Iranian missiles hit a major hospital in southern Israel and struck residential buildings in Tel Aviv on Thursday, wounding 240 people and causing extensive damage.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz blamed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and said the military “has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist.”

Israel, meanwhile, carried out strikes on Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, its latest attack on Iran’s sprawling nuclear program. Iranian state television said there was “no radiation danger whatsoever” and that the facility had been evacuated before the attack.

The White House says President Donald Trump will decide within the next two weeks whether to strike Iran. It says Trump still sees a “substantial” chance that negotiations can achieve U.S. and Israeli demands on Iran’s nuclear program.

Here’s the latest:

Australia closes its embassy in Tehran

Australia closed its embassy in Tehran and evacuated staff and their families due to the “deteriorating security environment,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that also urged Australian citizens still in Iran to leave quickly.

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Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and they agreed to work “closely” to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and to pursue peace.

“There is an opportunity … over the next two weeks for de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy,” Wong said from Adelaide on Friday.

Britain’s foreign secretary says situation in Middle East ‘remains perilous’

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the “situation in the Middle East remains perilous,” after meeting Thursday at the White House with his U.S. counterpart, Marco Rubio, and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff.

“We are determined that Iran must never have a nuclear weapon,” Lammy wrote in a post on X.

“We discussed how a deal could avoid a deepening conflict. A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution,” he added.

Iran’s foreign minister due to meet with European diplomats in Geneva

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was due Friday in Geneva to negotiate with European diplomats, the country’s first face-to-face talks in the crisis.

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Israeli military issued warning to flee Rasht in Iran ahead of strikes

Ahead of the Israeli strikes near Rasht in Iran, the Israeli military put out a warning urging the public to flee the area around Rasht’s Industrial City, which sits about a few kilometers (miles) southwest of the city’s downtown.

The Israelis did not immediately describe what they sought to destroy in the area. However, with Iran’s internet being shut off to the outside world, it’s unclear just how many people in Iran would be able to see the message.

Getting information out of Iran is increasingly difficult

After a week of Israeli airstrikes, getting any information out of Iran has grown incredibly difficult. Those outside of the country are broadly unable to dial any phone number in the country.

Meanwhile, Iran’s state-run television and radio stations offer irregular updates on what’s happening inside of the country, instead focusing their time on the damage wrought by their strikes on Israel.

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Iran is one of the world’s top jailer of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, and in the best of times, reporters face strict restrictions.

Iran has shut off its internet to the outside world, both locking its public out from seeing news from the outside and restricting those abroad from reading news outlets’ websites. NetBlocks, a group that monitors nations’ interference with internet access, said Iran has been disconnected from the rest of the world for 36 hours.

That’s left many scrambling on various social media app to see what’s happening — again, only a glimpse of life in a country of over 80 million people.

Rights group says Israeli strikes have killed at least 657

A week of Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 657 people and wounded 2,037 others, a human rights group said Friday.

The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists offered the figures, which covers the entirety of Iran. It said of those dead, it identified 263 civilians and 164 security force personnel being killed.

Human Rights Activists, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country.

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Iran has not been offering regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. Its last update, issued Monday, put the death toll at 224 people being killed and 1,277 others being wounded.

Israeli airstrikes reach into the city of Rasht

Israeli airstrikes reached into the city of Rasht on the Caspian Sea early Friday, Iranian media reported as the conflict reached the one-week mark.

It wasn’t immediately clear what Israel was targeting in the city in Iran’s Gilan province.

Social media video posted online appeared to show explosions around the city.

The semiofficial Fars news agency reported that local air defense systems were firing into the night sky against the Israelis.

Several U.S. airlines suspend flights to the Middle East

United Airlines said Saturday it has indefinitely paused flights between Newark, New Jersey, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

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American Airlines said it is suspending flights between Philadelphia and Doha, Qatar, at least through Sunday and will make “additional adjustments as needed.”

Both airlines said they are monitoring the situation and are working to rebook customers.

Last week, Delta Air Lines said it was suspending service to Tel Aviv, Israel, where Ben Gurion Airport remains closed to regularly scheduled passenger flights.

