Israel on Friday launched a fresh wave of strikes on Iran and appeared to continue its campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, with reports emerging from Tehran that an IDF drone targeted and killed an Iranian nuclear scientist who had been holed up in a safe house.

The strike came as Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said that he instructed the IDF to “intensify strikes on regime targets in Tehran” to “destabilize” the Iranian regime.

An Iranian news website said a drone had struck an apartment in a residential building in central Tehran on Friday, but did not give details.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the scientist who was attacked specialized in weaponry and was being kept in a hiding spot outside of his home. An official speaking to the Journal refused to provide the scientist’s name.

The Israel Defense Forces have not yet commented on the reported strike, but the military has already confirmed the assassination of 10 Iranian nuclear scientists who were killed during the opening attack of Israel’s campaign against Iran in “Operation Narnia.”

As Israel’s attacks on Iran continue to target senior Iranian officials, Iranian state media claimed on Friday that Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is alive and recovering from serious injuries in a hospital, despite reporting last week that he had been killed in an Israeli strike.

Several news outlets, including the IRGC-controlled Fars News Agency and the semi-official Mehr news agency, carried a statement attributed to Shamkhani. Last week, the same agencies reported that he had been killed in Israel’s initial wave of airstrikes on June 13.

“I am alive and ready to sacrifice myself,” read the statement attributed to Shamkhani.

The news outlets claimed that he is recovering from serious wounds sustained in the Israeli strike and that he is in stable condition.

‘Destabilize the regime’

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Friday morning that he instructed the IDF to “intensify strikes on regime targets in Tehran” to “destabilize” the Iranian regime.

“We must strike all symbols of the regime and its mechanisms of oppression, such as the Basij, as well as the base of the regime’s power, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Katz said during an assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and other top officers.

Katz said Israel must bring about “a mass evacuation of the population from Tehran in order to destabilize the regime and increase deterrence in response to missile fire on Israel’s home front, while continuing to target facilities and scientists to thwart Iran’s nuclear program, until all objectives of the operation are fully achieved.”

Katz’s remarks are notable, as Israel has not stated officially that the toppling of Iran’s authoritarian and Islamic regime is one of its goals in the current offensive, alongside destroying the country’s nuclear program and ballistic missile infrastructure.

The air campaign also saw some 25 Israeli fighter jets destroy on Friday morning some 35 missile launchers and storage sites in Iran’s Tabriz and Kermanshah, the military said. The IDF issued evacuation orders to local residents the previous night.

The IDF also said on Friday that air force strikes in Tehran earlier in the week struck Iran’s “Internal Security headquarters” and the headquarters of Iran’s “special internal security unit,” which are part of Iran’s armed forces.

Israeli airstrikes also reached into the city of Rasht on the Caspian Sea early Friday, Iranian media reported. The Israeli military had warned the public to flee the area around Rasht’s Industrial City, southwest of the city’s downtown. But with Iran’s internet shut off to the outside world, it’s unclear just how many people could see the message.

Moreover, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday in a post on X that it has information that key buildings at Iran’s Arak heavy water research site in Khondab were damaged in Israeli strikes, including the distillation unit.

The Information is an update on an assessment from Thursday, in which the IAEA said the reactor had been hit, but there were no radiological effects.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the losses, and has not discussed the damage done so far to its military in the weeklong war.

‘Rage and victory’

The Iranian regime appeared to try and put on a show of support, with state media reporting rallies in several cities, describing them as rallies of “rage and victory,” and “solidarity and resistance.”

Thousands of people joined a protest against Israel in the Iranian capital on Friday after weekly prayers, chanting slogans in support of their leaders, images on state television showed.

“This is the Friday of the Iranian nation’s solidarity and resistance across the country,” the news anchor said.

“I will sacrifice my life for my leader,” read a protester’s banner, a reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to state television, protests took place in other cities around the country, including in Tabriz in northwestern Iran and Shiraz in the south.

Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on Israel have repeatedly targeted civilian infrastructure, with the most recent strike hitting Beersheba on Friday, injuring seven and causing major damage to residential buildings.

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press conference on Friday that Iran was planning a larger attack on the southern city, but Israeli strikes foiled the plan.

“The Iranians planned this morning a larger barrage at Beersheba. Before the launch, we identified preparations of three primed launchers… we destroyed them,” he said, adding that the Israeli Air Force’s continued strikes on Iran “reduce the harm to the home front.”

The continued firing of Iranian missiles since Friday has disrupted Israel’s economy, causing Danish shipping giant Maersk to announce that it is temporarily suspending vessel calls in Haifa port due to the conflict.

Maersk said it made the decision after “careful analysis of threat risk reports in the context of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, specifically regarding the potential risks of calling Israeli ports and the ensuing implications for the safety of our vessel crews.”

“At the moment, we are not experiencing further disruptions to our scheduled operations in the region,” it added in a statement.

Haifa and the surrounding area have sustained repeated ballistic missile attacks from Iran over the past week.

On June 13, Israel launched a campaign of airstrikes in Iran to decimate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which Jerusalem characterized as an imminent, existential threat. Iran has responded with deadly barrages of ballistic missiles at civilian population centers and military targets in Israel.

Iran, which vows to destroy Israel, has always denied any ambition to develop nuclear weapons, but its enrichment levels reach far beyond any civilian purpose, and the IAEA says it has obstructed inspectors from visiting its nuclear sites.

Israel says its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program is necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.

Iran has retaliated by launching over 450 ballistic missiles and around 1,000 drones at Israel.

So far, Iran’s missile attacks have killed 24 people and wounded thousands in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals. Some of the missiles have hit apartment buildings, causing heavy damage. (Times of Israel, excluding headline)