Who is the new head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps?

As Iranian state news media outlets shared photographs and videos of damaged residential buildings and smoke billowing from the center of the capital, Tehran, Israel’s military refused to comment on what it described as “potential ongoing operations.”

Overnight, Israeli fighter jets overnight bombarded Tehran, setting the sky ablaze with flames from burning fuel reservoirs from the country’s vital energy industry, while Iran launched volleys of ballistic missiles at Israel, some of which eluded the country’s air defenses.

Iranians and Israelis have been bracing for further violence, with both sides warning of a protracted fight and dismissing international calls to de-escalate the conflict. On Sunday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps warned that it would escalate its attacks if Israel continued carrying out strikes on Iran, according to state news media.

Not long after, Israel’s military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, said Israel was not ceasing its attacks on Iran “for a moment.”

“At this hour, too, we continue to strike dozens of additional targets in Tehran. We are deepening the damage to Iran’s nuclear program and its military capabilities,” he said in a televised address, without elaborating.

The path to diplomacy appears limited after officials called off talks set for Sunday between Tehran and Washington on the future of Iran’s nuclear program.

The fighting began Friday in a surprise Israeli attack that took aim at the Iranian regime, targeting Tehran’s nuclear program and killing top military officials. Since then, Israel has struck more than 250 targets in Iran, and Iranian forces have fired more than 200 ballistic missiles at Israeli territory, in addition to scores of drones, according to the Israeli military.

The strikes have killed more than 70 people in Iran, including six top Iranian security chiefs.

Iran has countered with a barrage of missiles trying to overwhelm Israel’s sophisticated aerial defenses. Just south of the coastal city of Tel Aviv, a missile tore up much of a multistory residential building.

At least 10 people were killed during the Iranian barrages beginning overnight on Saturday. Scores more were injured, some seriously. In all, at least 13 people, identified as civilians, have been killed in Israel since Friday.

Here’s what else to know:

• Expanding scope of attacks: Israeli strikes, initially focused on nuclear sites, air defenses and military targets, are also now targeting the energy industry that underpins much of Iran’s economy. The Israeli military’s chief spokesman said its forces had achieved “freedom of action” in the skies over Tehran, indicating they could strike targets without expecting major interference.

• Israeli attack on the Houthis: In an apparent bid to cripple one of Iran’s strongest remaining proxy forces in the region, Israel targeted a meeting of Houthi leadership in Yemen on Saturday night. An Israeli military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with army rules, said the airstrike targeted Mohamed Al-Ghamari, the Houthi military’s chief of staff.

• Nuclear talks scuttled: The salvos of missiles scuttled talks between the United States and Iran on the future of Iran’s nuclear program. The talks had been scheduled to resume on Sunday in Oman, but American and Omani officials said they had been canceled. Read more ›

• Washington’s view: The United States’ possible role in the spiraling conflict remains unclear. While Israeli officials had hoped the Trump administration would participate in a joint attack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied American involvement in the strikes. But President Trump also did not call for Israel to rein in its assault.

Brig. Gen. Vahidi is best known outside Iran as a suspect in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and wounded hundreds more.

Prosecutors in Argentina have issued arrest warrants for five Iranian officials, including General Vahidi, for “conceiving, planning, financing and executing” the attack. Interpol issued an alert, known as a Red Notice, in 2007 to inform the international law enforcement community that a national arrest warrant was outstanding.

General Vahidi was born in 1958 in the central Iranian city of Shiraz. During the Iranian revolution in 1979, he had been studying electronic engineering at Shiraz University and around that time he joined the I.R.G.C., as well as revolutionary committees, according to Iranian media. He later received a Ph.D. in strategic studies.

During the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, which began in 1980, he held a number of senior security roles. He went on to lead the I.R.G.C.’s Quds Force, which specializes in intelligence and directs operations outside Iran, from 1988 until 1998.

From 2005, General Vahidi served as deputy defense minister and he was made defense minister in 2009, holding the post until 2013. He was also Iran’s interior minister for three years until last August.

The United States, the European Union, Canada and Britain have imposed sanctions on General Vahidi for human rights violations.

It was unclear whether the strike killed or injured Mr. Al-Ghamari. The Houthis have not commented publicly on the attack, and a Houthi official did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. In a social media post early Sunday, a Houthi political official, Hezam al-Asad, insinuated that Israel was “lying to manufacture an imaginary victory to cover up its defeats” as it faced a barrage of Iranian attacks in retaliation for its major offensive against Iran.

But the bombing in Yemen raised the possibility that a regional conflict that is already being waged on multiple fronts, as Israel and the Houthi have traded attacks in recent months, could escalate.

The Houthis, who have received support, weaponry and training from Iran, have frequently fired ballistic missiles at Israel, saying they were acting in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. Most of the Houthi missiles were intercepted by Israeli and American air defenses, although one landed near Israel’s main international airport in May, injuring several people.

The Israeli military said that the Houthis fired at least one ballistic missile at Israel overnight.

