The reports, which have not been concurrent with strikes on targets in Tehran, comes just days after President Donald Trump ordered the military to use the so-called "bunker-buster" munitions to penetrate the mountainside site of Fordo. If Israel attacked the site again on Monday, this could mean it no longer needs such ordinances.

Video: The strike on Iran's Evin Prison / Credit: Social media

Located approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Tehran, Fordo was constructed inside a mountain, with tunnels extending roughly 80 meters (262 feet) underground. The facility's fortified design sparked immediate concern among international observers, who viewed its hardened construction as inconsistent with peaceful nuclear purposes.

The IDF struck 6 regime airports across western, central, and eastern Iran, destroying runways, underground hangars, refueling aircraft, F-14, F-5 and AH-1 aircraft.

The destroyed aircraft were meant to stop IAF jets. The IAF impaired takeoff capabilities from these airports,… pic.twitter.com/eI1iKw4NqL

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 23, 2025

Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran agreed to convert Fordo into a research and development center, ceasing uranium enrichment activities at the site. The facility was designated for nuclear physics research, with international monitoring maintained through IAEA inspections.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, stated that the extent of underground damage at the Fordo site remains unclear at this time.

The Fordo fuel enrichment plant represents one of Iran's most sensitive nuclear installations, built deep underground near the city of Qom. The facility gained international attention when Iran disclosed its existence to the International Atomic Energy Agency in September 2009, following intelligence reports that revealed the site's construction.

Iran International, an outlet linked to the opposition and based abroad, reported that Evin Prison – notorious for holding thousands of political prisoners – was among the targets hit during the Israeli strikes on the capital on Monday.

"Israeli Air Force fighter jets recently conducted precision strikes guided by military intelligence against headquarters and assets belonging to Internal Security Forces and Revolutionary Guards in Tehran, Iran," The IDF said about an hour later, confirming it targeted regime symbols. "These forces comprise various divisions and headquarters responsible on behalf of the Iranian regime's military forces for homeland defense, threat suppression, and regime stability preservation."

The statement went on to say that "as part of the strike operation, forces targeted the 'Basij' headquarters, which constitutes one of the Revolutionary Guards' power bases and is responsible for enforcing the Islamic code and reporting to authorities about citizens who violate it." It further continued, saying "the strikes hit the Alborz Corps, which is responsible for defending multiple cities in Tehran province against various threats and maintaining regime stability, along with the Intelligence and General Security Police of the Internal Security Forces, which also form part of the Iranian regime's military forces. These headquarters hold significance both militarily and governmentally, and striking them damages the Iranian regime's military capabilities."

State television broadcasts in Iran were interrupted twice during the strike, likely due to fears of strikes on broadcasting studios. Al-Mayadeen reported an attack on Building 9 of Iran's state broadcasting authority. A power outage was also reported in one area after a strike damaged a power line.

Earlier on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that over 15 Air Force fighter jets, guided by precise intelligence from the Military Intelligence Directorate, struck sites in Iran's Kermanshah region, destroying multiple launch and storage sites for surface-to-surface missiles aimed at Israel.

As part of efforts to maintain air superiority over Iranian skies, the IDF also targeted six military airfields in western, eastern, and central Iran. The strikes damaged runways, underground hangars, a refueling aircraft, and F-14, F-5, and AH-1 aircraft belonging to the Iranian regime.

These aircraft were intended for use against Israeli Air Force planes to thwart their operations in Iran. The strikes disrupted Iran's ability to operate these airfields and deploy its air forces from them.

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Israel deployed female fighter pilots as part of its air force squadron that conducted retaliatory strikes against Iranian military sites early Saturday, marking the first time Israel has openly attacked Iran on its territory, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported.

Among those who took part in Israel's retaliatory strike on Iran last night were four female F-16 combat navigators.

The IDF's strength lies in its diversity—men and women from all backgrounds serving side by side.

As a father of three girls, I couldn't be prouder! pic.twitter.com/VGxt4GD8Ap

— Yaki Lopez (@YakiLopez) October 26, 2024

The IDF released footage showing F-15 and F-16 fighter jets departing for their mission over Iran. The imagery highlighted the four female navigators from Israeli Air Force squadrons who took part in the historic operation. Military officials revealed that the mission, which covered a distance of approximately 1,600 kilometers from Israel, involved numerous IAF aircraft, including fighter jets, aerial refueling tankers, and reconnaissance planes.

Before the mission began, air force commanders addressed the pilots in a recorded briefing, which was later released alongside the operational footage. "This historic act you have accomplished tonight is now a reality. No enemy is too far away for us to reach," the commander tells the assembled aircrews.

The Israeli military said it struck facilities used by Iran to manufacture missiles, as well as surface-to-air missile sites. The operation was conducted in response to Iran's missile barrage earlier this month.

The pre-dawn operation targeted military facilities in three Iranian provinces – Ilam, Khuzestan, and Tehran – killing four Iranian air defense troops, according to Iran's Al-Alam television.

"Our message is clear: anyone who threatens the State of Israel and strives to drag the region into a wider escalation will pay a heavy price," IDF spokesman Brigadier General Daniel Hagar said. "We proved today that we have the ability to act decisively."

