Iran launched missiles equipped with cluster warheads targeting Tel Aviv overnight Tuesday, in what state media described as retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani.
Iranian state television reported the attack on Wednesday.
The strikes hit residential neighborhoods near Tel Aviv, which also host key military facilities, killing two people and raising the death toll from the ongoing conflict to at least 14 in Israel.
According to a statement broadcast on Iranian state television, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, deployed Khorramshahr 4 and Qadr missiles, both capable of carrying multiple warheads.
Israel has warned that cluster warheads, which disperse into multiple smaller explosives mid-air, are challenging to intercept and pose significant risks to civilians.
Meanwhile, Iran reported that one projectile landed near the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday evening but caused no injuries or damage.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, reiterated calls for maximum restraint to prevent any nuclear accidents amid the escalating conflict.
The attacks come after Israel confirmed the killing of Larijani, the most senior Iranian official targeted since the start of the U.S.-Israeli operations in Iran. Larijani’s son and deputy, Alireza Bayat, were also killed in an Israeli strike on Monday night, according to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, reportedly rejected suggestions for a ceasefire or tension reduction with the United States, insisting that peace would only be possible once the U.S. and Israel “accept defeat and pay compensation,” according to a senior Iranian official. It remains unclear whether Khamenei attended the meeting in person or remotely.
Iran also executed Kurosh Keyvani, a man convicted of spying for Israel’s Mossad, the judiciary’s media outlet Mizan reported.
He was accused of providing sensitive information and photographs of Iranian sites to the Israeli intelligence agency.
The conflict has also spread to Lebanon, where Israeli airstrikes targeted the Bachoura neighborhood in Beirut on Wednesday. Witnesses reported loud explosions, following evacuation warnings from the Israeli military.
