Middle East crisis live: Israel returns fire on Iran as Trump says both parties ‘must immediately stop shooting’

Israel says it expects several days of fighting as US president calls for deescalation

• Israel strikes Iran despite Trump plea as Middle East crisis threatens to escalate

Iranian media is reporting that there were no immediate casualties following apparent Israeli strikes on the Karun petrochemical plant in Mahshahr, a city in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province.

According to the Fars news agency, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they responded to what they described as an American-Israeli strike on the Iranian petrochemical site by launching a missile attack on a similar plant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.