An Iraqi protestor holding the Iranian flag walks on the Israeli flag during a rally to show solidarity with Iran, in the Shi’ite district of Kazimiyah, in Baghdad.
Photo : AP
In the latest, the Israeli Defence Forces have assassinated Iranian commander Saeed Izadi – described as “one of the architects” of Hamas’ October 7, 2023, massacre – in the northeastern city of Qom overnight. The Ayatollah Ali Khamenei regime, which has lost several top military leaders and nuclear scientists in the past one week, has launched a barrage of missiles at Israeli cities, including capital Tel Aviv. With missiles from Iran and Israel criss-crossing each other, Times Now brings the ground realities from the war zone.
The situation remains calm in Tel Aviv, but there were sirens that were heard, reports Priyank Tripathi.
The Israeli forces are keeping a close watch, and any suspected movement is being stopped by them. “We, as journalists from India, have been allowed to move freely on the ground. But the fact of the matter is that the security forces from Israel have been keeping a close watch,” he says.
The Israeli military claims it has intercepted 470 drones launched from Iran since June 13 — marking a 99 percent interception rate for drones that posed a threat. But there have been instances where Iranian missiles have been able to breach Israeli air defence systems – some of them have been reported to have struck civilian infrastructures like hospitals.
“What we can see is that in the last two days, there have been two important locations like a children’s cradle area and a hospital which were attacked by the Iranian missile. This is certainly a big worry for the Israelis,” Ptiyank says.
“On the other side, what we have also seen that the kind of ballistic missile which has been used by the Iranian forces is certainly difficult for the Israelis to tackle. The ballistic missile come in one piece and then it’s segregated into several multiple pieces and it hits the important target which are very high speed. Some of them have a speed of five times more than the sound. So, it is difficult for the forces to react in this location but reporting from Tel Aviv, what we can tell you that so far the city is safe but Haifa was the location which was hit by the Iranian missile yesterday,” he says.
Priyank also visited Haifa, which is about 100 kms from Tel Aviv.
What is important to be seen in the war is what is truth and what is propaganda. In Haifa, Priyank busts claim that one of the tallest building in the city was hit by Iranian missiles.
“That’s why we have come to this rooftop location and from where we can certainly show you that there is no major damage which can be seen in this port which is here in Haifa. This is a port which is normally functioning but because of the vacation, the port is not open as of now,” he says.
“It will open on Sunday morning. You can see the kind of series of vehicles which is parked here, which has come up as a cargo and none of these vehicles can be seen damaged, which is a very big proof of evidence which we can show to viewers which is certainly showing that this port which also has importance to the Indians because the Indian businessmen, business houses have also invested a lot in this particular port. There was a statement which came out from the Indian business houses that this port is safe and there’s no damage which has happened to the establishment which is also equivalent to the Indian side,” he says.
Visuals of the port show no major hit to it, busting claims made by Iran.
Times Now is the only English channel which is reporting from the ground apart from sister network Times on Navbharat.