Israel’s largest coastal oil refinery is ablaze after Iran launched a barrage of 12 ballistic missiles at the country’s industrial heartland, plunging nearby cities into panic as bomb shelters filled to capacity overnight, officials and witnesses say.

Sirens wailed across Haifa and surrounding towns as radar detected multiple launches from western Iran. Iron Dome and David’s Sling batteries intercepted much of the salvo, but at least two heavy warheads either broke through or detonated close enough to shred pipelines and storage tanks at the sprawling refinery complex.

Video from the scene shows a wall of flame roaring into the night sky, with mᴀssive black plumes drifting over residential neighbourhoods. Windows rattled kilometres away as secondary explosions rippled through fuel depots; residents reported the “ground shaking” and a suffocating smell of burning chemicals. Authorities ordered people indoors while hazmat teams sampled the air.

Inside Haifa and nearby suburbs, scenes of chaos unfolded as families sprinted to shelters, some finding them already packed and struggling to close blast doors. Social media is flooded with images of crowded underground rooms where children sleep on stairwells and adults anxiously scroll for updates between fresh booms overhead.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is hailing the strike as “a direct hit on the Zionist energy lifeline,” calling it payback for attacks on Iranian oil infrastructure. Israeli officials admit to “significant damage” but insist core power supplies remain stable, vowing a “painful, multi‑layered response” against Iranian missile and command sites.

As flames still rage over the refinery and shelters remain jammed, one question hangs over Israelis and global markets alike: has the war now crossed into a full‑scale battle to cripple each side’s energy backbone—with civilians caught in the blast radius?