Iran launched a new wave of missile attacks against Israel on Monday morning, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens of others, according to Israeli emergency services.
Four people in their 70s — two men and two women — were among the people killed in the wave of missile attacks that struck four sites in central Israel, the Israeli Magen David Adom emergency service reported.
In addition to those killed, the MDA said more than 100 others had been evacuated and transported to hospitals, including a 30-year-old woman in serious condition, while rescuers continued to search for people trapped beneath the rubble of destroyed homes.
A six-day-old baby was among those pulled from the rubble.
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The attacks raised Israel’s casualties total to at least 24 dead and more than 500 wounded in the conflict that began Friday with an Israeli offensive against Iran.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets responded to the attacks on Monday by striking 10 command centers in Tehran that belonged to Quds Force, an elite arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that conducts military and intelligence operations.
Powerful explosions, likely from Israel’s defense systems intercepting Iranian missiles, shook Tel Aviv shortly before dawn.
A missile fell near the U.S. Embassy branch in Tel Aviv, causing some minor damage to property from concussions of the blast, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on X. There were no injuries to U.S. personnel.
Iran announced it had launched about 100 missiles and promised further retaliation in response to Israel’s attacks on its military and nuclear infrastructure.
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At least 224 people have been killed and roughly 1,300 have been wounded in Iran since Israel began its offensive on Friday, and the vast majority of casualties were civilians, according to Iran’s Ministry of Health.
Rights groups, such as the Washington-based Iranian advocacy group Human Rights Activists, have suggested that the Iranian government is undercounting the death toll. The group says it has documented more than 400 people killed, including 197 civilians.
Authorities in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva said Iranian missiles had struck a residential building, charring concrete walls, shattering windows and pulling the walls off multiple apartments.
On Sunday, during an earlier wave of Iranian missiles on central Israel, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran will stop its strikes if Israel halts its attacks.
But after a day of intensive Israeli aerial attacks that extended targets beyond military installations to hit oil refineries and government buildings, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard pledged on Monday that additional rounds of strikes would be “more forceful, severe, precise and destructive than previous ones.”
Israel argues that its assault on Iran’s top military leaders, uranium enrichment sites and nuclear scientists was necessary to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful, and U.S. intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency have said Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon.
Fox News’ Yael Rotem-Kuriel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
