The US military operation against Iran on Saturday involved more than 125 aircraft and a deception operation that saw bombers deployed over the Pacific as a "decoy", Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine says.

Caine revealed new details on the mission, codenamed Operation Midnight Hammer, in a joint briefing with US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon on Sunday morning (just after 10pm AEST).

Caine said the unprecedented operation involved seven stealth B2 bombers, and its goal — to destroy nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — had been achieved.

READ MORE: US 'does not seek war' after surprise attack on Iran, Hegseth says

"Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction," Caine said.

Bombers dropped more than a dozen 30,000-pound (13.6-tonne) Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs on two Iranian nuclear facilities, Fordow and Natanz, Caine said. Tomahawk missiles were launched at Isfahan.

All told, more than 125 aircraft were involved, including the B2s, refuelling tankers, reconnaissance planes and fighter jets.

The bombers struck Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan beginning at 6.40pm ET on Saturday (8.40am on Sunday AEST) and were out of Iranian airspace by 7pm ET, Caine said.

Flying from a base in Missouri, the mission was the longest B2 mission since just after the September 11 attacks.

Dozens of Tomahawk missiles were also launched at targets inside Iran as part of the operation, Caine said.

"At midnight Friday into Saturday morning, a large B-2 strike package comprised of bombers launched from the continental United States," Caine said.

READ MORE: Iran warns US has begun a 'dangerous war'

"As part of a plan to maintain tactical surprise, part of the package proceeded to the west and into the Pacific as a decoy — a deception effort known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders here in Washington and in Tampa.

"The main strike package comprised of seven B-2 Spirit bombers, each with two crew members, proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications."

Iran nuclear ambitions 'obliterated'

Hegseth said that a choice to move a number of B-2 bombers from their base in Missouri earlier on Saturday was meant to be a decoy to throw off Iranians.

He added that the US used other methods of deception as well, deploying fighters to protect the B-2 bombers that dropped 14 bunker-buster bombs on Iran's most powerful nuclear site.

He said that all of these tactics helped the US drop the bombs without tipping off Iran's fighter jets or its air missile systems.

Iran's nuclear ambitions "have been obliterated", he said.

"The order we received from our commander in chief was focused, it was powerful, and it was clear," Hegseth said from the Pentagon podium.

READ MORE: 'Gone': Inside Iran's once-secretive Fordow nuclear site

"We devastated the Iranian nuclear program, but it's worth noting the operation did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people. … Thanks to President Trump's bold and visionary leadership and his commitment to peace through strength, Iran's nuclear ambitions have been obliterated."

Operation Midnight Hammer timeline

Midnight ET (2pm on Sunday AEST): The operation began overnight Friday into Saturday morning, Caine said at a Pentagon news conference. As B-2 bombers launched from the US, some headed west as a decoy while the rest "proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications throughout the 18-hour flight".

About 5pm ET (7am on Sunday AEST): Caine said a US submarine "launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets" at the Isfahan nuclear site in Iran.

As the B-2s entered Iranian airspace, the US "employed several deception tactics, including decoys, as the fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft pushed out in front of the strike package at high altitude and high speed, sweeping in front of the package for enemy fighters and surface-to-air missile threats," Caine said.

He added that upon approach of the Natanz and Fordow facilities, the US employed "high-speed suppression weapons" with fighter aircraft to "ensure safe passage" of the B-2 bombers.

About 6.40pm ET (8.40am on Sunday AEST): The lead B-2 bomber launched two massive bunker-buster bombs at Fordow nuclear site, Caine said, and the "remaining bombers then hit their targets".

Those additional targets were struck, Caine said, "between 6.40pm ET and 7.05pm ET" (8.40am and 9.05am on Sunday AEST).

That places the timing of these attacks about 2.10am local time in Iran on Sunday.

In total, Caine said, 16 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators were dropped — two from the lead B-2 on Fordow, and 14 more from the remaining bombers against the two other sites.

Flight back to US: The US military then "began its return home", Caine said, noting that no shots were fired by Iran at the US on the way in or out.

– Additional reporting by CNN 

Five tunnels burrowing into a group of mountains, a large support structure and a wide security perimeter: that's all you can see of Iran's mysterious Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant from recent satellite imagery.

The secretive, heavily guarded complex built close to the holy city of Qom has been fuelling speculation about its true nature and size since it was first made public in 2009.

A chunk of what we do know about it comes from a trove of Iranian documents stolen years ago by Israeli intelligence.

