Dubai: Israel unleashed airstrikes across Iran for a third day Sunday and threatened even greater force as some Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defences to strike buildings in the heart of the country.
Planned talks on Iran’s nuclear programme, which could provide an off-ramp, were cancelled.
Israel’s strikes have killed at least 406 people in Iran and wounded another 654, according to a human rights group that has long tracked the country, Washington-based Human Rights Activists. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
The region braced for a protracted conflict after Israel’s surprise bombardment Friday of Iranian nuclear and military sites killed several top generals and nuclear scientists. Neither side showed any sign of backing down.
Iran said Israel struck two oil refineries, raising the prospect of a broader assault on Iran’s heavily sanctioned energy industry that could affect global markets. The Israeli military, in a social media post, warned Iranians to evacuate arms factories, signalling a further widening of the campaign.
Israel, the sole though undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, said it launched the attack to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The two countries have been adversaries for decades.
Explosions shook Iran’s capital, Tehran, around noon and again around 3:30 p.m. Semiofficial news agencies close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard reported one strike in the area of Vali-e Asr Square downtown and another in a neighborhood named for the air force, which is headquartered there.
Sirens went off across much of Israel again around 4 p.m., warning of what would be Iran’s first daytime assault since the fighting began. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
US President Donald Trump has expressed full support for Israel’s actions while warning Iran that it can avoid further destruction only by agreeing to a new nuclear deal.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that if Israel’s strikes on Iran stop, then “our responses will also stop.” He said the United States “is a partner in these attacks and must take responsibility.”
Mosques as bomb shelters
Israel said 14 people there have been killed and 390 wounded. Iran has fired over 270 missiles, 22 of which got through the country’s sophisticated multi-tiered air defences to make impact, according to Israeli figures. The country’s main international airport and airspace remained closed for a third day.
Israeli strikes targeted Iran’s Defence Ministry early Sunday after hitting air defences, military bases and sites associated with its nuclear programme. The killing of several top generals and nuclear scientists in targeted strikes indicated that Israeli intelligence has penetrated Iran at the highest levels.
Araghchi said Israel targeted an oil refinery near Tehran and another in a province on the Persian Gulf. He said Iran targeted “economic” sites in Israel, without elaborating.
Semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported that an Israeli drone strike caused a “strong explosion” at an Iranian natural gas processing plant. The extent of damage at the South Pars natural gas field was not immediately clear. Such sites have air-defense systems around them, which Israel has been targeting.
In a sign that Iran expects Israeli strikes to continue, state television reported that metro stations and mosques would be made available as bomb shelters beginning Sunday night.
Death toll mounts in Israel
In Israel, at least six people, including a 10-year-old and a 9-year-old, were killed when a missile hit an apartment building in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. Daniel Hadad, a local police commander, said 180 people were wounded and seven were missing.
An Associated Press reporter saw streets lined with damaged or destroyed buildings, bombed-out cars and shards of glass. Some people could be seen leaving with suitcases.
Another four people, including a 13-year-old, were killed and 24 wounded when a missile struck a building in the Arab town of Tamra in northern Israel. A strike on the central city of Rehovot wounded 42.
The Weizmann Institute of Science, an important center for research in Rehovot, reported “a number of hits to buildings on the campus.” It said no one was harmed.
An oil refinery was damaged in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, according to the firm operating it, which said no one was wounded.
Urgent calls to deescalate
World leaders made urgent calls to deescalate. The attack on nuclear sites set a “dangerous precedent,” China’s foreign minister said Saturday. The region is already on edge as Israel seeks to annihilate Hamas, an Iranian ally, in the Gaza Strip, where war still rages after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has brushed off such calls, saying Israel’s strikes so far are “nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days.”
Iran has always said its nuclear program was peaceful, and the U.S. and others have assessed that it has not pursued a weapon since 2003. But Iran has enriched ever larger stockpiles of uranium to near weapons-grade levels in recent years and was believed to have the capacity to develop multiple weapons within months if it chose to do so.
The UN’s atomic watchdog issued a rare censure of Iran last week.
Iran calls nuclear talks ‘unjustifiable’
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive nuclear talks, said Washington remained committed to them and hoped the Iranians would return to the table.
Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday called the nuclear talks “unjustifiable” after Israel’s strikes.
In a social media post early Sunday, Trump reiterated that the U.S. was not involved in the attacks on Iran and warned that any retaliation directed against it would bring an American response “at levels never seen before.”
“However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!” he wrote.
More than a few weeks’ to repair nuclear facilities
In Iran, satellite photos analysed by AP show extensive damage at Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz. The images shot Saturday by Planet Labs PBC show multiple buildings damaged or destroyed. The structures hit include buildings identified by experts as supplying power to the facility.
UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to be hit, but the loss of power could have damaged infrastructure there, he said.
Israel also struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, said four “critical buildings” were damaged, including Isfahan’s uranium-conversion facility. The IAEA said there was no sign of increased radiation at Natanz or Isfahan.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity Sunday in line with official procedures, said it would take “many months, maybe more” to restore the two sites.
AP
