Israel says it killed Iran's intelligence chief in overnight strike

Special Series Middle East conflict Conflict in the Middle East has been escalating. These stories provide context for current developments and the history that led up to them. Israel also struck Lebanon's capital of Beirut overnight, killing 10 people. Israel's military said it was targeting the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which started firing rockets at Israel after the Iran war began. Health authorities have reported about 1,300 killed in Iran, 968 in Lebanon and 16 in Israel since the war began on Feb. 28. U.S. Central Command has said 13 U.S. service members have been killed and eight severely injured. Several Gulf Arab countries have also reported lower numbers of deaths. Here are further updates from the conflict. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed his death on social media. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Khatib was "responsible for the regime's internal apparatus of repression and assassination, as well as for advancing external threats." He said the government authorized the military to kill "any senior Iranian figure," saying, "We will continue to eliminate and hunt them all." Meanwhile in Iran, thousands of mourners gathered in a large square in Tehran for the funerals of two other leaders killed by Israel. Livestream of the massive crowd carrying multiple coffins was broadcast on Iranian state TV, including that of Ali Larijani, who had been a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and emerged as a key wartime figure after the ayatollah's killing. An apartment damaged by a missile strike is seen in Ramat Gan, in the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, on Wednesday. Ilia Yefimovich/AFP via Getty Images hide caption Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it targeted the Tel Aviv area Wednesday by firing multiple-warhead missiles, also known as cluster munitions. A man and woman were killed in their apartment in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv. The Iranian missile attack also caused damage in other parts of central Israel, including a train station in Tel Aviv. Iran's missile attacks across the region have been the most lethal in Israel, where at least 16 people have been killed since the war started, including two Israeli soldiers fighting in Lebanon. He was also involved in talks with the Trump administration before the war. "He seemed to be the one person who the international community could talk to and now with him having apparently been killed it's difficult to see how one speaks to in the IRGC," said Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein, a former Jordanian ambassador to the U.S. who is president of the International Peace Institute. IRGC are the initials for Iran's powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. Soleimani led the Basij forces for seven years. They're a volunteer paramilitary militia, a branch of the Revolutionary Guard, which Israel says was responsible for violently suppressing street protests against the Iranian government earlier this year. Rocket trails are seen in the sky amid a fresh barrage of Iranian missile attacks above the Israeli coastal city of Netanya on Wednesday. Recent drone attacks in the region have forced some oil refineries here to cease operation, while others continue. Sedat Suna/Getty Images Europe hide caption Families fleeing Iran from the Haji Omeran border crossing, located between Iran and Iraq, told NPR about what they described as widespread fear of speaking openly, even outside the country. One woman in her 60s, who requested not to be named because of fear of government reprisal, broke down in tears and said she wished recent airstrikes on her border city had killed her, stating that life had become unbearable between the war and recent security crackdown by Iranian authorities. Multiple people NPR spoke to described an internet blackout, more checkpoints and Iranian security forces searching through people's phones. A 40-year-old man, who lives in a city in eastern Iran and asked not to be identified for fear of government reprisal, said he had recently seen security forces move into a mosque and sports stadium, which he said were a sign of heightened security measures. NPR cannot independently verify these accounts. However, they echo numerous testimonies shared with NPR reporters and those documented by human rights groups with sources in Iran. — Arezou Rezvani MEA commercial airplane is flying above the smoke after an IDF airstrike on Tuesday in Beirut, Lebanon. Adri Salido/Getty Images Europe hide caption Israel struck central Beirut on Wednesday, saying it was targeting Hezbollah militants and installations, as Israel's offensive in Lebanon intensified. Lebanon's health ministry said 10 people were killed in two attacks Wednesday morning. The Israeli military destroyed a building in the Bachoura neighborhood, which it had previously targeted. Israel had issued an evacuation order for the building on social media at about 4 a.m. local time, and the strikes followed around 5:30 a.m. Bachoura is a residential and commercial district near the Lebanese prime minister's office and several foreign embassies in Beirut. The strikes came as Israel issued new evacuation orders for parts of southern Lebanon. Lebanon's health ministry also condemned Israeli strikes that it said damaged three public hospitals in Nabatieh, a major city in the country's south. Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor