Israel and Iran are embroiled in the biggest military escalation in their recent history
The current conflict between Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran has reached unprecedented levels of violence following Israel's surprise attack on strategic targets in Iranian territory last Friday. Since the start of Operation Lion's Roar, both nations have engaged in three days of intense bombing and missile launches in an escalation of war that has the world on edge.
The Israeli army reported on Sunday that it had hit more than 80 targets in Tehran alone, including the Ministry of Defence headquarters, fuel depots and missile launch pads.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) also confirmed that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) had attacked an Iranian refuelling aircraft at Mashhad airport in north-eastern Iran, some 2,300 kilometres from Israel, in its furthest incursion since the start of the operation. ‘The Air Force is working to achieve air superiority throughout Iran,’ the Israeli army said.
The Iranian regime responded with waves of missiles against Israeli urban centres throughout the weekend. Numerous projectiles hit metropolitan areas of Tel Aviv and Haifa, causing fires and building collapses. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed that ‘new methods’ were used in the latest attack early this morning to disrupt Israel's multi-layered air defence system.
In Israel, authorities report at least 23 dead, including children, and nearly 600 wounded, with 10 in critical condition. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that ‘Iran will pay a heavy price for the murder of civilians, women and children’ from a residential area in Bat Yam affected by the bombings where six people were killed.
For its part, the Iranian Ministry of Health reported that Israeli attacks have so far left 224 dead and more than 1,200 wounded, most of them civilians, including children, after a 14-storey apartment block collapsed in Tehran.
International reaction
US President Donald Trump said on Monday before leaving for the G7 summit in Canada that he hopes for a ceasefire agreement, although he warned that ‘sometimes you have to fight.’ Washington maintains its support for Israel, while US air defence systems and a Navy destroyer helped intercept Iranian missiles on Friday, according to US officials quoted by the press.
Amid this situation and international diplomatic pressure, Tehran has refused to enter into peace negotiations while Israeli bombing continues, according to mediators from Qatar and Oman. ‘The Iranians informed the Qatari and Omani mediators that they will only negotiate seriously once Iran has completed its response to Israel's pre-emptive strikes,’ sources told Reuters.
In addition, the Ayatollah regime has issued harsh warnings to the United States, the United Kingdom and France, threatening to attack Western military bases and ships if they intervene directly to block its missiles or drones. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not rule out helping to defend Israel, while French President Emmanuel Macron blamed Iran for the outbreak of the crisis. ‘We cannot live in a world where Iran has a nuclear weapon,’ he said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has condemned this stance and promised a ‘more decisive and severe’ response if the bombings continue.
Other regional players have also begun to take sides: Pakistan expressed its support for Iran and urged Muslim countries to unite against ‘Israeli aggression,’ while the Houthis in Yemen, allies of Tehran, confirmed coordinated attacks with Iran against Israel, including the launch of ballistic missiles on the centre of the country. Also, on the same day that Israel launched its attack on Iran, a missile fired from Yemen landed in Hebron in the West Bank.
‘The Islamic Republic has dragged Iran into war’
Meanwhile, Iranian opposition figures, such as Reza Pahlavi, son of the last Shah of Persia, have called on the population to rebel against the Islamic regime, taking advantage of what they describe as a moment of weakness for the Tehran government: 'The Islamic Republic has dragged Iran into war. The only solution that will benefit Iranians and the free world is for this regime to disappear,' Pahlavi said in a video posted on social media.
Israel launched this operation after considering that Iran was dangerously close to reaching a point of no return in the production of enriched uranium for military use and in the assembly of nuclear components, despite years of international diplomatic efforts to curb its atomic programme.
Faced with repeated threats from the Iranian regime to destroy Israel, Netanyahu's government decided to launch an unprecedented offensive against the heart of the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme, culminating years of intelligence operations and covert actions.
In addition to attacking nuclear facilities, Israel has eliminated key figures in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and prominent nuclear scientists. According to two sources who spoke to Reuters, at least 14 scientists were killed in Tehran during the Israeli bombings, and some were reportedly killed by car bombs planted earlier.
An investigation published by the Wall Street Journal revealed that Israel had been preparing this offensive for several years through a sophisticated covert operation by the Mossad, smuggling hundreds of armed drones into Iran and positioning commandos near key military installations. These sabotage teams neutralised defence and missile systems before the Israeli Air Force launched attacks with F-35 fighter jets.