A massive wave of missiles was launched at Israel in the early hours of Monday morning, with a number breaking through the Iron Dome air defence system and slamming into the cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv. Residents were alerted to the incoming ordnance while many were asleep, shortly after 4am.

This came just hours after Israel shifted its focus in the conflict with Iran to its ‘surface-to-surface’ missile silos, which have been used to launch hundreds of rockets at Israeli population centres for the past four days, following the beginning of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘pre-emptive’ strikes on military and nuclear targets.

Since Netanyahu launched the attacks on Friday, multiple top Iranian military and intelligence officials have been assassinated by the Israel Defence Force (IDF), including around 14 nuclear scientists. However, with missiles now reigning down on Tel Aviv, the country’s focus appears to be shifting towards taking out more of Iran’s deadly explosive hardware.

Separately, Donald Trump blocked an Israeli plot to assassinate Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to two senior US officials. The sources claimed Israel had raised the possibility of targeting the Supreme Leader during recent discussions, but Mr Trump made it clear the US would not support such a move.

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