Preparing for possibility of lengthy war against Iran, says Israel

Israel's military said Saturday it was preparing for the possibility of a lengthy war, and announced it struck an Iranian nuclear research facility overnight and killed three senior Iranian commanders in targeted attacks.

The prospect of a wider war threatened, too. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they would resume attacks on US vessels and warships in the Red Sea if the Trump administration joins Israel's military campaign against Iran. The Houthis paused such attacks in May under a deal with the US.

The US ambassador to Israel announced the US has begun assisted departure flights, the first such flights from Israel since the Hamas-led attack on Oct 7, 2023, that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.

Inside Iran, smoke rose from an area near a mountain in Isfahan, where the province's deputy governor for security affairs, Akbar Salehi, confirmed the Israeli strikes damaged the facility but caused no casualties.

The target was a centrifuge production site, Israel's military said. Isfahan was also hit in the first 24 hours of the war as part of Israel's goal to destroy Iran's nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed the latest attack.

Iran again launched drones and missiles at Israel but there were no immediate reports of significant damage.

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity under army guidelines to brief reporters, called it a small barrage that was largely intercepted by Israel's defences. The official estimated that Israel's military has taken out more than 50 per cent of Iran's launchers.

We're making it harder for them to fire toward Israel, he said. Having said all that, I want to say the Iranian regime obviously still has capabilities.

The Israeli military's chief spokesman, Brig Gen Effie Defrin, later said Chief of Staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir told the army to prepare for a prolonged campaign."

Iran says US military involvement would be dangerous'

US President Donald Trump is weighing active US military involvement in the war. On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said I think that it would be very, very dangerous for everyone. He spoke on the sidelines of an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation meeting in Turkey.

Barring a commando raid or even a nuclear strike, Iran's underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility is considered out of reach to all but America's bunker-buster bombs. Trump said he would put off his decision on military involvement for up to two weeks.

The war erupted June 13, with Israeli airstrikes targeting Iran's nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 722 people, including 285 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2,500 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group.

One Tehran resident, Nasrin, writhed in her hospital bed as she described how a blast threw her against a wall in her apartment. I've had five surgeries. I think I have nothing right here that is intact, she said Saturday. Another patient, Shahram Nourmohammadi, said he had been making deliveries when something blew up right in front of me at an intersection.

A number of Iranians fled the country. Everyone is leaving Tehran right now, said one who did not give his name after crossing into Armenia.

Iran has retaliated by firing more than 450 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Israel's multitiered air defences have shot down most of them, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and hundreds wounded.

Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60 per cent a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent. Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear weapons program but has never acknowledged it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel's military operation will continue for as long as it takes to eliminate what he called the existential threat of Iran's nuclear program and ballistic missile arsenal.

No date set for new talks

While talks in Geneva on Friday failed to produce a breakthrough, Iran's foreign minister said he was open to further dialogue. He emphasized that Tehran had no interest in negotiating with the US while Israel continues to attack.

No date was set for a new round of talks.

For many Iranians, updates remained difficult. Internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org said Saturday that limited internet access had again collapsed. A nationwide internet shutdown has been in place for several days.

More attacks on Iranian military commanders

Israel's defence minister said the military killed a paramilitary Revolutionary Guard commander who financed and armed Hamas in preparation for the Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the ongoing 20-month war in Gaza.

Iranian officials did not immediately confirm Saeed Izadi's death, but the Qom governor's office said there had been an attack on a four-story apartment building and local media reported two people had been killed.

Israel also said it killed the commander of the Quds Force's weapons transfer unit, who it said was responsible for providing weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas. Behnam Shahriyari was killed while travelling in western Iran, the military said.

Iran threatens head of UN nuclear watchdog

Iranian leaders say IAEA chief Rafael Grossi's statements about the status of Iran's nuclear program prompted Israel's attack. On Saturday, a senior adviser for Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei, Ali Larijani, said on social media, without elaboration, that Iran would make Grossi pay once the war is over.

Grossi, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, on Friday warned against attacks on Iran's nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr.

In case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity, Grossi said, adding: This is the nuclear site in Iran where the consequences could be most serious.

Israel has not targeted Iran's nuclear reactors, instead focusing strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country's Arak heavy water reactor southwest of the capital.

Iran previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal in exchange for sanctions relief. But after Trump pulled the US out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium up to 60 per cent and restricting access to its nuclear facilities.

Iran has insisted on its right to enrich uranium at lower levels in recent talks over its nuclear program. But Trump, like Israel, has demanded Iran end its enrichment program altogether.