Geopolitical stability in the Middle East has already been undermined by spillover effects of the Gaza war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Iran has watched its longtime foe decimate its regional allies Hamas in the Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah with assassinations of their top leaders.
In total, 24 people in Israel have been killed so far in the Iranian missile attacks, all of them civilians.
The death toll in Iran has reached at least 224, with civilians accounting for 90 per cent of the casualties, an Iranian official said.
Iran’s state media reported that the Farabi hospital and surrounding areas in the western province of Kermanshah were hit in a missile attack, causing serious material damage.
In Israel, search and rescue operations were underway in Haifa, where some 30 people were wounded, emergency services said. Fires were seen burning at a power plant near the port.
Video footage showed several missiles over Tel Aviv and explosions could be heard there and over Jerusalem.
Several residential buildings in a densely populated neighbourhood of Tel Aviv were destroyed in a strike that blew out the windows of hotels and homes near the US embassy branch in the city.
“IT’S TERRIFYING”
Guydo Tetelbaun, who was in his apartment in Tel Aviv when the alerts came in shortly after 4am local time, said he headed for a shelter but the door was blown in.
“It’s terrifying because it’s so unknown. This could be the beginning of a long time like this, or it could get worse, or hopefully better, but it’s the unknown that’s the scariest,” the 31-year-old chef said.
The pre-dawn missiles also struck near Shuk HaCarmel, a popular fresh fruit and vegetable market in Tel Aviv.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the latest attack employed a new method that caused Israel’s multi-layered defence systems to target each other and allowed Tehran to successfully hit many targets, without providing further details.
The Israeli Defence Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement: “The arrogant dictator of Tehran has become a cowardly murderer who targets the civilian home front in Israel to deter the IDF.” “The residents of Tehran will pay the price, and soon.”
Katz later issued a separate statement saying that Israel had no intention of deliberately harming Tehran’s residents.
Oil prices edged down on Monday, after surging 7 per cent on Friday, as the military strikes by Israel and Iran over the weekend left oil production and export facilities unaffected. While investors remain on edge, stock and currency markets in Asia were little moved.
