Iran has launched a new wave of ballistic missiles against Israel soon after loud explosions were heard in its capital Tehran, as the two countries continue to trade heavy fire for a third consecutive day and as US President Donald Trump hints both at peace coming “soon” and at the possibility of the United States joining the conflict.
The Iranian Health Ministry said early Monday that at least 224 people have been killed, 90 percent of them civilians, and 1,481 wounded since Israel attacked Iran.
In three attacks, Israel killed 70 women and children while another 10 children have yet to be recovered from under the rubble in Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said. Israel “is trying to promote the notion that its attacks are precise and do not target residential areas, which is not true,” he said, slamming the notion of “surgical strikes” as Israeli propaganda.
Since the start of the conflict at least 13 people have been killed and 380 have been wounded in Israel.
In the latest salvo on Sunday evening, an Iranian missile lit up the sky above the Israeli port city of Haifa soon after Iran’s armed forces told residents of Israel to leave the vicinity for their safety.
Israel’s National Emergency Service reported at least 15 people injured in Haifa. Reuters news agency reported projectiles landing in Haifa, with explosions heard on impact. And Israeli Army Radio also said a building was hit in the eastern part of Tel Aviv.
The Iranian attack came as residents in Tehran reported earlier on Sunday that there were shuddering blasts in different areas in the heart of the city. Reports say missiles struck in Niavaran and Tajrish, in the capital’s north, and around the Valiasr and Hafte Tir squares in the city centre. According to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, the intelligence chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Kazemi, and his deputy were killed in the attacks.
Other cities attacked by Israel included Shiraz and Isfahan, where a military base of the Defence Ministry was hit. The Israeli army said it struck an aerial refuelling aircraft at Mashhad Airport in eastern Iran, describing it as its longest-range attack since launching operations against Iran last week.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said Israel also launched a “deliberate and ruthless strike” on one of the buildings of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Early Monday, the Israeli military said it launched a series of air strikes targeting what it claims are missile sites in central Iran.
Reporting from Tehran,“Iran has not experienced a war to this extent since the Iran-Iraq War ended in 1988. There were similar Israeli strikes last year, of course, but nothing compared to what’s been happening since Friday.”
“The government said earlier today that metro stations, schools and mosques are going to be ready to host people. But parts of these facilities, including mosques and schools, do not seem safe enough to be used as a sort of shelter,” he said.
Earlier Sunday in Israel, rescue workers were searching for survivors in the rubble from the previous night’s wave of Iranian strikes. The hardest hit area was the town of Bat Yam, where more than 60 buildings were damaged. “Iran will pay a heavy price for the murder of civilians, women and children,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said from a balcony overlooking blown-out apartments in Bat Yam, a city just south of Tel Aviv.
Overnight, Iran struck the port city of Haifa and neighbouring Tamra, where at least four women were killed.
Israel launched its operation with a surprise attack on Friday that killed several members of the Iranian military’s top echelon, killed several nuclear scientists, and damaged the country’s nuclear sites. Since then, Israel’s attacks have been broadening in their scope, hitting residential areas and Iran’s civilian and energy sectors and raising the stakes for the global economy and the functioning of the Iranian state.