Iran has launched a new wave of ballistic missile attacks on Israel – including Tel Aviv and Haifa – killing at least eight people.
The attack came hours after the Israeli military again bombed the Iranian capital, Tehran.
Iranian state TV disclosed that the country fired at least 100 missiles at Israel, signaling that it had no intention of yielding to international calls for de-escalation as it pressed on with its retaliation for Israel’s surprise attack on Tehran’s nuclear program and military leadership on Friday.
At least 14 people in Israel, including children, were killed in earlier strikes in the lead-up to Monday’s attacks, according to authorities.
Authorities in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv said that Iranian missiles had hit a residential building there, charring concrete walls, blowing out windows and heavily damaging multiple apartments.
Emergency authorities said that search and location operations were under way in the northern port city of Haifa where about 30 people were wounded, as dozens of first responders rushed to the strike zones.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed the latest attack employed a new method that caused Israel’s multi-layered defence systems to target each other. Israeli officials have repeatedly said the defence system is not 100% infallible and warned of tough days ahead.
According to Iranian state media, Israeli strikes on Iran on Sunday killed the intelligence chief of the country’s Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Kazemi, along with two other officers.
Late on Sunday, the Israeli military said that it was striking surface-to-surface missile sites in Iran.
An Iranian health ministry spokesperson stated that the death toll in Iran had reached at least 224, with 90% of the casualties reported to be civilians.
Iran has told mediators Qatar and Oman that it is not open to negotiating a ceasefire while it is under Israeli attack.
Israel began the assault with a surprise attack on Friday that wiped out the top echelon of Iran’s military command and damaged its nuclear sites, and pledged the campaign would escalate in the coming days. Iran vowed to “open the gates of hell” in retaliation.
Trump has lauded Israel’s offensive while denying Iranian allegations that the US has taken part and warning Tehran not to widen its retaliation to include US targets.
Hostilities Between Israel Iran To Worsen
Elijah Magnier, a military and political analyst, noted that he believes the hostilities between Israel and Iran will only get worse, but that Israeli support for the war may wane if the destruction continues. “I think it’s going to continue escalating because we are just in the first days of the war that Israel declared on Iran,” he told a news agency.
“And also, the Israeli officials, the Prime Minister and the army, have all warned Israeli society that this war is going to be heavy and … the price is going to be extremely high. But the society that stands behind Benjamin Netanyahu and supports the war on Iran did not expect this level of destruction because, since 1973, Israel has not waged a war on a country and never been attacked on this scale, right in the heart of Tel Aviv.”
Elijah Magnier
He opined that Israelis are now realising what the Palestinians and the Lebanese have been suffering, “and they see the destruction in front of them, buildings in Tel Aviv, in Haifa destroyed, fire everywhere.”
“The properties no longer exist. Eight people killed, 250 wounded in one day. That’s unheard of since a very long time in Israel. So, all that is not something that the Israeli society has been ready for.”
Elijah Magnier
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