Iran strikes Tel Aviv with cluster warheads

A defiant Iran said Israel's killing of security chief Ali Larijani and other key officials would not hinder its operations with replacements swiftly appointed, as Israel launched a swathe of strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the ‌US and Israel did not understand that the Islamic Republic was a robust political system and did not depend on any single individual.

The death of senior officials would not disrupt governance and the state would continue to function, ​Araqchi said in an interview with Al ⁠Jazeera published on Iranian state media on Wednesday.

Iran targeted Tel Aviv with missiles carrying cluster warheads in what it said was retaliation for Israel's assassination of Larijani, Iranian state television reported earlier. A ‌statement by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps read on state TV said ‌weapons used included Khorramshahr 4 and Qadr missiles, both of which carried multiple warheads.

An apartment damaged by a missile strike is seen in Ramat Gan, in the outskirts of Tel-Aviv, Israel on Wednesday. AFP

Israeli authorities said the attacks killed two people in a neighbourhood close to densely populated Tel Aviv, where there are also key military facilities, bringing the death toll in Israel from the war to at least 14.

Israel has said that Iran has repeatedly used cluster warheads, which disperse into multiple smaller explosives mid-air and spread over a wide area, making them difficult to intercept.

The US-Israeli war on Iran shows no signs of de-escalation nearly three weeks in, with Iran's ‌new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, rejecting proposals conveyed to Iran's Foreign Ministry for "reducing tensions or ceasefire with the United States," according to a senior Iranian official who asked not to be identified.

Khamenei, attending his first foreign-policy meeting since his appointment, said it was not "the ⁠right time for peace until the United States and Israel are brought to their knees, accept defeat, and pay compensation," according to the official.

First responders inspect the damage at the site of a missile strike in Ramat Gan, in the outskirts of Tel-Aviv, Israel, on Wednesday. AFP

Iran had executed a man convicted of spying for Israel, the Iranian judiciary's media outlet Mizan said on Wednesday.

The man, identified as Kurosh Keyvani, had been convicted of providing Israel's spy agency Mossad with pictures and information about sensitive locations in Iran, it said.

The Israel Defense Forces said strikes on Tehran on Tuesday included the headquarters of the IRGC security unit tasked with suppressing unrest and a maintenance centre linked to Iran’s internal security forces. A projectile also hit an area near the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday evening but caused no damage or injuries, Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi reiterated his call for maximum restraint during the conflict to avoid the risk of a nuclear accident.

Israel and the US have said preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapons programme was one of the goals of the attacks they launched more than ​two weeks ago, which killed the country's supreme leader and many other top officials.

Reuters