NAIROBI, Kenya June 16 \u2013 More than 200 people have been killed in Iran and at least 20 in Israel, with over 200 others injured, as deadly missile exchanges between the two countries intensified over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Iran launched a fresh barrage of missiles at Israel on Sunday evening, striking several cities, including Tel Aviv and the northern coastal city of Haifa. <\/p>\n
Explosions lit up the night sky as residential buildings were hit, with online footage showing widespread damage in both cities.<\/p>\n
In response, Israel confirmed it had begun another wave of targeted airstrikes on military facilities across Iran. <\/p>\n
The Israeli Defence Forces described the operation as part of an ongoing campaign to neutralise what it calls \u201cimminent threats\u201d from Iran.<\/p>\n
Israeli Ambassador to Kenya Michael Lotem has defended the strikes as justified self-defence, saying Iran\u2019s recent operations directly threatened Israel\u2019s existence. He added that Israel has the right to protect its people and sovereignty.<\/p>\n
Analysts have said the Israeli operation appeared to have been in preparation for several months and was accelerated following an October 2024 offensive that had significantly weakened Iran\u2019s air defences.<\/p>\n
The United States and key Western allies continue to accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon\u2014an allegation Tehran denies. <\/p>\n
However, Iran has gradually withdrawn from its commitments under the 2015 nuclear agreement, which was abandoned by the U.S. during Donald Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n
That landmark accord had granted Iran sanctions relief in exchange for strict limits on its nuclear programme.<\/p>\n
While Israel has previously conducted limited covert operations against Iranian targets\u2014often through its Mossad intelligence agency\u2014the scale of the current conflict marks a dramatic escalation. Officials have described the recent Israeli strikes as \u201cimpressively precise\u201d and aimed at dismantling Iran\u2019s nuclear and military infrastructure.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NAIROBI, Kenya June 16 \u2013 More than 200 people have been killed in Iran and at least 20 in Israel, with over 200 others injured, as deadly missile exchanges between the two countries intensified over the weekend. Iran launched a fresh barrage of missiles at Israel on Sunday evening, striking several cities, including Tel Aviv […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}