[JERUSALEM/DUBAI] Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday (Jun 15), killing scores, as US President Donald Trump said that the conflict could be ended easily while warning Teheran not to strike any US targets.
Israeli rescue teams combed through the rubble of residential buildings destroyed in strikes, using flashlights and sniffer dogs to look for survivors after at least 10 people, including children, were killed, authorities said.
Iran has said at least 138 people have been killed in Israel’s onslaught since Friday, including 60 on Saturday, half of them children, when a missile brought down a 14-storey apartment block in Teheran.
The Israeli military warned Iranians living near weapons facilities to evacuate after both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump said Israel’s attacks would intensify, not abate.
An official said Israel still had a long list of targets in Iran and declined to say how long the offensive would continue. Those attacked on Saturday evening included two “dual-use” fuel sites that supported military and nuclear operations, he said.
Trump has lauded Israel’s offensive while denying Iranian allegations that the US has taken part in it. He warned Teheran not to widen its retaliation to include US facilities or interests.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
“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.”
The US had been negotiating with Iran to try to secure a commitment to severely restrict its nuclear programme, which Iran says is purely civilian but Israel sees as an existential threat because of its weapons potential.
Trump gave no details of any possible deal.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Israel’s attacks had been aimed at sabotaging those talks, which were due to resume in Oman on Sunday before being cancelled. He said the offensive had the support of the US and that Iran was acting only in self-defence.
Israel, which has not signed the global nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, says it aims to stop Iran from developing atomic weapons, and eliminate its ballistic missile capability.
The International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday declared Iran in breach of its obligations under the NPT.
Israeli officials have acknowledged that the strikes are unlikely to halt the programme altogether but voiced hopes that they can bring about a comprehensive US-Iran deal.
Iran said Israel had attacked the Shahran oil depot in the capital but that the situation was under control. The semi-official Tasnim news agency said Israel had attacked an oil refinery near the capital on Sunday, causing a fire, and Iran’s defence ministry, causing minor damage.
It also reported the arrest of two people in Alborz province accused of belonging to Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.
In Israel, the latest wave of Iranian attacks began shortly after 11 pm on Saturday, when air raid sirens blared in Jerusalem and Haifa, sending around a million people into bomb shelters.
Around 2.30 am, the military warned of another incoming missile barrage and again urged residents to shelter. Explosions echoed through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as missiles streaked across the skies and interceptor rockets were deployed.
The Iran-aligned Houthis who control most of Yemen said they had launched ballistic missiles towards Jaffa near Tel Aviv, the first time an ally of Iran has reportedly joined the fray.
At one time, Iran could have expected military support from proxy forces in Gaza, Lebanon and Iraq.
However, 20 months of war against the Hamas militia in Gaza and last year’s conflict with Lebanon’s Hezbollah have decimated Teheran’s strongest regional proxies, reducing its options for retaliation.
The Israeli military official said Israel had targeted the Houthis’ chief of staff overnight.
Israeli authorities said at least 10 people had been killed overnight, including three children, and more than 140 injured, by missiles that had hit homes in northern and central Israel.
In the Arab town of Tamra in northern Israel, four women were killed, including a mother and her two daughters.
At least six people were killed by an Iranian missile that hit a cluster of residential buildings including multi-storey apartments in the town of Bat Yam.
Shmuel Bar David, 62, returned briefly to what remained of his home there. “I’ve lived here for 35 years,” he said, adding his family survived “by miracle”.
In all, at least 13 people in Israel have been killed and more than 350 others injured since Iran launched its retaliatory attacks.
In the first apparent attack on Iran’s energy infrastructure, Tasnim said Iran had partially suspended production at South Pars, the world’s biggest gas field, after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on Saturday.
South Pars, off Iran’s southern Bushehr province, is the source of most of the gas produced in Iran.
Fears about potential disruption to the region’s oil exports had already driven up oil prices 9 per cent on Friday, even though Israel spared Iran’s oil and gas industry on the first day of its attacks.
Share markets in the region opened for the first time since the Israeli strikes, with Tel Aviv stocks edging higher after an early dip and Saudi shares down 1.5 per cent.
With Israel saying its operation could last weeks, and Netanyahu urging Iran’s people to rise up against their Islamic clerical rulers, fears have grown of a regional conflagration dragging in outside powers. REUTERS
