Israel strikes Qom building where clerics gathered to elect new supreme leader

Israeli forces struck a building in Qom, Iran, where members of the 88-member Assembly of Experts were reportedly convening to select a successor to assassinated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Israeli Defense Forces confirmed. IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin confirmed the strike in Qom — Iran's most religiously significant city — as the clerical body attempted to organize amid the leadership vacuum created by Khamenei's death in Operation Epic Fury strikes. Defense analyst Kobi Michael assessed that Iranian leadership now faces unprecedented strategic insecurity, with all of their plans collapsing one after another as the succession crisis deepens.