Iran fires missiles after Israel strike

Iran launched a missile barrage early Sunday in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Tehran’s defense ministry, escalating a regional conflict that has left dozens dead and hundreds wounded.

Air raid sirens and explosions were heard in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as millions of Israelis sought shelter. Israel’s emergency services reported at least eight killed, including children, and about 200 wounded in overnight Iranian missile attacks.

In Tehran, a series of blasts around 2:30 a.m. were confirmed by AFP journalists. Iranian media reported damage to the defense ministry headquarters, targeted by Israeli forces just before 2:40 a.m. Israeli officials said they struck Iran’s defense ministry, nuclear weapons project sites, and fuel depots.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vowed, “The Iranian armed forces' offensive operations will continue more fiercely and more broadly if the depravity and attacks (against Iran) continue.”

The tit-for-tat strikes mark the most intense direct conflict between the longtime adversaries in decades, despite international calls for de-escalation. Iran canceled its latest nuclear talks with the U.S., citing Israeli attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would hit “every target of the ayatollah regime,” while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that further strikes would provoke “a more severe and powerful response.”

In Israel, first responders recovered victims from missile damage including two women, a girl, and a boy in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. Another three women died in a strike in northern Israel, and a woman in her 20s was killed in Haifa.

Iran’s UN ambassador said 78 were killed and 320 wounded in Friday’s Israeli strikes, while Israeli forces claim to have killed more than 20 Iranian commanders in recent attacks, including top military leaders.

U.S. President Donald Trump expressed support for Israel’s operation and said in a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Iran-Israel conflict “should end.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the Israeli attacks a threat to negotiations and a push toward “a dangerous cycle of violence.”

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned of a “devastating war” with regional consequences, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced deployment of fighter jets to the Middle East for contingency support while urging de-escalation.