Homes were destroyed and dozens of people injured in Haifa because of Iranian missile strikes, amid concerns, also expected to occupy the G7 in Canada, that a military showdown between Israel and Iran, sworn enemies, could lead to a wider conflict.

According to Israeli media, three people were killed in strikes in the central part of the country Sunday night into Monday. Search and rescue operations are underway in Haifa, where early reports indicate 30 people are injured. Fires have broken out at a power station near the port, the media reported.

Explosions were also heard in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Houses in Tel Aviv were hit, according to Reuters correspondents.

In Tehran, the Revolutionary Guards said that new methods were used in the latest barrage of ballistic missiles against Israeli territory.

“The initiatives and capabilities utilized in this operation, despite the full support of the US and other Western powers and the possession (by Israel) of the most modern defense technology, resulted in (…) successful strikes on targets in the occupied territories,” they claimed.

Some 16 people have died in Iranian retaliatory missile strikes on Israel, including children. At least 224 people have been killed in Israeli bombing of unprecedented range in Iran since Friday, 90 percent of whom were civilians, according to the health ministry in Tehran.

Iran’s early-morning attack on Monday

In the early hours of Monday morning, the Israeli military announced that a new barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles had been fired. Videos posted on X show missiles flying and explosions can be heard in the skies of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Israel’s state-run Kan TV network reported early this morning that several people were injured in an Iranian missile strike in Haifa, where a fire has broken out.

For its part, British maritime safety company Ambrey said there were fires at a power station near the port in Haifa.

IDF: Missile facilities hit – Revolutionary Guards intelligence chief dead

On day 4 of its unprecedented air campaign against Iran, the Israeli military said its air force was targeting surface-to-surface missile launch facilities in central Iran. “We are acting against this threat in our own airspace and in Iranian airspace,” Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Sosani said via X.

Yesterday a strike targeted an apartment building in central Tehran, killing at least five people, according to state television. An AFP reporter on the scene reported that there were “two explosions” a few minutes apart near the Iranian communications ministry.

Thick black smoke billowed from the scene while bystanders were “speechless”, according to an eyewitness.

The Iranian government announced that Islamic mosques, subway stations and schools would be turned into shelters as of last night.

Tehran yesterday announced the death of the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence agency, following the deaths on Friday of the two most senior armed forces officers and nine scientists working on the country’s nuclear energy programme. Dozens of targets in the Iranian capital were attacked, including two facilities linked to the nuclear power program and two fuel storage facilities.

Mass exodus from Tehran – Israelis in shelters

Most commercial shops remained closed yesterday. Roads leading out of the capital were crowded, long queues of vehicles had formed.

“We have not been able to sleep since Friday because of the horrible crackling of the explosions. Today, a house was hit in our street and we were very scared. We decided to leave Tehran,” explained Farzane, a 56-year-old housewife who left for the north.

In Israel, air defence sirens sounded repeatedly yesterday, warning the population to rush to shelters.

In Jerusalem, French News Agency reporters saw at least ten rockets fly past last night before distant explosions were heard. Several areas were affected, according to the military.

Magen David Adom (“Red Star of David”), the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, released visual footage showing its teams in the coastal city of Haifa (north) as vehicles were set ablaze and an apartment building was damaged by an explosion.

Major damage in Bat Yam

On Saturday night into Sunday, a volley of Iranian missiles caused destruction in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, and Tamra, an Arab community in the north.

“There’s nothing left, there goes the house, it’s over,” said Eugenia Dudka, a resident of Bat Yam. “An alarm sounded and we went to the shelter. Suddenly the whole shelter was covered in dust and we realized it was a disaster.”

“Iran will pay very dearly for the premeditated killing of civilians, women and children,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited Bat Yam.

 

Claiming that Iran was approaching a “point of no return” in its alleged quest to acquire nuclear weapons – something the Islamic Republic has denied for decades that it is pursuing – Israel launched massive aerial bombardments of Iran in the early hours of Friday morning, hitting hundreds of military facilities and nuclear power plants.

After decades of conflict through intermediaries, which have become much more direct in recent years, this is the first time the two countries, sworn enemies, have engaged in a military confrontation of such intensity.

Iran: TIsrael will soon not be habitable

Western governments and that of Israel – the only power with nuclear weapons in the Middle East, according to experts – accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic denies this and insists on its right to have a civilian nuclear energy program. Yesterday it asserted that there would be a “catastrophic retaliation” to the Israeli attack, threatening that Israel would soon be “uninhabitable.”

Also yesterday, the Israeli armed forces announced that they had struck the airport of Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city in the north, some 2,300 kilometres from Israel’s border. There is the shrine of Imam Reza – the holiest place for Shiites. It was, the Israeli army boasted, the furthest strike launched since Friday.

It also announced that it has begun hitting “dozens” of surface-to-surface missile launch facilities in western Iran.

Iran, for its part, said it had arrested two members of the Mossad. They were found in possession of 200 kilograms of explosives and dozens of drones.

 

Trump on Israel and Iran: Make a ceasefire agreement

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told Fox News that his army “destroyed the main facility” of the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz in central Iran.

He also hinted that he expected the bombing he ordered could lead to regime change. “That could certainly be the outcome because the Iranian regime is very weak,” he argued.

US President Donald Trump, a major ally of Israel, yesterday Sunday called on the two countries to “strike a deal”. He also said it was “possible” that the US would get involved in the war, asserting that “at this time it is not involved.”