AP, DUBAI, United Arab Emirates

Israeli attacks on Iran “will escalate and expand,” Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said in a statement yesterday, adding that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “warned the Iranian terrorist regime to stop firing missiles at the civilian population in Israel.”

“Despite the warnings, the firing continues — and therefore [Israeli military] attacks in Iran will escalate and expand to additional targets and areas that assist the regime in building and operating weapons against Israeli citizens,” Katz said.

“They will pay heavy, increasing prices for this war crime,” he said.

Photo: AFP / US Air Force / US Central Command

Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Iran.

The US has offered Iran a 15-point proposal for a ceasefire that includes it relinquishing control of the Strait of Hormuz and at the same time has ordered thousands more troops to the region — possibly in preparation for a military attempt to wrest the waterway from Iran.

Israel’s attack on Friday “in the heart of Tehran” targeted sites used by Iran to produce ballistic missiles and other weapons, the Israeli military said.

It also hit missile launchers and storage sites in western Iran, it said.

Meanwhile, smoke was rising over Beirut after a pre-dawn strike.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health later reported that two people were killed.

Air raid sirens sounded in Israel as the military said it was working to intercept Iranian missiles, and Iran kept firing missiles and drones at its Gulf Arab neighbors, with sirens warning of attacks in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defense said that it shot down missiles and drones targeting the capital, Riyadh.

Kuwait said its Shuwaikh Port in Kuwait City and the Mubarak al-Kabeer Port to the north, which is under construction as part of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative, had sustained “material damage” in attacks.

It appeared to be one of the first times that a project affiliated with China in the Gulf Arab states came under assault in the war.