The death toll is growing as Israel and Iran exchanged missile attacks for a third consecutive day on Sunday, and Israel is warning that worse is to come.
Israel targeted Iran’s Defense Ministry headquarters in Tehran and sites it alleged were associated with Iran’s nuclear program, while Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses and slammed into buildings deep inside Israel.
The region braced for a drawn-out conflict after Israel’s strikes hit nuclear and military facilities, killing several senior generals and top nuclear scientists.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump also had a warning for Tehran, saying it can expect “the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces” if it retaliates against the United States.
Israel, which views a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat, launched its attacks after weeks of escalating tensions between Israel and Iran over Iran’s nuclear program. Iran announced Thursday that it planned to activate a third nuclear enrichment facility shortly after the U.N. nuclear watchdog censured Iran for failing to comply with nonproliferation obligations.
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Here’s the latest:
Israeli oil refinery damaged as a result of Iran strike
An Israeli oil refinery firm says an Iranian strike over the weekend caused “localized” damage to its complex in the northern city of Haifa.
Bazan Group said in a report to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that as a result of the strike, pipelines and transmission lines between facilities were damaged. It said the refinery facilities were functional but that some of the downstream facilities had been shut down.
It said no one was wounded.
Iran says it doesn’t seek weapons but insists on ‘nuclear rights’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has reiterated that Iran has no intention of developing nuclear weapons and is open to an agreement that would ensure that.
“But if the purpose of an agreement is to deprive Iran of its nuclear rights, then naturally, we are not prepared to accept such an agreement,” he said in a meeting with diplomats.
Araghchi had planned to attend a sixth round of indirect talks with the U.S. over Iran’s disputed nuclear program before they were called off after Israel’s surprise bombardment of Iran’s military and nuclear sites on Friday.
Iran has always said its nuclear program was peaceful, and the U.S. and others have assessed it has not pursued a weapon since 2003. But it has enriched ever larger stockpiles of uranium to near weapons-grade levels in recent years and was believed to have been able to develop multiple weapons within months if it chose to do so.
Israel warns Iranians to evacuate weapons factories
The Israeli military warned Iranians on Sunday to immediately evacuate “military weapons production factories,” likely signaling that new strikes are planned.
Col. Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, posted the warning on the social platform X in Iran’s Farsi language.
Adraee in the past has signaled other strikes in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Yemen amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
His warning came just after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that if the Israeli strikes on Iran stop, then “our responses will also stop.”
Work crews sift through wreckage after Arab Israel city was hit
A bulldozer dug through debris Sunday near a home in the Arab Israeli city of Tamra. The home’s third floor was pancaked and nearby buildings were also damaged. Four people, including a 13-year-old, were killed in the strike.
Wahid Yassin, a neighbor, told Israeli Army Radio the blast was so powerful it nearly ripped off the door of his bomb shelter.
When he emerged, he said he saw the neighbors’ daughter standing on the roof of her damaged home, shaking.
“Her two sisters and her mother were killed in this incident. And suddenly she’s there on the roof, alone, shaking,” he said.
Israel’s airspace stays closed
The Israel Airports Authority said Israel’s airspace remained closed on Sunday and the country’s Ben Gurion International Airport was still closed to landings and takeoffs for the third day.
The authority said it was working with Israeli airlines toward returning Israelis stranded abroad to the country.
“All air crews and aircraft are ready for action as soon as this becomes possible, but this may take a long time, depending on the security situation,” it said.
Israel’s land border crossings to Jordan and Egypt remain open.
Death toll grows in Israel
At least 10 people in Israel were killed in Iranian strikes overnight and into Sunday, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service, bringing the country’s total death toll to 13.
At least six people, including two children, were killed when a missile hit an apartment building in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. Daniel Hadad, a local police commander, said 180 people were wounded and seven are still missing.
An Associated Press reporter saw streets lined with damaged and destroyed buildings, bombed out cars and shards of glass. Responders used a drone at points to look for survivors. Some people could be seen leaving the area with suitcases.
Four people were killed when a missile struck a building in the northern Israeli town of Tamra, and another 24 were wounded. A strike on the central city of Rehovot wounded 42 people.
Explosions in Tehran
New explosions echoed across Tehran and were reported elsewhere in the country early Sunday, but there was no update to a death toll put out the day before by Iran’s U.N. ambassador, who said 78 people had been killed and more than 320 wounded.
Semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported that an Israeli drone strike had caused a “strong explosion” at an Iranian natural-gas processing plant, in what could be the first Israeli attack on Iran’s oil and natural gas industry. Israel’s military did not immediately comment.
World leaders are issuing urgent calls to deescalate.
But Israeli’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel’s strikes so far are “nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days.”
Trump warns Tehran not to target U.S.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. had “nothing to do with the attack on Iran” and warned Tehran against targeting U.S. interests in retaliation.
“If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before. However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social late Saturday.
Nuclear talks called off
Planned talks on Iran’s nuclear program, which could provide an off-ramp, have been called off.
The Arab Gulf country of Oman, which has been mediating indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program, said a sixth round planned for Sunday would not take place.
Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, said Saturday that the nuclear talks were “unjustifiable” after Israel’s strikes, which he said were the “result of the direct support by Washington.”
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