Iran meets with Germany’s envoy

Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned Germany’s envoy following what it called “unwise and irresponsible” statements by the German chancellor supporting Israeli actions that violate international law, state-run IRNA news agency reported.

IRNA reported that the country’s foreign ministry conveyed Tehran’s “strong protest” to Markus Potzel, over the German chancellor’s remarks, which he described as an “implicit endorsement of lawbreaking and the use of force against a peaceful country and government.”

In the meeting Thursday, Iran underscored Germany’s international commitment, as a signatory to the United Nations Charter, to oppose aggressive acts that breach international law. It asserted that Israel’s armed attack on Iran “explicitly violates Article 2, Paragraph 4 of the UN Charter and is a clear instance of an aggressive act that must be condemned by all UN member states.”

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19 killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza

An Israeli airstrike on Thursday on Shati Camp in north Gaza killed a total of 19 people, including three children and five women, and injured 70 others, Mohamed Abu Selmiyah, director of Shifa Hospital told The Associated Press. He said that the strike targeted a group of citizens in the area.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Tuesday that widespread bombardment, shelling and shooting continued across the enclave, including among those who were trying to receive aid. Meanwhile, hospitals are struggling to treat scores of injured due to shortages in medical resources and spaces.

Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis has been running out of space this week, with WHO’s Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus saying on social media the hospital is hosting twice as many patients as it can handle and had received over 300 injured people on Wednesday alone from food distribution sites.

A WHO-supported tent originally set up for pediatric and surgical care is now being used as an overcrowded trauma ward with 100 beds crammed into a space built for 88.

Gaza’s health ministry said Thursday that 69 killed people, including two recovered bodies, and 221 wounded individuals arrived at hospitals across the territory over a span of 24 hours. Since the war began in October 2023, a total of 55,706 people were killed and 130,101 others injured.

Some patients at Israeli hospital had been moved before missile strike

Hospital staff at a major Israeli hospital that was hit by the latest Iranian missile barrage said some of the most immobile patients were moved to the basement earlier this week to protect them.

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During a visit Soroka Medical Center’s basement, staff told The Associated Press that about 60 patients were moved there. That part of the hospital was previously used as a kindergarten where employees could leave their children, they said.

Dr. Dana Braiman said had they not been moved many could have been injured or killed from the missile. “The beds they were lying in are now gone,” she said.

It’s unclear what the plan is going forward. The hospital is trying to transfer patients to other clinics in case there is another hit and there are more casualties, but staff say they’re taking it one hour at a time.

Italy’s foreign minister talks to US secretary of state

Italy’s Foreign minister Antonio Tajani had a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday in which he reiterated Rome’s commitment to a de-escalation to favor a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Israel and Iran.

Tajani and Rubio agreed that “Iran must not have the atomic bomb,” Italy’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

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The two ministers also addressed the situation in Gaza. Tajani stressed the urgency of an immediate ceasefire and the full restoration of the entry of humanitarian aid. Rubio agreed with that and confirmed that “this is the intention of the Trump administration.”

Trump to decide within 2 weeks whether to strike Iran, the White House says

The White House announced that U.S. President Donald Trump will decide whether to join Israel’s campaign against Iran’s military and nuclear program within two weeks, saying that Trump still sees a window for diplomacy to address Israeli and U.S. demands on Iran’s nuclear program.

“Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, told reporters, quoting Trump.

UN: Major telecommunications outage hits central and south Gaza for third day

U.N. humanitarian officials say efforts to repair a damaged fiber-optic cable are being hindered.

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U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Israeli authorities initially approved the movement Thursday of a team trying to identify where the cable was cut, but then rescinded it.

“They control the conflict theater, and they are not giving us the approvals,” Dujarric said. “And I can’t stress how urgently we need communications to make sure that we can operate in the safest possible environment — in an environment that is primarily not safe.”

Iran asks UN Security Council to condemn Israel’s strikes

Iran’s mission to the U.N. demanded Thursday that the international body condemn the recent Israeli strikes on Iran’s various facilities, including its Arak heavy water reactor earlier in the day.

“The international community, in particular, the Security Council must not remain silent as crimes of aggression are committed in broad daylight, as international humanitarian law is widespread and systematically violated, and as peaceful nuclear sites and facilities operating under IAEA safeguards come under direct attack,” Amir Saeid Iravani, the Islamic Republic’s permanent representative to the U.N., said in a letter to the Security Council.

