Qatar's state oil giant QatarEnergy reported "extensive damage" after the Ras Laffan Industrial City, an energy-industry hub, was hit by Iranian missiles. Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted and destroyed four ballistic missiles launched toward Riyadh on Wednesday and an attempted drone attack on a gas facility in the east of the country.

South Pars is the Iranian sector of the world's largest natural gas deposit, which Iran shares with Qatar, a close US ally, across the Gulf. Qatar's foreign ministry rebuked Israel for a "dangerous and irresponsible" attack on Iran's South Pars facilities, and denounced Iran for what it called "a flagrant breach" of international law, expelling two senior Iranian diplomats.

Israel has not publicly claimed responsibility for the attack on South Pars. According to the Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed US officials, Trump knew of Israel's plan to attack the gas field in advance and supported it.

Iran's Fars news agency reported that gas tanks and parts of a refinery had been hit. It said workers had been evacuated and state media later said the fire there was under control.

Iran listed several prominent regional oil and gas facilities it called "direct and legitimate targets", all in nearby states that host US military bases: Saudi Arabia's Samref Refinery and Jubail Petrochemical Complex, the UAE's Al Hosn Gas Field, as well as Qatar's Mesaieed Petrochemical Complex, Mesaieed Holding Company and Ras Laffan.

It said they should be evacuated at once before its missiles fell.

The US and Israel had previously held back from targeting Iran's energy production facilities in the Gulf, averting Iranian retaliation against the oil and gas industries of its neighbors. International law forbids states from attacking civilian energy infrastructure.

France's President Emmanuel Macron said he spoke with the emir of Qatar and Trump on Thursday and called for a "moratorium on strikes targeting civilian infrastructure", especially water and energy facilities.

Iran has already effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, which handles 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas supply, but consuming nations have hoped the disruption would prove short-lived as long as production infrastructure was spared.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas spoke by phone on Wednesday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and said safe passage through the Strait was a priority for Europe and that the EU supports a diplomatic solution to the war.

Israel killed Iran's intelligence minister Esmail Khatib on Wednesday, a day after killing powerful security chief Ali Larijani.

Iran has retaliated by firing cluster missiles at Israel, which are harder to cleanly intercept. Shortly after midnight on Thursday, Israel's ambulance service said a foreign national had died in Adanim in central Israel after an Iranian missile attack, bringing the death toll in Israel to at least 15 people.

Wednesday also saw the first deadly strike in the Israeli-occupied West Bank: three Palestinian women were killed after an Iranian missile attack, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

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