Netanyahu says Israel not yet finished with Iran

The blast, which occurred Thursday afternoon at the Pamchal 9 complex in Tehran’s Chitgar area, injured at least seven people, according to emergency officials. State media and the judiciary initially blamed the explosion on a gas leak due to “owner negligence.”

But multiple sources told Iran International that the building was not connected to the municipal gas network at the time of the blast. “There is gas in the area, but the Pamchal 9 and 10 towers are still not connected,” a resident said Friday. “We use gas cylinders for now.”

Another resident added that about 70% of units in the tower were unoccupied and described extensive interior damage across multiple floors, inconsistent with a typical domestic gas explosion. “An ordinary gas blast might damage one unit, but this destroyed an entire floor and the two below it,” the source said.

The Pamchal towers are reportedly affiliated with Iran’s Armed Forces Judiciary Organization.

Witnesses also described a heavy security presence at the site, with plainclothes agents preventing residents from filming or photographing the damage. The identity of those injured or hospitalized has not been disclosed.

The judiciary-affiliated outlet Mizan has denied any deliberate attack, calling the blast a result of gas accumulation. Residents and at least two eyewitnesses interviewed by Iran International rejected that account. One said the explosion reminded them of past drone strikes attributed to Israel.

Since the end of the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, a string of unexplained blasts have been reported in various parts of the country.

Mohammadi told committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes in an urgent phone call that the threats had come “both through her lawyers and through indirect channels.”

“I have been directly and indirectly threatened with ‘physical elimination’ by agents of the regime,” she said, according to the committee.

The warnings demanded that she cease all public activity inside Iran and end international advocacy and media engagement, the committee said.

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee is deeply concerned about the threats against Narges Mohammadi and, more broadly, all Iranian citizens with a critical voice,” Frydnes said. He urged Iranian authorities to respect fundamental rights, including freedom of expression.

Facing prison return, Mohammadi defies order

Mohammadi, who is currently on medical furlough from Tehran’s Evin Prison, has refused two official orders to return and said she would not go back voluntarily. “If they want me, they should pay the price and arrest me themselves — I will not go to prison quietly,” she said in a statement on July 7, describing her stance as civil disobedience.

She is serving a combined 13-year, 9-month sentence on charges including “spreading propaganda” against the Islamic Republic. While temporarily released, she has continued to speak out in interviews and online events with human rights groups.

Last week, she told ABC News the Iranian establishment was using the aftermath of its 12-day war with Israel to escalate repression against political and civil activists.

Gallant described the June US-Israeli strikes as a decisive turning point, saying Iran’s efforts to achieve regional hegemony and build a nuclear arsenal had failed, and that any attempt to rebuild would be detected and destroyed.

“What unfolded in June was not merely a military campaign,” Gallant wrote in a letter publicly published Wednesday on Substack. “It was the strategic collapse of a system you spent four decades constructing.”

Gallant said Iran’s armed forces in the region have become a liability, its air defenses were dismantled, and its nuclear program set back by years.

His remarks come weeks after the US and Israel launched coordinated military strikes that hit key Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The attacks, which included Tomahawk cruise missiles and bunker-buster bombs, came as part of a broader twelve-day war that also targeted Iran’s regional armed forces.

Gallant said the joint strikes exposed Iran’s most sensitive military infrastructure and eliminated key personnel in Tehran, Beirut, and Damascus. He warned that Iran’s future efforts — nuclear or conventional — would not remain hidden.

Gallant offered Khamenei a stark ultimatum: “Abandon your war against a small, determined country a thousand miles from your border, and focus instead on the welfare and future of your own people,” he wrote. “But if you choose wrong again, we will be there, waiting.”

Netanyahu says Iran incapable of peace

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Iran's leadership cannot be trusted to abandon its nuclear and military ambitions, casting doubt on any future diplomatic efforts by the United States.

“That regime has a built-in DNA, and that DNA says: ‘No America, no Israel,’” Netanyahu told Fox News in an interview aired during his visit to Washington to meet President Donald Trump.

“A good deal with Iran means they stop all nuclear activity, all enrichment. They would stop building these ballistic missiles… They would also dismantle the terror axis. But I think that’s not the regime we’re dealing with.”

Netanyahu said Iran’s nuclear activity accelerated after Israel “crushed Hezbollah” in Lebanon late last year, claiming that Tehran “rushed to nuclear weapons” after the loss of its main ally.

The comments follow the exit of IAEA inspectors from Iran following Israeli and US attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities and after Iran's parliament suspended cooperation with the body, but suggest openness to renewed ties.

“The continuation of cooperation is conditional on correcting the agency’s double behavior regarding Iran’s nuclear case,” Pezeshkian said. He also warned that “failure to respect impartiality in reporting undermines the IAEA’s credibility.”

Pezeshkian added that any future attacks on Iran would be met with “a stronger and more regrettable response.”

A fragile ceasefire continues between Iran and Israel after a 12-day war in which the Jewish state pounded the Islamic Republic. US officials say communications with Iran are ongoing and both sides have expressed openness to resuming talks.

Tehran has accused the IAEA of sharing sensitive information with Israel and the US, and of failing to condemn last month’s airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said this week that any lasting solution with Iran must be based on diplomacy and a strong verification mechanism.

“In each of the possible scenarios, a diplomatic agreement must be reached. The appropriate systemic verification should be part of such an agreement, and the necessary structure should be in place,” Grossi said.

Grossi added that he remains hopeful about resuming cooperation with Iran soon, saying that talks are ongoing through intermediaries.

“We’ll mark every damaged site with plaques or symbols as lasting reminders,” Zakani said on Wednesday.

The mayor was speaking on a state TV program focused on how the municipality plans to rebuild after Israeli attacks on Iran’s capital during the 12-day war.

Zakani announced that authorities plan to build ten-story residential buildings with underground parking that will serve as shelters.

Many Iranians criticized the government for not providing civilian shelters to mitigate harm to the public in the manner of Tehran's Israeli adversaries.

Government officials have said more than 3,200 residential units were destroyed in Tehran.

Zakani also announced that the municipality is currently housing people displaced by the conflict in nine hotels, with a total capacity of over 1,000 people.

During the war, Israel assassinated Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists and pounded nuclear and military sites nationwide, though targeting focused mostly on Tehran and western Iran.

The war killed over 1,100 Iranians and injured thousands more, according to US-based rights group HRANA.

Israeli evacuation orders for Tehran during the conflict encompassed areas home to hundreds of thousands of people.

The Israeli Air military said it also targeted 80 Iranian air defense systems and 250 missile launch platforms.

Iran fired approximately 600 missiles at Israeli territory in retaliation, killing 27 people across the country. More than 30,000 buildings were damaged, Israeli authorities said.