US President Joe Biden, who received advance notice of the operation, expressed hope that the escalation would end here. "It looks like they didn't hit anything other than military targets. My hope is this is the end," Biden told reporters in Philadelphia, according to CNN.

Several Middle Eastern nations, including Qatar, Jordan, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, condemned the Israeli airstrikes and called for de-escalation to prevent catastrophic regional consequences.

Iran's Foreign Ministry asserted its right to self-defense, stating it "considers itself entitled and obligated to defend against foreign acts of aggression." Explosions were heard in Tehran until sunrise, though Iran said the attacks caused "limited damage."

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Galileo Galilei was persecuted because he thought forbidden thoughts; Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake because he held dangerous beliefs. In 17th-century Europe, free thinkers faced persecution. Scientists, philosophers, and religious dissenters risked their reputations, freedom, and even lives to challenge accepted norms. Many saw no future in the world they knew and sought escape to a new world across the Atlantic – America.

It's tempting to depict the journey from the Old World to the New World as a passage from darkness to light. But many migrants felt not that they were abandoning the past, but rather reenacting it. To them, Europe was Egypt, America the Land of Canaan, and crossing the Atlantic, their personal Exodus. This consciousness animated not just the early American settlers but the nation's founders over a century later. Many saw King George III as the embodiment of King Pharaoh, and Benjamin Franklin even proposed the crossing of the Red Sea for the Great Seal of the United States.

The Americans were not alone. When battling for national liberation, the Dutch saw themselves as the new Israelites, the modern-day Exodus story. The English shared similar sentiments, and as the philosopher Michael Walzer showed, many Western peoples struggling for freedom cast themselves as Hebrews defying their Egyptian oppressors.

Notably, when Martin Luther King Jr. demanded full civil rights for all Americans regardless of race, he appealed to the American establishment with Moses' cry: "Let my people go." The metaphor had flipped; the American system, founded by those who saw themselves as breaking free from Egypt, was now perceived as the Egypt from which liberation was needed.

What happened? Here's what didn't – this was not about freedom-seeking leaders and activists reading, studying, analyzing, and interpreting the Exodus story. Rather, they were reliving it.

Every few years, the question resurfaces – "Is Exodus a story true?" That is, does the narrative we tell reflect actual historical events? Among archaeologists and historians, there is no consensus. Perhaps we should rephrase the query. We do not know if the Exodus story is real, but we know that historical events in the West have tried to mirror the Exodus story. Great stories are not measured by how accurately they depict the past, but by how they shape the future.

Two perspectives

The Exodus story, a spectacle of "blood, fire, and pillars of smoke," is a tale of wielding extraordinary power. But perhaps the greater drama is not of the story of power, but of the power of the story – its ability to magnetize human history and seduce those who encounter it into becoming consumed by it, ceasing to merely observe the story and beginning to be the story.

The proven power of the Exodus story is a significant component of the cultural patriotism Zionism sought to cultivate. The Bible is a national book, created by the Jewish people and tells their story, yet this very book shaped the consciousness of vast swaths of humanity. The opening passage of Israel's Declaration of Independence sees the Bible's universal influence as the Jewish people's greatest historical achievement: "In the land of Israel, the Jewish people came into being. Here their spiritual, religious, and political identity was shaped. Here they achieved sovereignty and created cultural assets for all humankind and gave the world the eternal Book of Books." 

In other words, we have a story, and all peoples are invited not only to study it, but to live it. 

Here are two perspectives on the Exodus story: one from within the story, and one on the story itself. From within, it depicts the ancient Hebrews enslaved in Egypt, rebelling, liberating themselves, and marching to freedom – a story of a solitary people navigating a world that seeks to subjugate and, at times, annihilate it. The second perspective is the inverse: The world draws inspiration from the Jewish people, and in moments when nations seek emancipation from their oppressors, they reenact the ancient Hebrew narrative.

It is almost impossible to reconcile these two perspectives: human reality is replete with base, violent impulses directed at Jews that we must defend against and insulate ourselves from. Yet simultaneously, human reality brims with the influence of Jewish ideas, and we have an ancient, biblical mandate to engage with the world and contribute to its repair. Can we hold both views concurrently?

An optical illusion

Not all can hold these two perspectives at the same time. On the far-Right, there are hyper-nationalistic Israelis who seek to withdraw from the world; on the far-Left, there are highly universalistic Israelis who seek to dissolve into it. These two groups are homogeneous; their value systems are built on a single foundational tenet – unbridled nationalism devoid of universal humanism on the extreme Right; universal humanism untempered by nationalism on the post-Zionist Left. Most Israelis are not homogeneous, but rather, hybrids – humanistic and nationalistic concurrently.

One of the profound processes unfolding in Israeli society in recent months is the shared realization of the great optical illusion to which we had fallen victim. We thought Israel was divided in two – nationalists versus universalists; the Right is nationalist, the Left is universalist, and the tension between them is tearing Israel apart. But this is an optical illusion. Throughout months of war, we keep rediscovering that Israel is not divided into two, but three: the mainstream of Israeli society is hybrid.

