Israel targets Iran’s Defense Ministry headquarters as Tehran unleashes deadly missile strike

DUBAI — Israel launched an expanded assault on Iran on Sunday, with direct strikes targeting its energy industry and Defense Ministry headquarters, while Tehran unleashed a fresh barrage of missiles blamed for the deaths of four people.

The exchange of strikes represented the latest salvo since a surprise attack by Israel two days earlier aimed at decimating Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

New explosions boomed across Tehran as Iranian missiles entered Israel’s skies in an attack that Israeli emergency officials said killed four people in an apartment building in the Galilee region. Casualty figures weren’t immediately available in Iran, where Israel targeted the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tehran as well as sites that it alleged were associated with the country’s nuclear program. Iran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that Iranian missiles targeted fuel production facilities for Israeli fighter jets, something not acknowledged by Israel.

Amid the continued conflict, planned negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program were canceled, throwing into question when and how an end to the fighting could come.

“Tehran is burning,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on social media.

Both Israel’s military and Iran state television announced the latest round of Iranian missiles as explosions were heard near midnight, while the Israeli security Cabinet met.

Israel’s ongoing strikes across Iran have left the country’s surviving leadership with the difficult decision of whether to plunge deeper into conflict with Israel’s more powerful forces or seek a diplomatic route.

World leaders made urgent calls to de-escalate and avoid all-out war. Israel’s attack on Iranian nuclear sites set a “dangerous precedent,” China’s foreign minister said. The region is already on edge as Israel makes a new push to eliminate the Iranian-backed militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip after 20 months of fighting.

Israel — widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East — said its hundreds of strikes on Iran over the last two days killed nine senior scientists and experts involved in Iran’s nuclear program, in addition to senior Iranian military leaders. Iran’s U.N. ambassador said 78 people were killed and more than 320 wounded.

U.S. intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency have repeatedly said Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon before Israel unleashed its campaign of airstrikes targeting Iran beginning Friday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program a top priority, said Israel’s strikes so far are “nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days.”

In what could be another escalation if confirmed, semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported an Israeli drone struck and caused a “strong explosion” at an Iranian natural-gas processing plant. It would be the first Israeli attack on Iran’s oil and natural gas industry. Israel’s military did not immediately comment.

The extent of damage at the South Pars natural gas field was not immediately clear. Such sites have air defense systems around them, which Israel has been targeting.

Iran says talks now ‘unjustifiable’

The sixth round of U.S.-Iran indirect talks planned for Sunday over Iran ’s nuclear program will not take place, mediator Oman said.

“We remain committed to talks and hope the Iranians will come to the table soon,” said a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomacy.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran was not actively pursuing a bomb. But its uranium enrichment has reached near-weapons-grade levels, and on Thursday the United Nations’ atomic watchdog censured Iran for not complying with obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

Iran’s top diplomat said Saturday the nuclear talks were “unjustifiable” after Israel’s recent strikes. Abbas Araghchi’s comments came during a call with Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat.

The Israeli airstrikes were the “result of the direct support by Washington,” Araghchi said in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency. The U.S. has said it isn’t part of the strikes.

On Friday, President Trump urged Iran to reach a deal with the U.S. on its nuclear program. He warned on social media that Israel’s attacks “will only get worse,” adding that “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left.”

U.S. helps shoot down Iranian missiles

Iran launched waves of missiles at Israel late Friday and early Saturday, and Iranians awoke to state television airing repeated clips of strikes on Israel, as well as videos of people cheering and handing out sweets.

The Iranian attacks killed at least three people, mostly in and around Tel Aviv, according to two local hospitals. One missile severely damaged at least four homes in the nearby city of Rishon Lezion, according to first responders.

The Israeli military said seven soldiers were lightly wounded when a missile hit central Israel, without specifying where. It was the first report of Israeli military casualties since the initial Israeli strikes.

U.S. ground-based air defense systems in the region were helping to shoot down Iranian missiles, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the measures.

In Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv, an Associated Press journalist saw burned-out cars and at least three damaged houses, including one whose front was nearly entirely torn away.

Residents of a central Israeli city that was hit Friday night told the AP the explosion was so powerful it shook their shelter door open. “We thought, that’s it, the house is gone, and in fact half of the house was gone,” said Moshe Shani.

Israeli police said debris from the interception of drones and missiles fell in dozens of locations in northern Israel, causing damage and fires but no injuries.

Israel’s main international airport said Saturday it will remain closed until further notice.

‘More than a few weeks’ to repair nuclear facilities

Israel attacked Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz. Satellite photos analyzed by AP show extensive damage there. The images shot Saturday by Planet Labs PBC show multiple buildings damaged or destroyed. The structures hit include buildings identified by experts as supplying power to the facility.

U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Mariano Grossi told the Security Council that the aboveground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to have been hit, but the loss of power could have damaged the infrastructure there, he said.

Israel said it also struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan, including “infrastructure for enriched uranium conversion,” and said it destroyed dozens of radar installations and surface-to-air missile launchers in western Iran. Iran confirmed the strike at Isfahan.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. atomic watchdog, said four “critical buildings” at the Isfahan site were damaged, including its uranium conversion facility. “As in Natanz, no increase in off-site radiation [is] expected,” it added.

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with official procedures, said that according to the army’s initial assessment, “it will take much more than a few weeks” for Iran to repair the damage to the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. The official said the army had “concrete intelligence that production in Isfahan was for military purposes.”

Israel denied it had struck the nuclear enrichment facility in Fordo, about 60 miles southeast of Tehran.

Among those killed were three of Iran’s top military leaders: one who oversaw the entire armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri; one who led the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Gen. Hossein Salami; and the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division, which oversees its arsenal of ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

Two of Bagheri’s deputies were also killed, Iran confirmed Saturday. On Saturday, Khamenei named a new leader for the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division: Gen. Majid Mousavi.

Gambrell, Lidman and Frankel write for the Associated Press. Gambrell reported from Dubai and Lidman and Frankel reported from Jerusalem. AP writers Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, and Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report.