Iran says “the gates of hell will soon open” on Israel
“The criminal and illegitimate Zionist regime will face a bitter and painful fate with enormous and destructive consequences,” Pakpour said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
“The gates of hell will soon open upon this regime,” added the successor of Hossein Salami, killed this Friday in an Israeli attack.
The Israeli army attacked hundreds of targets in Iran this morning, including senior military commanders and nuclear scientists, but also sensitive facilities, such as the main uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, amid controversy over Iran's nuclear program.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei confirmed the deaths of an unspecified number of senior military and civilian officials and promised a “bitter and painful” fate for Israel.
According to doctors, the Iranian Red Crescent and local authorities, at least 11 people, including four children, have died and 121 have been injured outside the security summit in 12 provinces of Iran due to Israeli bombings.
The management of one of Tehran's hospitals announced that the dead children were between 3 and 5 years old and that they have been receiving injured people since the early hours of this morning, without specifying an exact number, according to information published by the official Iranian news agency IRNA.
Shortly afterwards, the Director General of Crisis Management of the Government of East Azerbaijan, Mayid Farshi, confirmed the death of five people, without specifying whether they were civilians or military personnel, in attacks by the Israeli army against the city of Tabriz, in the northwest of the country, the scene of bombings near the airport.
Two other security officers, members of a local defense unit, were killed in the city of Qom, according to Governor Akbar Behnamjo.
Iranian Red Crescent spokesman Mojtada Jalidi said there were 121 injured: 95 hospitalized and 26 who received treatment at the scene of the attacks, confirmed in a dozen provinces of the country.
“A total of 140 operational teams of the Red Crescent Society are involved in providing relief to the injured from the Zionist regime’s terrorist attack, while 670 volunteers and specialized forces of the Society are also participating in this important operation,” the spokesman told IRNA.
To this end, the organization has placed 1,510 operational centers across the country on high alert, including bases, operations and crisis management centers, emergency teams and technical search and rescue teams.
Israel began a military offensive against Iran early today with bombings of military and nuclear facilities that killed several senior Iranian officials, as well as scientists and other civilians.
The night attacks, carried out by 200 planes against a hundred targets, mainly hit Tehran (north) and the Natanz uranium enrichment plant (center).
The Israeli government has said the military operation will continue and Iranian authorities have promised an unrestricted response to Israeli attacks .
