Iran launches deadly missile attacks on Israel, Gulf states as war spirals with no end in sight

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib was killed in an overnight strike in Tehran.

Katz warned of more “significant surprises” to come Wednesday in several areas, signaling a possible escalation of operations against Iran and its proxy group, Hezbollah in Lebanon.

He said Tuesday that Israeli officials had authorized commanders to target any senior Iranian official identified by intelligence without seeking leadership approval.

“The intensity of attacks in Iran is increasing,” Katz said.

Israeli strikes on central Beirut killed at least 12 people on Wednesday morning, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, adding that the strikes hit the Basta and Zuqaq al-Blat neighborhoods in central Beirut.

A strike also hit an apartment building in Bachoura, central Beirut, razing it to the ground at daybreak, the Associated Press reported.

Israeli strikes targeting central Beirut have become increasingly frequent in recent days, with or without prior warning. The attacks hit far from the city’s southern suburbs, for which the army had issued evacuation notices at the start of the war against Hezbollah.

CBS/AP

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said the kingdom would host a consultative meeting of foreign ministers from a number of Arab and Islamic countries on Wednesday, “with the aim of achieving further consultations and coordination on ways to support the security and stability of the region.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan would attend the meeting to discuss developments in the region, following Ankara’s announcement that Fidan would undertake a regional trip aimed at ending the war in Iran.

About 90 ships, including oil tankers, have passed through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war with Iran. Shipping and trade data platforms indicate the country continues to export millions of barrels of oil even as it says it has closed the key waterway to ships from the United States and its allies.

Analysts say Iranian oil export volumes remain resilient. Most of the ships that have passed through the strait are so-called “dark” transits that escape Western sanctions and likely have ties to Iran.

More recently, ships with connections to India and Pakistan have also successfully crossed the strait as governments intensified negotiations.

Two people were killed near Tel Aviv overnight as debris from an intercepted Iranian missile fell on homes. Israel’s emergency response agency Magen David Adom said police reported several impact sites around the city and that amid the debris in a building in the Ramat Gan area were “two injured unconscious people, without pulse and without breathing, with serious injuries to their bodies.”

CBS News national security correspondent Charlie D’Agata says Iran’s latest retaliatory attacks against Israel include cluster bombs. Designed to overwhelm Israel’s multi-layered air defense systems, they release dozens of small bombs into the air, which resemble comets as they streak across Tel Aviv’s night sky before raining down indiscriminately across the city.

Defense officials told CBS News that without Israel’s air defense and early warning systems, the death toll would likely be much higher.

So far, 14 people have been killed by Iranian attacks in Israel, while two others have died of medical reasons linked to the strikes.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said in a social media post Tuesday that U.S. forces had “successfully used multiple 5,000-pound deep-penetrating munitions at hardened Iranian missile sites along the Iranian coast near the Strait of Hormuz.”

CENTCOM said Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles at the targeted sites “pose a risk to international navigation in the strait.”

Iran has all but closed the vital shipping lane to international oil traffic since the start of the war by targeting commercial shipping, but those attacks have relied on air and sea drones at least as much as missiles.