Iranian missiles have struck Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, destroying homes and fuelling concerns among world leaders at this week’s G7 meeting that the conflict between the two regional enemies could lead to a broader Middle East war,
The Guardian reports.
Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said Monday that four people were pronounced dead after strikes at four sites in central Israel, with 87 injured. The dead were two women and two men, all approximately 70 years old, the MDA said.
Authorities in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv said that Iranian missiles had hit a residential building there, charring concrete walls, blowing out windows and heavily damaging multiple apartments.
Search and location operations were under way in the northern port city of Haifa where about 30 people were wounded, emergency authorities said, as dozens of first responders rushed to the strike zones. Fires were seen burning at a power plant near the port, media reported.
Iranian state TV said the country fired at least 100 missiles at Israel, signalling that it had no intention of yielding to international calls for de-escalation as it pressed on with its retaliation for Israel’s surprise attack on Tehran’s nuclear program and military leadership on Friday.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed the latest attack employed a new method that caused Israel’s multi-layered defence systems to target each other. The Guardian was unable to verify this claim. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes. Israeli officials have repeatedly said the defence system is not 100% infallible and warned of tough days ahead.
