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• Rising death toll: At least 13 people, including three minors, have been killed in Israel after days of conflict with Iran, while at least 78 have been killed in Iran, according to authorities in each country.
• No end in sight: Israel’s operation against Iran is expected to take “weeks, not days” and is moving forward with implicit US approval, according to White House and Israeli officials. Israeli PM Netanyahu warned in a video address that Israel will “strike every site and every target of the Ayatollah’s regime.” Iran has threatened to intensify its attacks if Israel continues hostilities.
• Trump’s warning: The US president said Sunday morning his country “had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight,” but warned Iran not to hit US targets.
• Strikes in Tehran: Israel said its Air Force carried out an “extensive series of intelligence-based strikes” on targets in Tehran, including the headquarters of Iran’s Ministry of Defense. Iran’s Tasnim News Agency earlier reported that an administrative building incurred minor damage. • Failed talks: The next round of US-Iran nuclear negotiations, due to take place in Oman this weekend, has been canceled, Oman’s foreign minister has said. His Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, earlier said such talks were “unjustifiable” while Israel’s attacks continued.
WORD EXCHANGE
Israel struck the “nuclear command center of the Iranian regime” in overnight strikes on 80 targets across Iran Saturday, a military spokesperson said, adding: “We are not pausing for a moment.”
The new round of strikes on Iran hit “research and development sites used for the production of raw materials and laboratories for the development of nuclear weapons,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief Spokesperson Effie Defrin said at a Sunday briefing.
“We also struck fuel depots near Tehran that support Iranian military infrastructure,” he said.
Overall, Israel has struck 250 targets in Iran.
“Even at this hour, we are continuing to strike dozens more targets in Tehran,” Defrin said.
“We are deepening the damage to the nuclear program and to military capabilities, in order to disrupt and reduce the threat to the Israeli home front.”
Fresh blasts rock Tehran as Israeli attacks continue
Residents in the capital Tehran told CNN they felt fresh explosions shake the city on Sunday afternoon.
State media reported blasts in several residential areas in the west of the city and showed plumes of smoke rising. One video showed a car on fire and the street thick with dust.
The full extent of the damage or if there are casualties is unclear.
The Israeli military was giving a briefing as reports emerged, with a spokesperson saying further strikes were underway.
“We don’t stop striking for one moment,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Effie Defrin said. “At this time, too, we continue to strike dozens of various additional targets in Tehran.”
Gulf official criticizes “reckless” Israeli strike on South Pars gas field
An official from a Gulf country has criticized as “reckless” an Israeli strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field, the largest such facility in the world that Iran shares with Qatar.
“While significant US investments are only on the Qatari side of the world’s largest gas field, this escalation is a threat to these investments,” the official briefed on the strike told CNN on Sunday.
The strike took place around 200 kilometers from the Qatari facilities, the official said.
“This is very reckless behavior that threatens global energy security, considering the Qatari field is a vital energy source for the US, Europe and the world,” they added. “This strike puts the interests of the United States and those of regional allies like Qatar and others at risk.”
Tehran to open metro stations for use as bomb shelters, government says
Iran’s capital Tehran will open its metro stations around the clock from Sunday night for people to use as shelters, a government spokesperson announced on Iranian state television.
Meanwhile, Tehran’s council chief said that as the city lacks bomb shelters, civilians must use tunnels and basements.
“Unfortunately, we in Tehran and in our other cities do not have shelters,” Mehdi Chamran told reporters Sunday. “We must work on having shelters now; we can use the plans we had before.”
Chamran said that casualty figures in Israel are lower as that country has bomb shelters and holds regular drills in readiness for incoming attacks.
“In Tehran there weren’t any shelters, people went into basements,” he said, adding that the metro can be used as a shelter “in extreme crisis” but that “we would need to shut the system down.”
“We could prepare underground parking lots as well, similar to when Saddam bombed us,” Chamran said, referring to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the war of the 1980s.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned in a video address Saturday that Israel will “strike every site and every target of the Ayatollah’s regime.” Iran has threatened to intensify its attacks if Israel continues hostilities.
Frightened Iranians flee major cities as Netanyahu vows further strikes
A CNN team on the ground witnessed the destruction caused in a central Israeli town after it came under fire from Iran in the early hours of Sunday morning.
A barrage of Iranian missiles struck Bat Yam at around 2.30 a.m. local time. CNN’s Nic Robertson witnessed the aftermath of the attack, and saw how buildings had been turned to rubble.
The Iranian strikes appeared to have hit a residential block, with children’s toys seen lying in the ruins of the building.
Speaking to CNN live on air, Dean Elsdunne, an international spokesperson for the Israel Police, said that extensive rescue efforts were still ongoing, with people feared trapped under the rubble.
“This is the result of yet another barrage of rockets targeting our civiilian populations,” Elsdunne said.
The police spokesperson declined to give an exact figure for the number of casualties in the town, but said that “scores” had been injured and that that number was growing as police work to locate more individuals.
Elsdunne added that the “civilian discipline” instilled in Israelis was helping to save many lives, with the authorities asking the public to follow multiple instructions for their own safety. “Obviously to stay close to protected shelter, to be in protected shelter until you get a notification to leave, but also not to share locations of impact sites,” he said.
“It’s very dangerous, the Iranian regime is obviously using this to continue their targeting of the civilian population,” he added.
“We ask them to continuously listen to these instructions.”
Courtesy: CNN reports