READ MORE: Trump confirms US has carried out a 'very successful' attack on Iran

Its main halls are an estimated 80 to 90 metres beneath the ground – safe from any aerial bomb known to be possessed by Israel, making destroying the facility from the air a near-impossible task.

As Iran's leadership reels from a series of devastating Israeli strikes, some analysts say that it is at Fordow that Iran may rush to convert enriched uranium stockpiles into a nuclear bomb.

Israel has targeted the facility in recent days but, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), so far it had either been unwilling – or unable – to damage it.

Now, US President Donald Trump has claimed "Fordow is gone" after the US carried out an attack on three nuclear sites in Iran.

Trump said the US completed a "very successful" attack on three nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan.

"All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow," the US president said in a message posted to Truth Social.

Tehran has long maintained the objectives of its nuclear program are peaceful, but Fordow has been at the heart of concern over Iran's ambitions.

"The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program," then US President Barack Obama said in 2009 as he, along with then French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown revealed the existence of Fordow to the world.

Just days before the announcement, the Iranians, apparently knowing Western agencies had learned about the facility, told the IAEA of their desire to build a new fuel enrichment facility.

By that point construction at Fordow had been underway for years.

Tehran pushed back against the accusations, but condemnation even from ally Russia and concerns from China left it with little room to manoeuvre.

Construction started in the early 2000s

The US and its allies have not provided much detail on when the construction of Fordow started, but publicly available historical satellite imagery shows work at the site as far back as 2004, with photographs revealing two white square structures where the tunnel entrances are located today.

The IAEA says it has additional imagery showing construction as far back as 2002.

"Fordow is actually a project that started during what we call the crash nuclear weapons program of the early 2000s," David Albright, head of the Washington, DC-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a nonpartisan institution dedicated to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, said.

"The idea was they (the Iranians) would make weapon-grade uranium in that plant, and they would obtain low-enriched uranium from the civil nuclear program in Iran."

In 2009, a large outside support structure was already fully built and excavation was ongoing for what experts believe to be a ventilation shaft, crucial to allow air circulation into the facility.

That shaft was later concealed and camouflaged, more recent imagery also shows.

Tehran explained to the IAEA in a letter dated October 2009 that the decision to build the facility underground was a result of "threats of military attacks against Iran," adding that Fordow would serve as a contingency for the nearby Natanz plant, which, it claimed, "was among the targets threatened with military attacks".

Iran told the IAEA the facility could house up to 3000 centrifuges.

Nuclear deal and Israeli accusations

The dangers posed by Fordow were largely tamed as a result of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) the so-called "Iran nuclear deal," that required Iran to remove two-thirds of the centrifuges inside the facility, along with all nuclear material, after the facility was banned from any such work.

That process was slowly reversed when US President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018.

Further details about the facility were made public by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018, after his country's intelligence services seized more than 55,000 documents from what Israel said was Iran's "atomic archive."

Among the documents were detailed blueprints of Fordow and information on its objectives: to produce weapons-grade uranium, as part of Iran's nuclear weapons program, for at least one or two nuclear weapons per year.

"We never saw any, any inconsistency," Albright, who has combed through the documents, said of Iran's push to develop nuclear weapons.

"It's hundreds of thousands of pages. I mean you just can't make that amount of stuff up. I don't think anyone challenges it, and that's probably why there is an (IAEA) Board of Governors resolution against Iran."

At the time, then Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the revelations and Netanyahu's comments "childish" and "laughable".

Then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US had known about the material "for a while" and believed the documents were authentic.

Protected from even the largest bombs

Recent IAEA reports suggested Iran had ramped up production of enriched uranium to a level of 60 per cent at the Fordow facility, which, according to experts and the IAEA, now contains 2700 centrifuges.

"The significantly increased production and accumulation of highly enriched uranium by Iran, the only non-nuclear-weapon state to produce such nuclear material, is of serious concern," the IAEA said in a report on May 31.

"One of the things that elevated the tension, was they have no reason to do that, other than to be able to then go the next step and turn it into weapon-grade uranium," Albright said.

"It was interpreted as they're preparing themselves to be able to do it if they decide to. And if you're 60 per cent, you can turn it into weapon-grade uranium very quickly," he added.

According to the ISIS think tank, "Iran can convert its current stock of 60 per cent enriched uranium into 233 kg of weapon-grade uranium in three weeks at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant," enough for nine nuclear weapons.

That is why Fordow is a major focus of Israel's attempts to degrade and destroy Iran's nuclear program.

But is it even feasible?

