Israel strikes Iranian leadership meeting choosing Khamenei successor

Israeli forces struck a gathering of Iran’s Supreme Council connected Tuesday arsenic officials gathered to take a successor to the precocious Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a elder Israeli authoritative told Fox News.

"Israel struck portion they were counting the votes for the assignment of the ultimate leader," the authoritative said.

The onslaught underscored the extent of Israeli quality penetration wrong Tehran and marked 1 of the astir melodramatic escalations yet successful the associated U.S.-Israeli run aimed astatine dismantling Iran’s governmental and subject enactment from the apical down.

It came arsenic Iran’s enactment operation appeared progressively hollowed out.

Smoke rises implicit Tehran, Iran, connected March 2, 2026, aft explosions were reported successful the metropolis during the associated U.S.-Israel cognition against Iran. (Contributor/Getty Images)

More than 40 of Iran’s astir elder leaders — including Khamenei — person been killed since the cognition began, with 49 eliminated successful the opening salvo of Operation Epic Fury aboriginal Saturday, fracturing the regime’s bid operation and dealing a crippling stroke to its subject enactment and command-and-control networks.

Israeli analysts estimated that much than 1,000 force combatants person been killed wrong Iran since the United States launched Operation Epic Fury and Israel launched its parallel campaign, Operation Roaring Lion, connected Saturday. The estimation came from Israel’s latest conflict harm assessment, according to a elder Israeli official.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu framed the struggle arsenic portion of a broader effort to neutralize Iran’s ballistic rocket and atomic ambitions.

KEY MILITARY SITES TARGETED INSIDE IRAN AS PART OF COORDINATED US-ISRAELI STRIKES

Pro-Iran protesters brandish billboards depicting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, flags of Yemen and Iran, weapons, and chant slogans astatine a rally held to condemn the U.S.-Israel aerial attacks connected Iran and the sidesplitting of Khamenei and respective subject officials. (Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)

"With these ballistic missiles, these weapons of wide death, these weapons, they bombed each these countries," Netanyahu said. "And erstwhile they developed these ballistic missiles, they'll effort and yet they'll weaponry you. This is what President Trump understood."

Vice President JD Vance said the medication had acceptable a clear, constricted nonsubjective for the operation.

"There's conscionable nary mode that Donald Trump is going to let this state to get into a multi-year conflict, with nary wide extremity successful show and nary wide objective," Vance said. "He's defined that nonsubjective arsenic Iran cannot person a atomic limb and has to perpetrate semipermanent to ne'er trying to rebuild the atomic capability."

The associated U.S.-Israel battle entered its 4th time Tuesday, with nary signs of slowing down.

A outer representation from Planet Labs shows a plume of fume supra Tehran, Iran connected March 1, 2026. (Planet Labs PBC)

President Donald Trump said the program was up of docket pursuing the aboriginal elimination of Iran’s apical leaders.

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The U.S. urged Americans to permission 14 countries crossed the Middle East arsenic Iran’s counterattacks intensified. The State Department besides closed 2 embassies successful Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The Gulf Cooperation Council warned Iran it would instrumentality "all indispensable measures," including imaginable subject action, successful effect to Tehran’s rocket and drone attacks.

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