Iran missiles kill 10 in Israel in night of mutual attacks
Jerusalem: Iranian missile fire on Israel killed at least 10 people overnight, authorities said Sunday, as the foes exchanged new waves of attacks in their most intense confrontation in history. In Iran, a heavy cloud of smoke billowed over the capital after Israeli aircraft struck two fuel depots.
For days, Iranians have formed long queues at gas stations fearing shortages. US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Washington "had nothing to do" with ally Israel's intense bombardment campaign that was launched early Friday, targeting key military and nuclear sites in Iran. But Trump threatened to launch "the full strength and might" if Iran attacks US interests, saying on his Truth Social platform that "we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!" 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, feared buried under the rubble. "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 and taking the overall death toll in the country since Friday to 13. Iran's UN 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 early 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 arch-enemies 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 defence 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. 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", Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told foreign diplomats, according to state TV. He also said Tehran had "solid proof" US forces supported the Israeli attacks. "We are defending ourselves; our defence is entirely legitimate... If the aggression stops, naturally our responses will also stop."
- UK 'support' -
The attacks persisted despite global calls for de-escalation, with Iran scrapping its latest nuclear talks with the United States, saying it could not negotiate while under fire from Israel. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Sunday they had struck sites used by Israeli warplanes for refuelling, 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 Huthi 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 Erdogan warned against a "devastating war" with regional consequences, in a call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Ankara said. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday that his country was deploying fighter jets and other "assets" to the Middle East "for contingency support", while he also urged de-escalation.
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The New Middle East War
In its air strikes across Iran, Israel reportedly killed senior military leaders as well as prominent figures in the country's nuclear programme. It also appears that Israel further degraded Iranian air defences, struck additional military targets and attacked at least one nuclear-related installation – and possibly more. Despite Israel's claim that it was acting preemptively, the attacks constitute a classic preventive action, mounted against a gathering threat, rather than an imminent danger. The difference has legal and diplomatic implications, as preventive military attacks tend to be far more controversial, falling under the heading of wars of choice. Preemptive attacks are seen as a form of self-defence and tend to be accepted as necessary. These are likely to be distinctions without meaningful differences for Israel, which has carried out such strikes (though more limited) against nascent Iraqi and Syrian nuclear programmes in the past. Moreover, acting against Iran plays well domestically: It is one of the few issues that most Israelis – deeply divided over the war in Gaza, the role of the courts in their democracy, and the country's secular-religious balance – can agree on. Why Israel chose to conduct this operation now has yet to be satisfactorily explained. According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 'In recent months, Iran has taken steps that it has never taken before, steps to weaponise [its] enriched uranium.' But it will be important to see if the Israeli government had new intelligence or developed a new assessment of Iranian capabilities and intentions. We know from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran was actively producing highly enriched uranium and had not been forthcoming about its nuclear-related activities. In recent weeks, however, US intelligence officials confirmed their assessment was that Iran had not yet decided to produce a nuclear weapon. According to reports, largely based on statements from Israeli officials, the US knew about the intended attack in advance and did not attempt to stop it. While we will likely learn whether it truly gave a green as opposed to a yellow light, it seems all but certain that it did not flash a red one, as it has at other times over the years. Still, US officials have sought to distance America from the Israeli action, stating that Israel acted unilaterally and making it clear that Iran should not attack US forces in response. The degree to which the US is prepared to assist Israel in any future military actions against Iran, or in buttressing its ability to defend itself from Iranian retaliation, is unclear. Prospects for reviving US-Iran nuclear negotiations, which President Donald Trump has suggested should continue, seem remote. It is too early to offer a definitive assessment of this operation's success. That assessment will depend on several factors, beginning with the extent and consequences of the damage. A related question is whether and how the attack will affect the Iranian regime's hold on the country, which the Israeli attack may have been designed to weaken. A second consideration is the scope of future Iranian retaliation. Iran's initial response was relatively modest: some one hundred drones launched towards Israel, against which Israel is well prepared to defend. But subsequently Iran launched several waves of ballistic missiles. The obvious question is what else will Iran choose to do against Israel and Israeli targets around the world. It is far from clear, though, that Iran has an attractive set of options, given its demonstrated vulnerabilities. Also to be seen is whether Iran acts against the US, which withdrew many of its personnel from the region in anticipation of retaliation, or against one or more of its Arab neighbours. Despite Iran's ongoing efforts to improve relations with the GCC states, an Iranian effort to interfere with the region's energy industry cannot be ruled out. That would jeopardise its standing in the Gulf but raise the price of oil (already up in the wake of Israel's attack), inflicting pain on the West and possibly increasing Iranian revenues at a time when sanctions relief, a subject of the nuclear negotiations with the US, is no longer imminent. There is also the prospect of additional Israeli military strikes against known and suspected nuclear sites. This, too, would require an assessment of what was accomplished and what the consequences might be. Iran, seeking to deter an attack like the one that just occurred, will have to decide whether to redouble its nuclear efforts, reconstitute its programme in more difficult-to-destroy facilities and continue to cooperate with the IAEA. Adding to the complexity is whether outside partners – such as China, Russia and North Korea, all of which have experience developing nuclear weapons – will lend assistance, and how both the US and Israel will respond if they do. Before determining whether military action was the best available policy, we will also need to learn more about what could have been negotiated and verified between the US and Iran. This could affect the political reactions in both Israel and Iran concerning whether the attacks could and should have been avoided. For now, there are more questions than answers about what happened or what could happen next. The only certainty is that this latest chapter in the conflict-torn Middle East is just beginning. Project Syndicate, 2025.