The US is the only country that possesses the kind of bomb required to strike Iran's Fordow nuclear site, Israel's ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, said in an interview with Merit TV on Monday.

"For Fordow to be taken out by a bomb from the sky, the only country in the world that has that bomb is the United States. And that's a decision the United States has to take, whether or not it chooses to actually pursue that course," Leiter said.

But, he added, that wasn't the only option: "There are other ways of dealing with Fordow."

Destroying Fordow from the air would be almost impossible for Israel, according to a March report from the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank and would require significant firepower and assistance from the United States.

It would not even be reachable by the US' GBU-57 massive ordnance penetrator bombs, which only reach about 60 meters deep, according to the RUSI report.

And the GBU-57 can only be delivered by US Air Force B-2 stealth bombers, something Israel doesn't have – even if the US would give it the bombs.

"Even the GBU-57/B would likely require multiple impacts at the same aiming point to have a good chance of penetrating the facility," said the report.

Other analysts agree, saying, if the US were to try to hit Fordow, it probably couldn't be done with one bomb.

"I would bank on repeated strikes against Fordow," CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton, a former US Air Force colonel, said.

Albright says there could be other ways to disable Fordow.

"Israel could probably destroy the tunnel entrances pretty far back, and certainly destroy the ventilation system," he said.

"If you destroyed (the tunnels) and the electric electrical supply, it would be months before they could really operate."

Despite its crucial role in Iran's nuclear program, Albright believes Fordow is just another piece of the puzzle.

"If you destroy it, it's not the end of the line, because you then go to the next threat, which is, how many centrifuges has Iran made that they didn't deploy at Fordow and Natanz? And where are they?" he said.

"I think people over-emphasise the need to destroy it by bringing down its ceilings, which admittedly, probably only the US can do."

President Donald Trump confirmed the US carried out an attack on Iran in a live address to the nation and said the strikes targeting Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz were a "spectacular military success".

Trump said Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities had been "completely obliterated" shortly after first announcing the US attack on his platform Truth Social.

"Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capability and a stop to the world's number one state-sponsor of terror," Trump said in a message from the White House.

READ MORE: Trump confirms US has carried out a 'very successful' attack on Iran

"I can report to the world the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.

"Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace."

Trump said he "hopes" further military action will not be needed, as he congratulated the US military on its operation.

"Hopefully, we'll no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope that's so," he said.

"There will be peace or tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days.

"Remember, there are many targets left."

He added: "Tonight's was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we'll go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill."

The president went on to congratulate Israel Prime Minister Benjamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu for this role in carrying out the US strikes.

He said he worked "like a team perhaps no team has ever worked before" to launch an assault on Iran's nuclear sites Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan.

READ MORE: It was colder than Antarctica for Aussies in one town this morning

READ MORE: 'Gone': Inside Iran's once-secretive nuclear site Fordow

Trump then spoke directly to God as he neared the end of his speech.

"I want to just thank everyone and in particular God," he said.

"I want to just say we love you God, and we love our great military, protect them."

Trump said the US Secretary of Defence would hold another press conference at the Pentagon at 8am local time (10pm AEST).

He closed his short address with the statement: "God bless the Middle East, God bless Israel and God bless America, thank you very much."

Iranian state media acknowledged its Fordow nuclear facility was attacked during the strike carried out by the US military today.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency early on Sunday quoted a statement from Iran's Qom province after US President Donald Trump confirmed the strikes in a post to social media.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

A 62-year-old man who has died six days after he was allegedly assaulted at a Melbourne shopping strip has been identified as Dominic O'Brien.

O'Brien was a veteran photographer who worked for several news outlets, including Nine's The Age.

He suffered critical injuries after an alleged encounter with a released immigration detainee in an outdoor shopping area in Footscray just before 10am last Sunday.

READ MORE: Israel hits Iranian nuclear facility, warns to prepare for 'lengthy' war

O'Brien was rushed to hospital following the alleged incident but died earlier today.

Police arrested a 43-year-old man with no fixed address hours after the alleged altercation.

At the time, the man was charged with intentionally causing serious injury, but now investigators will decide whether to upgrade his charges after O'Brien's postmortem.

Police allege the man is a former immigration detainee who was wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet.

The accused was released from indefinite detention last year following a High Court ruling.

He's now back behind bars until his case returns to court in October.

A British-flagged luxury superyacht that sank off Sicily last year, killing UK tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others, was lifted fully out of the water on Saturday afternoon as salvage recovery crews completed the operation to bring it ashore for further investigation, the local coast guard said.

