Israel Kills Iranian Intel Chiefs, Strikes Deep Inside Iran

Israel on Sunday attacked dozens of sites in Iran — including energy sites, radar systems, and ballistic missiles and their launchers — and killed Iran’s top intelligence officers on the third day of its ongoing campaign against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The Israel Defense Forces also bombed an Iranian refueling plane at Mashhad Airport in northeast Iran, some 2,300 kilometers (1,430 miles) from Israel, marking what it said was the most distant strike since the beginning of the operation.

And early Monday morning, the army said it struck surface-to-surface missile launch sites in central Iran, shortly after the IDF Home Front Command told Israelis to remain close to shelters ahead of an expected missile barrage that didn’t materialize.

The IDF says it has been attempting since Friday to prevent Iranian missile attacks.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, in a video statement Sunday evening, hailed the “historic and unprecedented operation aimed at significantly damaging the existential threat that Iran has built for years to destroy us.”

“We are continuing to operate according to a structured, thorough, professional and evolving plan,” he said. “In the past 24 hours, we completed opening an air corridor to Tehran… Air Force pilots are flying with great risks, hundreds of kilometers away from Israeli territory, striking hundreds of diverse targets with precision. At the same time, we are locating and destroying missile launchers firing at our territory.”

In an earlier statement, Zamir said the Air Force was striking Iran’s “infrastructure and nuclear program in a precise and extensive manner, beyond what the enemy anticipated.”

Widespread airstrikes were reported Sunday afternoon in the Iranian capital, with videos from the city circulating on social media.

There were also local reports of large-scale sewage and water pipe explosions across Tehran, allegedly connected to Israeli strikes, a matter on which the IDF had no comment.

Strikes were also reported against Iranian military sites in Shiraz, and the IDF said the Air Force also launched a wave of airstrikes on dozens of ballistic missile targets in western Iran.

On Sunday night, Iranian media also reported Israeli strikes in Parchin, with the Mehr News Agency posting a video showing air defense systems activating in the area.

In October, Israel’s airstrikes reportedly destroyed an active nuclear weapons research facility in Parchin, after Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier that month.

The strike on Mashhad Airport potentially marked the Israeli Air Force’s farthest-ever strike. In 1985, the IAF struck the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Tunisia, also over 2,000 kilometers from Israel.

A large fire could be seen at Mashhad Airport following the Israeli strike.

“The Air Force is working to achieve air superiority throughout Iran,” the military said.

Iranian state media confirmed Sunday that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) intelligence chief, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Kazemi, and his deputy Hassan Mohaqiq were killed in an Israeli strike during the day, shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted as much in an interview with Fox News.

State media also said a third IRGC intelligence officer, Mohsen Bagheri, was also killed in the strike in Tehran.

Later in the evening, the IDF said it had completed an “extensive” wave of airstrikes in Iran aimed at destroying weapon manufacturing capabilities.

The strikes targeted infrastructure belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Guards’ Quds Force, and Iran’s armed forces, and “numerous weapons production sites across Iran were targeted,” according to the IDF.

The military published a video showing an airstrike carried out by fighter jets on a surface-to-air missile launcher in Tehran on Sunday, and said it also struck ballistic missile production sites and a radar facility in the Iranian capital.

Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that an Iranian foreign ministry building in Tehran had been hit in one of the Israeli airstrikes throughout the day.

The president of Iran’s foreign ministry-affiliated Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), Saeed Khatibzadeh, said the strike also damaged the IPIS building, located across from the targeted site.

He shared what he said was footage of the damage to the institute’s library in a post on X.

Iran’s IRNA news agency reported during the day that five car bombs had been detonated in Tehran, blaming Israel for the attack. But an Israeli official speaking to the Kan public broadcaster denied that Israel was behind that act.

Iran’s state media claimed Sunday that the death toll from Israel’s attacks since Friday had climbed to 224, of whom 90 percent are allegedly civilians.

Years of hostility between Israel and Iran exploded into open conflict early Friday morning when Israel launched a major offensive against Iran and its nuclear program, hitting nuclear sites, missile bases and top military officials.

Israel said it had no choice but to attack Iran, and that it had gathered intelligence showing that Tehran was approaching “the point of no return” in its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Military officials said that the IDF was preparing for heavy fire from Iran, but asserted that “at the end of the operation, there will be no nuclear threat” from the Islamic Republic.