Israel urges mass evacuation of Tehran ahead of new strikes
Iran launched a fresh wave of missile attacks on Israel early Monday, resulting in at least eight fatalities. In response, Israel issued warnings for hundreds of thousands of residents in central Tehran to evacuate in anticipation of further strikes.
The warning came on the fourth day of the conflict, when the Israeli military claimed it had achieved air superiority above the Iranian capital and could fly over the city without facing major threats, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
The military has issued similar evacuation warnings for civilians in parts of Gaza and Lebanon ahead of strikes.
The warning affected 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 large hospitals, including one owned by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
“At this time, we can say that we have achieved full aerial superiority over Tehran’s skies,” said Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin.
Israeli military officials also said fighter jets had struck 10 command centres in Tehran belonging to Iran’s Quds Force, an elite arm of its Revolutionary Guard that conducts military and intelligence operations outside Iran.
The Israeli strikes “amount to a deep and comprehensive blow to the Iranian threat”, Brig Defrin said.
Iran’s state-run news agency reported that state-run television abruptly stopped a live broadcast after an Israeli strike.
During the broadcast, an Iranian state television reporter said the studio was filling with dust after “the sound of aggression against the homeland”.
Iran, meanwhile, announced it had launched some 100 missiles and vowed further retaliation for sweeping attacks on its military and nuclear infrastructure that have killed at least 224 people in the country since Friday.
One missile fell near the American consulate in Tel Aviv, with its blast waves causing minor damage, US ambassador Mike Huckabee said on X. He added that no American personnel were injured.
So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel and more than 500 injured, Israeli officials said, after Iran launched more than 370 missiles and hundreds of drones.
The latest conflict began when Israel launched an assault on Iran’s top military leaders, uranium enrichment sites and nuclear scientists that it said was necessary to prevent its long-time adversary from getting any closer to building a nuclear weapon.
But the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned that the country has enough enriched uranium to make several nuclear bombs if it chooses to do so.
Iran has retaliated by firing waves of ballistic missiles at Israel.
The back-and-forth has raised concerns about all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval.
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