Israel launches fresh wave of strikes in Iran as war escalates

Israel’s military campaign against Iran expanded dramatically on Monday with a wave of strikes pounding central Tehran, including one that destroyed the country’s state-run television headquarters — a central apparatus of the Iranian regime’s tight control over information broadcast within the Islamic republic.

The strike, which sent debris flying during a live broadcast, came hours after Iran had fired its own fresh wave of missiles into Israel, several of which penetrated Israeli air defenses over Tel Aviv, where powerful explosions sent plumes of black into the sky and at least eight people were killed.

The exchange of missile strikes kept the entire Mideast on edge as the war churned through its fifth consecutive day, while leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies, including President Trump, scrambled during a Group of Seven (G7) summit in Canada to find a way to contain the escalating conflict.

Mr. Trump made headlines early in the summit by warning that Iran must submit to a deal ending its nuclear program. The president told reporters that Iranian leaders would now “like to talk, but they should’ve done that before.”

“I had 60 days, and they had 60 days, and on the 61st day, I said, ‘We don’t have a deal,’” the president said. “They have to make a deal, and it’s painful for both parties, but I’d say Iran is not winning this war.”

Mr. Trump said late Monday that Iran would be “foolish” not to sign a deal.

His comments came as speculation swirled over how far Israel, which opened the latest round of the conflict last week with an unprecedented air assault that decimated several of Iran’s uranium enrichment sites and killed dozens of top Iranian military officials, intends to go with the war.

Dozens of targets were hit across Iran on Sunday, heavily damaging Iranian radar systems. The Israeli military said the strikes killed several of Iran’s top intelligence officers, and that it had achieved “aerial superiority” over Tehran and could fly over the Iranian capital without facing major threats.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israeli strikes had set Iran’s nuclear program back a “very, very long time.”

Mr. Netanyahu said Israel is not attempting to topple the Iranian government, but said he would not be surprised if that happened as a result of the strikes. “The regime is very weak,” said the Israeli prime minister, who added that he is in daily contact with Mr. Trump.

While Mr. Trump has threatened that U.S. forces could become directly involved if the war spirals, he had sought over the weekend to distance the U.S. from Israel’s campaign. There were reports that he had personally vetoed an Israeli plot to assassinate Iran’s elderly supreme leader as part of the military campaign.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, 86, has ruled over the Islamic republic since 1989, fostering successive governments that have maintained a hostile posture toward both the U.S. and Israel, with Iranian officials threatening over the years to wipe Israel off the map.

The Iranian regime says its nuclear program is peaceful. But the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has issued repeated warnings that Tehran has eluded international inspections and violated past U.N. Security Council resolutions by enriching uranium to levels indicative of an atomic bomb-making program.

Mr. Trump entered office earlier this year vowing to pursue a new era of diplomacy with Iran and some kind of deal to rid the Islamic republic of its uranium enrichment activities. Talks between U.S. and Iranian officials broke down during the days leading up to Israel’s strike on Iranian nuclear sites last week.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency has warned of possible radiological and chemical contamination within Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz following Israeli strikes, although radiation levels outside the complex were reported to be normal on Monday.

The nuclear aspect has factored into high-stakes jockeying during recent days by China and Russia for influence over the direction of the war.

China, which leads the world in Iranian oil purchases and has emerged as a key strategic partner of Tehran in recent years, has vowed to support Iran.

Russian officials, meanwhile, said Monday that Moscow is prepared to mediate between Israel and Iran, with the Kremlin also offering to store Iranian uranium at sites in Russia.

The current status of those sites was unclear on Monday night.

In addition to targeting Natanz and Iran’s Isfahan nuclear research site, Israel says it destroyed more than 120 surface-to-surface missile launchers in central Iran, a third of Iran’s total, as well as two F-14 planes that Iran used to target Israeli aircraft and multiple launchers just before they launched ballistic missiles towards Israel.

Israeli military officials also said fighter jets had struck 10 command centers in Tehran belonging to Iran’s Quds Force, an elite arm of its Revolutionary Guard that conducts military and intelligence operations outside Iran.

Iran, meanwhile, vowed further retaliation Monday for the Israeli strikes that have killed at least 224 people in the Islamic republic since Friday.

Israeli officials said at least 24 people have been killed in Israel and more than 500 injured after Iran launched more than 370 missiles and hundreds of drones.

One missile fell near the American consulate in Tel Aviv, with its blast waves causing minor damage. U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee said on X that no American personnel were injured.

The damage and casualties come as violence continues in the Gaza Strip to Israel’s south. At least 34 Palestinians were killed Monday in new shootings on the roads leading to Israeli- and U.S.-supported food distribution centers in the territory, where Israeli forces have waged war against Iran-backed Hamas militants since they attacked Israel in October of 2023.

Meanwhile, the scale of damage wrought inside Iran during recent days has been hard to quantify because of the regime’s tight restrictions on independent international media outlets.

Turkey, which shares a roughly 350-mile border with Iran, has expressed deep concern over the war amid fears that a prolonged conflict could threaten regional security, cause regional energy disruptions and lead to refugee flows.

The Associated Press cited reports of an increase in arrivals from Iran in recent days, although Turkish officials have dismissed social media reports of a large-scale refugee influx.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Turkey is ready to act as a “facilitator” toward ending the conflict and resuming nuclear negotiations in telephone calls with Mr. Trump and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian.

But the prospect of diplomacy remained dim on Monday.

At the G7, Mr. Trump said Iranian officials should “talk immediately before it’s too late.”

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi appeared to make a veiled outreach Monday for the U.S. to step in and negotiate an end to the hostilities, writing in a post on X that if Mr. Trump is “genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential.”

“It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu,” Mr. Araghchi wrote. “That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.”

— This article is based in part on wire service reports.