WAR WITH IRAN - DAY 02 - KHEMENIS BURNING IN HELL FIRE FOREVER.FROM DAY 1 WHEN KILLED BY ISRAEL.
THE NEXT US-ISRAEL HIT ON IRAN SHOULD BE VERSE 37. ALL OFFENSIVE NUKE SITES MISSLES,DRONES,AND OF COURSE KHEMENI AND THE IRGC GUARDS.THEN AFTER IRANS REGIME CHANGE. MUSLIMS COME TO JESUS BY THE MILLIONS.(BIBLE PROPHECY FULFILLED FROM FEB 28,26 AND ON)
JEREMEIAH 49:32-39 (IN IRAN AT THE BUSHEHR OR ARAK NUKE SITES AND ALL OFENSIVE WEAPONS DESTROYED IN IRAN)
Jeremiah 49:32-39
32 Their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter to all winds those who have the corners [of their hair] cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of them, says Yahweh.
33 Hazor shall be a dwelling-place of jackals, a desolation forever: no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.(Location & Size: It was strategically located along the Via Maris (Way of the Sea), a major trade route connecting Egypt with Syria and Mesopotamia.)
34 The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam,(IRAN) in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,
35 Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,(IRANS OFFENSIVE WEAPONS) the chief of their might.(MISSLES AND NUKE SITES)
36 On Elam (IRAN) will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of the sky, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation where the outcasts of Elam shall not come.(SINCE 1979 IRANIANS HAVE GOTTIN OUT OF IRAN BECAUSE OF KHEMENI AND HIS APOCOPOLIPTIC DEATH CULT BELIEF-BLACK HATER 12ERS)
37 I will cause Elam (IRAN) to be dismayed before their enemies, and before those who seek their life;(ISRAEL THE LITTLE SATAN AND THE U.S THE BIG SATAN) and I will bring evil on them, (MISSLES) even my fierce anger,(FIRE) says Yahweh; and I will send the sword after them,(IRANS OFFENSIVE WEAPONS) until I have consumed them; (DESTROYED THEM ALL NUKE SITES,MISSLES ETC)
38 and I will set my throne in Elam,(IRAN WILL BECOME A CHRISTIAN NATION) and will destroy from there king (KHEMENI, ISLAM) and princes, says Yahweh.(IRANIAN ARMY GUARDS)
39 But it shall happen in the latter days, that I will bring back the captivity of Elam,(IRAN) says Yahweh.(WERE IN THE LATTER DAYS NOW)
JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23 Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)
AMERICA AND ISRAEL TOGETHER IN JER(USA)LEM
ABOSOLUTELY AMAZING-IST STRIKE YESTERDAY BY ISRAEL.AND DEATH CULT LOSES 41 HIGHEST LEVEL IRANIAN MAUDI WORSHIPPING OCCULTISTS, INCLUDING BLACK HAT KHEMENI HIMSELF.THE MIGRATING BIRDS ARE BACK IN ISRAEL AGAIN.NOW THEY CAN FLY TO IRAN AND HAVE THEIR FIRST 41 DEATH CULTISTS OF THE 300 MILLION MUSLIMS TO BE EATIN BY THE MIGRATING BIRDS.AND 41 OF SATANS IRANIAN PUPPETS ARE FROM YESTERDAY BURNING IN HELL FIRE AND TORMENTS FOREVER WITH THEIR NEVER DYING SPIRIT BODY. BYE BYE CULTISTS.
THIS WILL NOT BE THE END OF
IRAN DEATH CULTISTS.THE NEXT REGIME LED BY WHOEVER WILL STILL BE COMING
AGAINST ISRAEL ONE LAST TIME. BEFORE GOD AND ISRAEL, MOSTLY GOD
FINALLY KILLS OFF THE DELUTED SHIITE MAUDI CULT ONCE AND FOR ALL. IN
EZEK 38 & 39. BUT UNTILL THEN IRAN WILL STILL HAVE A DEMONIC SEX FOR
MURDER DEATH CULT HIGHER UPS. I AM SORRY TO BE THE BARRIER OF BAD NEWS
AFTER KHEMENIS HELL FIRE FOREVER. BUT UNTILL EZEKIEL 38 & 39 UNDER
GOD MUST BE FULFILLED YET. WHEN RUSSIA, IRAN, IRAQ, ETHIOPIA, LIBYA,
GERMANY, TURKEY AND SUDAN,AND MORE AFRICAN MUSLIMS (300 MILLION OR 1/4
OF ISLAM) IS DESTROYED AND SENT TO HELL FIRE FOREVER.WHILE THE MIGRATING
BIRDS EAT ON THEIR FLESH FOR 7 MONTHS. THEN BURIED IN THE JORDAN
VALLEY.
Who Will Be Iran's Next Leader? A Look At
Khamenei's Possible Successors-Khamenei never publicly disclosed who
would be his successor, but his second-eldest son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has
long been seen as the rational successor to the Islamic regime, Reuters
reported, citing sources with knowledge.Edited by:Sanstuti Nath-World
News-Mar 01, 2026 10:07 am IST
Iran stares at an uncertain future
after Tehran confirmed the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei in a US-Israel joint strike on Tehran. While the US and
Israel are calling for regime change in Tehran, Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps has launched attacks in hopes of a power grab.
Meanwhile, Iran's two rival opposition figures are also jockeying for
position in a new Iran. After US strikes, opposition leader Maryam
Rajavi and exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi released dual messages
urging Iranians to unite — while also making clear their different
visions for the Islamic Republic's future.Until the time Iran decides on
its new leader, Iran's news agency IRNA reported that a leadership
council made up of the president, the judiciary chief, and a jurist from
the Guardian Council will temporarily assume the duties of Iran's
supreme leader.What Trump Said About Iran's New Leader-After announcing
on Truth Social that Iran's Supreme Leader was assassinated, US
President Donald Trump said there are “some good candidates” to lead
Tehran.In a phone interview with CBS News, he said, “I know exactly who,
but I can't tell you.”When pressed on whether there is someone in Iran
he would prefer to see assume leadership, Trump said, “Yes, I think so.
