Massive attack in Iranian capital, high-level source says Khamenei may also be a target, while the PM says Tehran leaders are packing their bags. Iran's response: missile rain on cities, several dead. Putin calls the White House

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT

TEL AVIV - Five more minutes to prepare: when the cell phone starts to crackle, it means that an attack from Iran is expected. Another ten (second crackle) to run into the nearest shelter. 90 seconds before the possible impact, the sirens silence the cities. The command for the Home Front has modified the sequence of alarms, after the waves of missiles that fell on the center of Israel killed four people and in one case the system did not work: two elderly people died in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv.

Front line

The metropolis by the sea and the areas that extend around it (in total 2 million people in several municipalities) have become the front line of this war as much as Jerusalem. The mayors are moving to find housing for those who have lost their homes, the military continues to rummage through the rubble to locate unexploded ordnance. Thousands of soldiers are mobilized in search and rescue teams: the hundred or so missiles launched between Friday and Saturday night have taught that intervention must be immediate. A couple of grandparents were unable to close the too heavy armored door, they were injured, the granddaughter was saved by the firefighters.

The weapon of waiting

Iranian generals yesterday used the anxiety of waiting as a weapon : missiles were fired around midnight, the first phase targeted the refineries in the port of Haifa and the city, four people were killed in an Arab village nearby. At the same time the Israelis were bombing Tehran, massively hitting the residential areas where the commanders of the Pasdaran live: a drone targeted an important figure, according to the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. Three thousand kilometers away another raid tried to eliminate the military commander of the Houthis in Yemen.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warns: If the Israelis persist, the response will be even more severe. The regime's leaders also threaten the United States, Great Britain and France : Do not help them defend themselves. Benjamin Netanyahu proclaims in a recorded video: We will strike everywhere and destroy any target linked to the ayatollahs. What we have achieved so far is nothing compared to what awaits them in the coming days. The Israelis announce surprises and a high-level source tells the daily newspaper Wall Street Journal: Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, can be a target. Other anonymous sources specify that regime change is not among the objectives of the conflict. Yet Netanyahu in another message addresses Donald Trump to assure him that the leaders in Tehran are packing their bags. He speaks to the president so that the Iranians understand: Rebel, he has already incited them.

Control of the skies

Air Force commanders say they have taken control of the skies above Tehran and over much of the country, meaning jets can operate without fear of anti-aircraft fire. Yesterday, oil refineries and depots and natural gas plants were also hit. 

Ali Shamkani — Khamenei’s advisor — died in hospital from wounds suffered in the early hours of Operation Lion, which is rising, with a 14-story building collapsing in the capital.

The phone call with Putin

Netanyahu and the general staff remain convinced that the offensive must continue for days, up to a couple of weeks. To the point of officially defining the war against Hamas as a second front : the Palestinians killed in Gaza yesterday were still 45, over 55 thousand during these nineteen months.

 

Once again it is his friend Donald who surprises Bibi. He speaks on the phone with Vladimir Putin, who called him to wish him a happy birthday, and decides to ruin Netanyahu's celebrations: The Russian president thinks like me that the Israel-Iran war must stop. I told him: his war with Ukraine too.

A few words via social media, while for a whole day government sources in Jerusalem have been letting it slip that they expect an American intervention on our side. While Bibi himself has proclaimed: The operation has Trump's full support. Who instead seems to still be aiming for negotiations with Tehran in the hope that the bombs have softened its requests to continue with uranium enrichment.

Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian Foreign Minister, explains that the talks with the United States are now unjustifiable. But he adds: If the barbaric raids against us continue . For now, the meeting between the mediators scheduled for today in Oman has been cancelled.