Middle East Tensions: Satellite Images Reveal Damage At Iranian Military Base; UNSC To Meet On Israeli Airstrikes

An Israeli attack on Iran damaged facilities at a secretive military base southeast of the Iranian capital that experts in the past have linked to Tehran's onetime nuclear weapons program and at another base tied to its ballistic missile program and images have surfaced from the site.

The social platform X has suspended a new account on behalf of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that posted messages in Hebrew.

Iran's military issued a statement on Saturday to offer some wiggle room for the Islamic Republic to back away from further escalation.

It suggested that a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon was more important than any retaliation against Israel.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's ultimate decision-maker, was also measured in his first comments on the strike Sunday. He said the attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” and he stopped short of calling for an immediate military response.

Middle-East Tension | Top Points

• Some of the buildings damaged sat in Iran's Parchin military base, where the International Atomic Energy Agency suspects Iran in the past conducted tests of high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon

• The other damage could be seen at the nearby Khojir military base, which analysts believe hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites.

• Iran's military has not acknowledged damage at either Khojir or Parchin from Israel's attack early Saturday, though it has said the assault killed four Iranian soldiers working in the country's air defense systems. Iran announced Sunday a civilian also had been killed, but provided no details.

• Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday told an audience that the Israeli attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” while stopping short of calling for an immediate retaliatory strike. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu separately said Sunday that Israel's strikes “severely harmed” Iran and that the barrage “achieved all its goals."

• Iranian officials have identified affected areas as being in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces. Burned fields could be seen in satellite images from Planet Labs PBC around Iran's Tange Bijar natural gas production site in Ilam province on Saturday, though it wasn't immediately clear if it was related to the attack. Ilam province sits on the Iran-Iraq border in western Iran.

• The social platform X has suspended a new account on behalf of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that posted messages in Hebrew. The account was suspended early Monday with a brief note appended to it saying: “X suspends accounts which violate the X Rules”. It wasn't immediately clear what the violation was.

• The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting Monday afternoon at Iran's request on Israel's air strikes against the country.

• Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian says his country will respond to Israel “appropriately", after Israel openly attacked Iranian military sites for the first time this weekend. “We are not seeking war, but we will defend the rights of our nation and country and will respond appropriately to the Zionist regime's aggression,” Pezeshkian was quoted by state TV on Sunday as saying.

• Iran announced on Sunday that a civilian had been killed in Israel's attack on the country, without offering any details on the circumstances of his death. The state-run IRNA news agency identified the dead man as Allahverdi Rahimpour and said he lived in a suburban area of southwestern Tehran.

• A truck rammed into a bus stop near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, wounding 35 people, according to first responders. Israeli police described it as an attack and said the assailant was an Arab citizen of Israel. The ramming occurred near the headquarters of Israel's Mossad spy agency.

• Egypt's president told that his country has proposed a two-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas during which four hostages held in Gaza would be freed.

• Protesters disrupted a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a ceremony Sunday remembering the victims of Hamas' attack on southern Israel last year. People shouted “Shame on you” and made a commotion, forcing Netanyahu to stop his speech shortly after it began. The major commemorative event is being broadcast live around the country.