There are some good candidates.” He did not elaborate further on whom he
was referencing.Iran's Two Oppositionists Figures-Rajavi is the
president-elect of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of
Iran (NCRI). In a message to Iranians, she called on Iranians to
overthrow the country's ruling clerical regime and to create a
democratic republic.“Our homeland continues to endure greater pain and
destruction under the rule of religious fascism,” Rajavi said, according
to a report by The New York Post, as conflict intensifies over Tehran's
nuclear and missile programme.She urged Iranians — particularly the
nation's “courageous youth” — to protect civilians amid mounting
instability.Founded after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the NCRI presents
itself as a government-in-exile. According to the party, it has a ready
blueprint for a six-month transitional administration that would
organise free elections and transfer sovereignty to the people.“Now is
the time for solidarity,” Rajavi said. “[Iranians] reject both the Shah
and the mullahs,” she added, dismissing any return to
monarchy.Meanwhile, Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last monarch, also
said in a post on X that he has plans for a democratic transition if the
Islamic Republic collapses.In a post on X, Pahlavi called US action a
“humanitarian intervention” aimed at the regime, and not the Iranian
people.“The final victory will still be achieved by us,” he wrote. “It
is we, the people of Iran, who will finish this task in this final
battle. The time to return to the streets is approaching.”Both leaders
also appealed directly to Iran's military and security forces to make
way for a democratic transition of power.Rajavi asked members of the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other security bodies to lay down
their weapons and side with the people. Pahlavi, meanwhile, warned
security personnel that they would “sink with Khamenei's ship” if they
continued defending the regime.The Power Grab Threat-Experts have also
warned that in the absence of Khamenei, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps could also make a power grab. Khamenei never publicly
disclosed who would be his successor, but his second-eldest son, Mojtaba
Khamenei, has long been seen as the rational successor to the Islamic
regime, Reuters reported, citing sources with knowledge.The 56-year-old
is in line with his father's hardline policies, insiders told the
outlet.Another regime holdover is Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the
father of the Islamic Revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini.Hassan Khomeini, 53,
has emerged within the last month as a serious candidate and represents
a more conciliatory choice internationally and domestically than
Khamenei, according to the New York Post report.How Succession Works In
Iran-The contours of a complex succession process began to take shape
the morning after Khamenei's assassination. As outlined in its
constitution, Iran on Sunday formed a council to assume leadership
duties and govern the country.The council is made up of Iran's sitting
president, the head of the country's judiciary and a member of the
Guardian Council chosen by Iran's Expediency Council, which advises the
supreme leader and settles disputes with parliament.Iran's reformist
President Masoud Pezeshkian and hard-line judiciary chief Gholamhossein
Mohseni Ejei are its members who will step in and “temporarily assume
all the duties of leadership.”Though the leadership council will govern
in the interim, an 88-member panel called the Assembly of Experts “must,
as soon as possible” pick a new supreme leader under Iranian law.The
panel consists entirely of Shiite clerics who are popularly elected
every eight years and whose candidacies are approved by the Guardian
Council, Iran's constitutional watchdog. That body is known for
disqualifying candidates in various elections in Iran, and the Assembly
of Experts is no different. The Guardian Council barred former Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate whose administration
struck the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, from election for the
Assembly of Experts in March 2024.Clerical deliberations about
succession and machinations over it take place far from the public eye,
making it hard to gauge who may be a top contender.There has been only
one other transfer of power in the office of the supreme leader of Iran,
the paramount decision-maker since the country's 1979 Islamic
Revolution. In 1989, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died at age 86
after being the figurehead of the revolution and leading Iran through
its bloody eight-year war with Iraq. This transition now comes after
Israel launched a 12-day war against Iran in June 2025 as well.The
supreme leader is at the heart of Iran's complex power-sharing Shiite
theocracy and has the final say over all matters of state. He also
serves as the commander-in-chief of the country's military and the
powerful Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force that the United
States designated a terrorist organization in 2019 and which Khamenei
empowered during his rule. The Guard, which has led the self-described
“Axis of Resistance,” a series of militant groups and allies across the
Middle East meant to counter the U.S. and Israel, also has extensive
wealth and holdings in Iran.
Explainer-After Khamenei killed, Iran set for largely opaque supreme succession-Iran’s constitution lays out clear guidelines for choosing a new top cleric, but with senior aides also killed in the strikes, the path forward is anything but certain-By Jon Gambrell Today, 11:21 am-MAR 1,26
AP — The death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after almost 37 years in power raises paramount questions about the country’s future.Khamenei, 86, was killed Saturday in a joint US-Israeli strike on his Tehran compound at the outset of a sweeping military operation against the Islamic Republic.Israel and the US timed the strike to coincide with a meeting the supreme leader was holding with top aides, several of whom were also killed.Iranian state media confirmed his death early Sunday and declared 40 days of mourning.The contours of a complex succession process began to take shape the morning after Khamenei’s assassination. Here is what to know:A temporary leadership council assumes duties-As outlined in its constitution, Iran on Sunday formed a council to assume leadership duties and govern the country.The council is made up of Iran’s sitting president, the head of the country’s judiciary, and a member of the Guardian Council chosen by Iran’s Expediency Council, which advises the supreme leader and settles disputes with parliament.Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian and hardline judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei are its members who will step in and “temporarily assume all the duties of leadership.”A panel of clerics selects a new supreme leaderThough the leadership council will govern in the interim, an 88-member panel called the Assembly of Experts “must, as soon as possible,” pick a new supreme leader under Iranian law.The panel consists entirely of Shiite clerics who are popularly elected every eight years and whose candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran’s constitutional watchdog.That body is known for disqualifying candidates in various Iranian elections, and the Assembly of Experts is no different. The Guardian Council barred former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate whose administration struck the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, from election for the Assembly of Experts in March 2024.Khamenei’s son could be a possible contender-Clerical deliberations about succession and machinations over it take place far from the public eye, making it hard to gauge who may be a top contender.Previously, it was thought that Khamenei’s protégé, hardline president Ebrahim Raisi, might try to take the mantle. However, he was killed in a May 2024 helicopter crash.That has left one of Khamenei’s sons, Mojtaba, a 56-year-old Shiite cleric, as a potential candidate, though he has never held government office. But a father-to-son transfer in the case of a supreme leader could spark anger, not only among Iranians already critical of clerical rule, but also among supporters of the system.Some may see it as un-Islamic and in line with creating a new, religious dynasty after the 1979 collapse of the US-backed shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s government.A transition like this has happened only once before-There has been only one other transfer of power in the office of the supreme leader of Iran, the paramount decision-maker since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.In 1989, grand ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died at age 86 after being the figurehead of the revolution and leading Iran through its bloody eight-year war with Iraq. This transition now comes after Israel launched a 12-day war against Iran in June 2025 as well.The vast powers of a supreme leader-The supreme leader is at the heart of Iran’s complex power-sharing Shiite theocracy and has final say over all matters of state.He also serves as the commander-in-chief of the country’s military and the powerful Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force that the United States designated a terrorist organization in 2019 and that Khamenei empowered during his rule.The Guard, which has led the self-described “Axis of Resistance,” a series of terror groups and allies across the Middle East meant to counter the US and Israel, also has extensive wealth and holdings in Iran.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
IDF: Over 1,200 munitions dropped on Iran in 24 hours-Trump threatens Iran with force ‘never seen before’ as missiles bombard Israel for second day-Iran says Jerusalem and Washington ‘will suffer the consequences’ after killing of Khamenei, though morning salvos cause little damage; US bases in region, Gulf allies also attacked-By Emanuel Fabian,Jacob Magid-and Agencies Today, 11:14 am-MAR 1,26