The white top and blue hull of the 56-metre (184-foot) Bayesian was covered with algae and mud, was visible clear of the sea in a holding area of a yellow floating crane barge, a witness said.

The local coast guard said the lifting operation was concluded early afternoon (early Sunday morning AEST) and will be followed by some technical tests on the hull.

READ MORE: Israel and Iran launch new strikes even as diplomatic effort gets underway

On Sunday, the vessel will be transported to the Sicilian port of Termini Imerese, where it will be made available for investigators to help determine the cause of the sinking.

The Bayesian sank August 19 off Porticello near Palermo during a violent storm as Lynch was treating friends to a cruise to celebrate his acquittal two months earlier in the US on fraud charges.

Lynch, his daughter and five others died. Fifteen people survived, including the captain and all crew members except the chef.

Italian authorities are conducting a full criminal investigation.

TMC Maritime, which is conducting the recovery operation, said the vessel has been slowly raised from the seabed, 50 metres down, over the past three days to allow the steel lifting straps, slings and harnesses to be secured under the keel.

Eight steel lifting straps are being used to support the hull upright and to form part of a steel wire lifting system that began raising the vessel out of the water on Saturday. As it is lifted up, sea water is pumped out of the hull.

TMC Maritime said the vessel will be held upright, out of the water, for checks and preparations for its final journey.

The floating crane platform will then move the Bayesian to Termini Imerese, where a special steel cradle is waiting for it.

What became visible for the first time on Friday on the surface of the water was the top of the passenger area of the Bayesian where passengers would sit, known as the accommodation area, said a spokesman for TMC Maritime, David Wilson.

When it resurfaced, the Bayesian was missing its 72-metre mast, which was cut down and left on the seabed for future removal.

The mast had to be detached to allow the hull to be brought to a nearly upright position that would allow the craft to be surfaced, TMC Maritime said earlier this week.

British investigators said in an interim report issued last month that the yacht was knocked over by "extreme wind" and couldn't recover.

The report said the Bayesian had chosen the site where it sank as shelter from forecast thunderstorms.

Wind speeds exceeded 70 knots (130km/h mph) at the time of the sinking and "violently" knocked the vessel over to a 90-degree angle in under 15 seconds.

Lynch, who sold Autonomy, a software maker he founded in 1996, to Hewlett-Packard for $US11 billion in 2011, had been acquitted on fraud charges in June 2024 by a federal court jury in San Francisco.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

A man has been arrested after allegedly breaking a hole in an Adelaide family's roof in the early hours of the morning.

The family woke up to the sound of footsteps on their roof at Kilburn about 4am.

"It's scary, but I don't know how he got up there, very, very high," one resident told 9News.

READ MORE: Trump throws his spymaster under the bus over Iran

"My husband asked me, 'who's on the roof', and I said 'yeah, someone's on the roof', we jump, we run out from the room," his wife said.

Their 23-year-old son was awake and noticed a hole appearing in his ceiling. 

"I think they use the foot to break through," they said. 

The family thought it may have been a tradie returning to start work, after having solar panels installed just last week.

READ MORE: Police investigate Melbourne woman's 'suspicious' death

The man had allegedly removed roof tiles to get inside the roof cavity, when another nearby resident spotted him on the roof, and tried to talk him out of it.

"I asked him what he was doing up there … I was distracting him before police arrived," he said.

Police negotiated with the man until he finally climbed down from the roof by ladder.

The 42-year-old from interstate was arrested and charged with being unlawfully on the premises, property damage and unlawful possession.

He didn't apply for bail and will appear in court on Monday.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Nine people were taken to hospital after a chemical incident at a public pool in Melbourne last night.

Firefighters were called to Broadmeadows Aquatic and Leisure Centre in the city's north about 6.15pm to reports of a gas smell inside.

When firefighters arrived they found 40 people impacted by the chemicals.

READ MORE: Sydney man facing life in prison over car park pickup

Paramedics arrived and took eight children and one adult to hospital for further treatment.

Six people were taken to Sunshine Hospital and three were transported to Royal Children's Hospital.

All were in a stable condition.

Hazmat specialists from Fire and Rescue Victoria arrived on site for testing and found a positive reading for sodium hydrogen sulphate at the site.

The leisure centre was ventilated, and 200 people were evacuated.

READ MORE: Police treating Melbourne woman's death as 'suspicious'

By 8.16pm the centre was safe to re-enter.

WorkSafe and Victoria Police began investigating the incident.

