TEL AVIV — Iranian forces launched a fresh round of missile and drone strikes toward several Gulf states and Israel on Tuesday, according to national authorities, as Israel said its forces were striking Iran and Lebanon, including targets in Beirut. The exchanges came after President Donald Trump said the United States was postponing strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure for five days while negotiating with Iran to end the war, although Iranian authorities denied such negotiations are taking place.
Israel said it detected a volley of missiles from Iran on Tuesday morning, with damage reported throughout the country. In central Tel Aviv, a munition appeared to have left a large crater in the street, with the mangled remnants of cars strewn nearby and heavy smoke billowing from a fire. Dean Elsdunne, international spokesman for Israeli police, said at the scene that a heavy warhead with “a high amount of explosives” landed there.
Magen David Adom, Israel’s rescue service, said it treated injuries at the scene but none of the wounded required hospital treatment.
Across the region, there was little sign that Iranian forces were letting up in their attacks against Gulf states, three of which reported fresh hostile missile and drone threats. Saudi officials said Riyadh’s air defenses had intercepted over 20 drones in the east over a few hours early Tuesday. Bahrain said a fire was ignited at a commercial facility, and Kuwait’s army also reported drones and missiles.
Current and former Israeli security officials received Trump’s announcement of talks with skepticism, expressing doubt that Iran was prepared to relinquish its stores of enriched uranium, end ballistic missile production or agree to other conditions seen as prerequisites for any lasting agreement.
Trump “gave them five days now to come to their senses,” said Tzachi Hanegbi, who served as national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before stepping down last year. A breakthrough agreement “is unlikely to happen,” Hanegbi said, adding that he expects the period to end without adequate concessions from Tehran and that Trump “will just go back to the difficult way, the hard way” of further strikes.
Netanyahu said in a statement Monday that he had spoken to Trump earlier in the day and that Trump “believes there is an opportunity to leverage the tremendous achievements we have reached alongside the U.S. military to realize the goals of the war through an agreement” with Iran, without saying that he shared Trump’s belief. He pledged to continue striking Iran and Lebanon.
On Tuesday morning, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the IDF will continue to strike Iran “with full force” and continues to operate in Lebanon to root out Hezbollah.
The Israel Defense Forces said its air force struck more than 50 targets in Iran overnight, a day after it completed a “a wide-scale wave of strikes” in Tehran targeting military command centers.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said Tuesday its emergency rescuers were at the scene of multiple impact sites throughout the capital, with significant damage to residential buildings.
Officials in Lebanon also reported fresh casualties resulting from Israeli strikes, as the IDF said it was targeting Hezbollah militants in the capital and country’s south. In the town of Bchamoun, health authorities said an Israeli strike killed three people, including a 3-year-old, and injured four others. The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sands reported from London. Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv, Heba Farouk Mahfouz in Cairo and Mohamad El Chamaa in Beirut contributed to this report.
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