US President Donald Trump threatened early Sunday morning to hit Iran with unprecedented force after Tehran warned it would step up attacks in retaliation for the killing of its supreme leader and fired successive volleys of rockets at Israel for a second consecutive day Sunday.In Iran, the Israel Defense Forces continued to carry out strikes on military sites, including a massive blast in Tehran. The army announced that it had dropped over 1,000 pieces of munition in just over 24 hours of attacks that kicked off Saturday morning with a strike that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials.“Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever hit before,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social social network. “THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”His comments came just a few hours after the Iranian regime confirmed that its longtime leader Khamenei had been killed in a strike on his office early Saturday morning.Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Sunday morning in a video carried on state TV that Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have “crossed our red lines” and “will suffer the consequences.”The elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vowed in a statement Sunday that Iran’s armed forces would soon retaliate again with the “most ferocious offensive operation in history” against US bases and Israel.“The hand of revenge of the Iranian nation for a severe, decisive and regrettable punishment for the murderers of the Imam of the Ummah will not let go of them,” the IRGC said in a statement.Waves of sirens rang out repeatedly across much of central, southern and northern Israel on Saturday night and Sunday morning as Iran fired ballistic missiles at the country, sending millions of Israelis to shelter. Iran’s state broadcaster said 27 US bases in the region, as well as Israel’s military headquarters and a defense industries complex in Tel Aviv, were among the targets in the new wave of strikes.There were no reports of impacts in residential areas or direct injuries following the salvos, medics said. Magen David Adom said it treated people lightly hurt by falling while running to bomb shelters.Police said they received reports of missile and interceptor fragments that landed in the Jerusalem area, and the Fire and Rescue Service said it was responding to a gas leak caused by falling shrapnel in the West Bank.In contrast to the large barrages fired at Israel during the 12-day war with Iran in June, most salvos Saturday and Sunday have consisted of small number of missiles, usually three at a time, with breaks of a few minutes between each launch, according to the IDF.The attacks have caused only a small number of injuries, aside from a particularly large barrage of some 20 missiles toward the Tel Aviv area Saturday night in which one projectile managed to evade air defenses, hitting near a residential building and killing a woman.The slain woman, a foreign caregiver for an elderly woman, did not manage to reach a shelter in time, the military said Sunday after an initial investigation. The woman she was caring for was extracted by rescue workers from the rubble alive.The Home Front Command has determined that a complete Iranian ballistic missile — not fragments — struck next to the apartment building, causing extensive damage and a large crater. Dozens more were injured in the strike.Meanwhile, the IDF said it targeted Iran’s ballistic missile and air defense systems in western and central Iran with strikes on around 30 targets Sunday morning.An enormous explosion rocked Iran’s capital Sunday as the Israeli military said it was targeting the heart of the city.The blast in Tehran sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky and shook the ground.The military later said it had carried out an airstrike against a “headquarters of the Iranian terror regime” in Tehran, releasing video showing two buildings being destroyed in blasts.The IDF said Sunday that Israeli Air Force fighter jets had dropped more than 1,200 pieces of munition during strikes in Iran over the past day.The Israeli military earlier said some 200 Israeli fighter jets were taking part in the campaign aimed at harming Iran’s ballistic missile and aerial defense systems.Targets in the Israeli campaign also include Iran’s symbols of government and intelligence targets, according to an official briefed on the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic information on the attack.In southern Iran, at least 115 people were reported killed when a girls’ school was struck, and dozens more were wounded, the local governor told Iranian state TV. US Central Command spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins said he was “aware of reports” that a girls’ school was struck and that officials were looking into them.An Iranian diplomat told the United Nations Security Council that hundreds of civilians were killed and wounded in the strikes.The IDF also confirmed that it killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in an airstrike in Tehran Saturday morning.“Ali Khamenei was targeted in a precise, large-scale operation carried out by the Israeli Air Force, guided by accurate IDF intelligence, while he was in his central leadership compound in the heart of Tehran, where he was together with additional senior officials,” the military said in a statement, after Iran confirmed that Khamenei had been killed.Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday morning that “justice has been served” after the killing of Khamenei.“He who worked to destroy Israel was destroyed. Justice has been done, and the axis of evil sustained a crushing blow,” he said.US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader show that those who harm Americans must pay a price.“If you kill or threaten Americans anywhere in the world — as Iran has — then we will hunt you down, and we will kill you,” Hegseth wrote on X.Iran also continued to launch attacks on Arab countries in the Gulf region that are considered US allies. Repeated explosions were heard in Dubai as well as in Doha and the Bahraini capital Manama Sunday morning.Loud explosions were also heard near Erbil airport, which hosts US-led coalition troops in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. An AFP journalist reported seeing thick black smoke rising from the airport area.The US military did not report any casualties in the strikes on American bases or targets.The United Arab Emirates said that at least one person was killed in Abu Dhabi. Two people were also killed in airstrikes on an Iraqi military base housing the powerful pro-Iran group Kataeb Hezbollah, while Qatar said falling missile fragments injured at least eight people.Smoke poured overnight from US bases in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.In Iran, the Red Crescent said on Saturday strikes had left 201 people dead and injured hundreds more. The Iranian judiciary said one strike that hit a school in the south killed 108 people, although AFP was unable to access the site to verify the toll or the circumstances surrounding the incident.The joint US-Israeli operation began Saturday morning with smoke rising over Tehran after strikes that Israel said were preemptive.Shortly after, Trump announced US combat operations, with the goal of “eliminating imminent threats.” At an emergency UN Security Council meeting, US Ambassador Mike Waltz said the operation was aimed at eliminating Iran’s nuclear capabilities and degrading its military.Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, the UAE and Israel all closed their airspaces to civilian traffic, at least in part, and multiple airlines canceled flights to the Middle East, sparking chaos for travelers.
Iran attacks on Gulf damage Dubai airport, ignite fire at iconic Burj Al Arab hotel-Blasts heard in UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar day after Pakistani national killed, luxury properties struck; Qatar reports at least 65 missiles, 16 injuries By AFP and ToI Staff Today, 10:02 amUpdated at 12:27 pm-MAR 1,26
Fresh blasts were heard across the Gulf cities of Dubai, Doha and Manama on Sunday morning after a day of Iranian strikes in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks.AFP reporters heard blasts in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates; in Bahrain’s capital Manama; in Oman; and in Qatar, where AFP correspondents saw thick black smoke rising on the clear morning horizon in the south of the city.The new explosions came after a day of deadly Iranian strikes in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, as well as hits on military bases and civilian infrastructure across the Gulf.They also came as Iran continued to fire volleys of missiles at Israel Sunday morning. A barrage the previous day toward the Tel Aviv area leveled an apartment building, killing a woman and injuring dozens of people.Qatar said Sunday morning it was responding to a limited fire in an industrial zone after debris fell from an intercepted missile. No injuries were reported in the incident.Israeli and American attacks on the Islamic Republic have prompted the theocratic regime to retaliate with waves of strikes against Arab countries that are aligned with the US, many of them host to American military bases.Since the US and Israel began striking Iran on Saturday morning, one person has been killed and dozens wounded across the various Gulf states.At Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport, one person was killed Saturday and seven were injured, by what the airport said was shrapnel from an intercepted drone that had targeted the site. Additionally, four staff were wounded at Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international traffic.One of the terminals in Dubai’s airport appeared badly damaged, and footage from the scene showed passengers hurriedly evacuating the premises as dust filled the air. The Government of Dubai’s Media Office claimed that the airport only incurred “minor damage” in the incident, which has been contained.On Sunday morning, Oman’s state news agency reported that the Duqm commercial port was hit by two drones, injuring one expatriate worker. Debris from another drone fell in an area near fuel tanks at Duqm, but there were no casualties or material losses recorded from that incident, the agency added.Later in the day, a Palau-flagged oil tanker was hit off Oman’s Musandam peninsula, injuring four people, the country’s maritime security center said. The 20-person crew of the Skylight tanker was evacuated after the attack, the Oman Maritime Security Centere said in a post on X.Initial information indicated injuries of varying severity to four of the crew, composed of 15 Indian and five Iranian citizens, it added.The incidents on Sunday marked the first time targets in or near Oman have been hit amid the wave of retaliatory strikes by Tehran on Gulf states.Iran launched an attack on the Palau-flagged oil tanker "Skylight" as it sailed off the coast of Oman. Four sailors were injured in the attack, and the crew was evacuated. pic.twitter.com/qES7bEyd2W — China pulse ???????? (@Eng_china5) March 1, 2026-All the oil- and gas-rich Gulf countries were targeted by the Islamic Republic within the first 24 hours of the fresh conflict. Saturday’s sudden attacks caused widespread shock among the region’s diverse, expat-heavy populations.Missiles hit upscale development, luxury hotel-Explosions also rocked Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah man-made island, as drone debris caused a fire at the Burj Al Arab ultra-luxury hotel.Two witnesses on the Palm — an upscale, palm tree-shaped