"WorkSafe inspectors attended and are monitoring the workplace to ensure health and safety risks are adequately addressed," WorkSafe said in a statement.

Swimming lessons had resumed this morning.

9News has reached out Hume City Council, but did not recieve a response.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Pro-Palestinian activists broke into Britain's largest air base and damaged two military aircraft in central England early Friday.

Palestine Action, a UK-based group that aims to disrupt the operations of weapons manufacturers supplying the Israeli government, posted footage of the action to its X account.

The video shows two people riding on electric scooters on the tarmac of RAF Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire.

https://twitter.com/Pal_action/status/1935926198304985569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

READ MORE: Duo charged for allegedly spraying fire extinguisher into car, injuring baby

The activists can be seen spraying red paint into the turbine engines of two Airbus Voyagers, which they said were targeted for their alleged role in carrying military cargo and for their use in refuelling Israeli, American and British military aircraft and fighter jets.

"Britain isn't just complicit, it's an active participant in the Gaza genocide and war crimes across the Middle East," a Palestine Action spokesperson said in a statement.

"By decommissioning two military planes, Palestine Action have directly intervened in the genocide and prevented crimes against the Palestinian people," it added.

A Ministry of Defence source told CNN that RAF Voyagers do not carry anything for the Israeli forces or refuel Israeli aircraft.

READ MORE: Man charged after allegedly smuggling 10kg of cocaine in suitcase

The incident raises wider questions as to how the activists – who have not been apprehended – managed to get into the airbase undetected.

RAF Brize Norton has approximately 5800 service personnel, 300 civilian staff and 1200 contractors.

In a statement, the Ministry of Defence strongly condemned the "vandalism of Royal Air Force assets" and said that it was working with police who were investigating the breach.

In a statement posted to X, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the incident "an act of vandalism" and said it was "disgraceful."

When Ellie, a British-Iranian living in the United Kingdom, tried to call her mother in Tehran, a robotic female voice answered instead.

"Alo? Alo?" the voice said, then asked in English: "Who is calling?" A few seconds passed.

"I can't heard you," the voice continued, its English imperfect. "Who you want to speak with? I'm Alyssia. Do you remember me? I think I don't know who are you."

READ MORE: 'One weapon, one plane' that can end Iran's nuclear program

Ellie, 44, is one of nine Iranians living abroad — including in the US and US — who said they have gotten strange, robotic voices when they attempted to call their loved ones in Iran since Israel launched airstrikes on the country a week ago.

They told their stories to The Associated Press on the condition they remain anonymous or that only their first names or initials be used out of fear of endangering their families.

Five experts with whom the AP shared recordings said it could be low-tech artificial intelligence, a chatbot or a pre-recorded message to which calls from abroad were diverted.

It remains unclear who is behind the operation, though four of the experts believed it was likely to be the Iranian government while the fifth saw Israel as more likely.

The messages are deeply eerie and disconcerting for Iranians in the diaspora struggling to contact their families as Israel's offensive targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites pounds Tehran and other cities. Iran has retaliated with hundreds of missiles and drones, and the government has imposed a widespread internet blackout it says is to protect the country.

That has blocked average Iranians from getting information from the outside world, and their relatives from being able to reach them.

"I don't know why they're doing this," said Ellie, whose mother is diabetic, low on insulin and trapped on the outskirts of Tehran. She wants her mother to evacuate the city but cannot communicate that to her.

A request for comment sent to the Iranian mission to the UN was not immediately answered.

READ MORE: Trump makes Iran attack deadline public

Some of the messages are bizarre

Most of the voices speak in English, though at least one spoke Farsi. If the caller tries to talk to it, the voice just continues with its message.

A 30-year-old women living in New York, who heard the same message Ellie did, called it "psychological warfare."

"Calling your mom and expecting to hear her voice and hearing an AI voice is one of the most scary things I've ever experienced," she said. "I can feel it in my body."

And the messages can be bizarre. One woman living in the U.K. desperately called her mom and instead got a voice offering platitudes.

"Thank you for taking the time to listen," it said, in a recording that she shared with the AP. "Today, I'd like to share some thoughts with you and share a few things that might resonate in our daily lives. Life is full of unexpected surprises, and these surprises can sometimes bring joy while at other times they challenge us."

Not all Iranians abroad encounter the robotic voice. Some said when they try to call family, the phone just rings and rings.

It's not clear who is behind this — or what the goal is

Colin Crowell, a former vice president for Twitter's global policy, said it appeared that Iranian phone companies were diverting the calls to a default message system that does not allow calls to be completed.

Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity expert based in the US, agreed and said the recordings appeared to be a government measure to thwart hackers, though there was no hard evidence.

He said that in the first two days of Israel's campaign, mass voice and text messages were sent to Iranian phones urging the public to gear up for "emergency conditions." They aimed to spread panic — similar to mass calls that government opponents made into Iran during the war with Iraq in the 1980s.

The voice messages trying to calm people "fit the pattern of the Iranian government and how in the past it handled emergency situations," said Rashidi, the director of Texas-based Miaan, a group that reports on digital rights in the Middle East.

Mobile phones and landlines ultimately are overseen by Iran's Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. But the country's intelligence services have long been believed to be monitoring conversations.

"It would be hard for anybody else to hack. Of course, it is possible it is Israeli. But I don't think they have an incentive to do this," said Mehdi Yahyanejad, a tech entrepreneur and internet freedom activist.

Marwa Fatafta, Berlin-based policy and advocacy director for digital rights group Access Now, suggested it could be "a form of psychological warfare by the Israelis." She said it fits a past pattern by Israel of using extensive direct messaging to Lebanese and Palestinians during campaigns in Gaza and against Hezbollah.

The messages, she said, appear aimed at "tormenting" already anxious Iranians abroad.

When contacted with requests for comment, the Israeli military declined and the prime minister's office did not respond.

Trying new ways to contact relatives

Ellie is one of a lucky few who found a way to reach relatives since the blackout. She knows someone who lives on the Iran-Turkey border and has two phones — one with a Turkish SIM card and one with an Iranian SIM.

He calls Ellie's mother with the Iranian phone — since people inside the country are still able to call one another — and presses it to the Turkish phone, where Ellie's on the line. The two are able to speak.

"The last time we spoke to her, we told her about the AI voice that is answering all her calls," said Ellie. "She was shocked. She said her phone hasn't rung at all."

Elon Musk said he has activated his satellite internet provider Starlink in Iran, where a small number of people are believed to have the system, even though it is illegal. Authorities are urging the public to turn in neighbors with the devices as part of an ongoing spy hunt. Others have illegal satellite dishes, granting them access to international news.

The messages are making relatives feel helpless

M., a woman in the UK, has been trying to reach her mother-in-law, who is immobile and lives in Tehran's northeast, which has been pummeled by Israeli bombardment throughout the week.

When she last spoke to her family in Iran, they were mulling whether she should evacuate from the city. Then the blackout was imposed, and they lost contact. Since then she has heard through a relative that the woman was in the ICU with respiratory problems.

When she calls, she gets the same bizarre message as the woman in the UK, a lengthy mantra.

"Close your eyes and picture yourself in a place that brings you peace and happiness," it says. "Maybe you are walking through a serene forest, listening to the rustle of leaves and birds chirping. Or you're by the seashore, hearing the calming sound of waves crashing on the sand."

The only feeling the message does instill in her, she said, is "helplessness."

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

A growing number of Australians are accessing their superannuation early to pay for critical medical treatment.

But there are warnings about the hidden tax trap and the impact on your retirement.

It was the week of Christmas in 2020 when Rose Charles' life changed forever.

READ MORE: Deadly 'rat lungworm' on the rise in one Aussie state

"I didn't ask to get cancer, I didn't want to get cancer," Charles said.

Sixteen rounds of chemotherapy, 30 rounds of radiation, a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction followed.

The gruelling treatment forced her to quit her job while raising a teenage son.

"You've still got gas bills, you've still got school fees," she said.

Rose joined a growing number of Australians tapping her superannuation early to make ends meet.

"I only took out the cost of one procedure and that was $35,000," she said.

At least 50,000 Australians accessed their super early on compassionate grounds last financial year.

In total, more than $1 billion has been approved for release. 

"We've certainly seen an increase over the last 12 months, it's about a ten per cent increase," Aware Super general manager Peter Hogg said.

The big catch, as Charles discovered, is that you have to pay tax.

Because super is taxed favourably going in, if you pull it out before you turn 60, you have to pay the tax you skipped.

That can be up to up to 22 per cent, on top of the 15 per cent paid on your contributions on the way in to your fund.

"So the government got a fair chunk," Charles said.

You can get a refund at the end of the financial year, if your marginal tax rate is less than 37 per cent.

The strategy comes with a warning, to think hard about sacrificing future retirement earnings, only if it's absolutely necessary. 

"It's quite a high rate for people who have those immediate needs we think and we think there's probably a better way we can do it," ASFA chief executive Mary Delahunty said.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.