time for the country, according to sources consulted by Reuters. The death toll in the Islamic Republic on Tuesday rose to 24, and the explosions occurred both in the capital and in Isfahan, the heart of the nuclear program, according to local news agencies. At the same time, the army estimates that the regime does not have the capacity to launch all the missiles it would like after having managed to destroy some 200 launchers.
In his daily address, Defense Minister Israel Katz once again threatened the Supreme Leader for continuing his counterattacks and warned that his fate could be the same as that of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president who was hanged."I warn the Iranian dictator not to continue committing war crimes or firing missiles at Israeli citizens," Katz told a group of senior military officials.
This Tuesday, it also emerged that the homes of two employees of the Spanish Embassy in Tel Aviv were"destroyed" by Iranian bombing, Dan Poraz, Minister Counselor and current head of the Israeli Embassy in Madrid, stated in a meeting with journalists. Poraz regrets that the Spanish government has not condemned the attack and believes it should have done so instead of focusing on the Israeli attacks.
The consequences of Iran's aggression in Israel are visible, and war has become a daily part of Israeli life, something that has not happened until now with the attacks launched in Gaza, despite the fact that more than 55,000 Palestinians have died since October 2023 under the attacks of the Jewish state's occupation troops. In Bat Yam (Tel Aviv) alone, where a missile killed a dozen people over the weekend and the search for a woman's body is still ongoing, 1,500 residents have had to be evacuated to hotels due to damage to their homes. The shock wave reached 80 buildings, of which 22 are at risk of collapsing and will be demolished in the coming days, according to municipal authorities.
Israel launched its offensive on Friday to halt what it sees as the Islamic Republic's progress toward an atomic bomb, but a US report cited by CNN corroborates Tehran's account and believes it was not actively producing such weapons, contrary to what the Jewish state believes. Israel insists it wants to liberate the country's inhabitants from Khamenei's regime."The hour of your freedom is near," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Iran International, a British-based Iranian opposition outlet, as quoted by Haaretz.
