Israeli airstrikes across Iran on Saturday killed senior military personnel and a nuclear scientist while the United States moved heavy B-2 bombers to a Pacific airbase as it weighs attacking Iran's nuclear facilities.
Israel escalated its military campaign against Iran, striking nuclear facilities and missile infrastructure while killing members of a military unit responsible for foreign operations, the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force
A new wave of Israeli airstrikes late Saturday targeted multiple cities across Iran—from Bandar Abbas, Ahvaz and Marvdasht in the south to Tabriz, Salmas and Babol in the north, Sanandaj and Kermanshah in the west and Tehran, Qom, and Isfahan in the center, according to eyewitnesses and media reports.
Iranian state media confirmed the deaths of five Revolutionary Guards members in Khorramabad and released the names of 15 air defense personnel killed in recent strikes.
Saeed Izadi, commander of the Quds Force’s Palestine Corps, was killed in a strike in Qom, Israeli defense minister said early Saturday. Israel Katz described Izadi as a key figure behind Hamas's October 7 attack and a central node in Iran’s funding of armed allies in the region.
Israel said it had also taken out senior Revolutionary Guards drone commander Aminpour Joudaki and Quds Force arms transfer chief Behnam Shahriari.
An attack in Tehran killed Iranian nuclear scientist Isar Tabatabaei Ghomsheh and his wife.
Hezbollah forces killed in Tehran
An Israeli airstrike in Tehran killed Abu Ali al-Khalil, who had served as slain Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah’s personal bodyguard for decades, Al Arabiya reported citing sources in the Lebanese group.
Al-Khalil's son was also killed in the attack, Palestinian news agency Quds News Network reported.
In addition to Al-Khalil, Haider al-Musawi, a senior member of the Iran-linked militia group Sayyid al-Shuhada, was killed in the airstrikes, according to Israel's Channel 12.
Among the locations hit were the Isfahan nuclear facility and a centrifuge production site within the same complex, which the Israeli military said is central to Iran’s nuclear weapons development.
Other targets included drone launch vehicles, missile infrastructure, radar installations, and air defense systems.
The Iranian government confirmed that the Isfahan site had been struck but reported no casualties or radiation leaks.
Explosions were also heard in many cities including Shiraz, Mashhad, Tabriz, and Tehran, where the cyber police headquarters was severely damaged. Cyber police is known for its role in online surveillance and repression.
Iran in turn continued its retaliatory missile launches against Israel while imposing a near-total internet blackout which has effectively halted the flow of information.
Iranian missile impacts were reported in Tel Aviv, the Negev and Haifa. Israel said its air defense systems successfully intercepted multiple incoming salvos.
US moves B-2 bombers
The Pentagon is deploying stealth B-2 bombers across the Pacific from their base in Missouri, officials cited by US media reported, signaling that the Trump administration is positioning them for a possible strike on Iran.
The aircraft are capable of carrying the 30,000-pound GBU-57 bunker buster, which defense experts believe is the most likely conventional weapon to inflict damage on Iran’s fortified Fordow uranium enrichment site.
US President Donald Trump says he will make his decision about joining the Israeli war on Iran in two weeks to give diplomacy a last chance.
However, Israeli officials have told the United States they may not wait until the end of the two-week deadline to strike Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear facility and could act alone, Reuters reported Saturday, citing two sources familiar with what they described as a tense phone call.
“The Israeli officials said they do not want to wait the two weeks that US President Donald Trump presented on Thursday as a deadline for deciding whether the US will get involved in the Israel-Iran war," the report said citing the sources.
The White House is expected to hold a national security meeting on Saturday afternoon on Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Saturday that any US involvement would be dangerous, insisting Tehran would not negotiate under bombardment.
The documentary draws on intelligence documents, gang member testimonies and expert analysis to piece together what it called a disturbing operational pattern: Iranian operatives offering incentives in exchange for targeting designated entities.
Among the top targets identified are Israeli interests and diplomatic missions and the London-based Persian language outlet Iran International.
Iran International, which has a broad viewership inside Iran, has long faced threats from the Islamic Republic, but the report appeared to provide previously unreported details on Iran's mobilization of street-level criminal networks to carry out attacks.
In one case, the documentary alleges, Tehran promised to eliminate a gang leader—Rawa Majid, known as the Kurdish Fox—if his enemies agreed to target Israeli interests or Iran International.
