DUBAI: Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday, stoking fears of a wider conflict after Israel expanded its surprise campaign against its main rival with a strike on the world’s biggest gas field.
Tehran called off nuclear talks that Washington had said were the only way to halt Israel’s bombing, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks were nothing compared with what Iran would see in the coming days.
Israel’s military said more missiles were launched from Iran toward Israel late on Saturday, and that it was working to intercept them. It also said it was attacking military targets in Tehran.
Several projectiles were visible in the night sky over Jerusalem late on Saturday. Air raid sirens did not sound in the city, but were heard in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
Israel’s ambulance service said three Israelis including a woman in her 20s were killed and 13 injured after a missile struck a house in northern Israel. Emergency responders with flashlights were seen searching the rubble of the home, which was still standing but had a partially collapsed roof. Israeli media said three people were killed in the attack in Tamra, a predominantly Palestinian city.
Iran said the Shahran oil depot in Tehran was targeted in an Israeli attack but that the situation was under control, and that a fire had erupted after an Israeli attack on an oil refinery near the capital. Israeli strikes also targeted Iran’s defense ministry building in Tehran, causing minor damage, Iran’s Tasnim news agency said on Sunday.
Earlier on Friday Israel launched an unprecedented attack on Iran’s nuclear sites and top military commanders.
Israel’s military on Saturday continued attacks on Iran with strikes reported at a gas field and an underground missile facility. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to strike “every target” of the Iranian regime.
The latest round of US-Iran nuclear talks scheduled for Sunday in Muscat will not take place due to an ongoing military confrontation between Tehran and arch-foe Israel.
The development comes a day after nearly 80 people, including top army officers, were killed while civilians were among over 300 wounded in Iran as a result of Israel’s strikes on military sites and private residences, according to the country’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani.
Israel’s military announced earlier it was launching attacks on several sites across Iran as it kept up its campaign targeting Tehran’s military and nuclear sites, following earlier threats that the Iranian capital “will burn” amid the latter’s retaliatory strikes targeting Israel.
Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi confirmed that the talks were cancelled on X on Saturday. Oman has been mediating the talks.
“Diplomacy and dialogue remain the only pathway to lasting peace,” he added.
Albusaidi’s statement came a day after Israel launched a sweeping air offensive against Iran, killing commanders and scientists and bombing nuclear sites in a stated bid to stop it from building an atomic weapon.
Meanwhille, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz on Saturday warned Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that “Tehran will burn” if it keeps firing missiles at Israeli civilians.
“The Iranian dictator is taking the citizens of Iran hostage, bringing about a reality in which they, and especially Teheran’s residents, will pay a heavy price for the flagrant harm inflicted upon Israel’s citizens. If Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn,” Katz said in a statement.
Read more: Pak Terms Israeli Strike ‘Unjustified and illegal’; Condemns Attack On Iran
