Israel, Iran resume missile exchange, threaten more attacks
1 of 2 | An Israeli police officer walks in a damaged residential area after a ballistic missile strike in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, early Saturday. Photo by Abir Sultan/EPA-EFE
June 14 (UPI) -- Iran and Israel exchanged more airstrikes overnight Friday after Israel mainly attacked Iranian nuclear and military targets one day earlier.
On Saturday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that "Tehran will burn" if drone and missile attacks continue as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "more is on the way" and directly addressed the Iranian people on Friday night, calling on civilians to "stand up and let your voices be heard."
Iran's Maj. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour said in a letter to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.
"Soon, the gates of hell will be opened upon this child-killing regime. The crime that the terrorist Zionist regime committed today in its aggression against the national security and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic will certainly not go unanswered," Pakpour wrote.
Damage, casualties on both sides
Israeli Air Force aircraft struck dozens of targets, including surface-to-air missile infrastructure, Israel Air Force Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar said.
Iran's retaliatory strikes killed at least three people and injured dozens, according to Israeli authorities. Iran said it had downed Israeli drones that crossed its northwestern border near Salmas, the state-affiliated Nour News reported Saturday.
Explosions could be heard in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, according to reports, as air raid sirens were activated and people took shelter.
Damage was reported in Ramat Gan, a city of about 170,000 people neighboring Tel Aviv.
"I feel like the collateral damage," Rony Armon told ABC News, whose family took cover in a shelter on Friday night. "The walls were shaking. We never imagined that it was so close. I look horrified at what happens in Gaza, but now it's in my back door, which is totally different story."
Ifat Benjamin told the BBC that she, her husband Zion and their six younger relatives are moving their possessions out of the home they've lived in for 29 years in Ramat Gan.
"We closed the door, and suddenly there was such a big boom," Benjamin said. "I thought all the house fell on us."
In Iran, at least 78 people died in the Israeli strikes, including senior military officials, Iran's UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani said Friday. More than 320 people were injured, most of them civilians.
Israel said "over 20 commanders in the Iranian regime's security apparatus" have been killed since the start of the attacks.
Iranian state media reported 60 people, including 20 children, were killed after an Israeli strike hit a residential building in Tehran's Shahrak-e Shahid Chamran residential compound, while Iranian television showed workers removing debris from the site of a 14-story building.
Israel's military said nine scientists and experts involved in Iran's nuclear program died. Nuclear facilities in Fordow and Isfahan were not extensively damaged, the spokesperson of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said. According to the spokesperson, there is no concern for contamination.
The Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant is buried deep in the mountains near Qom in northern Iran and is one of the locations that Israel and its allies have feared Iran is developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran's Taekwondo Federation said three of its members were killed in Israeli attacks on Tehran, which Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which lost several of its leaders during the first Israeli airstrikes, said it targeted Israeli military centers and air bases.
A missile struck in the vicinity of the Kirya, an area of Tel Aviv that's home to the military headquarters housing the Israel Defense Forces and the Ministry of Defense, according to video obtained by CNN.
Nations on high alert
Airspace in Iran and Israel remains closed, meaning commercial flights can't take off and land there. No damage was reported to Tehran airport's runways and main buildings, although smoke was seen at the airport.
On Saturday morning, Tehran's air defense system was active after Israel continued strikes on the Iranian capital, state media reported. Israel targeted provinces that included East Azerbaijan, Lorestan and Kermanshah, according to state-affiliated Fars news agency.
Israelis are prepared to go into bomb shelters when strikes are imminent.
Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said he had to head to bomb shelters five times overnight.
"Been rough nite in Israel," Huckabee, who is in Israel right now, said in a post on X on Saturday morning after he had to seek cover in bomb shelters five times during the course of the night.
Huckabee added that Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, which occurs from sundown Friday though sundown Saturday, should be quiet, but "probably won't be."
Most businesses closed one day earlier than the Sabbath in Israel as people stocked up on essentials in preparation for possible retaliatory attacks from Iran.
Sheba Medical Facility in the Tel Aviv area treated dozens of patients injured in the Iranian strikes, where many suffered shrapnel wounds, is one of several hospitals that have been relocating patients underground for protection.
In Tehran, residents were also fearful of more attacks.
"We're hearing that tonight Israel will be hitting more densely populated parts of Tehran in retaliation for the strike that hit Tel Aviv, which is really terrifying," a 24-year-old woman told CNN.
There were also demonstrations in Tehran against Israel and residents oppose Netanyahu's call to rise up against the regime, the network reported.
"Do I wish the regime wasn't in power? Absolutely. Do I want my city bombed by another dictator? Absolutely not," Neda, a 28-year-old, told CNN.
Another 36-year-old man told CNN that "Israel is underestimating our love for our country, the idea that bombing us, our homes, killing our children would send us to the streets is shocking. We want to live peacefully whether we like the regime or not."
Nuclear negotiations called off
The sixth round of talks between the United States and Iran in Oman on a nuclear deal scheduled for Sunday have been canceled.
"The United States has supported the Zionist regime's aggression, including the targeting of Iran's peaceful nuclear facilities," Esmaeil Baghaei said Saturday, according to Iranian state media Mehr News. "Participating in talks with a party that is the principal supporter and accomplice of the aggressor is fundamentally meaningless."
On Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social: "Two months ago I gave Iran a 60 day ultimatum to 'make a deal.' They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn't get there. Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!"
Other nations react
The United States helped Israel intercept Iranian missiles, U.S. officials and a White House official confirmed to CBS News.
During Israel's airstrikes on Iran, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. wasn't involved.
Iran will target the regional bases of any country that tries to defend it, a senior Iranian official told CNN. The United States has bases in Qatar, where U.S. Central Command is based, as well as in Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
"We are robustly postured to ensure that our people -- our bases, our interests -- are safe and we're continuing to monitor any, any forces we would need to do that, capabilities we would need to do that, we will, we will keep Americans safe," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Saturday. "The U.S. is postured to defend our people in the region. We've got significant assets in the region."
"I wouldn't say we were really surprised by any dynamic of the back and forth," Hegseth added. "That's been ongoing, but we're monitoring it closely."
The British government has said its forces had not provided any military assistance to Israel as its prime minister, Keir Starmer, has emphasized the need for de-escalation.
The prime minister spoke to Netanyahu on Friday afternoon during, according to an official readout, he emphasized that "Israel has a right to self-defense" but the conflict needed a diplomatic solution.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday again called for an end to the fighting.
"Enough escalation. Time to stop," he wrote on X. "Peace and diplomacy must prevail."
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