Israel And Iran Trade Missile Strikes As Conflict Rages For Third Day
Israel and Iran traded missile strikes on Sunday, as the conflict between the countries raged for a third day.
Israeli police and paramedics said at least eight people were killed and more than 140 injured in the strikes overnight, including four people who were killed when an Iranian missile landed near a residential building in the north of the country.
Another four people were killed when another missile hit a building in Bat Yam, a suburb of Tel Aviv, authorities said.
The Israel Defense Forces said it had targeted critical installations in Tehran, including Iran’s defence ministry. Iranian officials said residential buildings had also been hit.
Israeli attacks also hit a major oil terminal in Tehran’s Shahran neighbourhood late on Saturday. Witnesses described a huge explosion at the site, but Iran’s petroleum ministry said the fire was under control.
The two countries’ leaders also exchanged threatening rhetoric overnight. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of attacks that Iran “cannot even imagine”, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it would pursue a “more forceful and expansive” response if Israeli attacks continued.
Israel’s military has said it carried out air strikes targeting missile storage facilities and launchers in western Iran early on Sunday.
Israel had previously said that it had damaged Iran’s air defence systems in its first barrage of strikes.
US President Donald Trump has said that a deal could be reached “easily” to end hostilities between Israel and Iran, as missile fire between the countries extended into a third day.
In a post on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday, Trump said that the US “had nothing to do with the attack on Iran”.
He added, however, that if the US was targeted “in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down . . . at levels never seen before”.
Trump added: “However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!”
Earlier on Saturday, the US president had said the conflict “should end” on a call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Israeli air strikes early Sunday morning hit residential neighbourhoods as well as military targets in Tehran, Iranian state media showed, as Israel’s bombardment of the Iranian capital entered a third day.
An attack targeting Iran’s defence ministry, as well as its affiliated research facility, struck north-eastern Tehran, near Nobonyad Square.
According to the Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, one administrative office sustained “slight damage”, but videos circulating on social media appeared to show major explosions in the area.
Iranian media reported that Narmak, another residential area in eastern Tehran, was also hit and images showed destroyed buildings.
An oil byproducts storage facility in north-western Tehran has been hit by an Israeli strike, Iranian officials confirmed.
The attack triggered a massive explosion in the Shahran neighbourhood of the capital. Another facility in southern Tehran was also targeted.
Iran’s oil ministry confirmed both attacks, adding that “the volume of fuel . . . was not high, and the situation is under control”.