Live: Iran holds funeral for top military, nuclear figures killed in Israeli strikes

A building in Central Israel was directly hit by an Iranian missile, channel 12 news reported. 

Iranian missiles hit Israel early Wednesday morning local time. Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and central Israel. 

A new Iranian missile barrage has been fired at Israel, the Israeli military said on Tuesday.

Explosions and sirens have been reported to Middle East Eye by sources in Jerusalem as interceptors are deployed. 

"Defence systems are working to intercept the threat,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

On 13 June, Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran, striking nuclear facilities, civilian neighbourhoods, and a state broadcasting station.

Iran retaliated, sparking a larger confrontation between the two countries.

Israel said the strikes, which have already killed hundreds of Iranians, were a necessary pre-emptive measure to prevent Iran from creating nuclear weapons.

Despite Iran insisting its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only, Tehran has long faced accusations it is developing nuclear weapons, and threatened on Monday to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on account of the attacks from Israel.

Middle East Eye tells you everything you need to know about NPT, a cornerstone of international law pertaining to nuclear weapons.

Read More: The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty explained

Iran has positioned military gear and missiles to strike US bases in the Middle East in preparation for the US deciding to join Israel in attacking the Islamic Republic, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. 

The US is already defending Israel from Iranian strikes and supplying it with military gear, but is not yet believed to be engaging directly in offensive operations. 

Tehran is widely expected to retaliate to any US strikes by attacking American military bases. 

The US has thousands of troops in the Arabian Gulf, but the NYT says Iran is likely to start with attacks on Iraq. 

Iraq is home to thousands of fighters who belong to pro-Iranian militias. 

Pakistan's defence minister stunned followers on X in the early hours of Tuesday morning, local time, when he shared a clip of a new BBC interview with the son of Iran's ousted shah, Reza Pahlavi, who had been backing Israel's attacks on Iran.

"If Iranian people are energised and motivated according to you, show some balls and go back and lead them and remove the regime," Khawaja Asif wrote.

"Put your money where your arse is, bloody parasitical imperial whore."

Read More: 'Imperial whore': Top Pakistani official goes after son of overthrown shah of Iran

Israel’s attack on Iran “will not end without damaging the Fordo nuclear facility,” Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said in an interview on Israel's Channel 12 on Tuesday. 

Israel appears to have had some success bombing the Natanz nuclear facility, but Fordow is buried half a kilometre under a mountain, and Israel is widely understood to need US munitions to strike the facility. 

Israel will only be able to maintain shooting down Iranian ballistic missiles for 10 or 12 more days if Iran maintains its attack level, The Washington Post reported

As early as later this week, Israel’s systems may only be able to intercept a smaller proportion of missiles because of a need to ration defensive munitions, the report said.

“They will need to select what they want to intercept. The system is already overwhelmed," The Washington Post reported, citing an unnamed official. 

Middle East Eye reported on Monday that Israel is using its ballistic missile interceptors at a rapid clip after four days of war with Iran, a senior US official familiar with the situation told MEE. 

In some quarters of the US government, there are concerns that a direct US strike on Iran could lead to bigger Iranian retaliation against Israel that would drain the US’s global stockpile of missile interceptors to a “horrendous” level, the official said. 

Two ballistic missiles were launched at Israel in Iran’s latest attack on Tuesday, the Israeli military said.

Sirens sounded across northern Israel. 

The US intelligence community assesses that Israel’s bombing campaign on Iran has set back its nuclear work by about five to six months, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. 

Israel has been bombing Iran for five days, including striking the Natanz nuclear plant and other facilities. 

The Wall Street Journal report said US officials believe Iran's efforts could be delayed further if strikes continue. 

Middle East Eye reported before Israel's attack last week that US officials briefed on plans believed Israel could set Iran back a maximum of "a few years".

The Wall Street Journal report reaffirmed the US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's public assessment in March that Iran had not decided to build a nuclear bomb. 

US President Donald Trump is shifting closer to approving military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, CNN reported on Tuesday. 

Middle East Eye reported on Monday that Arab officials in touch with Tehran and Washington believe that the US is more likely than not to join directly in Israel's attack. 

Separately, the New York Times reported on Tuesday that Trump is seriously considering sending American aircraft to help refuel Israeli combat jets and to try to take out Iran’s deep-underground nuclear site at Fordow with bunker-busting bombs. 

Iran said on Tuesday that Israel launched a "widespread cyber war against the country's digital infrastructure". 

Iran's state-run news agency IRIB said many of the cyber attacks have been "successfully repelled".

New Israeli strikes have been reported in western Tehran, according to Iranian state media on Tuesday.

The reports say explosions are“continuous and intense".

Social media footage showed several fires burning in Tehran.

Middle East Eye could not immediately verify the videos. 

Russia believes it has few levers to influence the war between Iran and Israel, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing a person close to the Kremlin.

According to the report, Iran hasn't asked Russia for Russian help, and Moscow doesn’t plan to offer any defence assistance, according to a person close to the Kremlin.

US President Donald Trump called on Tuesday for Iran's "unconditional surrender", as he claimed to know where 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was "hiding". 

"We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding," Trump wrote on his platform, Truth Social Media. "He is an easy target, but is safe there - We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.” 

US President Donald Trump suggested that Israel and the US have joint mastery over Iran's skies. 

“We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran," Trump wrote on Tuesday on his Truth Social media platform.

Trump has said that the US is not directly engaged in fighting Iran, although the US is defending Israel from missiles and drones. 

“Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn’t compare to American made, conceived, and manufactured ‘stuff.’ Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA,” Trump wrote.