The China Mail - Iran fires back at Israel after onslaught hits nuclear sites

Israeli emergency services said two people were killed when a rocket hit a residential area early Saturday, as the two sides traded fire for a second day despite international calls for de-escalation.

Iran called on its citizens to unite in defence of the country as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged them to rise up against their government.

Air raid sirens and explosions rang out across Israel through the night, with many residents holed up in bomb shelters until home defence commanders stood down alerts.

Israel said dozens of missiles -- some intercepted -- had been fired in the latest salvos from Iran, with AFP images of the city of Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv showing blown-out buildings, destroyed vehicles and streets strewn with debris.

Israeli rescuers said two people were killed and 19 wounded on Saturday by rocket fire on a residential area in the coastal plain.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked dozens of targets in Israel.

Israeli firefighters had worked for hours to free people trapped in a high-rise building in Tel Aviv on Friday.

Resident Chen Gabizon told AFP he ran to an underground shelter after receiving an alert.

"After a few minutes, we just heard a very big explosion, everything was shaking, smoke, dust, everything was all over the place," he said.

Rescuers said 34 people were wounded in the Gush Dan area, including a woman who later died of her injuries, according to Israeli media reports.

- Israel braces for more -

Speaking to CNN, Israel's ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said Iran had fired three salvos of ballistic missiles on Friday, some 150 in total.

"We expect that the Iranians, who have a considerable volume of ballistic missiles, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2,000, will continue to fire them," Leiter said.

In Tehran, fire and heavy smoke billowed over Mehrabad airport early Saturday, an AFP journalist said, as Iranian media reported an explosion.

Blasts were heard across the capital as Iran activated its air defences against the incoming fire.

The Israeli military said it had struck Iranian "defence arrays" in the Tehran area in the overnight strikes.

Dozens of Iranians took to the streets to cheer their country's military response, with some waving national flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans.

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations said Friday that 78 people had been killed and 320 wounded in the first wave of strikes by Israel.

As fears mounted of wider conflict, UN chief Antonio Guterres called on both sides to cease fire.

"Enough escalation. Time to stop. Peace and diplomacy must prevail," he said on X late Friday.

- 'Dialogue and diplomacy' -

US officials said they were helping Israel defend against the missile attacks, even as Washington insisted it had nothing to do with Israel's strikes on Iran.

US President Donald Trump agreed in a call with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that "dialogue and diplomacy" were needed to calm the crisis, Starmer's office said.

Trump also spoke with the Israeli prime minister, US officials said without elaborating.

Iran's missile barrages came in response to intense Israeli strikes on Friday that killed several top Iranian generals and most of the senior leadership of the Revolutionary Guards' air arm.

Iran's Tasnim news agency said six nuclear scientists were also among the dead.

In a televised address, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to bring Israel "to ruin".

Netanyahu urged Iranians to rise up against their leaders, warning more attacks were coming.

"As we achieve our objective, we are also clearing the path for you to achieve your freedom."

- Radiation levels 'unchanged' -

Israel pounded Iranian nuclear sites, including its main underground uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in central Iran.

Israel said it had damaged the facility's enrichment centrifuges but Iran said most of the damage was above ground and no casualties had been sustained.

"Most of the damage is on the surface level," said Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi.

He said the damage to the Fordo and Isfahan nuclear sites was also only limited.

The conflict threw into doubt plans for a fresh round of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran in Oman on Sunday.

After the first wave of strikes on Friday, Trump urged Iran to "make a deal", adding that Washington was "hoping to get back to the negotiating table".

The United States and other Western governments have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, an ambition it has consistently denied.

Netanyahu said Israeli intelligence had concluded that Iran was approaching the "point of no return" on its nuclear programme.

Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set by a largely moribund 2015 agreement with major powers, but still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead.

Y.Parker--ThChM