Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed that the Australian government was planning repatriation flights for some 650 citizens trapped in the Middle East, but said the exact timing would depend on reopening of airspaces.

“The timeline is primarily dictated by safety; as long as governments have closed down this space because of the risks to civilian aircraft, obviously no one can fly,” Wong told the ABC.

Wong said there were about 300 Australians in Israel and 350 in Iran who had sought help to leave, but she expected the numbers to increase.

Explosions before dawn

Search and location operations were under way in the Israeli coastal city of Haifa on Monday, where about 30 people were wounded, emergency authorities said, as dozens of first responders rushed to the strike zones.

Fires were seen burning at a power plant near the port, media reported, and social media footage appeared to show two missile impacts nearby.

In Tel Aviv, powerful explosions, probably from Israel’s defence systems intercepting Iranian missiles, rocked the city before dawn, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky.

American ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said a blast from an Iranian missile had caused minor damage to the US consulate, but no injuries.

In the city of Petah Tikva, central Israel, authorities said Iranian missiles hit a residential building, charring concrete walls, shattering windows and ripping the walls off multiple apartments.

The Israeli emergency service reported that two women and two men aged in their 70s and one other person were killed in the wave of strikes on four sites in central Israel.

“We clearly see that our civilians are being targeted,” said Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne outside the bombed-out building in Petah Tikva.

“And this is just one scene. We have other sites like this near the coast, in the south.”

Petah Tikva resident Yoram Suki rushed with his family to a shelter after hearing an air raid alert, and emerged after it was over to find his apartment destroyed.

“Thank God we were OK,” the 60-year-old said.

Despite losing his home, he urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to keep up the attacks on Iran.

“It’s totally worth it,” he said. “This is for the sake of our children and grandchildren.”

In addition to those killed, the emergency service said paramedics had evacuated another 87 wounded people to hospitals, including a 30-year-old woman in a serious condition, while rescuers were still searching for residents trapped beneath the rubble of their homes.

“When we arrived at the scene of the rocket strike, we saw massive destruction,” said paramedic Dr Gal Rosen, who said he had rescued a four-day-old baby as fires blazed from the building.

‘More severe’

During a barrage of Iranian missiles on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran would stop its strikes if Israel did the same.

But after a day of intensive Israeli aerial attacks that extended targets beyond military installations to hit oil refineries and government buildings, the Revolutionary Guard struck a hard line on Monday, vowing that further strikes would be “more forceful, severe, precise and destructive”.

The latest strikes employed a new method that caused Israel’s multi-layered defence systems to target each other, leading to “the successful and maximum hitting of the missiles on the targets”, the Guard said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israeli officials have repeatedly said its “Iron Dome” defence system is not 100 per cent and warned of tough days ahead.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement: “The arrogant dictator of Tehran has become a cowardly murderer who targets the civilian home front in Israel to deter the IDF from continuing the attack that is collapsing his capabilities.

“The residents of Tehran will pay the price, and soon.”

Iranian health authorities reported that 1277 people were wounded in Iran, without distinguishing between military officials and civilians.

The Washington-based Iranian advocacy group Human Rights Activists has suggested the official Iranian death toll is a significant undercount. It says it has documented more than 400 killed, among them 197 civilians.

Loading

Israel argues that its assault on Iran’s top military leaders, uranium enrichment sites and nuclear scientists was necessary to stop the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, and the US and others have assessed that Tehran has not pursued a nuclear weapon since 2003.

But Iran has enriched ever-larger stockpiles of uranium to near weapons-grade levels in recent years and was believed to be able to develop multiple weapons within months if it chose to do so.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told parliament on Monday that the country has no intention of producing nuclear weapons, but would continue to pursue its right to nuclear energy.

The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Iran ratified in 1970, guarantees countries the right to pursue civilian nuclear power in return for requiring them to forego atomic weapons and co-operate with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.

Asked at a press conference on Monday about Tehran potentially leaving the NPT, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said: “In light of recent developments, we will take an appropriate decision. Government has to enforce parliament bills, but such a proposal is just being prepared and we will co-ordinate in the later stages with parliament.”

The conflict is expected to be a top priority at the meeting of Group of Seven leaders, who began gathering in the Canadian Rockies on Sunday.

Before leaving for the summit, Trump was asked what he was doing to de-escalate the situation. “I hope there’s going to be a deal. I think it’s time for a deal,” he told reporters. “Sometimes they have to fight it out.”

AP, Reuters

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.