Israel Expands Attack to Include Iran’s Oil and Gas Industry

NY Times-June14th2025

Israel widened its targets in Iran on Saturday to strike at oil and gas installations, as leaders of both countries vowed to intensify their attacks despite international pleas for de-escalation.

In sweeping attacks that started early Friday, Israel focused on Iranian nuclear sites, air defenses and military targets. But the strikes on Saturday went a step further, targeting an energy industry that is vital to Iran’s economy, according to Iranian media outlets. Israeli strikes also appeared to focus on Tehran, the Iranian capital, taking out the city’s air defenses.

The Israeli strikes have killed more than 70 people, including four top security chiefs, and damaged Iran’s main nuclear site at Natanz.

Iran, in turn, has launched barrages of ballistic missiles and drones at Israel, targeting what it says are military assets, but with less apparent success. At least three people have been killed and dozens wounded in the attacks.

It is the most intense fighting in decades between the two heavily armed countries, and it has stirred anxiety over the prospect of an increasingly deadly conflict that could draw in the United States and other major powers.

The salvos of missiles scuttled talks between the United States and Iran aimed at halting Iran’s progress toward obtaining a nuclear weapon. The talks had been scheduled to resume in Oman on Sunday, but the American and Omani officials said they were canceled.

Israel has conducted roughly 150 strikes on Iran over two days, while Iranian forces have fired roughly 200 ballistic missiles at Israeli territory in addition to scores of drones, according to an Israeli military official.

Fars News, an Iranian outlet affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, reported on Saturday that Israel had struck the South Pars gas field in the Bushehr province, which was on fire, and a refinery in the city of Asalouieh. The Israeli military declined to comment.

The Iranian state news media said that the Israeli targets overnight had included a military jet hangar at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport.

Across Israel, people huddled in reinforced bomb shelters as air-raid sirens wailed outside, warning of incoming missile fire. Loud explosions reverberated overhead as Israel’s antimissile defenses intercepted many of the incoming missiles.

Here’s what else to know:

• Dozens dead in Iran: Precise casualty figures in Iran could not be confirmed, but Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, told the Security Council that Israel’s strikes had killed 78 people and injured about 300.

• Central Israel: On Saturday morning, at least two people were dead and about 19 injured in central Israel in the wake of an Iranian missile attack, according to Israeli health workers. Israel’s emergency service published footage from the scene showing heavily damaged homes that appeared to have been bombed. A third person was killed earlier during an Iranian missile barrage in Ramat Gan, a suburb east of Tel Aviv, the police said.

• Washington’s view: The United States’ possible role in the spiraling conflict remains unclear. While Israeli officials had hoped the Trump administration would participate in a joint attack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied U.S. involvement in the strikes. But President Trump also did not call for Israel to rein in its assault, and U.S. officials said they were moving warships and other military assets in the Middle East to help protect Israel and American troops in the region.

• Top Iranians killed: Two high-ranking military commanders, Mohammad Bagheri and Gen. Hossein Salami, were killed, Iran said, as was Ali Shamkhani, who had been overseeing the nuclear talks with the United States, officials said. Read more ›

• Nuclear sites: Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, told the Security Council that Israel’s strike had destroyed the aboveground enrichment plant in Natanz, causing some chemical and radiological contamination. But he said the leak was “manageable.” He said the Iranian authorities had reported strikes on nuclear facilities in Fordo and Isfahan as well.

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