Israel and Iran entered a second week of hostilities with air strikes overnight, amid growing uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s willingness to intervene in the conflict and his dismissal of European diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis.
Israel attacked several sites in central Iran on Saturday, including the nuclear centre in Isfahan, the semi-official Fars News reported. There were no casualties or leaks of hazardous materials, it said. The Israeli military earlier confirmed it had detected missile launches from Iran and was working to intercept them.
Shortly after 2.30am local time, air raid sirens sounded across parts of Israel, including Tel Aviv and the occupied West Bank.
Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that the military had killed a commander in the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' overseas arm in a strike on an apartment block in the Iranian city of Qom.
The commander, Saeed Izadi, led the Palestine corps of the Quds Force, Mr Katz said in a statement.
The Israeli military later said that it killed a second commander of the IRGC's overseas arm, who it said was Benham Shariyari, by an attack on his vehicle overnight in western Tehran.
It said the commander “was responsible for all weapons transfers from the Iranian regime to its proxies across the Middle East”.
There was no confirmation from the IRGC on the killing of the two men.
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said, in an interview published Saturday, by the country's own assessment it had "already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them [Iran] to have a nuclear bomb".
"We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat," Mr Saar told German newspaper Bild, asserting Israel's onslaught would continue.
Tehran said, a day before, it would not negotiate over its nuclear programme while under threat following efforts by Europe to keep peace talks alive.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, in Geneva on Friday.
Speaking shortly after the meeting, Mr Trump appeared to dismiss European diplomatic efforts. “We've been speaking to Iran and we'll see what happens,” he said, adding that he believed that talks in Geneva had not been successful.
The IRGC said five of its members had been killed in attacks on Khorramabad, according to Iranian media reports that did not mention Mr Izadi, who was on US and British sanctions lists.
Iranian media had said earlier on Saturday that Israel had attacked a building in Qom, with initial reports of a 16-year-old killed and two people injured.
The Israeli military said it had launched a wave of attacks against missile storage and launch infrastructure sites in Iran.
Israel began attacking Iran on June 13, saying its longtime enemy was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran, which says its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes, retaliated with missile and drone strikes on Israel.
Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons. It neither confirms nor denies this.
With agencies
