Iran launched a new wave of missile attacks against Israel early on Monday, causing air raids around the country as emergency services reported at least five kills and dozens of injuries on the fourth day of the war that was opened among enemies in areas that showed no signs of slowing down.
Iran has announced it has launched around 100 missiles and vowed to further retaliate against attacks on Israeli military and nuclear infrastructure.
The attack raised Israeli total death toll to at least 18, and in response, Israeli forces said the fighters attacked 10 command centres in Tehran, which belong to Iran’s Quds forces.
A powerful explosion from Israeli defense systems could thwart Iran’s missiles, rocking Tel Aviv shortly before dawn on Monday, sending a black smoke plume into the sky of coastal cities.
Authorities in Israeli central city Petatikva said Iranian missiles had struck a residential building there, carbonising concrete walls, shattering windows and ripping the walls from multiple apartments.
Israel’s Magen Adm Emergency Service reported that two women, two men (all in their 70s) and one other person were killed in a wave of missile attacks that hit four sites in central Israel.
“We are clearly seeing our civilians being targeted,” said Dean Elsdun, a spokesman for Israeli police outside the bombed building in Peta Tikba. “And this is one scene. There are other sites like this near the southern coast.”
Yoram Suki, a resident of Peta Tikva, hears the warning of an air raid, rushes to the shelter with his family and shows up after finding his apartment destroyed.
“Thank God that we were fine,” said the 60-year-old.
Despite his loss of his home, he urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to maintain his attack on Iran.
“It’s totally worth it,” he said. “This is for our children and grandchildren.”
The MDA said in addition to those killed, paramedics evacuated another 87 injured people to the hospital, including a 30-year-old woman in serious condition, but rescuers were still searching for residents trapped under the tiled bleed of the house.
“We saw a massive destruction when we arrived at the scene of the rocket strike,” said Dr. Gal Rosen, an MDA paramedic, who had rescued the four-day-old baby as it burned out of the building.
During the early barrage of Iranian missiles in central Israel, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragut said Iran would stop the strike if Israel did the same.
But one day after a concentrated Israeli air attack that expanded its targets beyond military facilities and hit oil refineries and government buildings, revolutionary guards raided the Hardline on Monday, vowing that many more strikes were “more forced, serious, accurate and destructive than before.”
Health officials also reported 1,277 people were injured in Iran without distinguishing between military officials and civilians.
Rights groups have suggested that deaths in the Iranian government are a key obstacle, as they are called human rights activists, as well as Washington-based Iranian advocacy groups. Human rights activists say they have recorded more than 400 people being killed out of 197 civilians.
Israel argues that attacks on top Iran’s military leaders, uranium enrichment sites and nuclear scientists are necessary to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Iran has always argued that the nuclear program is peace, and the US and others have evaluated Tehran as not pursuing nuclear weapons since 2003.
However, Iran has in recent years enriched a constant stockpile of uranium close to weapons-grade levels, and was thought to have the ability to develop multiple weapons within months if it chose to do so.
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Isaac Schaaf of Jerusalem, Isabelle Debre of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and David Rising of Bangkok contributed to this report.
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