Israel threatens 'Tehran will burn' after wave of missile fire

TEL AVIV

An Israeli police officers walks in a damaged residential area after a ballistic missile strike in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel, 14 June 2025.

Israel's defense minister warned Saturday that "Tehran will burn" and its residents pay dearly if Iran continues its missile strikes against Israeli civilians.

"The Iranian dictator is turning the citizens of Iran into hostages and bringing about a reality in which they — especially the residents of Tehran — will pay a heavy price because of the criminal harm to Israeli civilians," said Israel Katz.

"If (Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei continues to fire missiles toward the Israeli home front — Tehran will burn," the minister added.

The threat came as Israel and Iran exchanged fire a day after Israel unleashed strikes that Iran said hit its nuclear facilities, "martyred" top commanders and killed dozens of civilians.

Iran has hit back with waves of drone and missile strikes, with a barrage of dozens lighting up the skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv overnight, killing three people and wounding dozens.

Following decades of enmity and conflict by proxy, it is the first time that Israel and Iran have traded fire with such intensity, with fears of a prolonged conflict engulfing the region.

Israel launched its surprise attack on Iran early Friday, only days before Iran and the United States had been due to hold a sixth round of talks on the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.

The operation — dubbed "Rising Lion" — has since killed Iran's highest-ranking military officer, Mohammad Bagheri, and the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, among other senior generals.

On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had Tehran in its sights after strikes on dozens of missile launchers and air defenses in the area around the Iranian capital.

"The way to Iran has been paved," the military's chief of staff and air force chief were quoted as saying in a statement.

The military "is proceeding according to its operational plans, and (Israeli air force) fighters jets are set to resume striking targets in Tehran," it added.

Israel has killed three more Iranian nuclear scientists, state television reported Saturday, bringing to nine the overall number slain in Israel's attack on the Islamic republic.

"Three of the country's nuclear scientists -- Ali Bekaei Karimi, Mansour Asgari, and Saeed Borji - were martyred during the Zionist regime's terrorist attacks," the broadcaster said. Iranian media had said earlier that six others were killed in the Israeli attack.

The Israeli military said Saturday that its ongoing air campaign in Iran had now given it the required "aerial freedom" for actions from west Iran to Tehran, where 70 fighter jets carried out strikes overnight.

"We have created aerial freedom of action from west Iran all the way to Tehran... Tehran is no longer immune," military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told journalists, adding that the air force "launched a massive strike involving more than 70 fighter jets, targeting objectives in Tehran" overnight.

The Iranian foreign ministry on Saturday said it would be "meaningless" to join nuclear negotiations with the United States in Oman while Iran is under attack by Israel.

"It is obvious that in such circumstances and until the Zionist regime's aggression against the Iranian nation stops, it would be meaningless to participate in dialogue with a party that is the biggest supporter and accomplice of the aggressor," the ministry's spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a statement ahead of the talks that were planned for Sunday.

 'Smoke, dust' 

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations said 78 people had been killed and 320 wounded in Israel's first wave of strikes on Friday.

Iran called on its citizens to unite in defense of the country as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged them to rise up against their government.

Air raid sirens and explosions rang out across Israel through the night, with many residents holed up in bomb shelters until home defense commanders stood down alerts.

Israel said dozens of missiles — some intercepted — had been fired in the latest salvos from Iran, with AFP images of the city of Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv showing blown-out buildings, destroyed vehicles and streets strewn with debris.

Israeli rescuers said two people were killed and 19 wounded on Saturday by rocket fire on a residential area in the coastal plain.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked dozens of targets in Israel.

Israeli firefighters had worked for hours to free people trapped in a high-rise building in Tel Aviv on Friday.

Chen Gabizon, a resident, said he ran to an underground shelter after receiving an alert.

"After a few minutes, we just heard a very big explosion, everything was shaking, smoke, dust, everything was all over the place," he said.

Rescuers said 34 people were wounded in the Gush Dan area, including a woman who later died of her injuries, according to Israeli media reports.

Speaking to CNN, Israel's ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said Iran had fired three salvos of ballistic missiles on Friday, some 150 in total.

"We expect that the Iranians, who have a considerable volume of ballistic missiles, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2,000, will continue to fire them," Leiter said.

In Tehran, fire and heavy smoke billowed over Mehrabad airport on Saturday, an AFP journalist said, as Iranian media reported an explosion.

Blasts were heard across the capital as Iran activated its air defenses against the incoming fire.

Dozens of Iranians took to the streets to cheer their country's military response, with some waving national flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans.

  'Time to stop' 

The attacks prompted several countries in the region to temporarily ground air traffic, though on Saturday morning, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria reopened their airspace.

Iran's airspace was closed until further notice, state media reported.

As fears mounted of wider conflict, U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called on both sides to cease fire.

"Enough escalation. Time to stop. Peace and diplomacy must prevail," he said on X late Friday.

Pope Leo XIV appealed for Israel and Iran to show "responsibility and reason".

Asked how long the war would last, Israel's ambassador to Paris, Joshua Zarka, said: "A small number of weeks". Prime Minister Netanyahu had said on Friday the strikes would "continue as many days as it takes".

The conflict has thrown into doubt Sunday's planned Iran-U.S. nuclear talks in the Gulf sultanate of Oman.

After Friday's first strikes, U.S. President Donald Trump urged Iran to "make a deal", adding the United States was "hoping to get back to the negotiating table".

Western governments have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, an allegation it denies.

Iran said on Saturday its participation in the Oman talks remained "unclear".

"It is still unclear what decision we will make for Sunday," state media reported, citing foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.

Baqaei had called the talks "meaningless" in view of the Israeli strikes, which he alleged were carried out with "U.S. permission".

  Radiation levels 'unchanged' 

Israel pounded Iranian nuclear sites, including its main underground uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in central Iran.

Israel said it had damaged the facility's enrichment centrifuges but Iran said most of the damage was above ground and no casualties had been sustained.

"Most of the damage is on the surface level," said Iran's Atomic Energy Organization spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi.

He said the damage to the Fordo and Isfahan nuclear sites was also only limited.

The conflict threw into doubt plans for a fresh round of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran in Oman on Sunday.

After the first wave of strikes on Friday, Trump urged Iran to "make a deal", adding that Washington was "hoping to get back to the negotiating table".

The United States and other Western governments have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, an ambition it has consistently denied.

Netanyahu said Israeli intelligence had concluded that Iran was approaching the "point of no return" on its nuclear programme.

Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set by a largely moribund 2015 agreement with major powers, but still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead.