Israel launched new air strikes targeting Tehran and expanded its military campaign to include attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon on Monday as US President Donald Trump signalled the US-Israeli military assault on Iranian targets could continue for weeks.

Israel said it was attacking sites connected to Lebanon's Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah militants, one of Tehran's principal allies in the Middle East, after Hezbollah acknowledged launching missiles ⁠and drones towards Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israel carried out air strikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, with more than a dozen explosions rocking the Lebanese capital. Israel said it also struck senior Hezbollah militants near Beirut.

The Hezbollah and Israel tit-for-tat attacks, which follow a US-brokered ceasefire in 2024, widen the conflict that has spread through the Middle East since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday, sending oil prices soaring and snarling air travel.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah was "fully responsible for any escalation" and warned residents of dozens of villages in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate.

Shortly after 7am, or 1pm Hong Kong time, air-raid sirens were triggered across Israel, including in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, warning of a fresh Iranian attack, with Iran's state media reporting that a new wave of missiles was being launched from central parts of Iran towards "enemy locations".

The Israeli military said late on Sunday that its air force had established aerial superiority over Tehran and that a wave of strikes across the capital had targeted intelligence, security and military command centres.

Sounds of explosions were heard in parts of the Iranian capital Tehran on Monday morning, according to state media, while witnesses heard loud blasts in Dubai and the Qatari capital Doha.

Kuwait ⁠said its air defences intercepted hostile drones in a third consecutive day of Iranian retaliatory strikes on neighbouring Gulf states. Britain's Royal Air Force base Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by a suspected ⁠drone strike overnight, but damage was limited and there were ⁠no casualties.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday a leadership council composed of himself, the ‌judiciary head and a member of the powerful Guardian Council had temporarily assumed the duties of supreme leader.

In an X post on Monday, Ali Larijani, who was adviser to Khamenei, said his country would not negotiate with Trump. He said the US president had "delusional ambitions" and was now worried about US casualties.

The first US casualties of the campaign, ‌including the deaths of three service personnel were confirmed on Sunday. Two US official said the three were killed on a base in Kuwait.

Trump paid tribute to the three killed as "true American patriots" but warned that ⁠there would likely be more casualties. "That's the way it is," he said.

He vowed the military strikes would continue until "all our objectives are achieved," claiming the attacks had so far wiped out Iran's military command and destroyed nine Iranian navy ships and a naval building. The Pentagon said more ‌than 1,000 Iranian targets had been hit since the start of major combat operations on Saturday. (Reuters)



Edited by Altis Wong