Missiles rain down on Tel Aviv and Haifa as Israel's Katz warns Tehran will 'pay the price'

Defence Minister issues threat to Iran, but later says Israel has no intention of deliberately harming Tehran residents

Smoke rising from the Israeli city of Haifa on Monday morning after an Iranian missile attack. AFP

Iran launched a predawn barrage of missiles at the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa on Monday, leaving eight dead in the fourth day of open warfare between the countries.

Israel, meanwhile, said it had achieved “aerial superiority” over its foe and could fly over Tehran without facing major threats, after destroying a third of Iran's surface-to-surface missile launchers.

In Tel Aviv, footage showed several missiles shooting through the sky, along with explosions, while blasts could also be heard in Jerusalem. A number of residential buildings in a densely populated Tel Aviv neighbourhood were destroyed.

In the coastal city of Haifa, search and rescue operations were under way after the Iranian attack. British maritime security firm Ambrey said a fire broke out at a power plant. It said it had seen footage of the Israeli military intercepting a projectile, followed by the impact of two hypersonic missiles.

Eight people were killed in the salvo against the two Israeli cities, with 92 injured, the Magen David Adom emergency service said. Iranian missiles have killed at least 24 people since Friday, the Israeli prime ministerial office added.

One missile on Monday landed near a branch of the US diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv, causing minor damage, the American ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said on X. The consulate will remain closed for the day, he added. No injuries were reported.

Several projectiles also struck near Shuk HaCarmel, a popular Tel Aviv market that typically draws large crowds buying fresh fruits and vegetables. A residential street in the nearby city of Petah Tikva and a school in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish city of Bnei Brak were also hit.

Iran vowed to follow up with more attacks. "Effective, targeted and more devastating operations against the vital targets" in Israel "will continue until its complete destruction", Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement carried by official news agency Irna.

Drone footage shows scale of destruction in Israel after Iranian strikes

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The IRGC said its latest strikes were a new method of attack that caused Israel's multilayered defence systems to target each other.

"The initiatives and capabilities used in this operation, despite the comprehensive support of the United States and western powers, and the possession of the most up-to-date and newest defence technology, led to the successful and maximum hitting of the missiles on the targets," it said.

Israeli officials have repeatedly said the country's air defence systems are not 100 per cent reliable and have warned of tough days ahead.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that residents of Tehran would "pay the price, and soon", for the latest strikes. But he later said Israel had no intention of deliberately harming ordinary citizens in the Iranian capital.

"I wish to clarify the obvious: there is no intention to physically harm the residents of Tehran, as the murderous dictator does to the residents of Israel," Mr Katz said. "The residents of Tehran will have to pay the price of dictatorship and evacuate their homes from areas where it will be necessary to attack regime targets and security infrastructure."

In the latest strikes on Iran, the Israeli military said it hit command centres in Tehran belonging to the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the IRGC. It said it had taken out 120 surface-to-surface missile launchers that had been protecting Iran's capital.

“Now we can say that we have achieved full air supremacy in the Tehran airspace,” said military spokesman Brig Gen Effie Defrin.

Iran's Tasnim news agency also reported that Israeli attacks on Monday struck a hospital in the western city of Kermanshah, injuring several patients. There was no comment from Israel about the attack, but the military said its strikes on Sunday eliminated four senior Iranian intelligence officials, including the IRGC’s head of intelligence Mohammad Kazemi and its deputy Hassan Mohaqiq.

The chief of the Quds Force's intelligence department, Mohsen Bakri, and his deputy, Abu Al Fadl Nikouei, were also killed, the Israeli army said. It added that those officials played a central role in "planning terrorist attacks against Israel, the West and countries in the Middle East".

The death toll in Iran has reached at least 224 since Israel launched a surprise attack on Friday on Iranian nuclear and military sites. Israel says it is acting to prevent Iran from advancing a nuclear weapons programme, which Tehran says it has no intention of doing.