Israel struck Iran’s capital on Wednesday ahead of United States President Donald Trump’s planned address to Americans on the month-long war he said could end within weeks.
The conflict that began on February 28, 2026, with US-Israeli attacks on Iran has mushroomed throughout the region, sending energy markets into a tailspin and threatening to torpedo the global economy.
With the official status of talks to resolve the conflict uncertain, Iranian state television reported “attacks on Tehran” and explosions heard in the capital’s north, east and centre in the early hours of Wednesday, April 1.
The Israeli military confirmed it had carried out a “wide-scale wave of strikes” on Tehran and later said it was intercepting a new missile attack from Iran, the first in around 20 hours.
Trump, whose statements on the war have swung from combative to conciliatory, had earlier said the war could be over in “two weeks, maybe three”.
“But we’re finishing the job,” he insisted.
But we’re finishing the job,” he insisted.
The White House said Trump would give “an important update on Iran” to the nation at 9:00 p.m. Wednesday (0100 GMT Thursday).
His Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian meanwhile assured that the Islamic republic had the “necessary will” to end the war, provided its enemies guaranteed it would not flare up again.
The comments came as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened major US tech firms from Wednesday if more Iranian leaders were killed in “targeted assassinations”
The Guards said that 18 companies, including Intel, Tesla and Palantir, were complicit in previous killings and warned they should expect “destruction” if there were any further deaths.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the campaign would go on, even after insisting the conflict had “changed the face of the Middle East” and eradicated Iran’s ballistic and nuclear threats.
“We had to act, and we acted. We will continue to crush the terror regime,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement on the eve of the Passover holidays.
Israel’s campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah has left more than 1,200 dead in Lebanon, according to the health ministry, with over a million displaced.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had struck “approximately 7,000 targets” since the start of the war, including “4,000 terrorist targets” in Iran.
The military added that more than 2,000 Iranian soldiers and commanders were “eliminated” in the strikes.
Iran has kept up retaliatory attacks on Gulf nations it accuses as serving as a launchpad for US strikes and has threatened to target vital infrastructure across the region, including energy sites.