Israel launched an expanded assault on Iran on Sunday, targeting its energy industry and Defense Ministry headquarters, while Tehran unleashed a fresh barrage of deadly strikes.
The simultaneous attacks represented the latest burst of violence since a surprise offensive by Israel two days earlier aimed at Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.
New explosions rocked Tehran as Iranian missiles entered Israel’s skies in attacks that Israeli emergency officials said resulted in deaths across the country, including four in an apartment building in the Galilee region.
A strike in central Israel killed an 80-year-old woman, a 69-year-old woman, and a 10-year-old boy, officials said.
Casualty figures were not immediately available in Iran, where Israel targeted its Defense Ministry headquarters in Tehran, as well as sites it alleged were associated with the country’s nuclear program.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed that Iranian missiles targeted fuel production facilities for Israeli fighter jets, a claim not acknowledged by Israel.
Amid the continued conflict, planned negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program were cancelled, throwing into question when and how an end to the fighting could come.
"Tehran is burning," Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said on social media.
Both Israel’s military and Iran’s state television reported on the latest round of Iranian missiles, with explosions heard near midnight, while the Israeli security cabinet was in session.
Israel's ongoing strikes across Iran have left the country's surviving leadership with the difficult decision of whether to plunge deeper into conflict with Israel's more powerful forces or seek a diplomatic route.
World leaders made urgent calls to de-escalate and avoid all-out war. The attack on nuclear sites set a “dangerous precedent,” China’s foreign minister said.
The region is already on edge as Israel makes a new push to eliminate the Iranian-backed militant group Hamas in Gaza after 20 months of fighting.
Israel — widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East — said its hundreds of strikes on Iran over the past two days have killed a number of top generals, nine senior scientists and experts involved in Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran's UN ambassador has said that 78 people were killed and more than 320 were wounded.
The sixth round of US-Iran indirect talks on Sunday over Iran’s nuclear programme will not take place, mediator Oman said.
“We remain committed to talks and hope the Iranians will come to the table soon,” said a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomacy.
Iran launched its first waves of missiles at Israel late Friday and early on Saturday.
The attacks killed at least three people and wounded 174, two of them seriously, Israel said. The military said seven soldiers were lightly wounded when a missile hit central Israel, without specifying where.
US ground-based air defense systems in the region were helping to shoot down Iranian missiles, said a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the measures.
Israel's main international airport said it will remain closed until further notice.
First responders were looking for survivors and clearing the remnants of a missile that fell on a neighborhood outside of Tel Aviv early on Sunday morning.
Responders used a drone at points to look for survivors in some of the areas that were too hard to access. Some people were fleeing the area with their belongings in suitcases.
President Donald Trump said the US had "nothing to do with the attack on Iran" and warned Tehran against targeting US interests in retaliation.
"If we are attacked in any way, shape, or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before. However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!" Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social late on Saturday.
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