Dubai | Israel unleashed airstrikes across Iran for a third day Sunday and threatened even greater force as some Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defences to strike buildings in the heart of the country. Planned talks on Iran's nuclear programme, which could provide an off-ramp, were cancelled.
Israel's strikes have killed at least 406 people in Iran and wounded another 654, according to a human rights group that has long tracked the country, Washington-based Human Rights Activists. Iran's government has not offered overall casualty figures.
The region braced for a protracted conflict after Israel's surprise bombardment Friday of Iranian nuclear and military sites killed several top generals and nuclear scientists. Neither side showed any sign of backing down.
Iran said Israel struck two oil refineries, raising the prospect of a broader assault on Iran's heavily sanctioned energy industry that could affect global markets. The Israeli military, in a social media post, warned Iranians to evacuate arms factories, signalling a further widening of the campaign.
Israel, the sole though undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, said it launched the attack to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The two countries have been adversaries for decades.
Explosions shook Iran's capital, Tehran, around noon and again around 3:30 p.m. Sirens went off across much of Israel around 4 p.m., warning of Iran's first daytime assault since fighting began.
Israel said 14 people have been killed there since Friday and 390 wounded. Iran has fired over 270 missiles, 22 of which got through the country's sophisticated multi-tiered air defenses, according to Israeli figures. Israel's main international airport and airspace remained closed for a third day.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said if Israel's strikes on Iran stop, then “our responses will also stop." Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, criticized the United States for supporting Israel and said if Israel's “hostile actions” continue, “the responses will be more decisive and severe,” state TV reported.
US President Donald Trump said the US “had nothing to do with the attack” and that Iran can avoid further destruction only by agreeing to a new nuclear deal.
Israel claimed it attacked an Iranian refueling aircraft in Mashhad in the northeast, calling it the farthest strike the military had yet carried out. Iran did not immediately acknowledge any attack. Video obtained and verified by The Associated Press showed smoke rising from the city.
Iran's foreign minister said Israel targeted an oil refinery near Tehran and another in a province on the Persian Gulf. Semiofficial Iranian news agencies have reported that an Israeli drone strike caused a “strong explosion” at an Iranian natural gas processing plant at the South Pars natural gas field.
Human Rights Activists said its count showed at least 197 civilians and 90 members of the military have been killed across Iran. The group crosschecks local reports against a network of local sources.
In a sign that Iran expects Israeli strikes to continue, state television reported that metro stations and mosques would be made available as bomb shelters beginning Sunday night.
Another four people, including a 13-year-old, were killed and 24 wounded when a missile struck a building in the Arab town of Tamra in northern Israel. A strike on the central city of Rehovot wounded 42.
The Weizmann Institute of Science, an important center for research in Rehovot, reported "a number of hits to buildings on the campus.” It said no one was harmed.
An oil refinery was damaged in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, according to the firm operating it, which said no one was wounded.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has brushed off such calls, saying Israel's strikes so far are “nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar told CNN that the goal “is not a regime change,” adding that “this is for the Iranian people to decide.”
Iran has always said its nuclear program was peaceful, and the U.S. and others have assessed that it has not pursued a weapon since 2003. But Iran has enriched ever larger stockpiles of uranium to near weapons-grade levels in recent years and was believed to have the capacity to develop multiple weapons within months if it chose to do so.
The UN's atomic watchdog issued a rare censure of Iran last week.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive nuclear talks, said Washington remained committed to them and hoped the Iranians would return to the table.
In a social media post, Trump warned Iran that any retaliation directed against it would bring an American response “at levels never seen before.”
“However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!” he wrote.
UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to be hit, but the loss of power could have damaged infrastructure there, he said.
Israel also struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, said four “critical buildings” were damaged, including Isfahan's uranium-conversion facility. The IAEA said there was no sign of increased radiation at Natanz or Isfahan.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity Sunday in line with official procedures, said it would take “many months, maybe more” to restore the two sites.
Duba | Israeli strikes in Iran have killed at least 406 people and wounded another 654, a human rights group said Sunday.
The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said its figures covered the entirety of Iran.
Iran's government has not offered any overall casualty figures from Israeli attacks that have decimated its military leadership and targeted its nuclear sites. Individual officials have offered piecemeal figures.
Human Rights Activists, which also had provided casualty figures during 2022 anti-government protests in Iran, crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country.
So far, its death toll breakdown included at least 197 civilians, 90 members of the military and 119 others it could not identify. The wounded included 100 civilians, 71 troops and 483 others it could not identify.
Washington | President Donald Trump vetoed a plan presented by Israel to the US to kill Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a US official familiar with the matter.
The Israelis informed the Trump administration in recent days that it had developed a credible plan to kill Khamanei. After being briefed on the plan, the White House made clear to Israeli officials that Trump was opposed to the Israelis making the move, according to the official who was not authorised to comment on the sensitive matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Trump administration is desperate to keep Israel's military operation aimed at decapitating Iran's nuclear programme from exploding into an even more expansive conflict and saw the plan to kill Khamenei as a move that would enflame the conflict and potentially destabilise the region.
Asked on Sunday about the plan during a Fox News Channel's “Special Report with Bret Baier", Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment.
“But I can tell you, I think that we do what we need to do, we'll do what we need to do. And I think the United States knows what is good for the United States,” Netanyahu said.
Trump's rejection of the proposal was first reported by Reuters.
