Trump urges 'immediate' evacuation of Tehran as Iran, Israel continue attacks
Israel struck Iranian state TV during live broadcast Monday after wave of missiles from Iran
U.S. President Donald Trump posted an ominous message on his social media site Monday, calling for the immediate evacuation of Tehran, Iran's capital, as violence between Iran and Israel escalated.
Trump has previously said that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, something he repeated throughout the day Monday. He emphasized that idea again in his post, writing "IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON."
He noted 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 by writing, "Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!"
The president posted the message while in Alberta attending the G7 summit, shortly before the White House announced he would leave the summit early because of the situation in the Middle East.
Israel struck Iran's state-run television station earlier Monday during a live broadcast, forcing a reporter to run off camera following an explosion.
The strike came after Iran fired a new wave of missiles at Israel that killed at least eight people.
Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people in the middle of Tehran to evacuate ahead of the strike against the TV station.
The 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.
"At this time, we can say that we have achieved full air supremacy in the Tehran airspace," said Israeli military spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin. The military said it had destroyed more than 120 surface-to-surface missile launchers in central Iran, one-third of Iran's total.
The Israeli military 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.
Tehran is home to around 9.5 million people.
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.
Meanwhile, Iran announced it had launched some 100 missiles and vowed further retaliation for Israel's sweeping attacks on its military and nuclear infrastructure, which have killed at least 224 people in the country since last Friday.
The Washington-based Iranian advocacy group Human Rights Activists believes the government's death toll is a significant undercount, saying it has tallied more than 400 people killed so far, among them 197 civilians.
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."
World leaders have called on the two sides to exercise restraint, and the escalation in attacks is set to become a pressing topic as G7 leaders meet in Alberta over the next two days.
Explosions rock Tel Aviv and Petah Tikva
Powerful explosions, likely from Israel's defence systems intercepting Iranian missiles, rocked Tel Aviv shortly before dawn on Monday, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky over the coastal city.
Authorities in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva said that Iranian missiles had hit a residential building there, charring concrete walls, shattering windows and ripping the walls off multiple apartments.
The Israeli Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service reported that two women and two men — all in their 70s — and one other person were killed in the wave of missile attacks that struck four sites in central Israel.
Petah Tikva resident Yoram Suki rushed with his family to a shelter after hearing an air raid alert, emerging 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," he said. "This is for the sake of our children and grandchildren."
Concerns about radiation, gas leaks
The latest conflict began when Israel launched an assault on Iran's top military leaders, uranium enrichment sites and nuclear scientists, which it said was necessary to prevent its longtime adversary from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon.
Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, and the U.S. and others have assessed that Tehran has not pursued a nuclear weapon since 2003.
But Iran has enriched ever-larger stockpiles of uranium to near weapons-grade levels in recent years and was believed to have the capacity to develop multiple weapons within months if it chose to do so.
Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Monday there is a possibility of both radiological and chemical contamination within Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz following Israeli strikes, although radiation levels outside the complex are currently normal.
Grossi made the comments at an urgent session of the UN nuclear watchdog board in Vienna convened at the request of Russia. He said there apparently was no additional damage at Natanz and the Isfahan nuclear research site since Saturday.
He said that the main concern inside the Natanz facility is the chemical toxicity of a gas called uranium hexafluoride, which is the result of fluorine mixed with the uranium during enrichment. It is extremely volatile, will quickly corrode, can burn the skin and is especially deadly if inhaled, experts say.
"Amid these challenging and complex circumstances, it is crucial that the IAEA receives timely and regular technical information about the facilities and their respective sites," Grossi said, adding that UN inspectors will remain present in Iran and inspect the nuclear facilities "as soon as safety conditions allow."
Some Iranians flee to Turkey
Meanwhile, Turkey has expressed deep concern over the escalating armed conflict. It shares a 569-kilometre-long border with Iran and allows Iranians to enter the country without a visa for tourism purposes and stay for up to 90 days.
"Hopefully, it is over in one or two months so we can return to our country," said Shirin Talebi, who had just arrived at the Gurbulak-Bazargan border crossing from the Iranian city of Urmia with her children and grandchildren.
There are fears in Turkey that a prolonged conflict could threaten its own security, cause energy disruptions and lead to refugee flows, though the communications office for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said there was "no unusual movement, congestion or irregular crossing" at the main border entry points.
At Gurbulak, one of the busiest crossings between Turkey and Iran, bus driver Ferit Aktas had just brought a group of Iranians to the border gate from Istanbul and was waiting to pick up others.
"About a week or 10 days ago, there would be between three and five people who would come for shopping or tourism. But now, I can say, that there are at least 30 Iranians in my vehicle per day," he said.