residential and leisure development — heard an explosion and saw smoke rising from a five-star hotel. The Dubai media office confirmed an “incident” in a building on the Palm Jumeirah caused a fire and injured four people.Hours later, a second blast exploded close to the same building, after what looked like a drone plunged from above, another witness saw.Debris from an intercepted drone sparked a fire at the base of the Burj Al Arab, a sail-shaped building sometimes touted as the world’s first seven-star hotel. The Dubai Media Office said the incident caused a “minor fire” on the hotel’s outer facade, with no injuries reported.BREAKING: Iranian drone hit the five-star Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, UAE. The 321-meter, 60-story tower stands on an artificial island. pic.twitter.com/SZaJrAUq3n — Clash Report (@clashreport) February 28, 2026-Falling debris from an interception also set off a blaze at Dubai’s Jebel Ali port, which hosts US warships and is capable of handling aircraft carriers.A Pakistani-national civilian had already been killed earlier in Abu Dhabi by Iranian missile debris. He was one of the many foreigners living in the UAE, who comprise roughly 90 percent of the country’s population.The UAE’s Defense Ministry said the vast majority of the 137 missiles and 209 drones fired at its territory by Iran had been destroyed or intercepted.Scared for the future-In Qatar, officials said early Sunday that 16 people have been injured since the fighting began.Doha had said late Saturday that Iran launched 65 missiles and 12 drones at the Gulf state, most of which were intercepted; at that point, eight people had been injured in the salvos, with one of them in critical condition. Authorities had, at that point, responded to some 114 reports of falling debris.Qatar’s Al Udeid base, the region’s biggest US military base, was among the targets on Saturday.“We are scared of what the future is for us now, and we can’t say how the next few days are going to be,” Maha Manbaz, a nursing student in Doha, told AFP.A drone struck Kuwait’s international airport and a base housing US personnel was targeted. Three Kuwaiti soldiers and 12 other people were wounded, authorities said.After Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reported missile strikes, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on X that no American naval vessels were hit, damage to US facilities was minimal, and no US casualties had been reported.Residential buildings were also targeted in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, with officials saying firefighters and civil defense teams had been dispatched to the scene.“The sound of the first explosion terrified me,” said a 50-year-old retiree living near the US base in Manama’s Juffair area, where residents were quickly evacuated.The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar warned they reserved the right to respond to the attacks. Conflict is unusual in the Gulf, which has traded on its reputation for stability to become the Middle East’s commercial and diplomatic hub.“The Gulf states are sandwiched between Iran and Israel, and have to bear the worst inclinations of both,” said Bader al-Saif, an assistant professor at Kuwait University. “Iran’s attacks on the Gulf are misplaced. They’ll only alienate its neighbors and invite further distancing from Iran.”The US military carried out nearly 900 strikes across Iran within the first 12 hours of the operation, according to an unnamed US official cited by Fox News. The strikes managed to eliminate Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which was confirmed by Iran overnight.Both US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that the current offensive aims to spark an overthrow of the Islamic Republic, with the latter giving a televised statement vowing to create the conditions for the Iranian people to “free itself from the chains of dictatorship.”Iran has fired about 300 missiles in the same 12-hour period, the official added. Many of the missiles were aimed at Israel, but explosions also shook the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.Earlier that day, sirens blared intermittently across Israel as the Home Front Command urged civilians to stay close to bomb shelters and avoid non-essential travel. It also said that all educational activities, gatherings and work, except for essential sectors, would be prohibited.It marked Israel’s second flare-up with Iran within a year after the countries fought a 12-day war in June 2025, which saw daily exchanges of missile barrages that left 32 Israelis dead and over 3,000 hospitalized. The war came to a close after the US launched a devastating bombing campaign on three Iranian nuclear sites.
US, Israel defend strikes on Iran as lawful at heated UN Security Council meeting-Islamic Republic’s ambassador calls death of civilians amid joint attack a crime against humanity; US counterpart trades barbs over regime’s mass killing of protesters last month By AP and Jacob Magid-Today, 8:34 am-MAR 1,26
The United States and Israel clashed with Iran at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Saturday as the United Nations chief led calls for a halt to attacks by either side and a return to negotiations to prevent the conflict from spreading further.UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the council that everything must be done to prevent an escalation. “The alternative,” he warned, “is a potential wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.”Guterres said the US and Israeli airstrikes violated international law, including the UN Charter. He also condemned Iran’s retaliatory attacks for violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.Bot the US and Israel have described the attacks as preemptive, aimed at stopping a regime that poses an existential threat to Israel.“We are stopping extremism before it becomes unstoppable,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said. “We will ensure that no radical regime armed with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles can threaten our people or the entire world.”US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told the council that Operation Epic Fury, authorized by US President Donald Trump against Iran, was aimed at dismantling the Islamic Republic’s missile capabilities, degrading its naval assets, disrupting the machinery that arms proxy militias, and ensuring that the regime can never obtain a nuclear weapon.“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he said. “That principle is not a matter of politics. It’s a matter of global security. And to that end, the United States is taking lawful actions.”Notably, Waltz’s list did not include regime change, even though Trump earlier said that Iranians should take over their government once the strikes subside.“No responsible nation can ignore persistent aggression and violence,” Waltz said of Iran.“Peace is not preserved by appeasing those who threaten it. Peace is preserved through strength in the face of terror,” he continued. “History has taught us that the cost of inaction is far greater than the burden of decisive action.”Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, told the council that the airstrikes have killed and injured hundreds of Iranian civilians, which he called a war crime and a crime against humanity.He blasted the UN and the Security Council, its most powerful body, for not heeding Tehran’s warnings about the “warmongering statements” by the US in recent weeks and urged the council to act now.“The issue before the council is straightforward: whether any member state may, including a permanent member of this council, through the use of force, coercion or aggression, determine the political future or system of another state or impose control over its affairs,” Iravani said.During his speech, the Iranian diplomat did not mention or comment on US President Donald Trump’s statement that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the strikes, although Iranian state media later confirmed his death.Iran responded to his killing by vowing unprecedented retaliatory attacks, drawing fresh threats from Trump that he too would deploy “force that has never been seen before.”American, Iranian envoys have rare direct exchange-In a rare exchange, the US and Iranian ambassadors traded warnings and direct rebuffs toward the end of the emergency session as military aggression between their countries risked spilling into a regional war.After Waltz responded to Iranian claims that the US had violated international law, Iravani asked to speak again to issue a warning: “I advise to the representative of the United States to be polite. It will be better for yourself and the country you represent.”Waltz responded immediately, saying, “This representative sits here, in this body, representing a regime that has killed tens of thousands of its own people, and imprisoned many more, simply for wanting freedom from your entire tyranny.”Russia’s ambassador condemned the US-Israeli airstrikes, while China’s ambassador was more measured in his criticism.“We demand that the United States and Israel immediately cease their aggressive actions,” Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said. “We insist on the immediate resumption of political and diplomatic settlement efforts… based on international law, mutual respect and a balance of interests.”China’s UN Ambassador Fu Cong said China was very concerned by “the sudden escalation of regional tensions” and supported Russia’s call for a return to diplomatic negotiations.The permanent observer of the 22-nation Arab League, Maged Abdelaziz, suggested Israel was being hypocritical in justifying its military attack by saying it was intended to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Abdelaziz, a former Egyptian ambassador to the UN, noted that Israel has refused to subject its own nuclear facilities to inspection by the UN nuclear watchdog.The emergency meeting was called by five council members: Bahrain, which is the Arab representative on the council, France, Russia, China and Colombia.In a joint statement, the leaders of Britain and France — both veto-wielding members of the council — along with Germany’s chancellor called for a resumption of US-Iranian talks on Tehran’s nuclear program. The three countries, part of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, have led efforts to reach a negotiated solution. Trump pulled the US out of the deal in 2018.The three European leaders strongly condemned Iranian airstrikes in the region — not the US and Israeli airstrikes — and urged Iran’s leaders to seek a negotiated solution, saying: “Ultimately, the Iranian people must be allowed to determine their future.”The Security Council meeting took place on the last day of the United Kingdom’s presidency and a day before the United States takes over the rotating presidency for the month of March.
