Iran hits Tel Aviv after overnight Israeli strikes on Tehran
Jerusalem – Iran unleashed a barrage of missile strikes on Israeli cities early Monday, after Israel struck military targets deep inside Iran, with both sides threatening further devastation.
AFP images showed gutted residential buildings in Tel Aviv and fires smouldering outside the coastal city of Haifa, after Israel's army warned people to take cover from incoming Iranian missiles.
In Jerusalem, an AFP journalist heard loud explosions, while footage showed Israeli air defences lighting up the night sky.
After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war fought through proxies and covert operations, Israel's surprise assault on Iran last week has touched off the most intense fighting yet and triggered fears of a lengthy conflict that could engulf the Middle East.
Israel says its attacks have hit military and nuclear facilities, and killed many top commanders and atomic scientists — but a senior US official said Sunday that US President Donald Trump told Israel to back down from a plan to kill supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Trump has urged the foes to 'make a deal', but told reporters Sunday that 'sometimes they have to fight it out' first.
Monday's Iranian missile attack followed Israeli strikes in central Iran, which Israel's army said targeted surface-to-surface missile sites.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards, in a statement quoted by the official IRNA news agency, said Monday they had 'successfully' struck Israel and vowed 'effective, targeted and more devastating operations' to come.
Israel's Magen David Adom emergency service said five people had been killed and 92 wounded following the latest Iranian attack.
– 'A heavy price' –
Residential areas in both countries have suffered deadly strikes since the hostilities broke out Friday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slamming Iran Sunday for allegedly targeting civilians.
'Iran will pay a very heavy price for the premeditated murder of civilians, women and children,' he said while visiting a residential building struck by a missile in the coastal city of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv.
Iranian strikes since Friday have killed more than a dozen people in Israel.
Iran's health ministry reported at least 224 people killed and more than 1,200 wounded in Israeli attacks since Friday.
Iranian state television reported at least five people were killed Sunday by an Israeli strike that hit a residential building in central Tehran.
Colonel Reza Sayyad, a spokesman for Iran's armed forces, threatened a 'devastating response' to Israel's attacks.
'Leave the occupied territories (Israel) because they will certainly no longer be habitable in the future,' he warned in a televised address, adding shelters will 'not guarantee security'.
Addressing parliament on Monday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian urged citizens to 'stand strong against this genocidal criminal aggression with unity and coherence'.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz later warned that Tehran's residents would 'pay the price' for Iranian attacks on Israeli civilians.
Despite reports of people fleeing the Iranian capital, some were determined to stay.
'It is natural that war has its own stress, but I will not leave my city,' Shokouh Razzazi, 31, told AFP.
– 'Make a deal' –
Trump said Washington 'had nothing to do' with Israel's bombing campaign but threatened to unleash 'the full strength and might' of the US military if Iran attacked American interests.
On Sunday, he urged the two foes to 'make a deal' but expressed scepticism about the prospects for peace.
'But sometimes they have to fight it out, but we're going to see what happens,' Trump told reporters at the White House.
A senior US official told AFP that Trump had urged Israel to drop a plan to assassinate Khamenei.
'We found out that the Israelis had plans to hit Iran's supreme leader. President Trump was against it and we told the Israelis not to,' said the US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Asked in an interview with Fox News whether regime change in Iran was one of the objectives of Israel's strikes, Netanyahu said that 'it certainly could be the result, because the Iran regime is very weak'.
Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi maintained Tehran had 'solid proof' that US forces had supported Israel in its attacks.
He also told a meeting of foreign diplomats that Iran's actions were a 'response to aggression'.
'If the aggression stops, naturally our responses will also stop,' he added.
Iran scrapped planned nuclear talks with the United States, saying it was 'meaningless' to negotiate while under fire.
Iranian judiciary said a convicted agent for Israel's Mossad spy agency was hung on Monday.
Israel has said it had taken two individuals into custody over alleged links to Iranian intelligence.
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