VIDEO: Iran launches new wave of attacks, hits several sites in Israel

Iran on Sunday launched a new wave of attacks on Israel, state television reported, as an intense exchange of fire raged between the two sides for a third day.

The official IRNA news agency also announced the beginning of "a new wave of missiles" launched towards Israel.

Israel's military said several sites were hit by the latest Iranan missile barrage on Sunday, with firefighters reporting a residential building struck on the country's Mediterranean coast.

"Homefront Command Search and Rescue teams have been dispatched to several hit sites in Israel, following the latest barrage from Iran," the military said in a statement shortly after telling the public they could leave protected shelters.

The fire services, meanwhile, said rescuers were heading to building on the coast that sustained a "direct hit."

Israel's first responders agency, the Magen David Adom, published footage of its teams deployed in the coastal city of Haifa, showing several cars on fire and a residential building whose facade was torn off by a blast.

A journalist reported a large plume of black smoke visible on the city skyline from a distance.

Earlier Israel unleashed airstrikes across Iran for a third day on Sunday and threatened even greater force as some Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses to strike buildings in the heart of the country. Planned talks on Iran's nuclear programme, which could provide an off-ramp, were called off.

Israeli rescuers search through the rubble at the site of an overnight Iranian missile strike in Bat Yam on Sunday. AFP

The region braced for a protracted conflict after Israel's surprise bombardment of Iran's nuclear and military sites on Friday killed several top generals and nuclear scientists, and neither side showed any sign of backing down. Israel reportedly targeted a gas installation, raising the prospect of a broader assault on Iran's heavily sanctioned energy industry that could affect global markets.

US President Donald Trump has expressed full support for Israel's actions while warning Iran that it can only avoid further destruction by agreeing to a new nuclear deal.

New explosions echoed across Tehran and were reported elsewhere in the country early Sunday, but there was no update to a death toll put out the day before by Iran's UN ambassador, who said 78 people had been killed and more than 320 wounded.

Flames and smoke rise, following what the Iranian Red Crescent Society says was an Israeli strike, in a location given as Tehran, Iran, on Sunday. Reuters

In Israel, at least 10 people were killed in Iranian strikes overnight and into Sunday, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service, bringing the country’s total death toll to 13.

Israeli strikes targeted Iran's Defence Ministry early on Sunday after hitting air defences, military bases and sites associated with its nuclear programme. The killing of several top generals and nuclear scientists in targeted strikes indicated that Israeli intelligence has penetrated Iran at the highest levels.

In Israel, at least six people, including two children, were killed when a missile hit an apartment building in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. Daniel Hadad, a local police commander, said 180 people were wounded and seven are still missing.

An Associated Press reporter saw streets lined with damaged and destroyed buildings, bombed out cars and shards of glass. Responders used a drone at points to look for survivors. Some people could be seen leaving the area with suitcases.

Four people were killed when a missile struck a building in the northern Israeli town of Tamra and another 24 were wounded. A strike on the central city of Rehovot wounded 42 people.

People watch from a bridge as flames from an Israeli attack rise from Sharan Oil depot, following Israeli strikes in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday. Reuters

The Weizmann Institute of Science, an important centre for research in Rehovot, said "there were a number of hits to buildings on the campus.” It said no one was harmed.

Israel has a sophisticated multi-tiered missile defence system that is able to intercept most projectiles fired at it, but officials have always said it is imperfect.

World leaders made urgent calls to deescalate. The attack on nuclear sites set a "dangerous precedent,” China's foreign minister said. The region is already on edge as Israel seeks to annihilate the Palestinian group Hamas, an Iranian ally, in the Gaza Strip, where the war is still raging after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off such calls, saying Israel’s strikes so far are "nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days.”

Israel, the sole though undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East -- said it launched the attack to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Iran has always said its nuclear programme was peaceful, and the US and others have assessed it has not pursued a weapon since 2003. But it has enriched ever larger stockpiles of uranium to near weapons-grade levels in recent years and was believed to have been able to develop multiple weapons within months if it chose to do so.

Responders work beside a damaged building following a strike by an Iranian missile in the Israeli city of Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, early on Sunday. AFP

The UN’s atomic watchdog censured Iran last week for not complying with its obligations.

Semiofficial Iranian news agencies meanwhile reported that an Israeli drone strike had caused a "strong explosion” at an Iranian natural-gas processing plant, in what could 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 defence systems around them, which Israel has been targeting.

The Arab Gulf country of Oman, which has been mediating indirect talks between the US and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme, said a sixth round planned for Sunday would not take place.

"We remain committed to talks and hope the Iranians will come to the table soon,” a senior US official said on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.

Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, said on Saturday that the nuclear talks were "unjustifiable” after Israel’s strikes, which he said were the "result of the direct support by Washington.”

Agencies