Tehran: Israel’s northern city of Haifa was also reportedly hit by a missile strike by Iran on Sunday night, damaging an oil refinery. Bazan oil refinery complex told the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that pipelines and transmission lines were damaged, the Times of Israel reported. No casualties were reported, however.
The company said that cleanup operations were continuing, although other facilities at the site were shut down. It added that it was assessing the impact of the damage and will resume operations.
More than 40 missiles hit the greater Haifa area overnight, with one reportedly hitting a house in the nearby town of Tamra, killing four people.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reported that a facility linked to the Iranian Defense Ministry in Isfahan had been attacked. Al Jazeera said it had also received reports of airstrikes in Shiraz and elsewhere and that Israel had struck two horse breeding farms in Kermanshah, killing 50-60 horses.
Israel unleashed airstrikes across Iran for a third day on Sunday and threatened even greater force as some Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defences to strike buildings in the heart of the country, the Associated Press reported.
Planned talks on Iran's nuclear programme, which could provide an off-ramp, were cancelled.
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.
Iran said Israel struck two oil refineries, raising the prospect of a broader assault on Iran's heavily sanctioned energy industry that could affect global markets.
The Israeli military, in a social media post, warned Iranians to evacuate arms factories, signalling what could be a further widening of the campaign. Around noon local time, explosions were heard again in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
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.