US President Donald Trump says he wants a "real end" to the nuclear dispute with Iran, and indicated he may send senior American officials to meet with the Islamic Republic as the Israel-Iran air war raged for a fifth straight day.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said meanwhile that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could face the same fate as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in a US-led invasion and was eventually hanged after a trial.
"I warn the Iranian dictator against continuing to commit war crimes and fire missiles at Israeli citizens," Katz told top Israeli military officials. Shortly after, Iran's state media reported an explosion was heard in Tehran.
Speaking to reporters after his departure from Canada, where he attended the Group of Seven nations summit on Monday, Trump predicted that Israel would not be easing its attacks on Iran.
"You're going to find out over the next two days. You're going to find out. Nobody's slowed up so far," he said.
He said "I may", on the prospect of sending US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff or Vice President JD Vance to meet with Iran.
Washington has said Trump was still aiming for a nuclear deal with Iran, even as the military confrontation unfolds.
World leaders meeting at the Group of Seven summit called for a de-escalation of the worst-ever conflict between the regional foes, saying Iran was a source of instability and must never have a nuclear weapon while affirming Israel's right to defend itself.
Trump, who left the summit early due to the Middle East situation, said his departure had "nothing to do with" working on a deal between Israel and Iran after French President Emmanuel Macron said the US had initiated a ceasefire proposal.
"Wrong! He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire. Much bigger than that," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had hit Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate and spy agency Mossad's operational centre early on Tuesday. There was no Israeli confirmation of such attacks.
Israel launched its air war with a surprise attack that has killed nearly the entire top echelon of Iran's military commanders and its leading nuclear scientists. It says it now has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate the campaign in the coming days.
Trump has consistently said the Israeli assault could end quickly if Iran agreed to US demands that it accept strict curbs on its nuclear programme.
Smoke billows over the Tel Aviv skyline amid reports of more Iranian strikes. - AP
"Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!" Trump said on Monday.
In Israel, air raid sirens wailed in Tel Aviv after midnight and an explosion was heard as Iranian missiles targeted the country again.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli strikes have set Iran’s nuclear program back a “very, very long time”. He added that Israel is not attempting to topple the Iranian government, but he said he would not be surprised if that happened as a result of the strikes.
“The regime is very weak,” Netanyahu told a news conference.
He also said he was in daily touch with Trump, who posted an ominous message on his social media site later Monday calling for the immediate evacuation of Tehran.
Israel had warned hundreds of thousands of people in the middle of the Iranian capital to evacuate ahead of the strike against the TV station, which the military said provided a cover for Iranian military operations.
Netanyahu likens Iran operations to removing 'cancer'. – AP
That warning came on the fourth day of the conflict, when the Israeli military claimed it had achieved air superiority above the Iranian capital and could fly over the city without facing major threats.
Even as Iran called for the US to force a ceasefire, it pierced Israeli air defences with a damaging volley of missile strikes and Israel persisted in its bombing campaign.
Sources said Tehran had asked Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to press Trump to use his influence on Netanyahu to push for an immediate ceasefire.
In return, Iran would show flexibility in nuclear negotiations, said the two Iranian and three regional sources.
"If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential," Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said online.
"Israel must halt its aggression, and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue. It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu."
In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called on both sides to exercise "maximum restraint".
"The situation is continuing to escalate rapidly. The level of unpredictability is absolute," he said.
Peskov said that Russia's offer to mediate between the warring sides if necessary still stood, but that it saw Israel was for now not interested in seeking a peaceful solution.
Trump posted his own message while in Canada attending the G7 summit.
He emphasised previous comments in his post, writing: “IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.” He added that Iran should have signed the “deal” he told it to sign to prevent what he said was “a shame, and waste of human life”, referring to Israel’s attack last week.
Trump ended the post with: “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on social media shortly after Trump's post that he was departing the G7 summit on Monday night, leaving for Washington a day early due to the intensifying conflict between Israel and Iran.
An Iranian journalist reports from outside the burning state television building. – Reuters
Asked if he would agree to talks should Trump want that, Netanyahu told reporters that Israel was committed to removing the threats of both nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
"If this can be achieved in another way – fine. But we gave it a 60-day chance," Netanyahu said.
Speaking on Friday, the first day of Israel's assault, Trump said he had given the Iranians 60 days to come to an agreement to halt uranium enrichment and that the time had expired with no deal.
Israel issues evacuation warning affecting hundreds of thousands
Tehran is home to around 9.5 million people. Earlier Monday, Israel’s military issued an evacuation warning affecting up to 330,000 people in a part of central Tehran that includes the country’s state TV and police headquarters, as well as three large hospitals, including one owned by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Israel's military has issued similar evacuation warnings for civilians in parts of Gaza and Lebanon ahead of strikes.
Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran in January, but the pact does not include a mutual defence clause. It also has longstanding ties with Israel, though these have been strained by the war in Ukraine and Israel's bombing of Gaza.
Peskov said the Russian embassy in Tehran was coordinating with Russian citizens and providing them with opportunities to evacuate the country via neighbouring Azerbaijan.
State-run television abruptly stopped a live broadcast after the station was hit, according to Iran’s state-run news agency.
While on the air, an Iranian state television reporter said the studio was filling with dust after “the sound of aggression against the homeland”. Suddenly, an explosion occurred, cutting the screen behind her as she hurried off camera.
The broadcast quickly switched to prerecorded programs. The station later said its building was hit by four bombs.
An anchor said on air that a few colleagues had been hurt, but their families should not be worried. The network said its live programs were transferred to another studio.
