US may step into Israel-Iran war as stranded Aussies plead for help

Donald Trump has warned that the US may enter the escalating war between Israel and Iran, as hundreds of stranded Australians plead for help to leave the region.

Residents are evacuated from a damaged building after ballistic missiles fired from Iran struck Petah Tikva, Israel, on Monday. Picture: Nir Keidar/Anadolu via Getty Images

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Donald Trump has warned that the US may enter the escalating war ­between Israel and Iran, as each side accuses the other of ­targeting civilians, and hundreds of Australians stranded in both countries plead for help to leave the region.

Israeli aircraft attacked Iran’s military leadership and nuclear ­infrastructure for a fourth day on Monday, while Iranian missiles continued to evade ­Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system, killing at least eight people and wounding almost 300.

The US President warned Iran that if it attacked the US “the full strength and might of the US armed forces will come down on you at levels never seen before”.

The US embassy in Israel suffered “minor damage” when an Iranian missile hit buildings just a few hundred metres away in Tel Aviv, but there were no injuries.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the government was “working on a range of plans” to evacuate citizens from Israel and Iran, but warned any assisted departure flights could begin only when it was “safe to do so” and current ­advice was to shelter in place.

Senator Wong said about 350 Australians had registered for ­assistance in leaving Iran and about 300 from Israel, but those numbers were expected to grow. The government has few immediate options for repatriation as ­Israeli and Iranian airspace is closed, and land routes out of both countries are restricted.

Anthony Albanese called for “dialogue and diplomacy” as he ­arrived in Canada for the G7 summit. “I have expressed before our concern about Iran gaining the ­capacity of nuclear weapons as something that is a threat to security in the region,” the Prime Minister said. “But we, along with other like-minded countries, do want to see that priority on dialogue and diplomacy.”

Israelis take shelter in a basement as a siren sounds a warning following a missiles that were launched from Iran, in Jerusalem. AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg

Chief of the Australian ­Defence Force David Johnston told the Defending Australia summit in Canberra on Monday that the strikes between Israel and Iran represented “a deeply concerning escalation”.

The risk of further regional ­instability was severe, “particularly recognising ongoing volatility across the Middle East region in Gaza, Syria and Yemen”, Admiral Johnston said.

All ADF personnel assigned to the region were safe, and the ADF would “continue to observe events closely to provide for their protection”, he said.

In Israel, eight people were killed and upwards of 300 wounded in overnight strikes, primarily in the central cities of Petah Tikva and Bnei Brak, with victims pulled from the rubble of apartment buildings hit by Iranian ballistic missiles.

Iran has now launched more than 370 missiles at Israel, along with hundreds of drones.

An Israeli rescue team evacuate a wounded woman from a site struck by a missile fired from Iran, in Haifa, northern Israel, on Sunday. AP Photo/Rami Shlush

Israeli jets targeted fuel depots and oil refineries in Tehran, while an Iranian ballistic missile hit a power plant in northern Israel’s Haifa port, causing pipeline and transmission damage.

The conflict shows little sign of abating, with Israeli National ­Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi claiming Iran still had “thousands of ballistic missiles” at its disposal, a higher figure than analysts had previously estimated.

“This is not a battle that over the long term will be able to bring an end to the Iranian threat,” Mr Hanegbi told Israeli Army Radio.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz condemned Iran’s missile ­attacks in social media post, vowing: “The residents of Tehran will pay the price, and soon.”

Israel was expected to order residents of various neighbourhoods in Tehran to evacuate, followed by strikes on infrastructure and government buildings, ­according to The Jerusalem Post. This was referred to as the “Beirut model,” an Israeli official told the newspaper.

The intelligence chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Kazemi, and his deputy, Hassan Mohaqiq, were killed in Israeli attacks on Tehran, with Israeli jets hitting Revolutionary Guard command centres housing the Quds Force, the foreign espionage arm of the Revolutionary Guards.

Traffic jams and long queues at petrol stations were reported as ­civilians rushed to escape the city.

An injured man is helped to leave the scene after an explosion in downtown Tehran, amid Israel's campaign of strikes against Iran. AP Photo/Amir Kholousi/ISNA

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the killing of at least nine nuclear scientists could set Iran back years in its ­attempts to build a nuclear weapon. However, some experts and former officials told The Wall Street Journal that Iran had developed sophisticated networks to preserve and pass its nuclear ­expertise to a new generation of scientists.

Israeli military planners ­believe airstrikes at Iran’s biggest enrichment facility, at Natanz, may have destroyed some of the 14,000 underground centrifuges at the plant.

Israel has also struck Iran’s ­nuclear supply chain at the Isfahan complex in central Iran, destroying a uranium conversion facility and a fuel fabrication plant for converting enriched uranium into the uranium metal required for a nuclear warhead.

However, it appears Israel has so far been unable to inflict serious damage on Iran’s most fortified nuclear enrichment facility, ­Fordow, which is built deep inside a mountainside near Iran’s holy city of Qom.

Military experts suggest it would require a bunker-busting bomb of a type only the US possesses to destroy the plant.

Satellite image released by Planet Labs shows damaged buildings at the Bid Kaneh missile facility, southwest of Tehran. Picture: PLANET LABS PBC / AFP

Mr Trump said the US was not involved in the conflict – contrary to reports that US aircraft and ­Patriot missile batteries were ­already assisting Israel’s aerial ­defence – but warned: “It’s possible we could get involved.

“If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the US armed forces will come down on you at levels never seen before.”

In a series of unverified claims on Monday it was reported that Mr Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Iran’s ­Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and that the US President was the target of two failed assassination ­attempts by Iran.

Israel boasted of its air superiority across Iran, posting footage it said showed an attack on ­Iranian troops seconds before they reached a surface-to-air missile launcher south of Tehran. And in a demonstration of its reach, Israel struck a refuelling aircraft at Mashhad in northeast Iran, 2300km from its own borders.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 400 people, including nearly 200 civilians, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a non-governmental monitoring organisation. The Iranian government has not disclosed casualty numbers but foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei claimed in a ­social media post that Israel was “killing children as a hobby” in its attacks, alleging it had targeted a children’s hospital in Tehran.

Iranians who were injured in a reported Israeli strike on Keshavarz Boulevard in Tehran on Sunday. Picture: Amir Kholousi / ISNA / AFP

Iran announced that it had ­executed a man found guilty of spying for Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad. Iranian media separately showed what it claimed to be Iran security forces chasing and shooting at Mossad agents in a truck at night, but the video ends abruptly and there was no explanation of the outcome.