When we believe the optical illusion that Israel is divided into two, the hybrid Israelis perceive themselves as the moderate, compromising fringe of one of the two groups. But when divided into three, the hybrid Israelis understand that they are not the fringe of either group, but rather, a group unto themselves – not just Israel's largest, but one capable of uniting and leading it.

The paradox of Passover

The emerging Israeli hybridity amidst the harsh war we are embroiled in is also one of the great hopes arising from it. Israeli hybridity is, in essence, Jewish hybridity, which we encounter in the paradox of Passover. On the Seder night, we recount the story of solitary people in a hostile world, one of whose messages is that in every generation, there are those who rise to destroy us – a story that cultivates suspicion of the world and the inclination to withdraw from it. Yet it is this very story that has been embraced by the world and become a universal tale. The paradox of Passover is the paradox of Israel.

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Israel twice struck chemical weapons facilities in Syria over the past two years in a campaign to prevent Syria from renewing chemical weapons production, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

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The accuracy of the report, which cited unidentified current and former US and Western intelligence officials, was confirmed to Reuters by a person familiar with the operation who declined to be identified by name or nationality.

The IDF declined to comment.

There was no immediate comment from officials in Syria. Syria's government denies using chemical weapons. In 2013 it promised to surrender its chemical weapons, which it says it has done.

Repeated investigations by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons concluded that Syrian government forces used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine barrel bombs in attacks between 2015 and 2018 that investigators said killed or injured thousands.

Israel has acknowledged conducting airstrikes in Syria against Iranian deployments or weapon hand-overs to guerrilla allies.

But, the newspaper reported, on June 8 Israeli Air Force jets hit three military targets near the cities of Damascus and Homs, all linked to Syria's former chemical weapons program.

In March the previous year, Israel targeted a villa and compound tied with the procurement of tricalcium phosphate (TCP), a chemical that can be used in nerve agents, the report said. The Post quoted Western intelligence officials who said that the TCP was ultimately intended to be used by the branch of the Syrian military that oversaw chemical weapons production until "at least" 2014.

The same officials said that prior to the airstrikes in March 2020 and June of this year, there were signs that the regime was poised to relaunch the manufacture of chemical weapons.

Repeated investigations by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons concluded that Syrian government forces used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine barrel bombs in attacks between 2015 and 2018 that investigators said killed or injured thousands.

Israeli officials have voiced concern about the possibility of Syrian chemical weapons falling into the hands of terrorist groups.

The report also noted that both the Trump and Biden administrations were notified about the strikes and the intelligence that prompted them shortly after they took place.

i24NEWS contributed to this report

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In a leaked interview published by the London-based Iranian TV station Iran International, Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif voices harsh criticism of the Revolutionary Guard corps and legendary Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike on Jan. 3, 2020.

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According to the Iran International report, Zarif also criticized Russia's policy on the 2015 nuclear deal with the western powers and claimed that Soleimani tried to destroy the deal.

The conversation took place in March, supposedly for purposes of "internal documentation" and was hosted by Iranian journalist and economist Saeed Laylaz, considered a close associate of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

The conversation revealed that Zarif had a long-standing rivalry with Soleimani. The foreign minister reportedly said, "I have never been able to ask Soleimani to do something that would serve my diplomatic moves," referring to a visit Soleimani paid to Russia immediately after the JCPOA was signed.

Zarif said that the visit was initiated by Moscow, without the Iranian Foreign Ministry having any control.

"His [Soleimani's] goal was the destroy the nuclear deal," Zarif said, adding that he had serious criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin's policy in Syria and that sometimes he needed to use "crude, undiplomatic language" when dealing with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

In addition, Zarif claimed that Soleimani tended to keep the Foreign Ministry out of the loop about Iran's military activity in Syria, and noted that it was former US Secretary of State John Kerry who informed him that "Israel had carried out over 200 strikes against Iranian forces in Syria."

The timing of the leaked interview is inconvenient for the Tehran regime, given the recent progress between western nations and Iran toward a renewal of the 2015 nuclear deal. A few days ago the sides even announced they had started to exchange drafts, and Rouhani confirmed that negotiations were moving forward.

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The images dated November 21, 2019, provided by "Intelli Times" and "Satellite Pleiades from Airbus Defense & Space", show a large cargo trailer on the runway of the Iran-operated T4 military base located in the Homs District in central Syria.

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The images were taken after a plane left the Iranian capital in the early morning hours and landed at the base, unloading three containers onto semitrailer trucks generally used by the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria to move and deploy air, ground, and cruise missiles.

Over the last two weeks, Iran has been moving around heavy cargo to the T4 base, as part of its preparation for an attack the likes seen back in September on the Saudi oil fields.

The cargo deployment came one day after the Israeli Air Force conducted strikes on several Iranian targets that reportedly killed some 23 people, the majority of them Iranian.

Israel reportedly refrained from targeting the T4 base due to its division into three areas controlled by the Russian, Iranian and Syrian army – raising challenges that would require precise coordination with Moscow, on top of the base's more formidable security arsenal that includes S-300 anti-aircraft missiles.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS

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