Tel Aviv: According to an Israeli government statement, at least 13 people have been killed and 380 hurt in Iran’s attacks on Israel.
Of those wounded, nine are in serious condition while the rest have minor or moderate injuries.
The statement also said 200 missiles and drones have been fired into Israel since the start of the fighting, with 22 places in the country affected.
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.
The latest wave of Iranian attacks began shortly after 11:00pm on Saturday (1am PKT Sunday), when air raid sirens blared in Jerusalem and Haifa, sending around a million people into bomb shelters.
Around 2:30am local time (4:30am PKT), the Israeli military warned of another incoming missile barrage and urged residents to seek shelter.
Explosions echoed through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as missiles streaked across the skies as interceptor rockets were launched in response.
The military lifted its shelter-in-place advisory nearly an hour after issuing the warning.
The ambulance service said at least 13 people were killed overnight, 380 injured in multiple attacks.
Search and rescue workers combed through the rubble of residential buildings destroyed in multiple strikes, using flashlights and dogs to look for survivors.
Israeli media said at least 35 people were missing after a strike hit Bat Yam, a city south of Tel Aviv.
A spokesperson for the emergency services said a missile hit an 8-storey building there and while many people were rescued, there were fatalities.
It was unclear how many buildings were hit overnight.
The Shahran oil depot in Tehran was targeted in an Israeli attack, Iran said, but added the situation was under control. A fire had erupted after an Israeli attack on an oil refinery near the capital while Israeli strikes also targeted Iran’s defence ministry building, causing minor damage, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said on Sunday.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Iranian missiles and drones targeted Israel’s energy infrastructure and facilities for fighter jet fuel production. The elite force warned Tehran’s attacks will be “heavier and more extensive” if Israel continues its hostilities.
US President Donald Trump had warned Iran of worse to come, but said it was not too late to halt the Israeli campaign if Tehran accepted a sharp downgrading of its nuclear programme.
A round of US-Iran nuclear talks that was due to be held in Oman on Sunday was cancelled, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi saying the discussions could not take place while Iran was being subjected to Israel’s “barbarous” attacks.
In the first apparent attack to hit Iran’s energy infrastructure, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said Iran partially suspended production at the world’s biggest gas field after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on Saturday.
The South Pars field, offshore in Iran’s southern Bushehr province, is the source of most of the gas produced in Iran.
An Iranian general, Esmail Kosari, said on Saturday that Tehran was reviewing whether to close the Strait of Hormuz, controlling access to the Gulf for tankers.
B’Tselem, a leading Israeli human rights organisation, said on Saturday that instead of exhausting all possibilities for a diplomatic resolution, Israel’s government had chosen to start a war that puts the entire region in danger.
Tehran has warned Israel’s allies that their military bases in the region would come under fire too if they helped shoot down Iranian missiles.
Israel sees Iran’s nuclear programme as a threat to its existence, and said the bombardment was designed to avert the last steps to production of a nuclear weapon.
Tehran insists the programme is entirely civilian and that it does not seek an atomic bomb. However, the UN nuclear watchdog reported it this week as violating obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.
