Israel and Iran traded another round of blows late Saturday – in a series of overnight attacks that killed at least eight civilians in the Jewish state and struck Iran’s Ministry of Defense headquarters in Tehran.
Iran continued its response to Israel’s preemptive strike from earlier this week with a massive barrage of missiles on Sunday, sending countless people running for bomb shelters to escape the incoming fire, The Times of Israel reported.
Sunday’s most recent strike by Iran hit buildings in Bat Yam, Rehovot, and Tel Aviv as well as a mall in the town of Kiryat Ekron, that outlet stated citing first responders.
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The evening’s later round of Iranian strikes killed four people in Bam Yat and injured a dozen with as many as 35 people still unaccounted for, according to the outlet.
Those victims included two children ages 8 and 13, a woman in her 60s, and a woman in her 70s, the report said, citing first responders.
In strikes earlier Saturday, a total of four Israeli civilians were killed and 200 more were injured. All four of those fatalities were women from the same family, according to The Times of Israel.
Manar Khatib and her daughters Hala, 20, and Shada, 13, alongside a relative also named Manar, perished in the bombings on the city of Tamra earlier Saturday, the outlet reported.
Overall throughout the day, some 140 were wounded.
The IDF lifted instructions to remain near bomb shelters just before 3:30 a.m. local time — however warnings remained in place for an ongoing drone attack, The Times of Israel reported.
Targets struck by Iran included Israel’s largest oil refinery in the Haifa region in the north of the country.
Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot was also hit with at least one building containing laboratories ignited in flames, The New York Times reported.
Hours after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to bring the full force of the air force down on Tehran during a fiery address, sirens could be heard in the north of Israel, as Iran fired the “heavy and destructive” ballistic missile attack.
Meanwhile, Israel hit Iran’s central command and caused minor damage to one of the Ministry’s administrative buildings, while a separate attack targeted the defense ministry’s Organization of Defense Innovation and Research, Iranian news agency Tasnim reported.
Footage shared on social media captured smoke rising from the buildings following the strike conducted by the Israel Defense Forces.
Iran state media stated Israel struck the world’s largest natural gas field in South Pars, Shahran oil depot, and more fuel depots in Tehran.
“Tehran is ablaze,” Israel Defense Minister Katz posted on X, as footage circulating on social media from the strike showed large fires at the oil depot.
Earlier Saturday, Iran’s largest natural gas production facility, the South Pars gas field, erupted in flames, and piles of smoke were seen from the oil refinery in Abadan, off the Persian Gulf, after IDF air strikes
Israel has asked the United States to join the war to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities but the US has rejected those requests, Axios reported citing two Israeli officials.
The US is specifically being asked to provide assistance in destroying Iran’s uranium enrichment site in Fordo, which is beyond Israel’s military range, that report stated.
