TEHRAN/TEL AVIV:
Israel’s military said on Sunday night several sites were hit by the latest Iranian missile barrage, with firefighters reporting a residential building struck on the country’s Mediterranean coast, as Iranian military said they launched a new wave of ballistic missiles at Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Ashkelon.
Earlier, Israel unleashed a punishing barrage of strikes across Iran, hitting targets from the west to Tehran and as far east as Mashhad, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to make Iran pay a “heavy price” for killing its civilians.
With no let-up in sight, Iran said it would begin opening mosques, metro stations and schools to serve as makeshift bomb shelters for civilians, as Israel kept up its withering blows. The Iranian military said its “mission will continue” as long as necessary.
After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war fought through proxies and covert operations, the latest conflict marked the first time the arch-enemies have traded fire with such intensity, triggering fears of a lengthy conflict that could engulf the entire Middle East.
As Israel targeted sites across Iran on Sunday, Iran responded with barrages of missiles, with residents told to seek shelter as booms were heard over occupied Jerusalem and other cities, and aerial defence systems reportedly activated in Tehran.
Residential areas in both countries have suffered deadly strikes since the hostilities broke out three days ago. “Iran will pay a very heavy price for the premeditated murder of civilians, women and children,” Netanyahu said during a visit to a missile strike site in the coastal city of Bat Yam.
The remarks came hours after Iranian missile fire targeting Israel killed at least 10 people overnight, according to authorities, pushing the death toll up to 13 since Iran began its retaliatory strikes on Friday, with 380 reported injured.
Iranian state television, meanwhile, reported at least five people killed on Sunday by an Israeli strike that hit a residential building in downtown Tehran. Local media put the death toll at 128 in Israeli attacks on Friday and Saturday, including women and children, with 900 more injured.
On Sunday, Israel’s military said its air force hit Mashhad airport in Iran’s far-east, making it the longest-range strike of the conflict, with the target “approximately 2,300 kilometres from Israel”. A heavy cloud of smoke hung above Tehran after Israeli aircraft struck two fuel depots.
The Iranian media also reported an Israeli strike on the police headquarters in Tehran. Late in the night Iran’s deputy foreign minister said Israel hit one of the foreign ministry’s buildings, injuring several employees. The Israeli military said its air force had hit “more than 80” targets in the capital overnight.
Long lines snaked around gas stations as most businesses remained closed, while the head of Tehran’s traffic police told the IRNA news agency that “heavy traffic was reported at the capital’s exit points”. Some residents, however, were determined to stay put.
Israeli police said six people were killed and at least 180 injured at the site of an overnight missile strike in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv on Israel’s Mediterranean coast. In northern Israel, rescuers and medics said a strike late on Saturday destroyed a three-storey building in the town of Tamra, killing four women.
Early Sunday, a series of blasts rattled Tehran. Israel said its forces had struck the defence ministry headquarters in Tehran, where Iranian news agency Tasnim reported damage. The Israeli military also said it had struck the secretive Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND).
Iranian media later said that police had arrested two suspects over alleged links to Israel’s Mossad spy agency. Israel, in turn, said it had taken two individuals into custody over alleged links to Iranian intelligence.
On Sunday, the Israeli military warned Iranians to evacuate areas near weapons facilities nationwide. In response, Iran’s military warned people in Israel to leave the Israeli-occupied territories, while they could as punitive Iranian strikes would be targeting the entire Israeli-held territories.
“Warnings for you in the coming days: Leave the occupied territories, because, certainly, they won’t be inhabitable in the future!” Colonel Reza Sayyad, spokesperson for the Iranian armed forces, said, shortly after a new wave of Iranian strikes began against Israel.
The military announced that it launched a new wave of ballistic missile strikes at Israel as part of its retaliatory operation dubbed True Promise 3. The missile barrage was launched shortly after the Israeli regime struck locations in Tehran on the third day of its aggression against the country, it added.
There had been widespread fear that the conflict might spill over to the other countries in the region. Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araqchi said his country did not want its conflict with Israel to expand to neighbouring countries unless the situation was forced.
“Dragging the conflict to the Persian Gulf is a strategic mistake, and its [Israel’s] aim is to drag the war beyond Iranian territory,” he said. The foreign minister accused Israel of seeking to sabotage the ongoing Iran-US nuclear talks.
Netanyahu suggested in an interview to Fox News that Israel had killed Iran’s intelligence chief Mohammad Kazemi, saying it had recently “got the chief intelligence officer and his deputy in Tehran” as its jets carried out raids over the capital.
In Washington, meanwhile, a senior US official told AFP US President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan to assassinate Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “We found out that the Israelis had plans to hit Iran’s supreme leader. President Trump was against it and we told the Israelis not to.”