Plot origins
The connection began in early 2023, according to SVT, when Majid was briefly in Iran.
Citing Israeli intelligence sources, the documentary suggests Majid was presented with a choice: face imprisonment or cooperate with Iranian authorities. He allegedly chose the latter.
His first assignment was to carry out a grenade attack on the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, but the grenade failed to detonate.
Shortly after, Iranian operatives contacted Majid’s rivals, including the so-called “Rumba” faction led by a man named Ismail Abdo.
The sources cited in the documentary say they were promised Iranian assistance in assassinating Majid if they agreed to strike targets such as synagogues, embassies or Iran International.
Repression: a new phase
Targeting perceived enemies has long been a hallmark of the Islamic Republic but its recruitment of criminal gangs to execute their plans is relatively new.
It indicates a shift in Tehran’s campaign to project force abroad, according to security experts interviewed in the SVT program. Unlike direct state operations, this method offers plausible deniability and minimal diplomatic fallout.
“Outsourcing violence to criminal gangs is a way for the Islamic Republic to do its dirty work abroad—cheaper, deniable, and far more dangerous,” one analyst told SVT.
The inclusion of Iran International among the targets underscores the gravity of the threat faced by its journalists, who have previously faced surveillance, harassment and cyberattacks.
In the wake of mass evacuations from Tehran and other cities, a wave of grassroots support has emerged.
Iranians across social media are offering shelter, food, and medical help. Families far from the strikes are hosting refugees, doctors are providing free virtual consultations, and volunteers are caring for the elderly, infirm, and even abandoned pets.
“This is the least I can do now,” wrote Yasser Saiedy, an Iranian cardiologist based in Germany, offering remote consultations on X.
Others share stories of restraint—people letting others buy bread first, rationing water, making sure no one is left behind. Acts of solidarity, unfolding in the shadow of devastation.
A war without warning
Israeli airstrikes have hit Tehran and other cities with little or no notice, drawing criticism from many Iranians and some international observers.
One strike on Tehran’s District 18, near Mehrabad Airport, came just over an hour after a 2:00 AM warning. Activists noted the area’s high population of child laborers and street children.
“Under no circumstances is the death of children justifiable,” wrote Hamed Farmand of the International Coalition for Children with Incarcerated Parents. “Just as the death and starvation of Palestinian children has no name other than murder and genocide.”
Iranian authorities have also faced criticism for failing to sound sirens, issue warnings or war-time guidelines through state media.
“It still hasn’t occurred to anyone to sound a siren or even issue a radio warning,” Tehran resident Sahar Karimi posted on X. “Ordinary people are dying, nobody cares?”
The government has released no official death toll, but rights groups report over 320 civilian deaths, including dozens of children.
Outrage and despair
The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) condemned the violence on Wednesday, denouncing “the deliberate targeting of civilians” and calling for an immediate ceasefire and a path to diplomacy.
London-based human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr called Israel’s evacuation warnings a form of forced displacement.
“The forcible displacement of a civilian population is a crime against humanity under international law. Full stop,” she wrote.
Frustration deepened after US President Donald Trump urged people to evacuate Tehran—a suggestion many called detached from reality.
Nobel Peace Laureate Narges Mohammadi responded promptly, reminding those ordering people to flee that Tehran is not only home to millions of people, but thousands of schools, hospitals, and businesses.
“Which of them are we meant to carry on our shoulders to save from death and devastation,” she asked in an Instagram post. “Do not destroy my city. End this war.”
No side feels like home
As the war drags on, many Iranians—at home and in exile—say they can’t side with either party to the conflict.
“This was not our war,” Sadr wrote, “but it is increasingly becoming ours, as our loved ones are being taken hostage by two criminal states.”
In the early days, some Iranians welcomed the strikes, hoping for a quick end to the regime.
“You know what is the worst nightmare of every Iranian now,” an exiled activist posted on X, “that US and Israel, having started this destruction, do not finish it, leaving the people of Iran to the hard and brutal days that the Islamic Republic will unleash upon us once it is over.”
In Tehran—in the midst of it all—perspective and tone is slightly different.
“They thought it would end with (supreme leader Ali) Khamenei’s death and the regime collapsing,” Abbas, a 46-year-old office worker in Tehran, says in a message on an encrypted app. “But as war drags on, they’ll realize that that was never a priority for Israel.”
