Israel says 21 people wounded as Iran fires dozens of missiles following U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities
Tel Aviv, Israel — Iran launched a wave of missiles at Israel on Sunday morning, wounding at least 21 people — four of them seriously, paramedics said — after the U.S. joined Israel's week-long attacks on the Islamic Republic's nuclear sites.
Iranian missiles made impacts in four sites across Israel: in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Be'er Yaakov and Nes Ziona, according to Israel's Magen David Adom emergency response service.
Searches were underway for people believed to be trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building in Tel Aviv, local media reported.
The Israel Defense Forces told CBS News that Iran had launched about 30 missiles at Israel.
Israel later responded with fighter jet strikes in Iran, the military said.
Images circulating on both Israeli television and social media platforms showed serious damage to buildings, as well as injured people being rescued by first responders.
The IDF said in a statement that during the missile barrage, no alert sirens had gone off in Haifa, despite there having been an impact from a missile there.
"The possibility that there was an issue with the interceptor is being looked into," the IDF said, referring to its missile defense systems. "There was no malfunction in the alert system and a previous warning had been issued to the area."
The Iranian assault took place hours after President Trump announced that the U.S. military had carried out strikes on three of Iran's nuclear sites: Isfahan and Natanz, and the well-fortified Fordo enrichment facility.
In a briefing in Washington on Sunday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said the U.S. operation, called "Midnight Hammer," used seven B2 bombers carrying bunker-busting bombs to attack Fordo and Natanz. It struck Isfahan, which had already been heavily bombed by Israel in previous days, with Tomahawk missiles launched by submarines.
Israel's military, meanwhile, said it struck dozens of missile and drone sites on Sunday in Isfahan, Bushehr, Ahvaz and Yazd. The targets, the military said, included a strategic missile command center where long-range missiles were stored and from where around 60 had been launched towards Israel.
"During the strikes, an IAF aircraft identified Iranian Armed Forces soldiers loading missile launchers and eliminated them," the IDF said in a statement.
Since the beginning of Israel's "Operation Rising Lion" against Iran, its National Public Diplomacy Directorate says Iran has fired over 450 missiles at Israel and 400 drones. Israeli officials say 24 people there have been killed, all of them in the early days of Iran's retaliatory attacks last week.
As of Friday, the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists in Iran, which relies on a network of contacts in the country, said 722 people had been killed in Iran by Israel's strikes, with the attacks hitting 25 of the Islamic Republic's 31 provinces.
