WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israeli missiles hit a site in Iran, ABC News reported late on Thursday, citing a U.S. official, while Iranian state media reported an explosion in the center of the country, days after the Iran launched a retaliatory drone strike on Israel. .
Reuters could not immediately confirm this information.
Iran’s Fars news agency said an explosion was heard at an airport in the central city of Isfahan, but the cause was not immediately known. Iran has suspended flights over the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz and Tehran, state media reported.
Several Iranian nuclear sites are located in the province of Isfahan, including Natanz, the centerpiece of Iran’s uranium enrichment program.
Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport was closed to all flights until 0700 GMT, according to a notice to fliers published in a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration database.
Some Emirates and Flydubai flights flying over Iran early Friday made sharp turns to move away from the airspace, according to flight paths shown on the tracking site Flightradar24.
Israel had said it would retaliate for the weekend’s Iranian attack, which involved hundreds of drones and missiles in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Syria. Most of Iran’s drones and missiles were shot down before reaching Israeli territory.
Analysts and observers are concerned about the risks of the war between Israel and Gaza spreading to the rest of the region.
Iran told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that Israel “must be forced to stop any further military adventurism against our interests”, as the UN secretary-general warned that the Middle East was in a “moment of maximum peril”.
Oil prices jumped on reports of the Israeli strike. Brent crude futures rose 2% to $88.86 a barrel, the dollar was broadly higher, gold rose 1% and S&P 500 futures fell 1%. (MKTS/GLOB)
The Israeli assault on Gaza began after the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli counts. The Israeli military offensive has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the local Health Ministry.
Iranian-backed groups have declared their support for the Palestinians, launching attacks from Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward; writing by Stephen Coates; editing by William Mallard)
