Death toll grows as Israel and Iran trade attacks for third day

The death toll grew Sunday as Israel and Iran exchanged missile attacks for a third consecutive day, with Israel warning that worse is to come.

Israel targeted Iran's Defense Ministry headquarters in Tehran and sites it alleged were associated with Iran's nuclear programme, while Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses and slammed into buildings deep inside Israel.

In Israel, at least 10 people were killed in Iranian strikes overnight and into Sunday, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service, bringing the country’s total death toll to 13.

The country’s main international airport and airspace remained closed for a third day. There was no update to an Iranian death toll released the day before by Iran’s United Nations ambassador, who said 78 people had been killed and more than 320 wounded.

The region braced for a drawn-out conflict after Israel’s strikes hit nuclear and military facilities, killing several senior generals and top nuclear scientists.

United States President Donald Trump said the US had “nothing to do with the attack on Iran” and warned Tehran to expect “the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces” if it retaliates against the United States.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will work with other G7 leaders at a summit in Canada this week “to encourage de-escalation” between Israel and Iran.

On Sunday, Britain changed its travel advice, telling United Kingdom nationals not to travel to Israel.

With the crisis due to dominate the G7 summit in Alberta, Starmer spokesman Tom Wells said Britain believes “the only route to peace is through diplomacy.”

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian criticised the United States and some Western countries for supporting Israel's attacks on Iran.

He said that if Israeli attacks continue, Iran's responses "will be more decisive and severe.”

Pezeshkian said that Israel "is not capable of any action without the permission of the U.S.” and that “what we are witnessing today is being done with the direct support of Washington.”

In a report carried on state TV, Pezeshkian said that Iran has never sought war and conflict. “However, just as our armed forces, including the powerful army and Islamic Revolutionary Guard, have so far provided appropriate and firm responses, in case of continued hostile actions, the responses will be more decisive and severe.”

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Sunday that the goal of its military campaign in Iran “is not a regime change.”

“This is for the Iranian people to decide,” Sa’ar said in an interview on CNN. He said the Israeli security Cabinet set the objective as eliminating Iran’s nuclear program and minimizing its ballistic missile threat.

“I believe what we are doing, as an ally for the US and for the Western civilization as a whole, is critical for stability in this part of the world,” Sa’ar said, adding: “If we learn something from our history, when somebody says ‘I’m going to eliminate the Jews,’ take him at his word.”

Sa’ar said Iran was within six months of being able to build as many as nine nuclear bombs.

Iran’s foreign minister was scheduled to also be interviewed on CNN but had to cancel at the last minute, the network said.

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