Israel attacks plant at Iranian gas field despite ceasefire proposal

Medical workers attend a government-sponsored protest against the US-Israeli military campaign (Francisco Seco/AP)

Israel has attacked a key petrochemical plant at Iran’s massive South Pars natural gas field and killed a top Revolutionary Guard commander, putting into question the negotiations aimed at getting the US and Tehran to reach a ceasefire.

Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz confirmed what he called “a powerful strike on the largest petrochemical facility in Iran” that is responsible for half of the country’s petrochemical production.

Israel’s military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said there would be “no immunity” for Iran as talks progress.

The gas field shared with Qatar is the world’s largest and sits under the waters of the Persian Gulf.

After Israel’s attack in March on South Pars, Donald Trump said Israel would not attack it again but warned that if Iran continued striking Qatar’s energy infrastructure, the United States would retaliate and “massively blow up the entirety” of the field.

Mr Trump’s deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz looms while mediators scramble to get the US and Iran to agree to a new ceasefire proposal.

Explosions rang out in Tehran and low-flying jets could be heard for hours as the capital was pounded. Thick black smoke rose near the city’s Azadi Square after one air strike hit the grounds of the Sharif University of Technology.

Among those killed in one of the attacks on Tehran was the head of intelligence for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Major General Majid Khademi, according to Iranian state media and Israel’s defence minister.

Israel’s military said it also killed the leader of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s undercover unit in its expeditionary Quds Force, Asghar Bakeri.

Iranian missiles hit the northern Israeli city of Haifa, where four people were found dead in the rubble of a residential building.

Israeli security forces and rescue teams work amid the rubble of a residential building struck by an Iranian missile in Haifa, Israel (Ariel Schalit/AP)

Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia all activated their air defences to intercept Iranian missiles and drones, as Tehran kept up the pressure on its Gulf neighbours.

Iran’s regular attacks on regional energy infrastructure and its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime, has sent global energy prices soaring.

Under pressure at home as consumers are growing increasingly concerned, Mr Trump gave Tehran a deadline that expires on Monday night Washington time, saying if no deal was reached to reopen the strait, the US would hit Iran’s power plants and other infrastructure targets and set the country “back to the stone ages”.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” he threatened in a social media post, adding that if Iran did not open the strait “you’ll be living in Hell”.

Milad telecommunication tower, right, and other buildings are seen during a cloudy sunset in Tehran (Vahid Salemi/AP)

In an effort to stop the fighting, Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators have sent Iran and the US a proposal calling for a 45-day ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to give time to try and find a way to end the war, two Middle East officials told The Associated Press.

Iran and the US have not responded to the proposal, sent late on Sunday night to both Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, the officials said.

European Council president Antonio Costa called for diplomacy to be given a chance, writing on X that “any targeting of civilian infrastructure, namely energy facilities, is illegal and unacceptable”.

“Escalation will not achieve a ceasefire and peace,” he said. “Only negotiations will, namely the ongoing efforts led by regional partners.”