Emergency personnel stand at the site of an Iranian missile strike on a residential building, after Iran launched missile barrages following attacks by the U.S. and Israel on Saturday, in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 1, 2026. (Credit: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
Israel said on Sunday it launched another wave of attacks on Iran, as Iranians grappled with uncertainty after the killing of their supreme leader in U.S. and Israeli strikes.
Iranian state media confirmed on Saturday night Israeli and U.S. claims that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, had been killed.
Iranian state television announced a 40-day mourning period and seven public holidays.
The country's judiciary confirmed Sunday that the chief of the Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Pakpour, and another top security adviser, Ali Shamkhani, were also killed in the strikes.
Armed Forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi was killed in strikes, broadcaster Iran TV said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and two other top officials will lead the country in a transitional period following the death of Khamenei, state television reported.
"Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever been hit before," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
He added, "THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!"
Iran's top security official, Ali Larijani, said a temporary leadership council would be set up.
He accused the United States and Israel of trying to plunder and disintegrate Iran and warned "secessionist groups" of a harsh response if they attempt action, state television said.
In remarks directed at Trump and his close ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said they had crossed a red line and would "pay for it."
The Iranian judiciary said 108 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a girls' school in Minab.
A source briefed on the Israeli campaign told Reuters there had been no change in military strategy after the killing of Khamenei and that strikes would continue to target Iranian officials and missile infrastructure.
Second day
Several loud blasts were heard for a second day on Sunday in Dubai and Doha, witnesses said, after Iran launched retaliatory strikes on the neighboring Gulf states.
Puffs of white smoke from missile interceptions were glimpsed in the skies over Dubai, while billows of dark smoke rose over its port of Jebel Ali, one of the busiest in the Middle East.
Iran, which has said it would target U.S. bases if attacked, hit a range of other targets, keeping the major oil-producing Gulf on edge.
Sirens sounded repeatedly across Israel early on Sunday, with a series of explosions heard in Tel Aviv as Israel’s air defense system sought to intercept the latest Iranian offensive.
"This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump and Netanyahu told Iranians to pursue a rare chance to topple their clerical leaders.
Pressure on all fronts
The leadership had already been under pressure from an economy hammered by sanctions, protesters who proved ready again to take to the streets despite fierce crackdowns and regional proxies severely weakened by Israeli attacks.
Israel and the United States timed the attacks to coincide with a meeting of Khamenei and his top aides, said two U.S. sources and a U.S. official familiar with the matter.
Khamenei was working in his office at the time of Saturday's attack, state media said. It also killed his daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law.
Experts said that while the deaths of Khamenei and other Iranian leaders would deal the country a major blow, it would not necessarily spell the end of Iran's entrenched clerical rule or the sway of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps over the population.
Trump evoked the 1979 storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, when Iranian student activists in coordination with radical clerics took 52 American hostage for 444 days, demanding the extradition of the deposed Shah from the United States.
Israel's military said it targeted Iran’s ballistic missile and air defense systems with strikes on Sunday morning.
Iran's armed forces would soon retaliate again with their biggest offensive against U.S. bases and Israel, the Revolutionary Guards vowed in a statement on Sunday.
Iran responded to Saturday's initial attacks by launching hundreds of missiles and drones targeting U.S. troops and cities in Israel and Arab countries allied with Washington, prompting widespread cancellations of Middle East flights.
The Pentagon said there were no U.S. deaths or injuries.
Middle East air disruption
Major Middle Eastern airports, including Dubai, the world’s busiest international travel hub, were shut on Saturday after Iran's missile retaliation unleashed one of global aviation's most severe disruptions in years.
Dubai's landmark Burj Al Arab hotel and the airport, which handles more than 1,000 flights a day, were damaged in an overnight attack on sites across the Arab Gulf states that also hit airports in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait.
On Saturday, Tehran warned that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow conduit for about a fifth of global oil consumption, raising expectations of a sharp jump in oil prices.
The OPEC+ grouping of major oil producers is set to meet on Sunday and may consider a larger-than-planned output increase as several tanker owners, oil majors and trading houses suspended energy shipments through the Strait.
After a 12-day air war in June between Iran and Israel, joined by the United States, both Western allies warned they would strike again if Tehran persisted with nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
