At least 24 people have been killed in Israel as Iran launched retaliatory airstrikes targeting civilian areas. A U.S. Embassy branch in Tel Aviv suffered minor damage.

At least seven people were killed and more than 100 injured when an Iranian ballistic missile hit Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv, overnight on Sunday, domestic media reported. Other reports put the death toll at six people. Israel's police said residential buildings took a "direct hit that caused extensive damage."

Iran's strikes on Israel are self-defense and are "proportionate defensive operations directed exclusively at military objectives and associated infrastructure," Iran's U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told the U.