Iranian strike shuts down Israel's largest oil refinery

Jerusalem, June 17 (IANS) Bazan, Israel's largest oil refinery company, announced that all of its facilities at the Haifa Port had been completely shut down due to the damage caused by an Iranian missile strike.

Three company employees were killed in the pre-dawn attack on Monday night, which ignited fires at the strategic complex. Video footage showed visible flames, and firefighting teams were still struggling to extinguish the blaze, Xinhua news agency reported quoting Israeli daily Ha'aretz.

"The power station responsible for part of the steam and electricity production used by the group's facilities sustained significant damage, alongside additional impacts," the company said in a filing to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

"At this stage, all refinery and subsidiary facilities have been shut down," it added.

Bazan said it was still assessing the extent of the damage and its impact on operations, as well as the best way to address the situation.

The Iranian attack came amid a four-day deadly aerial warfare between the Islamic Republic and Israel that has cost the lives of at least 244 people in Iran and 24 in Israel. The escalation was sparked by Israel's surprise airstrikes across Iran on Friday.

Iran launched a new pre-dawn missile attack on Israel on Monday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens, Israeli officials said, as the four-day conflict triggered by an Israeli surprise assault intensified.

The missile barrage set off air raid sirens across Israel. Plumes of black smoke rose above Haifa, a major coastal city in northern Israel, and eyewitnesses reported multiple explosions in the north and central regions of the country.

Local authorities confirmed fatalities in several locations. Four people were killed when a missile struck a residential building in Petah Tikva, a city east of Tel Aviv, according to Mayor Rami Greenberg. He stated that hundreds of residents from the damaged building and three adjacent structures were evacuated. Photos from the scene showed multi-story buildings with significant blast damage and scattered rubble.