Israel reports strike against Iranian Al-Quds Force

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said a senior commander of the Quds Force—the overseas unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard—was killed in an attack in the city of Qom. Said Izadi, who commanded the brigade's Palestine Corps, was identified.

Katz called it a "major success for the Israeli intelligence service and the air force." Izadi allegedly financed and armed the radical Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip , which carried out a massacre on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, and is classified as a terrorist organization by several states. The Revolutionary Guard, in turn, announced that five of its members had been killed in Khorramabad in Lorestan province.

The Israeli army says it has launched a series of attacks against missile depots and launch sites in the interior of Iran. The Isfahan nuclear facility was also hit. The military said the target was the uranium centrifuge production facilities there. Several Iranian news agencies also reported an attack in Isfahan. They said no dangerous material was released during the shelling. However, the public should stay away from the facility.

Rocket hits cancer research institute near Tel Aviv

Air raid sirens were sounded in Israel early Saturday morning. Sirens wailed in Tel Aviv, among other cities. Explosions were heard across much of the Mediterranean metropolis. The Foreign Ministry reported that an Iranian missile struck a building of the Weizmann Institute for Cancer Research south of Tel Aviv. Another building, not yet in operation, was also destroyed, the ministry wrote in its online service X. There is currently no information on possible injuries.

Despite continued efforts by European states, there is still no sign of a diplomatic solution to the conflict. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi met in Geneva on Friday with his counterparts from Germany , France , and Great Britain , Johann Wadephul, Jean-Noël Barrot, and David Lammy, as well as with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. Following the meeting, he again made a halt to the Israeli attacks a condition for further negotiations.

US President Donald Trump says European mediation efforts are hopeless. " Iran doesn't want to talk to Europe. They want to talk to us. Europe can't help with that," Trump told reporters. The US is currently in contact with Iran, and we'll see what happens. Trump says he wants to give diplomatic efforts "at most" two weeks. The president had previously stated that he had not yet made a decision on whether the United States would actively intervene in the conflict.

Aragchi arrived in Turkey this Saturday to attend a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). According to the Turkish news agency Anadolu, 43 ministers and high-ranking representatives of international organizations such as the United Nations and the Arab League are expected to participate in the two-day summit in Istanbul.

Air Force flies Germans directly out of Israel

Meanwhile, the German Air Force flew its own citizens out of Israel. Two Airbus A400M propeller planes carrying 64 people took off from Tel Aviv, the Ministry of Defense and the Foreign Office in Berlin announced. They have since landed at Cologne/Bonn Airport. Due to the war, Israeli airspace is technically closed, so a special permit was required.

This is the first time in the current conflict that Germans have been flown out by the Bundeswehr. Previously, there were two charter flights, which, however, departed from Jordan rather than Israel. The journey there required long bus or car journeys, which the affected people had to organize themselves.

Israel launched a major attack on targets in Iran on June 13. Since then, the army has been bombing military and nuclear facilities in the Islamic Republic. The stated goal is to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear bomb. In response, Iran is attacking targets in Israel with missiles.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told the "Bild" newspaper that the attacks had already succeeded in delaying the time when Iran could build a nuclear bomb by at least two years. Western states have long accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, a claim Tehran denies.

jj/pg/se (dpa, afp, rtr)