Reporter's notebook-Sirens, shelters and an empty Old City: Jerusalem rattled on day 1 of war with Iran-Eerie silence settles over capital on Shabbat leading up to Purim holiday, as residents hunker down under ballistic missile fire and speculate about a conflict of biblical proportions-By Theia Chatelle Today, 7:57 am-MAR 1,26
JTA — Jacob Phillips’s first trip to Israel from his home in Germany was in 2023, to visit Holocaust survivors in Tel Aviv as part of a university program. It was cut short by the bloody October 7 Hamas onslaught, which forced him to leave the country.He returned with his girlfriend this month to tour the sites he missed. “Because the last trip, it was a harsh cut,” he said. “That’s why we came back, to visit the people I met here in Israel.”On Saturday, Phillips and his girlfriend Michelle were among the very few people walking the streets in Jerusalem as another war unfolded, this time with Iran. The war, which began when Israel and the United States together attacked Iran early Saturday, had already sent them multiple times to shelters and scrambled their departure plans for next Thursday. Ben Gurion Airport is closed until further notice.Phillips said he was in touch with the German consulate and felt safe in Jerusalem despite the incoming missiles, citing Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system (while the Iron Dome protects mainly against short-range threats, Israel has other air defense systems that take on the ballistic missiles Iran has been firing). He said he remained happy to be in Israel.“I wanted to come here to learn about the Jewish experience, especially as a German, and I feel like I have gotten to see so much of it,” Phillips said.While missile impacts rocked Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel, an eerie calm pervaded the streets of Jerusalem on Saturday, extreme even for the Jewish day of rest, as residents hunkered down at home between the sirens that indicated that war with Iran had begun anew. The sirens sent worshipers scattering from Sabbath prayer services and disrupted plans for shared meals.The gates of the Old City were closed by Israeli police to everyone but residents. A crowd of Hasidic Jews argued with officers, petitioning for entry to pray at the Western Wall, but ultimately gave up and turned back.One resident who ventured out between air raid alerts said the assault had provided “pauses just long enough to walk up the stairs before heading back [down to the basement shelter] again.”There was a consensus among those brave enough to venture away from their homes that the war would be significantly worse this time around, only nine months after a 12-day war in June 2025 that led to the deaths of 32 Israelis. In that conflict, Iran launched more than 500 ballistic missiles at Israel and other targets throughout the Middle East in retaliation for strikes that Israel initiated and the United States joined.This time is indeed different. US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are gunning for regime change and reported that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been killed in an opening salvo. Sensing an existential threat, the Islamic Republic of Iran has already escalated its response, using its firepower against not only Israel but US targets throughout the Middle East.Richard Weiner and Rolly Feld had been in Nahariya, in Israel’s north, until Saturday morning. When the sirens began, they drove back to Jerusalem in the hope they would be safer in the city and farther from significant military targets for the Iranian regime, including the port of Haifa, which was struck by an Iranian barrage at 10 a.m.Feld recounted that as they drove down Route 4 toward Jerusalem, it felt as if they were being chased by missiles. Periodically, another batch of air raid alerts would sound, forcing them to shelter in tunnels along the highway.Feld, whose wife was also in the car, said he would have preferred to continue driving, contrary to the advice of Israeli authorities, who recommend pulling over and lying flat to avoid exposure to shrapnel from missile impacts.“My wife wanted all the time to stick to the guidelines, to stop the car and stay away, and I kept driving fast, then stopped in the tunnels. It’s a compromise,” Feld said.Weiner, who grew up in Israel but has lived as an adult in South Africa, was critical of Netanyahu’s decision to launch the strikes.“What he’s doing is horrible for the Iranian people, and it’s horrible for the people over here. The government is pushing for this; the people are not,” he said.“We have to look for other ways of dealing with the Iranian government, as irrational as they are. We should be supporting the people who are protesting and not trying to topple the government by killing the leadership,” he added, identifying himself as “something of a pacifist.”Weiner and Feld bantered back and forth on a sidewalk in the leafy neighborhood of Rehavia, discussing the possibility of further escalation and whether it was Israel’s place to intervene on behalf of the Iranian people — if that was indeed part of the calculus.Weiner concluded, “I have a love-hate relationship with this country. I come back and this happens again. This is clearly not the answer. Many people will be killed, and it’s horrible that tens of thousands have been killed due to their dissent, but how does this help?”The question of whether the war would succeed in achieving regime change in Iran was on the minds of many of those who were out and about.“The chance of actual change is so low,” said Ishay, 44, a Jerusalem resident. “Like in Israel, there is such a strong contingent of those with radical beliefs in Iran. Even if the regime is toppled, who will replace Khamenei?”Information was hard to come by throughout the day, though over time it became clear that missile impacts had been confirmed in multiple locations, including Bnei Brak, where Magen David Adom treated people who were wounded. By Saturday night, one woman had been killed and another man had been seriously wounded in Tel Aviv, with many injured more lightly.The war comes as Israel prepares to celebrate Purim, a Jewish holiday commemorating the overthrow of an oppressive Persian regime — a powerful parallel for the current moment.In the lead-up to the holiday, two Israelis stood talking down the street, seemingly unconcerned by the sirens, both in costume — one wearing a sombrero, the other dressed as a clown.Yael, who lives in Rehavia, was walking her dog, Lucky, in central Jerusalem’s Meir Sherman Garden.“We’ve just come to expect this. I am raising my children here in Israel, but sometimes I wonder if there is a future here,” she said.For Phillips, the fact that both of his visits to Israel have been derailed by conflict did not dampen his support for Israel’s decision to launch the attacks on Iran.“It’s time to change the regime there because of the nuclear weapons; it’s important to have this under control,” he said. “For Israel, it will be a hard time, I think. But nothing is free; you have to pay with something.”
