An Israeli strike has hit Iran's state broadcaster while the head of the UN nuclear watchdog indicated there was extensive damage to Iran's biggest uranium enrichment plant as the country called on the US to force a ceasefire in the four-day-old aerial war.
The strike on the offices of IRIB during a live broadcast was a "wicked act" and a "war crime", said foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei.
"The UNSC must act now to stop the genocidal aggressor from committing further atrocities against our people," he added.
Israel said it hit Iran's broadcasting authority and footage showed a newsreader hurrying from her seat as a blast struck.
Even as Iran called for the US to force a ceasefire, it pierced Israeli air defences with a damaging volley of missile strikes and Israel persisted in its bombing campaign.
Its Revolutionary Guards said it will strike Israel "without interruption until dawn" overnight.
"The ninth wave of combined drone and missile attacks has begun and will continue without interruption until dawn," said the Guards' spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Sources said that Tehran had asked Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to press US President Donald Trump to use his influence on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to push for an immediate ceasefire.
In return, Iran would show flexibility in nuclear negotiations, said the two Iranian and three regional sources.
Iran, in turn, called on Mr Trump to force Israel to halt its attacks as the only way to end the aerial conflict, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was on the "path to victory".
"If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential," Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X.
"Israel must halt its aggression and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue," he added.
Watch: Iran state television building targeted in Israeli strike
Mr Araqchi said it "takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu", adding that such action "may pave the way for a return to diplomacy".
Talks between the United States and Iran, hosted by Oman, had been scheduled yesterday but were scrapped, with Tehran saying it could not negotiate while under attack.
Earlier, Mr Netanyahu told Israeli troops at an air base that Israel was on its way to achieving its two main aims: wiping out Iran's nuclear programme and destroying its missiles.
"We are on the path to victory," he said, adding "we are telling the citizens of Tehran: 'evacuate' and we are taking action".
Meanwhile Mr Trump warned Iran to re-enter negotiations "before it's too late" as Group of Seven leaders considered a joint call for de-escalation.
The president, who has praised Israel's strikes despite his stated preference for diplomacy, said he believed a negotiated settlement remained "achievable".
"It's painful for both parties, but I'd say Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk, and they should talk immediately, before it's too late," Mr Trump told reporters as he met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
"They have to make a deal," he added.
Netanyahu suggests killing Iranian supreme leader would end conflict
Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, did not rule out plans to assassinate Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying it would "end the conflict" between the two countries.
In a 20-minute interview with US network ABC News, the Israeli leader insisted his country's aggression to "defang" Iran was justified, and equated Mr Khamenei to a "modern Hitler".
But when asked about reports that President Trump vetoed an Israeli plan to kill the supreme leader out of concern it would escalate the Iran-Israel conflict, Mr Netanyahu was dismissive.
The Israeli prime minister did not reveal whether or not Israel was targeting the ayatollah, saying only: "We're doing what we need to do."
Watch: Donald Trump says 'sometimes they have to fight it out'
Israel launched its air attacks on Friday with a surprise attack that killed nearly the entire top echelon of Iran's military commanders and its leading nuclear scientists.
It has said it now has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate its campaign in coming days.
Israel said it hit Iranian F-14 fighter planes at Tehran airport and its airstrikes have also put at least two of Iran's three operating uranium enrichment plants out of action.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the BBC it was very likely all the roughly 15,000 centrifuges operating at Iran's biggest uranium enrichment plant at Natanz were badly damaged or destroyed because of a power cut caused by an Israeli strike.
There had been very limited or no damage at the separate Fordow plant, he said.
Iran's retaliation is the first time in the decades of shadow war and proxy conflict that missiles fired from Iran have pierced Israeli defences in significant numbers and killed Israelis in their homes.
Iran says more than 224 Iranians have been killed, most of them civilians.
Media published images of wounded children, women and the elderly from cities across the country.
State TV broadcast scenes of collapsed presidential buildings, burned cars and shattered streets in Tehran.
Many residents were trying to flee the capital, describing queues for petrol and bank machines that were out of cash.
"I am desperate. My two children are scared and cannot sleep at night because of the sound of air defence and attacks, explosions. But we have nowhere to go. We hid under our dining table," Gholamreza Mohammadi, 48, a civil servant, told Reuters by phone from Tehran.
Israel says 24 people have been killed so far in Iran's missile attacks, all of them civilians.
Round the clock television images showed rescuers working in ruins of flattened homes.
"It's terrifying because it's so unknown," said Guydo Tetelbaum, 31, a chef in Tel Aviv who was in his apartment when the alerts came in shortly after 4am (2am Irish time).
He had tried to reach a shelter but his door was blown in.
"This could be the beginning of a long time like this, or it could get worse, or hopefully better, but it's the unknown that's the scariest," he added.
Mr Trump has consistently said that the Israeli assault could end quickly if Iran agrees to US demands that it accept strict curbs to its nuclear programme.
Talks between the United States and Iran, hosted by Oman, had been scheduled for yesterday but were scrapped, with Tehran saying it could not negotiate while under attack.
Iranian politicians floated the idea of quitting the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, a move bound to be seen as a setback for any negotiations.
Before dawn, Iranian missiles struck Tel Aviv and Haifa, killing at least eight people and destroying homes.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the latest attack employed a new method that caused Israel's multi-layered defence systems to target each other so missiles could get through.
Israel's Haifa-based Bazan energy group said its power station had been significantly damaged in an attack that killed three employees and forced its refinery facilities to shut down.
Israeli authorities said a total of seven missiles fired overnight landed in Israel.
At least 100 people were wounded.
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said the missile barrage also lightly damaged a building used by the American embassy in Tel Aviv.
In Iran, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei condemned as a "war crime" an Israeli strike that damaged a hospital in the western city of Kermanshah.
A previous report said a nearby workshop had been the target.
Oil prices slipped $1 per barrel in volatile trading after reports that Iran is seeking an end to hostilities, raising the possibility of a truce and easing fears of a disruption to regional crude supplies.
The sudden killing of so many Iranian military commanders and the apparent loss of control of airspace could prove to bet he biggest test of Iran's system of clerical rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
