Israel-Iran clashes escalate, civilians urged to evacuate target areas

Straits Times

7 hours ago

Rescue personel assist an injured woman at an impact site following a missile attack from Iran on Israel, at Haifa, on June 15. PHOTO: REUTERS
BAT YAM, Israel/DUBAI/WASHINGTON - Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on June 15, killing and wounding civilians and raising concerns of a broader regional conflict, with both militaries urging civilians on the opposing side to take precautions against further strikes.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he hoped a meeting of the Group of Seven leaders convening in Canada on June 15 would reach an agreement to help resolve the conflict and keep it from escalating.
The Israeli military, which launched the attacks on June 13 with the stated aim of wiping out Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, warned Iranians living near weapons facilities to evacuate.
'Iran will pay a heavy price for the murder of civilians, women and children,' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said from a balcony overlooking blown-out apartments where six people were killed in Bat Yam, a town south of Tel Aviv.
Iran's armed forces told residents of Israel to leave the vicinity of 'vital areas' for their safety.
'Do not stay or travel near these critical areas,' an Iranian armed forces spokesperson said in a video broadcast by state TV around the time that Iran sent a new barrage of missiles towards Israel.
Death toll rises
In Israel, rescue teams combed through rubble of residential buildings destroyed by Iranian missiles, using sniffer dogs and heavy excavators to look for survivors after at least 10 people, including children, were killed, raising the two-day toll to 13.
Explosions rattled Tel Aviv in the afternoon as Iran launched its first daylight missile raid since Israel attacked on June 13. There were no immediate reports of direct hits in the initial barrage.
Hours later, shortly after nightfall, Iran launched a second wave of missiles, which struck Haifa, a mixed Jewish-Arab city in northern Israel. An Israeli military official said that an elderly care facility was hit. The national emergency service reported 9 people were injured in the strike, along with 2 others following a missile impact in southern Israel.
In Bat Yam on the evening of June 15, shocked residents gathered to survey the damage, while many across Israel braced for another sleepless night, unsure of what may come next.
'It's very dreadful. It's not fun. People are losing their lives and their homes,' said Shem, 29, whose home was shaken overnight when a missile struck a nearby apartment tower.
In Iran, images from the capital showed the night sky lit up by a huge blaze at a fuel depot after Israel began strikes against Iran's oil and gas sector - raising the stakes for the global economy and the functioning of the Iranian state.
Iran has not given a full death toll but said 78 people were killed on June 13 and scores more have died since, including in a single attack that killed 60 on June 14, half of them children, in a 14-storey apartment block flattened in Tehran.
Firefighters and rescue personel work at an impact site following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at Haifa, on June 15.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Trump vetoes plan to target Khamenei
In Washington, two US officials told Reuters that US President Donald Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
'Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we're not even talking about going after the political leadership,' said one of the sources, a senior US administration official.
When asked about the Reuters report, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on June 15: 'There's so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I'm not going to get into that.'
'We do what we need to do,' he told Fox's Special Report With Bret Baier.
Regime change in Iran could be a result of Israel's military attacks, Mr Netanyahu said in the interview, adding that Israel would do what it takes to remove what he called the 'existential threat' posed by Tehran.
Israel's military spokesperson has said the current goal of the campaign is not regime change, but the dismantling of Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs and removing its capabilities 'to annihilate us'.
Israel launched a surprise attack on June 13 morning that wiped out the top echelon of Iran's military command and damaged its nuclear sites, and says the campaign will escalate in coming days.
The intelligence chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Kazemi, and his deputy were killed in Israeli attacks on Tehran on June 15, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency said.
An Israeli official said there was still a long list of targets in Iran and declined to say how long the offensive would continue. Israel also said it hit an aerial refuelling aircraft in eastern Iran in its longest-range attack of the conflict.
Iran has vowed to 'open the gates of hell' in retaliation in what has emerged as the biggest-ever confrontation between old enemies.
Trump warns Iran not to attack
Israeli skies have been streaked with barrages of Iranian missiles and Israeli interceptor rockets. Some 22 of Iran's 270 ballistic missiles fired over the past two nights breached Israel's anti-missile shield, Israeli authorities say.
Mr Trump has lauded Israel's offensive while denying Iranian allegations that the US has taken part.
'If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before,' he said in a message on Truth Social. 'However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict.'
Mr Trump had earlier said the US had no role in Israel's attack and warned Tehran not to widen its retaliation to include US targets. The US military has helped shoot down Iranian missiles that were headed toward Israel, two US officials said on June 13.
Mr Trump has repeatedly said Iran could end the war by agreeing to tough restrictions on its nuclear programme, which Iran says is for peaceful purposes but Western countries say could be used to make a bomb.
The latest round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States, due on June 15, was scrapped after Tehran said it would not negotiate while under Israeli attack.
Oil price: Tense wait for markets to open
Financial markets are holding their breath to see whether oil prices surge further when trading resumes on June 16 after the weekend, with potentially punishing consequences for the global economy, or settle down on hopes that Gulf exports will escape relatively unscathed.
Oil prices already shot up by 9 per cent on June 13 before Israel had struck any Iranian oil and gas targets.
On June 15, the opening day of the trading week in Israel, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange closed up 0.4 per cent, recovering from earlier losses of nearly 2 per cent.
Since June 14, Israel has hit the oil depot in Tehran and facilities at Iran's South Fars gas field, the world's largest, which produces gas for domestic consumption.
Israel so far has spared targets associated with Iran's oil exports, while Tehran has yet to follow through on hinted threats to hinder shipping in the Gulf.
With markets reopening within hours, traders say oil buyers have loaded up on long-term contracts for protection in case of supply disruption, but uncertainty could drive wild price swings.
Iran said the situation at the burning Shahran oil depot in the capital was under control. It told citizens to seek shelter in mosques, schools and subways. REUTERS
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