Obituary-Iran’s Ali Khamenei, who based brutal rule on fiery hostility to US and Israel, dead at 86-Surprisingly picked to lead Islamic Republic, supreme leader championed uranium enrichment during 36-year rule, built an army of terror proxies, and refused compromise to the bitter end-By Reuters and ToI Staff Today, 6:02 am-MAR 1,26
WASHINGTON — The 36-year rule of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei built Iran into a powerful anti-US force, spreading its military sway across the Middle East with an army of terror proxies aimed at destroying Israel, while using an iron fist to crush repeated unrest at home.He was killed on Saturday, aged 86, Iranian state media announced, in airstrikes by Israel and the US that pulverised his central Tehran compound, after decades of efforts to resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program diplomatically failed.At first dismissed as weak and indecisive, Khamenei seemed an unlikely choice for supreme leader after the death of the charismatic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic of Iran. But Khamenei’s rise to the pinnacle of the country’s power structure afforded him a tight grip over the nation’s affairs.Khamenei was “an accident of history” who went from “a weak president to an initially weak supreme leader to one of the five most powerful Iranians of the last 100 years,” Karim Sadjadpour at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told Reuters.The ayatollah criticized Washington throughout his rule, continuing to deploy barbs after the start of Donald Trump’s second term as US president in 2025.As a new wave of protests spread through Iran, with slogans such as “Death to the dictator,” and as Trump threatened to intervene, Khamenei vowed in January that the country would not “yield to the enemy.”The comment was typical of the ferociously anti-Western Khamenei, in office since 1989.By maintaining the hardline stance of Khomeini, the Republic’s first supreme leader, Khamenei quashed the ambitions of a succession of independent-minded elected presidents who sought more open policies at home and abroad.In the process, he ensured Iran’s isolation, critics say.His word was law-Khamenei long denied that Iran’s nuclear program was aimed at producing an atomic weapon, as the West contended, even as top regime officials regularly threatened to flatten Israeli cities while Iran was enriching uranium to levels that have no peacetime application.In 2015, he cautiously supported a nuclear deal between world powers and the government of pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani that curbed the country’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. The hard-won accord resulted in a partial lifting of Iran’s economic and political isolation.But Khamenei’s hostility toward the US was undimmed, intensifying in 2018 when Trump’s first administration withdrew from the nuclear agreement and reimposed sanctions to choke Iran’s oil and shipping industries.Following the US withdrawal, Khamenei sided with hardline supporters who criticized Rouhani’s policy of appeasement towards the West.As Trump pressed Iran to agree to a new nuclear deal in 2025, Khamenei condemned “the rude and arrogant leaders of America.”“Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment?” he asked.Khamenei often denounced “the Great Satan” in speeches, reassuring hardliners for whom anti-US sentiment was at the heart of the 1979 revolution, which forced the last shah of Iran into exile.Iran saw major student-led protests in 1999 and 2002. But Khamenei’s authority was put to the test more profoundly in 2009, when the contested results of a presidential election that he had validated ignited violent street unrest, stoking a crisis of legitimacy that lingered until his death.In 2022, Khamenei cracked down on protesters enraged by the death of Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22, who died in the custody of morality police in September of that year.Faced with some of the most intense turmoil since the revolution, Khamenei blamed Western enemies and then resorted to the hanging of protesters and the display of their bodies, suspended from cranes, after months of unrest.Iranians got the message.As supreme leader, Khamenei’s word was law. He inherited enormous powers, including command of the armed forces and the authority to appoint many senior figures, among them the heads of the judiciary, security agencies and state radio and television.He appointed allies as commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guards.As the final authority in Iran’s complex system of clerical rule and limited democracy, Khamenei long sought to ensure that no group, even among his closest allies, mustered enough power to challenge him and his anti-US stance.Scholars outside Iran painted a picture of a secretive ideologue fearful of betrayal — an anxiety fueled by an assassination attempt in 1981 that paralyzed his right arm.International organizations and activists repeatedly criticized violations of human rights in Iran. Tehran contended it has the best human rights record in the Muslim world.An unlikely rise to power-Ali Khamenei was born in Mashhad, northeast Iran, in April 1939. His religious commitment was clear when he became a cleric at the age of 11. He studied in Iraq and in Qom, Iran’s religious capital.His father, a religious scholar of ethnic Azeri descent, was a traditionalist cleric opposed to mixing religion and politics. In contrast, his son embraced the Islamist revolutionary cause.“He [Khamenei’s father] came across as a modernist or progressive cleric,” said Mahmoud Moradkhani, a nephew who opposes Khamenei’s rule and lives in exile. Unlike his son, “he was not a part of the fundamentalists,” Moradkhani said.In 1963, Khamenei served the first of many terms in prison when, at 24, he was detained for political activities. Later that year, he was imprisoned for 10 days in Mashhad, where he underwent severe torture, according to his official biography.After the shah’s fall, Khamenei took up several posts in the Islamic Republic. As deputy defense minister, he became close to the military and was a key figure in the 1980-88 war with neighboring Iraq, which claimed an estimated total of one million lives.A skilled orator, he was appointed by Khomeini as a Friday prayer leader in Tehran.There were questions about his rapid, unprecedented rise. He won the presidency with Khomeini’s support — the first cleric in the post — and was a surprise choice as Khomeini’s successor, given that he lacked both Khomeini’s popular appeal and superior clerical credentials.Expanding Iran’s influence-His ties to the powerful Guards paid off in 2009. That year, the force crushed protests after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won reelection amid opposition accusations of vote fraud.He also presided over a vast financial empire through Setad, an organization founded by Khomeini but expanded hugely under Khamenei, with assets worth tens of billions of dollars.Khamenei expanded Iranian influence in the region, empowering Shiite militias and jihadist terror groups in Iraq and Lebanon, and propping up Syria’s then-president Bashar al-Assad by deploying thousands of soldiers to the country.He spent billions over four decades on these allies — the “Axis of Resistance,” which also included Hamas, the Palestinian terror group, and Yemen’s Houthis — to oppose Israeli and US power in the Middle East.But in 2024, Khamenei saw these alliances unravel, and Iran’s regional influence shrivel, with the ousting of Assad and a series of defeats inflicted by Israel on Hezbollah in Lebanon and on Hamas in Gaza, including the killing of their leaders.Under Khamenei’s rule, Iran and Israel fought a shadow war for years, with Israel assassinating Tehran’s nuclear scientists and Revolutionary Guard commanders.It exploded into the open during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which was sparked by the latter’s onslaught of October 7, 2023. In April 2024, Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel after it bombed Tehran’s embassy compound in Damascus. Israel struck Iranian soil in response.But that was only a prelude to June 2025, when Israel’s military unleashed hundreds of fighter jets to strike Iranian nuclear and military targets as well as senior personnel. The surprise attack provoked a barrage of missiles in both directions, transforming simmering conflict into all-out war. The US joined the air offensive on Iran, which lasted 12 days.The US and Israel had warned they would strike again if Iran pressed ahead with its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and, on Saturday, they launched the most ambitious attack on Iranian targets in decades.Negotiations between US and Iranian officials took place as recently as Thursday, but senior US officials said that Iran had not been willing to give up its ability to enrich uranium, which the Iranians argued they want for nuclear energy but US officials said would enable the country to build a nuclear bomb.On the diplomatic front, Khamenei rejected any normalization of ties with the United States. He argued that Washington had backed hardline groups like the Islamic State to inflame a sectarian war in the region.Like all Iranian officials, Khamenei denied any intent to develop nuclear weapons and went so far as to issue an Islamic ruling, or fatwa, in the mid-1990s on “production and usage” of nuclear weapons, saying: “It is against our Islamic thoughts.”He also supported a fatwa issued by Khomeini in 1989, which called on Muslims to kill the Indian-born author Salman Rushdie after the publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses.”Khamenei’s official website confirmed the ongoing validity of the death edict as recently as 2017. Five years later, Rushdie was stabbed while giving a public lecture in New York. The writer was gravely wounded but survived. The perpetrator, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2025 for attempted murder, did not testify at the trial.The slain ayatollah leaves an Islamic Republic wrestling with uncertainty amid the attacks from Israel and the United States, as well as growing dissent at home, especially among younger generations.“I just want to live a peaceful, normal life… Instead, they [the rulers] insist on a nuclear program, supporting armed groups in the region, and maintaining hostility toward the United States,” Mina, 25, told Reuters by phone from Kuhdasht in the western Lorestan province at the start of 2026.“Those policies may have made sense in 1979, but not today,” the jobless university graduate added. “The world has changed.”
