Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks yesterday, killing and wounding civilians, with both militaries urging civilians on the opposing side to take precautions against further strikes.
The Israeli military warned Iranians living near weapons facilities to evacuate.
“Iran will pay a heavy price for the murder of civilians, women and children,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said from a balcony overlooking blown-out apartments where six people were killed in Bat Yam, a town south of Tel Aviv.
Iran’s armed forces told residents of Israel to leave the vicinity of “vital areas” for their safety.
“Do not stay or travel near these critical areas,” an Iranian armed forces spokesperson said in a video broadcast by state TV around the time that Iran sent a new barrage of missiles towards Israel.
In Israel, rescue teams combed through rubble of residential buildings destroyed by Iranian missiles, using sniffer dogs and heavy excavators to look for survivors after at least 10 people, including children, were killed, raising the two-day toll to 13.
Explosions rattled Tel Aviv in the afternoon as Iran launched its first daylight missile raid since Israel attacked on Friday.
Hours later, shortly after nightfall, Iran launched a second wave of missiles, which struck Haifa, a mixed Jewish-Arab city in northern Israel. An Israeli military official said that an elderly care facility was hit. The national emergency service reported nine people were injured in the strike, along with two others following a missile impact in southern Israel.
In Iran, images from the capital showed the night sky lit up by a huge blaze at a fuel depot after Israel began strikes against Iran’s oil and gas sector – raising the stakes for the global economy and the functioning of the Iranian state.
The death toll of Israel’s attacks on Iran since Friday has climbed to 224, of which 90 per cent are civilians, Iran’s state media said yesterday.
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