TEL AVIV/DUBAI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Iranian missiles struck Israel’s Tel Aviv and the port city of Haifa before dawn on Monday, killing at least eight people and destroying homes, prompting Israel’s defense minister to warn that Tehran residents would “pay the price and soon”.
Iran said its parliament was preparing a bill to leave the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), adding that Tehran remains opposed to developing weapons of mass destruction. Passing the bill could take several weeks.
Israel is presumed to have a sizable nuclear arsenal but neither confirms nor denies it. It is the only Middle East state that has not signed the NPT.
Israel’s military, which has gutted Iran’s nuclear and military leadership with airstrikes, said on Monday it had killed four senior intelligence officials including the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence unit.
Israeli authorities said a total of seven missiles of the fewer than 100 fired by Iran overnight had landed in Israel. A military spokesman also said Israel had achieved aerial superiority over Iran and had destroyed more than a third of Iran’s surface-to-surface missile launchers.
At least 100 people were wounded in Israel in the overnight blitz, part of a wave of attacks by Tehran in retaliation for Israel’s strikes targeting the nuclear and ballistic missile programs of sworn enemy Iran.
Iran, facing its worst security breach since the 1979 Islamic revolution, said dozens of alleged saboteurs and “spies” linked to Israel had been arrested since the start of the conflict.
Iran’s currency has lost at least 10% of its value against the U.S. dollar since the start of Israel’s biggest ever attack on its old enemy last Friday.
The dangers of further escalation loomed over a meeting of G7 leaders in Canada, with U.S. President Donald Trump expressing hope on Sunday that a deal could be done but no sign of the fighting abating on a fourth day of war.
Geopolitical stability in the Middle East has already been undermined by spillover effects of the Gaza war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
In total, 24 people in Israel have been killed so far in the Iranian missile attacks, all of them civilians.
The death toll in Iran has reached at least 224, with civilians accounting for 90% of the casualties, an Iranian health ministry spokesperson said.
Iran’s state media reported that the Farabi hospital and surrounding areas in the western province of Kermanshah were hit in a missile attack, causing serious material damage.
In Israel, search and rescue operations were underway in Haifa where some 30 people were wounded, emergency services said, as dozens of first responders rushed to the strike zones. Fires were seen burning at a power plant near the port.
Video footage showed several missiles over Tel Aviv and explosions could be heard there and over Jerusalem.
Several residential buildings in a densely populated neighborhood of Tel Aviv were destroyed in a strike that blew out the windows of hotels and homes near the U.S. Embassy branch in the city. The U.S. ambassador said the building sustained minor damage, but there were no injuries to personnel.
‘IT’S TERRIFYING’
Guydo Tetelbaun was in his apartment in Tel Aviv when the alerts came in shortly after 4 a.m. (0100 GMT).
“As usual, we went into the (shelter) that’s right across the street there. And within minutes, the door of the (shelter) blew in,” the 31-year-old chef said.
“It’s terrifying because it’s so unknown. This could be the beginning of a long time like this, or it could get worse, or hopefully better, but it’s the unknown that’s the scariest.”
The pre-dawn missiles also struck near Shuk HaCarmel, a popular market in Tel Aviv that typically draws large crowds buying fresh fruit and vegetables.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the latest attack employed a new method that caused Israel’s multi-layered defense systems to target each other and allowed Tehran to successfully hit many targets, without providing further details.
The Israeli Defense Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement: “The arrogant dictator of Tehran has become a cowardly murderer who targets the civilian home front in Israel to deter the IDF from continuing the attack that is collapsing his capabilities.”
“The residents of Tehran will pay the price, and soon.”
Katz later issued a separate statement saying that Israel had no intention of deliberately harming Tehran’s residents.
LEADERS MEET
Group of Seven leaders gathered in the Canadian Rockies on Sunday with the Israel-Iran conflict expected to be a top priority.
Before leaving for the summit on Sunday, Trump was asked what he was doing to de-escalate the situation. “I hope there’s going to be a deal. I think it’s time for a deal,” he told reporters. “Sometimes they have to fight it out.”
Oil prices edged down on Monday, after surging 7% on Friday, as the military strikes by Israel and Iran over the weekend avoided oil production and export facilities. While investors remain on edge, stock and currency markets in Asia were little moved.
Israel has said its military campaign will escalate in the coming days.
Trump has lauded Israel’s offensive while denying Iranian allegations that the U.S. has taken part and warning Tehran not to widen its retaliation to include U.S. targets.
Trump has repeatedly said Iran could end the war by agreeing to tough restrictions on its nuclear program, which Iran says is for peaceful purposes but which Western countries and the IAEA nuclear watchdog say could be used to make an atomic bomb.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Howard Goller, Lincoln Feast, Tom Perry and Michael Georgy; Editing by Saad Sayeed and Gareth Jones)
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