Woman killed, dozens injured as Iranian missile strikes Tel Aviv residential block-Victim is first person killed in Israel in renewed fighting with Iran, as first responders take 27 to hospital, including infant, after heavy damage to two apartment buildings By Charlie Summers and Emanuel Fabian-Today, 4:28 amUpdated at 12:26 pm-MAR 1,26
A woman was killed and dozens more were injured by an Iranian missile that struck a Tel Aviv residential block late Saturday night, in the first deadly barrage to rock Israel during its renewed fighting with Iran.The victim, a foreign caregiver in her 40s, was found in critical condition after a ballistic missile struck next to an apartment building in the coastal city, causing heavy damage to the structure and its environs.Paramedics pronounced the woman dead while rushing her to the hospital.Twenty-seven others were injured, including two in moderate condition and 25 who sustained light injuries in the attack. They were taken to three different hospitals in the area by Magen David Adom and United Hatzalah paramedics.Among those rescued from the building were a two-month-old infant and his older sister. Their parents were evacuated from the complex soon after them. According to Channel 12, seven of those injured in the strike were children.Police chief Daniel Levy arrived at the scene, accompanied by Tel Aviv District commander Haim Sargaroff, where the two held a situation assessment with officers operating at the site.They were working with firefighters to search for any other trapped individuals in the building, amid extensive rubble and cars that caught fire upon the missile impact.According to a military investigation of the strike, the woman did not manage to enter a bomb shelter.The Home Front Command determined that a complete Iranian ballistic missile — not fragments — struck next to the apartment building, causing extensive damage and a large crater. The missile carried a warhead of several hundred kilograms, the Home Front Command assessed.The building was relatively old, without its own safe rooms, and most residents had evacuated to a nearby public bomb shelter, according to the Home Front Command.The slain woman, who was a foreign caregiver for an elderly woman, did not manage to evacuate in time and was killed in the strike. The woman she was caring for was extracted by rescue workers from the rubble alive.The barrage was one of many absorbed by Israel since Saturday morning, when the IDF and the US military launched a major joint strike against Iran, attacking sites across the country and killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and dozens of top military officials, after weeks of escalating tensions in the region.The Israeli strikes on Iran continued into the night, with the Israeli Air Force saying it had completed several more waves of strikes targeting Iran’s ballistic missile launchers and air defense systems.Meanwhile, the US military carried out nearly 900 strikes across Iran within the first 12 hours of the operation, according to an unnamed US official cited by Fox News.Iran has fired about 300 missiles in the same period, the official added. Many of the missiles were aimed at Israel, but explosions also shook the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.Earlier that day, sirens blared intermittently across Israel as the Home Front Command urged civilians to stay close to bomb shelters and avoid non-essential travel. It also said that all educational activities, gatherings and work, except for essential sectors, would be prohibited.It marked Israel’s second flare-up with Iran within a year after the countries fought a 12-day war in June 2025, which saw daily exchanges of missile barrages that left 28 Israelis dead and over 3,000 hospitalized. The war came to a close after the US launched a devastating bombing campaign on three Iranian nuclear sites.This time around, both US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that the current offensive aims to spark an overthrow of the Islamic Republic, with the latter giving a televised statement vowing to create the conditions for the Iranian people to “free itself from the chains of dictatorship.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Iran sets 40 days of mourning as US, Israel pound country-End of an era as Iran confirms Khamenei is dead; Trump: Justice for Iranians and beyond-Iranians brave the streets to celebrate; US president urges security personnel to surrender; Netanyahu calls on Iranians to rise up; state media says leader’s daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law, son-in-law also killed-By Jacob Magid,Lazar Berman,Emanuel Fabian,ToI Staff and Agencies Today, 2:00 amUpdated at 3:41 am-MAR 1,26
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in American-Israeli strikes on Saturday morning, Iranian state media confirmed early Sunday morning, hours after US President Donald Trump declared the 86-year-old’s death in the most ambitious attack on Iran in decades.“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that US strikes would continue “uninterrupted” for the coming week or until peace is secured in Iran.
Israeli and US officials had increasingly projected confidence in the hours leading up to Trump’s remarks that the leader of the Islamic Republic had been killed in an airstrike on his compound.An Israeli official briefing local media said the Iranian leader had been killed in an Israeli strike on his compound on Saturday morning, and a senior Israeli official told Reuters that his body had been found. Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been shown an image of his body after it was recovered from the compound in Tehran.Iran’s state media said Khamenei was killed in his office in the early hours of Saturday, announcing a 40-day period of mourning. It added that family members of Khamenei were also killed, including his daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law.Earlier, before the confirmation of the leader’s death, a tweet had been posted from the supreme leader’s X account, purporting to show that he was still alive, and regime-affiliated media outlets had denied he was killed.Trump wrote on social media that Khamenei’s death was “not only justice for the people of Iran, but for all great Americans, and those people from many countries throughout the world [who] have been killed or mutilated by [him] and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”Netanyahu, in a video address to the public on Saturday night, said there were growing signs that Khamenei “is no more,” but did not openly declare him dead.“This morning, in a powerful surprise strike, the compound of the tyrant Ali Khamenei was destroyed in the heart of Tehran… and there are many signs that this tyrant is no longer alive,” the premier said.Iranians have poured into the street to celebrate the news of Ali Khamenei’s death.pic.twitter.com/wLTMqQWVIa — The Iran Watcher ???????? (@TheIranWatcher) February 28, 2026-Cheers could be heard on Tehran’s streets after reports of the death, according to witnesses. Video footage on X also showed Iranians celebrating elsewhere.This is Karaj tonight. Please join the people of Iran in celebrating the downfall of the tyrant Khamenei, and the imminent fall of the rotten islamic regime. Advertisement After 47 long years, Iran can breathe again. pic.twitter.com/bxdxwuufIr — ???????????????? ???????????????? ???????? ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) February 28, 2026-A Fox News reporter, citing an unnamed US official, said Washington believed Khamenei and five to 10 other top Iranian officials were killed in the initial Israeli strike of the operation, dubbed “Operation Roaring Lion” by Israel and “Operation Epic Fury” by the US.Israel, having coordinated with the US, dropped some 30 bombs on Khamenei’s compound in the opening minutes of the assault, according to an unsourced Channel 12 news report. The same report claimed that the Iranian leader was underground at the location, but not in one of the two deepest bunkers that only US bombs could have penetrated.Satellite imagery has shown the compound largely destroyed.Two Iranian sources told Reuters that Khamenei had met with Shamkhani and Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani at a secure location shortly before the strikes started.Iran responded to the Israeli and US strikes by firing dozens of ballistic missile barrages at Israel and the Gulf states, which are close allies of the US and host its military bases.As of Saturday night, two people had been confirmed dead in the strikes, including a woman in her 40s who was fatally wounded in a ballistic missile impact in Tel Aviv. The other confirmed casualty was a foreign worker in Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital.While Israel was reportedly behind the specific strike that took out Khamenei, Trump indicated that the US played a major role, while coordinating with Jerusalem.Khamenei “was unable to avoid our intelligence and highly sophisticated tracking systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders [who] have been killed along with him, could do,” Trump bragged.“This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country. We are hearing that many of their [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], military, and other security and police forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking for immunity from us,” the US president added.Such capitulations have not been verified.Trump has called on Iranian security personnel to surrender in exchange for immunity or face imminent death.