Iran’s new supreme leader is supposed to be chosen by the Assembly of Experts. The clerical body’s 88 members are elected by Iranians every eight years, but Khamenei ensured they were conservatives who would follow his guidance on picking a successor.

One member, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, told state TV that the candidates had already been identified but did not name them.

“The supreme leader will be identified in the closest opportunity, we are close to a conclusion. However, the situation in the country is a war situation,” he said.

Two Iranian sources told news agency Reuters that another of Khamenei’s sons, Mojtaba, was considered the front-runner to succeed him.

Mojtaba, a 56-year-old cleric, is a shadowy figure said to have amassed significant power and wealth under his father’s rule. He is close to conservatives and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is tasked with defending the country’s Islamic system.

Israel’s defence minister said any successor who continued to threaten Israel and the US would be “an unequivocal target for elimination”.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) meanwhile announced that its had carried out several waves of strikes across Iran on Wednesday.

A military official said more than 100 Israeli fighter jets had dropped about 250 munitions on a military compound containing multiple command centres in eastern Tehran.

The IDF also said it had struck ballistic missile arrays and air defence systems, as well as a missile storage and production facility, and “defence and detection systems” at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport.

It added that an Israeli F-35 fighter jet shot down an Iranian Yak-130 over Tehran, describing it as “the first shoot down in history of a manned fighter aircraft by an F-35”.

There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities.

On Tuesday night, the head of the US military’s Central Command, Adm Brad Cooper, said the US-Israeli campaign was “ahead of our game plan”.

“In simple terms, we’re focused on shooting things that can shoot us,” he added.

Iran’s state news agency Irna reported on Wednesday that US and Israeli strikes had killed 1,045 military personnel and civilians since the start of the conflict.

It was not immediately possible to verify the figures, but the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRNA) said overnight that the number of reported civilian deaths had reached 1,097, including 181 children under the age of 10.

Iran’s armed forces have responded to the strikes by launching hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel and neighbouring Arab states that host US military installations.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told neighbouring states that the US-Israeli attack had “left us no choice but to defend ourselves” after diplomacy had failed.

“We respect your sovereignty and believe the region’s security and stability has to be achieved through the collective efforts of its states.”

It came after Qatar’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in a phone call that Iran was seeking to harm its neighbours and draw them into a war “that is not theirs”, according to the Qatari government.

Thani also “categorically rejected” Araghchi’s assertion that the missiles were directed solely at US interests, citing the strikes on civilian infrastructure and residential areas.

Early on Wednesday, Kuwait’s health ministry said an 11-year-old girl, who was a resident of the country, had died after being hit by falling shrapnel.

Nine other people – six US service personnel, two Kuwaiti army soldiers, and one other civilian – have been killed in Kuwait since the start of the conflict.

Authorities in Saudi Arabia said there had been an attempted drone attack on its largest oil refinery, Ras Tanura, on the Gulf coast. No damage or disruption had been reported, it added.

On Monday, the refinery was forced to halt some operations after a drone attack caused a fire.

Turkey’s defence ministry also said an Iranian missile heading towards its airspace had been intercepted by Nato air and missile defence systems in the Eastern Mediterranean.

And in Qatar, the State Security Service announced the arrest of 10 members of two cells allegedly linked to the IRGC, which it said had been tasked with spying on infrastructure and carrying out “sabotage operations”.

The IDF also said its defence systems had operated to intercept more salvos of Iranian missiles. There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

A total of 10 people have been killed in missile strikes in Israel over the past five days.