Shafaq News- Middle East

Iran and Israel exchanged new missile strikes on Sunday, with explosions reported in several cities on both sides.

Air raid sirens sounded across central and southern Israel, including Ashkelon, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv, as well as settlements in the Upper Galilee, the Negev, and the Arava region amid concerns over drone infiltration. Israeli media reported missile impacts in Tel Aviv and in Beit Shemesh, a city west of Jerusalem, where a residential building was hit.

Preliminary figures carried by Israeli media indicated eight people were killed and about 27 were wounded. Authorities have yet to provide a detailed breakdown of casualties.

In Tehran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) asserted it had carried out what it described as “a successful operation” targeting Israeli Air Force commander Major General Tomer Bar. There was no immediate confirmation from Israel, and the claim could not be independently verified.

The IRGC later reported the sixth, seventh, and eighth waves of “Operation True Promise 4,” outlining missile and drone strikes against Israel and US military bases in the region. According to the statement, 27 US bases were targeted, along with the Tel Nof airbase, the Israeli military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv’s Kirya district, and a major defense industrial complex in the city.

In turn, the Israeli Army reported that 40 Iranian commanders were killed within a minute during the initial assault yesterday, describing coordination with the United States as “unprecedented.” In several posts on X, Army spokesperson Avichay Adraee indicated that most air defense systems in western and central Iran had been destroyed and that Israel was working to establish what it called the military conditions necessary to bring down the Iranian government.

He added that Israeli warplanes continued striking Iranian military assets, including ballistic missile launchers and unmanned aerial systems, and that two Iranian fighter jets —an F-5 and an F-4— were attacked at Tabriz airport in western Iran.

Meanwhile, the Iranian semi-official Mehr News reported that a camp near the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad was targeted, with thick smoke rising from the area. It also documented that 12 IRGC members were killed in Kashan during the attacks.

The exchange of strikes follows the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian characterized the killing as a “clear act of war,” pledging retaliation against those responsible. In a statement, Pezeshkian maintained that during Khamenei’s years of leadership, Iran continued the path established by its founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, asserting that Khamenei’s name “has been immortalized in history” for what he described as steadfastness in confronting injustice.

Iran’s Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, declared that, as retaliatory actions, Tehran launched missiles at the United States and Israel, asserting that the strikes inflicted damage. He added that Iran would continue striking them “with a force that they have never experienced before.”

The Iranian government declared 40 days of national mourning and seven days as an official public holiday in honor of Khamenei, suspending state institutions and public events during the holiday period.