JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON/DUBAI — Iran and Israel launched new missile strikes at each other on Wednesday as the air war between the two longtime enemies entered a sixth day despite a call from U.S. President Donald Trump for Tehran’s unconditional surrender.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected Trump’s demand, as Iranians jammed the highways out of Tehran fleeing from intensified Israeli airstrikes.
Israel, meanwhile, launched a phased airlift operation to bring home its citizens, after the country’s military strike on Iran closed air space across the Middle East, leaving tens of thousands of Israelis stuck overseas.
Khamenei, 86, in a recorded speech played on television, his first appearance since Friday, said the Americans “should know that any U.S. military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage.”
“Intelligent people who know Iran, the Iranian nation and its history will never speak to this nation in threaten-ing language because the Iranian nation will not surrender,” he said.
Trump has veered from proposing a swift diplomatic end to the war to suggesting the United States might join it. In social media posts on Tuesday he mused about killing Khamenei, then demanded Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
A source familiar with internal discussions said Trump and his team were considering options which included joining Israel in strikes against Iranian nuclear sites.
Israel’s military said 50 Israeli jets had struck around 20 targets in Tehran overnight, including sites producing raw materials, components and manufacturing systems for missiles. The military told Iranians to leave parts of the capital for their safety while it struck targets.
Traffic was backed up on highways leading out of the city of 10 million people. Arezou, 31, told Reuters by phone that she had made it out to the nearby resort town of Lavasan.
The Israeli military said two barrages of Iranian missiles were launched toward Israel in the first two hours of Wednesday morning. Explosions were heard over Tel Aviv.
Israel told residents in a southwestern area of Tehran to evacuate so its air force could strike Iranian military installations. Iranian news websites said Israel was attacking a university linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the east of the capital.
Iranian news websites said Israel was also attacking a university linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the country’s east, and the Khojir ballistic missile facility near Tehran, which was also targeted by Israeli airstrikes last October.
The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence says Iran is armed with the largest number of ballistic missiles in the Middle East. Iran has said its ballistic missiles are an important deterrent and retaliatory force against the U.S., Israel and other potential regional targets.
REGIONAL INFLUENCE
Khamenei’s main military and security advisers have been killed by Israeli strikes, hollowing out his inner circle and raising the risk of strategic errors, according to five people familiar with his decision-making process.
With Iranian leaders suffering their most dangerous security breach since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the country’s cybersecurity command banned officials from using communications devices and mobile phones, Fars news agency reported.
Israel launched a “massive cyber war” against Iran’s digital infrastructure, Iranian media reported.
Ever since Iran-backed Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and triggered the Gaza war, Khamenei’s re-gional influence has waned as Israel has pounded Iran’s proxies – from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq. Iran’s close ally, Syria’s autocratic president Bashar al-Assad, has been ousted.
Israel launched its air war, its largest ever on Iran, on Friday after saying it had concluded the Islamic Republic was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has pointed to its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the international Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Israel, which is not a party to the NPT, is the only country in the Middle East believed to have nuclear weapons. Israel does not deny or confirm that.
Netanyahu has stressed that he will not back down until Iran’s nuclear development is disabled, while Trump says the Israeli assault could end if Iran agrees to strict curbs on enrichment.
Before Israel’s attack began, the 35-nation board of governors of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years.
The IAEA said on Tuesday an Israeli strike directly hit the underground enrichment halls at the Natanz facility.
Israel says it now has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate the campaign in coming days.
But Israel will struggle to deal a knock-out blow to deeply buried nuclear sites like Fordow, which is dug be-neath a mountain, without the U.S. joining the attack.
Iranian officials have reported 224 deaths, mostly civilians, while Israel said 24 civilians had been killed. Resi-dents of both countries have been evacuated or fled.
Global oil markets are on high alert following strikes on sites including the world’s biggest gas field, South Pars, shared by Iran and Qatar.
Israel’s first rescue flight, operated by national carrier El Al, touched down at Tel Aviv Airport early Wednesday morning, returning passengers from Larnaca, Cyprus.
Worldwide, Israel’s transport ministry estimates that more than 50,000 Israelis, stranded after airlines halted flights to the country, are trying to come home.
Foreign citizens have also been fleeing Iran overland. China started evacuating its citizens from Tehran to Turkmenistan by overland bus on Tuesday. Hundreds of other foreign nationals fled to neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan.
El Al has said repatriation flights are already scheduled from Athens, Rome, Milan, Paris, Budapest and London. Smaller carriers Arkia and Israir are also taking part.
“We are very emotional about receiving the first rescue flight as part of ‘Safe Return’,” Transportation Minister Miri Regev told the captain of the arriving El Al flight before it landed.
While many Israelis want to come back, around 38,000 tourists are stranded in Israel, with much of the country in lockdown, and all the museums and holy sites closed.
The Tourism Ministry said on Wednesday it would start coordinating flights out, while around 1,500 Americans on a Jewish heritage program were evacuated to Cyprus via a cruise ship, which will now sail back with Israeli citizens aboard.
“We didn’t sleep for nights on end. We are all very exhausted and it’s a sigh of relief,” said Dorian, 20, from New York, after he had disembarked.
“In Israel, I was very afraid. I was never used to anything like that. Sirens, missiles, or anything like that. New York is pretty much very safe and this was new to me.”
Iran has fired more than 400 ballistic missiles at Israel since Friday, triggering air raid sirens and a rush to bun-kers. At least 24 people, all civilians, have died so far in the strikes, according to Israeli authorities.
Iranian officials have reported at least 224 deaths, mostly civilians, though that toll has not been updated for days. – Reuters
CYPRUS HUB
Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport has been closed to passenger traffic since Israel launched its pre-dawn attack on Friday and commercial aircraft are sitting out the war in foreign air fields.
The Airports Authority reinforced staffing on Wednesday to ensure arriving passengers left the airport quickly. Relatives were advised to avoid travelling to pick up family members for security reasons.
The airlift is being carried out in stages, based on risk levels and security assessments, a spokesperson for the Airports Authority said.
Large numbers of Israelis seeking to get home have converged on Cyprus, the European Union member state closest to Israel. Flights from the coastal city of Larnaca to Tel Aviv take 50 minutes.
Nine flights were expected to depart Cyprus on Wednesday for Haifa, and four for Tel Aviv, carrying about 1,000 people, sources at Cypriot airport operator Hermes said.
Cruise operator Mano Maritime, whose “Crown Iris” ship carries 2,000 passengers, has said it will make two crossings from Cyprus to Israel’s Mediterranean port city of Haifa.
