Israel escalated its bombing campaign Sunday by targeting an Iranian defense facility and fuel depots, following overnight missile strikes from Iran that killed at least 10 people, in what officials described as the most intense confrontation between the two rivals to date.
In Tehran, a heavy cloud of smoke billowed over the city after Israeli aircraft struck two fuel depots. For days, Iranians have formed long queues at petrol stations, fearing shortages.
Iranian media later said Israel attacked a facility affiliated with the Defense Ministry in the central city of Isfahan, reporting “possible damage.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that Washington “had nothing to do” with ally Israel’s intense bombardment campaign that was launched early Friday, hitting key military and nuclear sites as well as residential areas.
But Trump threatened to launch “the full strength and might” of the U.S. military if Iran attacks American interests, saying on his Truth Social platform that “we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!”
Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi, nonetheless, said that Tehran had “solid proof” that U.S. forces and bases in the region had supported Israel in its attacks.
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.
First responders wearing helmets and headlamps combed through the bombed-out building as dawn broke, with police saying at least seven people were missing.
“There was an explosion and I thought the whole house had collapsed,” said Bat Yam resident Shahar Ben Zion.
“It was a miracle we survived.”
In the north of Israel, rescuers and medics said a strike late Saturday destroyed a three-storey building in the town of Tamra, killing four women.
Israeli authorities have reported a total toll of 13 dead and 380 injured in the country since Friday.
Iran’s U.N. ambassador said 78 people were killed and 320 wounded in Friday’s first wave of Israeli strikes.
Iranian authorities have not provided an updated toll as of Sunday, but Tehran says Israel has killed top army commanders and nuclear scientists.
‘Red line’
After decades of enmity and conflict by proxy, it is the first time the archenemies have traded fire with such intensity, triggering fears of a prolonged conflict that could engulf the entire Middle East.
In Iran’s capital early Sunday, AFP journalists heard a series of blasts.
Israel said its forces had struck the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tehran, where Iranian news agency Tasnim reported damage. The ministry did not comment.
The Israeli military also said it had struck nuclear sites, including the secretive Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), fuel tankers and other targets.
The Iranian Oil Ministry said Israel struck two fuel depots in the Tehran area.
An AFP journalist saw a depot at Shahran, northwest of the capital, on fire.
Iranian media later said that police had arrested two suspects over alleged links to Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to hit “every target of the ayatollah regime,” while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned further strikes would draw “a more severe and powerful response.”
Israeli strikes have hit Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant and killed its highest-ranking military officer, Mohammad Bagheri, as well as the head of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami.
On Sunday, the Israeli military warned Iranians to evacuate areas near weapons facilities nationwide.
“The Zionist regime crossed a new red line in international law” by “attacking nuclear facilities,” Araghchi told foreign diplomats, according to state TV.
“If the aggression stops, naturally our responses will also stop,” he added.
He also described Israel’s attacks as an “attempt to undermine diplomacy and derail negotiations.”
‘More fiercely’
The attacks persisted despite global calls for deescalation, with Iran scrapping its latest nuclear talks with the United States, saying it was “meaningless” to negotiate while under fire from Israel.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Sunday they had struck sites used by Israeli warplanes for refueling, in retaliation for the earlier Israeli strikes.
The Guards in a statement vowed to respond “more fiercely and more broadly” if Israel keeps up its deadly campaign.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they had launched several missiles at Israel in attacks that were “coordinated with the operations carried out by the Iranian military.”
The Israeli military said it had intercepted seven drones launched at the country within an hour on Sunday.
Highlighting the global unease, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned against a “devastating war” with regional consequences, in a call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Ankara said.
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