Residential building in Haifa damaged after being hit by Iran missile barrage on Israel. – AP
Israel claims ‘full aerial superiority’ over Tehran
Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin said his country's forces had "achieved full aerial superiority over Tehran’s skies”.
The military said it destroyed more than 120 surface-to-surface missile launchers in central Iran, a third of Iran’s total, as well as two F-14 planes that Iran used to target Israeli aircraft and multiple launchers just before they launched ballistic missiles towards Israel.
Israeli military officials also said fighter jets had struck 10 command centres in Tehran belonging to Iran’s Quds Force, an elite arm of its Revolutionary Guard that conducts military and intelligence operations outside Iran.
"(The Israeli strikes) amount to a deep and comprehensive blow to the Iranian threat,” Defrin said.
Elsewhere, three drones struck South Pars, Iran's main gas production centre, according to Iranian state news. The report did not specify the extent of the damage.
Iran, meanwhile, announced it had launched some 100 missiles and vowed further retaliation for the sweeping attacks on its military and nuclear infrastructure that have killed at least 224 people in the country since Friday.
So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel and more than 500 injured, Israeli officials said, after Iran launched more than 370 missiles and hundreds of drones.
One missile fell near the American consulate in Tel Aviv, with its blast waves causing minor damage, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said online. He added that no American personnel were injured.
Fire at an impacted facility following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at Haifa. – Reuters
Talks between the United States and Iran, hosted by Oman, had been scheduled for Sunday but were scrapped, with Tehran saying it could not negotiate while under attack.
Iranian media said Iran was preparing for the "largest and most intense missile attack" yet against Israel, including against military and intelligence targets.
Netanyahu told troops at an air base that Israel was on its way to achieving its two main aims – wiping out Iran's nuclear program and destroying its missiles.
"We are on the path to victory," he said. "We are telling the citizens of Tehran ‘evacuate’ – and we are taking action."
Israel launched its air war with a surprise attack that killed nearly the entire top echelon of Iran's military commanders and its leading nuclear scientists. It says it now has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate the campaign in coming days.
Israel said it hit Iranian F-14 fighter planes at Tehran airport on Monday, and its airstrikes have also put at least two of Iran's three operating uranium enrichment plants out of action.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the BBC on Monday it was very likely all the roughly 15,000 centrifuges operating at Iran's biggest uranium enrichment plant at Natanz were badly damaged or destroyed because of a power cut caused by an Israeli strike.
There had been very limited or no damage at the separate Fordow plant, he said.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful, and the US and others have assessed that Tehran has not pursued a nuclear weapon since 2003. But the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned that the country has enough enriched uranium to make several nuclear bombs if it chooses to do so.
Israeli military releases video showing latest operations against Iran. – AP
Tehran's retaliation is the first time in decades of shadow war and proxy conflict that missiles fired from Iran have pierced Israeli defences in significant numbers and killed Israelis in their homes.
In Israel, 24 people have been killed so far in Iran's missile attacks, all of them civilians. Round-the-clock television images showed rescuers working in ruins of flattened homes.
Guydo Tetelbaum, 31, is a chef in Tel Aviv who was in his apartment when the alerts came in shortly after 4am.
"It's terrifying because it's so unknown," Tetelbaum said.
He went to a public shelter and was inside when the door was blown in.
Iran says more than 224 Iranians have been killed, most of them civilians. Media published images of wounded children, women, and the elderly from cities across the country.
State TV broadcast scenes of collapsed presidential buildings, burned-out cars, and shattered streets in Tehran. Many residents were trying to flee the capital, describing queues for petrol and bank machines that were out of cash.
Top envoy at UN says Israel is determined to end Iran's 'grand extermination plan'. – AP
"I am desperate. My two children are scared and cannot sleep at night because of the sound of air defence and attacks, explosions. But we have nowhere to go. We hid under our dining table," said Gholamreza Mohammadi, 48, a civil servant in Tehran.
Trump has consistently said the Israeli assault could end quickly if Iran agrees to US demands that it accept strict curbs to its nuclear program.
"I'd say Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk, and they should talk immediately before it's too late," Trump said at a G7 meeting in Canada.
On Monday, Iranian lawmakers floated the idea of quitting the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, a move bound to be seen as a setback for any negotiations. Iran has always said its nuclear program is peaceful, although the IAEA declared last week that Tehran was in violation of its obligations.
'Paying the price'
Before dawn, Iranian missiles struck Tel Aviv and Haifa, killing at least eight people and destroying homes.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the latest attack employed a new method that caused Israel's multi-layered defence systems to target each other so missiles could get through.
Israel's Haifa-based Bazan energy group said its power station had been significantly damaged in an attack that killed three employees and forced its refinery facilities to shut down.
Oil prices slipped $1 per barrel on Monday in volatile trading after reports that Iran is seeking an end to hostilities, raising the possibility of a truce and easing fears of a disruption to regional crude supplies.
The sudden killing of so many Iranian military commanders and the apparent loss of control of airspace could prove to be the biggest test of Iran's system of clerical rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Israel's attacks on Iran are 'threat to people everywhere', Jordan's king Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein says. - Reuters
Iran's network of regional allies who could once have been expected to rain rockets on Israel – Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon – have been decimated by Israeli forces since the start of the Gaza war.
Netanyahu has said that, while toppling the Iranian government is not Israel's primary aim, it believes that could be the outcome.
Art teacher Arshia, 29, said his family was leaving Tehran for the town of Damavand, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) to the east, until the conflict was over.
"My parents are scared. Every night there are attacks. No air raid sirens, and no shelters to go to. Why are we paying the price for the Islamic Republic's hostile policies?" said Arshia, who withheld his surname for fear of reprisal from authorities.