Trump urges all of Tehran to evacuate ‘immediately’ in new social media post

According to a translation by IranWire, on-air reporter Sahar Emami said the studio was filling with dust just moments after the blast. (IRIB News via Storyful)

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday posted on his social media site an ominous message calling for the immediate evacuation of the Iranian capital of Tehran while he’s in Canada attending the G7 summit.

Trump had said more than once during the day that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. He emphasized that again in his social media post, writing “IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”

He said Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ he told them 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!”

Tehran is home to around 9.5 million people. Earlier Monday, Israel’s military earlier issued an evacuation warning affected 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.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Israel struck Iran’s state-run television station Monday during a live broadcast, forcing a reporter to run off camera following an explosion, after Iran fired a new wave of missiles at Israel that killed at least eight people.

In other developments, 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 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 added that he is in daily touch with U.S. President Donald Trump. As he spoke, large numbers of explosions were heard in Tehran.

Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people in the middle of Tehran to evacuate ahead of the strike against the TV station, which the military said provided a cover for Iranian military operations.

The 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.

The warning affected up to 330,000 people in a part of central Tehran that includes the country’s state TV and police headquarters. The military has issued similar evacuation warnings for civilians in parts of Gaza and Lebanon ahead of strikes.

“The regime is very weak,” Netanyahu told a news conference. He added that he is in daily touch with U.S. President Donald Trump. As he spoke, large numbers of explosions were heard in Tehran.

Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people in the middle of Tehran to evacuate ahead of the strike against the TV station, which the military said provided a cover for Iranian military operations.

The 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.

The warning affected up to 330,000 people in a part of central Tehran that includes the country’s state TV and police headquarters. The military has issued similar evacuation warnings for civilians in parts of Gaza and Lebanon ahead of strikes.

The Israeli strikes “amount to a deep and comprehensive blow to the Iranian threat,” Defrin said.

Iran, meanwhile, announced it had launched some 100 missiles and vowed further retaliation for 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, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee said on X. He added that no American personnel were injured.

The latest conflict began when Israel launched an assault on Iran’s top military leaders, uranium enrichment sites and nuclear scientists that it said was necessary to prevent its longtime adversary from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful, and the U.S. 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.

Iran has retaliated by firing waves of ballistic missiles at Israel. The back-and-forth has raised concerns about all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval.

Explosions rock Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva, and Haifa oil refinery

Powerful explosions, likely from Israel’s air-defense systems intercepting Iranian missiles, rocked Tel Aviv shortly before dawn Monday, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky over the coastal city.

Authorities in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva said Iranian missiles hit a residential building there, charring concrete walls, shattering windows and ripping the walls off multiple apartments.

Iranian missiles also hit an oil refinery in the northern city of Haifa for the second night in a row. The early morning strike killed three workers, ignited a significant fire and damaged a building, Israel’s fire and rescue services said. The workers were sheltering in the building’s safe room when the impact caused a stairwell to collapse, trapping them inside.

Firefighters worked to extinguish the fire and rescue them, but the three died before rescuers could reach them.

The Israeli Magen David Adom emergency service also reported that five people were killed in the strikes in central Israel.

Petah Tikva resident Yoram Suki rushed with his family to a shelter after hearing an air raid alert, and emerged after it was over to find his apartment destroyed.

Despite losing his home, he urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to keep up the attacks on Iran.

“It’s totally worth it,” the 60-year-old said. “This is for the sake of our children and grandchildren.”

In addition to those killed, the emergency service said paramedics evacuated another 87 wounded people to hospitals, while rescuers were still searching for residents trapped beneath the rubble of their homes.

“When we arrived at the scene of the rocket strike, we saw massive destruction,” said Dr. Gal Rosen, a paramedic with the service who said he rescued a 4-day-old baby as fires blazed from the building.

No sign of conflict letting up

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, appeared to make a veiled outreach Monday for the U.S. to step in and negotiate an end to hostilities between Israel and Iran.

In a post on X, Araghchi wrote that if Trump is “genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential.”

“It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu,” Iran’s top diplomat wrote. “That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.”

The message to Washington was sent as the latest talks between the U.S. and Iran were canceled over the weekend after Israel targeted key military and political officials in Tehran.

On Sunday, Araghchi said that Iran will stop its strikes if Israel does the same. But after a day of intensive Israeli aerial attacks that extended targets beyond military installations to hit oil refineries and government buildings, the Revolutionary Guard struck a hard line on Monday, vowing that further rounds of strikes would be “more forceful, severe, precise and destructive than previous ones.”

Health authorities also reported that 1,277 people were wounded in Iran. Iranians also reported fuel rationing.

Rights groups such as the Washington-based Iranian advocacy group Human Rights Activists have suggested that the Iranian government’s death toll is a significant undercount. The group says it has documented more than 400 people killed, among them 197 civilians.

Ahead of Israel’s initial attack, its Mossad spy agency positioned explosive drones and precision weapons inside Iran. Since then, Iran has reportedly detained several people and hanged one on suspicion of espionage.

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By Ami Bentov

Amir Vahdat and Nasser Karimi contributed from Tehran, Iran. Tia Goldenberg and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv and Isaac Scharf and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Israel, Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.