Israel has also struck Yemen repeatedly. The attacks include a strike that caused severe damage to Yemen’s main international airport and others that targeted a vital port controlled by the Houthis.

A Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said on Sunday that the group had also launched ballistic missiles at Israel in coordination with the Iranian military’s strikes. He called on “the rest of the Arab and Islamic countries and peoples” to take up arms “to stop the Israeli crimes against your people in Gaza — for what befalls them today will befall you tomorrow.”

Shuaib Almosawa contributed reporting from Sana, Yemen.

Iran’s oil ministry had said in a statement last night that the Shahran fuel and gasoline depot, in northern Tehran, was hit in an Israeli attack. In addition, Iranian state news media said one of the country’s largest oil refineries, Shahr Rey, was struck separately, in the city’s south. Earlier on Saturday, Israel struck two key Iranian energy sites, including a section of the South Pars Gas Field, located offshore in Iran’s southern Bushehr province.

But Iran remains open to negotiating a nuclear deal, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday. “We are prepared for any agreement aimed at ensuring Iran does not pursue nuclear weapons,” he told foreign diplomats in Tehran. But Iran would not accept any deal that “deprives Iran of its nuclear rights,” he added, including the right to enrich uranium, albeit at low levels that can be used for civilian purposes.

Israel did not attack to pre-empt Iran’s race toward a bomb, which Iran denies trying to develop, but to derail negotiations on a deal that Mr. Netanyahu opposes, Mr. Araghchi said.

The attack was “an attempt to undermine diplomacy and derail negotiations,” he continued, a view shared by various Western analysts. “It is entirely clear that the Israeli regime does not want any agreement on the nuclear issue,” he said. “It does not want negotiations and does not seek diplomacy.”

Mr. Netanyahu believes that a deal that would allow Iran to enrich uranium would mean a nuclear-armed Iran in the future, and he has been bent on preventing that outcome. He has apparently judged that a U.S.-Iran deal would have kept him from his goal of destroying Iran’s nuclear program, and, perhaps, he hopes, bringing about the fall of the Islamic Republic.

President Trump, however, says he wants negotiations to succeed. He seems to believe that the attack will bring Iran back to the table in a weaker and more conciliatory position. But Iran insists that it has the right to enrich for civilian uses under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

A quick deal now that would give up enrichment would be seen as a surrender, said Vali Nasr, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies who served in the State Department during the Obama administration. And that could make the regime more vulnerable at home. “They won’t give up enrichment, not this easily,” he said. “They’re not going to surrender.”

Not everyone is heeding those warnings. When I entered southern Israel by land from Egypt yesterday, there was a steady flow of Israeli citizens — mainly from Israel’s Arab minority — returning via the same border checkpoint.

By contrast, in parts of Tel Aviv, the atmosphere felt defiantly normal, despite a night in bomb shelters for many. Residents lined up for coffee at one neighborhood café on Sunday morning. Clutching their drinks — and dogs — some traded laughs about surviving another barrage.

The missile caused significant damage to the building where Michael Guberman, 22, was staying with his father. Guberman recalled how they had gone to a shared bomb shelter after air-raid sirens broke out and that then there was “a huge explosion.”

“The door flew off its hinges,” Guberman said, clutching their pet dog. He described how the shelter suddenly got dark and filled with dust as the people around him screamed. When they emerged, he said, much of the multistory apartment building had been destroyed.

An Israeli military spokesman, Avichay Adraee, had earlier posted a warning on social media telling Iranians who were at, or planning to be at, weapons production facilities to leave them until further notice. The specific warning differed from evacuation notices that the Israeli military has frequently issued to Palestinians in Gaza during the 20-month war there, which more generally call on the residents of whole neighborhoods or large areas of cities to move en masse ahead of military operations.

Even as Israel has pummeled Iran with its own sophisticated missiles, setting oil facilities in Tehran ablaze, it still fears Iran’s capacity for fierce retaliation.

In a video statement on Friday night, Mr. Netanyahu said Iran had accelerated production and aimed to manufacture 300 ballistic missiles a month, which would amount to 20,000 missiles within six years. He said each one was like “a bus-full of explosives” primed to land on Israeli cities.

How many missiles has Iran fired, and how many of them hit Israel?

Iran has launched about 200 missiles at Israel since Friday night, in addition to scores of explosive drones, according to the Israeli authorities.

The Israeli military has so far not released data about the number of missiles it has intercepted or how many have evaded its air defenses, saying such details could aid the enemy. But the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Saturday afternoon that 17 sites had been identified where missiles made impact. Some have hit Tel Aviv and its suburbs of Ramat Gan and Rishon LeZion, in central Israel’s coastal plain. On Saturday night, a barrage was aimed at the northern city of Haifa and its surroundings.

Missile strikes on Friday night and Saturday have killed at least seven Israeli civilians and injured more than 200 people, including seven soldiers, according to the authorities.

Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, Israel’s chief military spokesman, said on Saturday that Israel’s air defenses were “among the best in the world” but were “not hermetic.”

What have the Iranians been trying to hit?

Many of the sites struck by Iranian missiles appear to be inside Israeli cities. Israel has accused Iran of intentionally aiming at civilian areas.

It is unclear whether any sensitive military or infrastructure sites have been hit. Officials do not disclose such information, saying it would aid the enemy.

But Israel is a relatively small country — only slightly larger than New Jersey. Most of its population lives in the crowded coastal plain. And the military maintains bases and camps in many populated areas, as well as in more remote parts of the country.

A residential tower block that suffered a direct hit early Saturday is part of a popular entertainment district, filled with cafes and restaurants. It is also close to the main military and government headquarters in Tel Aviv, which was most likely the intended target.

Later on Saturday, missiles were aimed at the port city of Haifa. Israel’s largest oil refinery is in the Haifa Bay area.

How many missiles does Iran have left?

The Israeli military has been striking Iran’s stocks of ballistic missiles and missile launchers, reducing the number it has left to launch at Israel.

Military officials and experts say Iran still has hundreds of missiles — perhaps up to 2,000 — with ranges that can reach Israel. If Iran continues launching missiles at its current rate, it could most likely sustain the pace of fire for a few more days.

How powerful are the missiles hitting Israel?

Mr. Netanyahu said each Iranian missile carried a ton, or 2,000 pounds, of explosives, although military officials and experts say the weight can vary.

Tal Inbar, an Israeli space and missile expert, said Iran’s ballistic missiles carried from 300 to 700 kilograms, or about 660 to 1,540 pounds, of explosives and that the total weight of the warhead could be up to 2,200 pounds.

What has Israel learned about Iran’s missile capabilities?

Mr. Inbar, the space and missiles expert, said that Israel was not surprised by Iran’s missile capabilities, having already been the target of large barrages of similar projectiles in April 2024 and October 2024, when Iran retaliated for Israeli strikes on its territory and interests.

The Houthi militia, an Iran-backed group based in Yemen, has also been firing ballistic missiles at Israel, saying it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.

But the Houthis tend to fire a single missile in a day, and most of them have been intercepted by Israeli and American air defense systems.

The difference this time, Mr. Inbar said, was the quantity of missiles that Iran fired simultaneously, in an effort to overwhelm air defenses, and the fact that some impact sites have been in densely populated areas, where just the shock waves cause extensive damage.

He said some footage released by the Israeli military on Saturday showed at least one type of missile that Iran had not fired at Israel before. Named the “Shahed Haj Qassem,” it has a range of nearly 1,000 miles.

It is a solid propellant missile that does not need to be refueled before launching, Mr. Inbar said, meaning that it can sit underground for years and become operational within minutes.

“The fire is terrifying, it’s massive; there is a lot of commotion here,” said Mostafa Shams, a resident of the area. “It’s the gasoline depots that are exploding one after another, it’s loud and scary.”

Separately in the city’s south, Shahr Rey, one of the country’s largest oil refineries, was also struck, according to Iranian state news media. Emergency crews were trying to contain the fire, and a resident of Tehran, Reza Salehi, said he could see the flames from miles away.

Israel’s targeting of Iran’s energy facilities, a crucial source of export cash for the country as well as of domestic energy, represented a significant escalation in its military campaign against Tehran.

Earlier on Saturday, Israel had struck two key Iranian energy sites, including a section of the South Pars Gas Field, which is one of the world’s largest and critical to Iran’s energy production.

“We have entered the second phase of the war, which is extremely dangerous and destructive,” Abdollah Babakhani, an expert on Iran’s energy sector based in Germany, said on Saturday.

But the multiple massive explosions targeting energy and fuel targets in and around the capital spread fear among residents.

Israeli warplanes also struck sites in Tehran related to Iran’s nuclear program, including experimental laboratories, according to two Israeli defense officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive operational details.

A woman named Shirin, who lives near the gasoline depot in northern Tehran and asked that only her first name be used out of fear for her safety, said neighbors were frantically calling each other asking what to do. She said the explosion was so loud that her mother fainted. Shirin’s husband was worried about fuel and gasoline shortage following the attack.

“Israel is attacking left and right; it’s not just military targets, this is our livelihood and our lives,” Shirin said in a phone interview from Tehran. She was also angry at the government in Iran, she said, for not providing any guidance or shelter for civilians caught in the crossfire.

Hamid Hosseini, a member of the energy committee of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, said Iran’s municipality had been discussing moving the Shahran fuel depot from the residential area in northern Tehran for years, fearing an attack or an accident could be catastrophic.

The attack on the depot set off massive explosions, according to an official at the oil ministry, who said the depots were exploding one after another and threatened to significantly damage residential neighborhoods in the area.

The depot has about 8 million liters per day of gasoline entering its storage tanks and has a capacity to hold about three full days of fuel needs for Tehran, according to the ministry official.

Israel did not immediately respond to request for comment on the strike.