“Hopefully, the IRGC and police will peacefully merge with the Iranian patriots and work together as a unit to bring back the country to the greatness it deserves,” Trump posted on Saturday. “That process should soon be starting in that, not only the death of Khamenei but the country has been, in only one day, very much destroyed and, even, obliterated.”“The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!” the president concluded.‘Years to recover’It would take Iran “several years” to recover from the pummeling it received from the US and Israel, Trump said on Saturday evening, in a phone conversation with reporter Barak Ravid from Israel’s Channel 12 news.The president said he could choose to make the campaign as long as he likes or finish within a matter of days, but warned that he would attack again if Iran attempted to rebuild.“I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days and tell the Iranians: ‘See you again in a few years if you start rebuilding [your nuclear and missile programs],” Trump said in the five-minute phone interview from Mar-a-Lago with Ravid, who published the English quotes on Axios.However, he stressed that “in any case, it will take them several years to recover from this attack.”Netanyahu urges Iranians to rise up-Netanyahu, in his televised statement, said that Israel had eliminated commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, senior regime officials, and senior nuclear officials since Saturday morning, and that it would “hit thousands of targets of the terror regime” in the coming days.The operation against Iran “will continue as long as is necessary,” the premier said, “and stamina is necessary.”Vowing that the operation would lead to “true peace,” Netanyahu said Israel would create the conditions for the Iranian people to “free itself from the chains of dictatorship.”He called on the Iranian people to unite and rise up against the regime, urging them in the Hebrew-language video not to forego the “once-in-a-generation” opportunity.”“Soon your moment will come,” he said, “the moment when you must take to the streets in your masses, to take to the streets to complete the work to bring down the regime of horrors that embitters your lives.”“Help has arrived,” he added in English.The Israeli strikes on Iran continued into the night, with the Israeli Air Force confirming shortly after midnight that it had completed another wave of strikes targeting Iran’s ballistic missile launchers and air defense systems.According to the IDF, the missile launchers and air defenses were struck in western and central Iran. The military also said it “attacked several launch sites in central Iran that had not yet been targeted.”One of the targeted missile launch sites, in the Qom area, was utilized by Iran to store “H-1” Ghadr missiles, capable of carrying warheads with hundreds of kilograms of explosives, the military said.The IDF said the strikes on the launchers and other infrastructure at the sites “thwarted dozens of launches toward the territory of the State of Israel and dealt a severe blow to the regime’s most central offensive capability.”Top Iranian officials killed-Elaborating on Netanyahu’s remarks on the deaths of some of the top gatekeepers of the Iranian regime, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed the identities of several members of Iran’s security leadership killed since Saturday morning. Among the names were top defense official Ali Shamkhani and the commander of the IRGC, Mohammad Pakpour.Iranian media had said Khamenei’s son-in-law and daughter-in-law were also killed.The IDF said it could confirm the deaths of the following officials in the strikes:Ali Shamkhani, a former IRGC Navy chief and Iranian army chief, and a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel targeted him in last June’s war, and initially believed it had killed him.Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of the IRGC. The IDF says Pakpour led Iran’s “plan to destroy Israel,” and he was responsible for missile and drone attacks on Israel, supporting Iran’s proxy groups, and ” effectively commanded the violent suppression of Iranian protesters during the internal protests last month.”Salah Asadi, the chief of intelligence in Iran’s military emergency headquarters, and the senior intelligence officer of Iran’s armed forces’ general staff. The IDF says he was also involved in Iran’s “plan to destroy Israel.”Mohammad Shirazi, the chief of Khamenei’s military bureau since 1989. The IDF says he was responsible for “the liaison between the senior commanders of the armed forces and the leader, and was a central figure in the top ranks of the Iranian terror regime.”Aziz Nasirzadeh, Iran’s minister of defense, and a former chief of the Iranian air force and deputy chief of staff. The IDF says he was responsible for “industries producing long-range missiles and weapons transferred to regime proxies, as well as for the SPND organization, which advanced projects in the fields of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.”Hossein Jabal-Amelian, chairman of SPND. The IDF says he was responsible for “developing advanced technologies and weapons for the regime” and advanced “projects for years in the fields of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.”Reza Mozafari-Nia, a former chairman of SPND. The IDF says he “advanced efforts to develop nuclear weapons.”‘Hellish international oppressors’Meanwhile, Khamenei’s top aide Ali Larijani, whom Channel 12 said had been among those targeted in the US and Israeli strikes, took to social media to vow revenge against Israel and the US for the heavy losses.“We will make the Zionist criminals and the shameless Americans regret their actions. The brave soldiers and the great nation of Iran will deliver an unforgettable lesson to the hellish international oppressors,” Larijani wrote on X.Khamenei had reportedly put in place detailed plans for his succession and emergency chains of command should he, or other top leaders, be killed in potential US or Israeli strikes, elevating longtime loyalist Larijani to manage the crisis.Iran’s clerical leaders were already facing furious domestic opposition, marked by mass anti-government demonstrations in January. The regime cracked down on the protests, killing thousands, if not tens of thousands of Iranians, in the worst domestic unrest since the era of the 1979 revolution.Protesters had again taken to the streets in recent days in remembrance of those killed the previous month.Tehran residents had been going about their usual business on Saturday when the strikes began. Security forces quickly flooded the streets, shops pulled down their shutters and few pedestrians risked venturing out, an AFP journalist saw.“I saw with my own eyes two Tomahawk missiles flying horizontally toward targets,” a Tehran office worker told AFP before communications and internet access were cut.The Red Crescent said 24 of Iran’s 31 provinces were affected by the strikes and listed the number of dead as over 200, with more than 700 said injured.Within the first 12 hours of the operation in Iran, the US military carried out nearly 900 strikes across Iran, according to an unnamed US official cited by Fox News.The strikes were launched from the land, air and sea and included drones all while defending against hundreds of incoming Iranian ballistic missiles the US official said.The official said that Iran had fired about 300 missiles in the same period. Many of the missiles were aimed at Israel, but explosions also shook the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.The official claimed, however, that Iran struck “empty warehouses” in strikes that targeted the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, and said that none of the Iranian counter-strikes impacted US aims in Operation Epic Fury.Iran has around 2,000 long-range missiles in its arsenal and another 2,000 shorter-range missiles — both were replenished after last summer’s US and Israeli strikes, the US official told Fox News.The official said that the goal of the joint Israeli-US operation was to ensure that Iran no longer has the “capability to attack its neighbors: no drones, no missiles, no navy.”The US official claimed that Washington knows where Iran is stockpiling its highly enriched uranium but that it is difficult to reach.The operation, the official said, was expected to last “a couple of weeks,” although Trump could decide to wrap it up sooner.The official added that there were still a number of Iranian air defenses left for the US and Israel to suppress before they would be able to operate more freely from the Iranian skies.Israeli military operations over the past two years had already killed some of Iran’s senior military officials and severely weakened several of Tehran’s once-feared proxy forces across the Middle East.After Israel pounded Iran in a 12-day air war last June joined by the United States, the US and Israel had warned that they would strike again if Iran pressed ahead with its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.The threats were backed up by a US military buildup in the region, even as Iranian and US officials held nuclear talks.
