Israel and Iran continue to trade attacks as conflict widens
Israel continued its attacks on Iran on Sunday, with Tehran retaliating with another series of missile strikes targeting Israel amid signs that the conflict between the two arch-enemies is intensifying.
Missile alerts sounded in parts of Israel and people took refuge in bunkers, as yet another Iranian missile barrage was launched towards Israel, Iranian news agency Tasnim reported on Sunday evening.
Seven people have been injured by the strikes in northern Israel, according to the local Magen David Adom rescue service. Videos circulating online showed badly damaged buildings and several vehicles ablaze. Broadcaster n12 reported strikes near the city of Haifa and in Lachish, south-west of Jerusalem.
Israel hits government targets in Tehran
Meanwhile, Israeli forces targeted a number of key institutions in Tehran, including Iran's Ministry of Petroleum and the police headquarters, according to media reports.
Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh wrote on X that a research institute affiliated with his ministry had also been targeted by an Israeli attack.
The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence service, Mohammad Kazemi, and his deputy Hassan Mohaqiq, were killed in Sunday's strikes on Tehran, according to the Tasnim news agency.
Eyewitnesses reported traffic jams as people tried to leave the Iranian capital.
It comes after reports of heavy attacks hitting Tehran, with state radio reporting explosions near the city's central Mehrabad airport. Locals reported hearing several loud explosions in northern Tehran, after which the water supply failed in some neighbourhoods.
Israel says it hit a target some 2,300 kilometres away
The Israeli Air Force said it had attacked an Iranian refuelling aircraft at Mashhad Airport in eastern Iran, some 2,300 kilometres from Israeli territory - which would make it the furthest target struck by Israeli forces in the fighting so far.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had previously announced further attacks on Iran, after an evacuation call, in Farsi, by the Israeli military to people living near defence factories.
Katz said the military "will strike the sites and continue to peel the skin off the Iranian snake in Tehran and everywhere, stripping it of nuclear capabilities and weapons systems."
Iran says at least 224 killed since Friday
More than 220 people have been killed in Iran since Israel launched its attacks on Friday, the Iranian Health Ministry said on Sunday.
At least 224 people have been killed, including leading military officers and nuclear scientists, and 1,277 injured in the strikes, a ministry official wrote on X. More than 90% of the casualties were civilians, the spokesman said.
Israel began attacking targets in the Islamic Republic early on Friday - including nuclear facilities, defence positions, cities and oil fields - in what it considers to be pre-emptive strike to prevent Iran from further expanding its nuclear capabilities.
Iran sees the air attacks as a declaration of war and fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel on Friday.
At least 14 people have been killed and 370 injured by Iranian retaliatory strikes on Israel, according to media reports.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said Iran will pay a "very high price" for its deliberate attacks on Israeli civilians.
"We will attain our goal and strike them a heavy blow. They will feel the strength of our arm," Netanyahu said in Bat Yam, where two children were among the six killed by an Iranian missile that hit a residential block in the city in the early hours of Sunday.
Netanyahu was at scene of the Iranian strike on the city south of Tel Aviv. Emergency workers were searching the rubble for seven people who remain missing.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said his country's attacks on Iran were aimed at defending world peace and not only Israel.
"Our aim is to change the reality in the Middle East. It cannot be that the empire of evil will continue to attack and attack, send its proxies and its terror, its missiles, and of course, develop nuclear capability, which is the most dangerous capability for humanity," Herzog said, also while visiting Bat Yam.
At a meeting in Tehran with foreign ambassadors, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated that the missile strikes against Israel were carried out in self-defence, and that the fighting could end if Israel wants it to.
"If the aggression stops, our response will also end," he said, according to state news agency IRNA.
Araghchi also expressed regret over the cancellation of planned nuclear talks with the United States in Oman, originally scheduled for Sunday.
"Today we should have presented our own proposal for a nuclear agreement with the US that could have paved the way for a deal," he said. The talks, mediated by Oman, had been under way for two months but were derailed by the latest escalation.
Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi called for international pressure against Israel in talks with counterparts from "brotherly and friendly" countries.
He said Israel's attacks were brutal, irresponsible and illegal, according to a Foreign Ministry post on X warning of serious security consequences for the entire region.
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