An Israeli strike targeted Iran’s defence ministry headquarters in Tehran and damaged one of its buildings, Iranian news agency Tasnim reported early this morning.
“In an attack on Tehran by the air force of the Zionist regime, the headquarters of the defence ministry was targeted. One of the headquarters’ buildings was lightly damaged,” the agency said.
Another Israeli attack in the same area of Tehran also hit a separate defence ministry building, the report said.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said its missiles and drones struck fighter jet fuel production facilities and energy supply centres in Israel.
“The offensive operations of the IRGC armed forces will continue more fiercely and widely if the evils and aggressions continue,” it said in a statement.
The latest attacks come as Iran and Israel traded missiles and air strikes last night as the conflict that has killed dozens escalates with no end in sight.
At least 80 people – including 20 children – have been killed in Iran and four in Israel, with hundreds wounded on both sides in the ongoing tit-for-tat attacks.
Images from the city of Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv showed blown-out buildings, destroyed vehicles and streets strewn with debris after Iran’s first wave of attacks.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had struck dozens of targets in Israel. One Iranian missile wounded seven Israeli soldiers, the military said.
Firemen had worked for hours to free people trapped in a Tel Aviv high-rise building.
Chen Gabizon, a resident, said he ran to an underground shelter after receiving an alert.
“We just heard a very big explosion, everything was shaking, smoke, dust, everything was all over the place,” he said.
In Tehran, fire and heavy smoke billowed over Mehrabad airport.
The Israeli army said it had struck an underground military facility in western Iran’s Khorramabad that contained surface-to-surface and cruise missiles.
Iranian media also reported a “massive explosion” following an Israeli drone strike on an oil refinery in the southern city of Kangan.
The attacks prompted several countries to temporarily ground air traffic, though yesterday Jordan, Lebanon and Syria reopened their airspace.
Iran’s airspace was closed until further notice, state media reported, as was Israel’s, according to authorities.
Israel also attacked the Shahr Rey oil refinery in south Tehran, which is one of country’s largest, and emergency crews were trying to contain a fire there, Tasnim news agency reported.
Reza Salehi, a resident of the city, said he could see the flames from miles away. The multiple, massive explosions at energy and fuel facilities in and round Tehran has spread anxiety and fear, residents said.
Iran’s oil ministry confirmed that the Shahran fuel and petrol depot was hit and set afire during the Israeli attack last night. A major fire is burning, witnesses said. The depot, with at least 11 storage tanks, is in an affluent neighbourhood of luxury high-rises.
The Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said, after a meeting with security chiefs, that the citizens of Iran, and particularly the residents of Tehran, would “pay a heavy price” for the harm being caused to Israeli civilians. “If Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn,” he said, referring to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Israel targeted a meeting of Houthi leadership in Yemen last night, including their military chief of staff, Mohamed Al Ghamari, according to Israeli officials. It remains unclear if Al Ghamari was killed in the air strike publicly. Nor was it clear who else from the Houthi leadership was present at the site at the time of the strike.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and discussed the “gravely concerning situation in the Middle East”, the prime minister’s office said in a statement yesterday.
The leaders agreed on the need to de-escalate, the statement added.
Starmer also reiterated that the UK is poised to work closely with its allies in the coming days to support a diplomatic resolution, the PM’s office said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to US President Donald Trump for 50 minutes, focusing on hostilities between Israel and Iran and calling for efforts to bring them to an end.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Putin condemned the Israeli military operation against Iran and expressed concern about the risks of escalation.
Trump, in his account on Truth Social, said most of the discussion centred on the Middle East, but that he also told Putin that Russia’s war in Ukraine should end.
“Vladimir Putin condemned Israel’s military operation against Iran and expressed serious concern about a possible escalation of the conflict, which would have unpredictable consequences for the entire situation in the Middle East,” Ushakov told reporters.
Ushakov said Trump described events in the Middle East as “very alarming”. But the two leaders said they do not rule out a return to the negotiating track on Iran’s nuclear programme, Ushakov said.
Ushakov said US negotiators were ready to hold further talks with Iranian representatives, with Oman as mediator. The latest round, scheduled for today in Oman, has been cancelled.
The Kremlin aide said Putin told Trump that Russia stood by proposals to ease tension and resolve issues concerning Iran’s nuclear programme.
“The Russian president recalled that prior to the current rise in tension our side had proposed concrete steps intended to find mutually acceptable agreements during talks between US and Iranian representatives about the Iranian nuclear programme,” Ushakov said.
“Russia’s principled approach and interest in a resolution is unchanged and, as Vladimir Putin noted, we will continue to act based on this.”
Trump’s account of the conversation included what amounted to his first explicit appeal for the hostilities to end.
“The call lasted approximately one hour,” Trump wrote. “He feels, as do I, this war in Israel-Iran should end, to which I explained, his war should also end.”
Trump said he and Putin mostly discussed the Middle East and spent “much less time” talking about the war in Ukraine. Trump hinted at follow-up discussions on the war in Ukraine in the coming week.
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