UN chief: Upcoming meeting with top diplomats from three European countries and Iran is positive

Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly said that “diplomacy is the only and best way forward” to end the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Thursday.

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The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany are scheduled to meeting in Geneva on Friday with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

“The message from the secretary-general is clear,” Dujarric said. “Stop the military action, too many people have been killed. Return to diplomacy, and avoid at any cost the further internationalization of this conflict.”

Canada will help its citizens fly home from Israel and Iran

The Canadian government says it will help its citizens in Israel and Iran to fly home once they reach neighboring countries.

Ottawa has stationed consular officials on the other side of certain crossings on the Israeli and Iranian borders to help those fleeing either country to get home.

Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand says the government is are extremely concerned about quickly evolving conflict and they are planning commercial options for Canadians in Israel, the West Bank, and Iran to leave the region via certain neighboring countries.

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Houthi leader praises Iran’s ‘effective response’

Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech Thursday that Israel’s military operations against Iran is a dangerous development for the entire region.

He said Iran repeatedly asserted that it doesn’t want to produce nuclear weapons or use them, and praised the nation’s “effective response,” saying it placed Israel in an unprecedented position.

“The enemy hoped to achieve a major accomplishment through this aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, but it failed, and the failure of this aggression clearly resulted in losses and damage,” said al-Houthi.

He dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks about Iran’s unconditional surrender as “nonsense and madness,” and affirmed that Houthi operations against Israel will persist, including those targeting Israeli maritime activity.

Hundreds of Israelis on way home from Cyprus aboard a cruise ship

Some 2,400 stranded Israelis are on their way to Israel aboard a cruise ship that has departed from Cyprus’ main Limassol port Thursday.

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They had reached Cyprus after their Israeli-bound passenger aircraft was diverted to the island at the onset of a missile exchange between Israel and Iran last week. Many others stranded in other countries came to Cyprus, the closest European nation to Israel, in hopes of catching a flight or a boat trip back to Israel.

Cyprus’ chief Rabbi Arie Zeev Raskin says approximately 6,500 Israelis were in Cyprus which has become a key transit point for foreign nationals fleeing Israel and many Israelis who want to go back home.

Iran’s blackout has lasted over 24 hours

NetBlocks, a monitoring group that tracks internet outages, said Iran’s nationwide internet blackout had lasted over 24 hours as of Thursday afternoon, making it the most severe disruption since anti-government protests in November 2019.

Israeli military says Iran used a missile with multiple warheads in its attack

The Israeli military said Thursday that Iran used a missile with multiple warheads in its attack, posing a new challenge to its defenses.

Instead of having to track one warhead, missiles with multiple warheads can pose a more difficult challenge for air defense systems, like Israel’s Iron Dome.

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There was no immediate independent analysis that could be made.

Russia voices concern about security at Iran’s Russia-built nuclear power plant

Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Russia is particularly concerned about security at the plant in Iran’s southern port of Bushehr and the Russian personnel there.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that over 200 Russian workers are involved in building two more nuclear reactors in Bushehr. “We agreed with the Israeli leadership that their security will be ensured,” he said.

Alexei Likhachev, the head of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, told reporters that several dozen Russian workers had already been evacuated from Bushehr and others could follow suit quickly if necessary.

Likhachev warned that an Israeli strike on the Bushehr reactor could trigger a catastrophe comparable to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. He voiced hope that the Israeli leadership will “have sufficient understanding and common sense not to allow even an accidental hit.”

Israeli official: Iran has launched 450 missiles and 1,000 drones toward Israel so far

The vast majority of the drones have been launched from Iran, but a few have been launched from Iran’s proxies, including Iraq, according to the Israeli military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

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He added that Israel began its operation in western Iran before moving toward the capital of Tehran and the center. The military is now starting to attack eastern Iran.

The official would not comment on whether or not the Americans are planning to target the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant. “What Americans do or will not do is up to them, we have our plan and are operating according to it,” he said.

Gaza officials say 69 dead in past 24 hours

The Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that hospitals had received 69 bodies and 221 wounded people in the last 24 hours.

It said 55,706 Palestinians have been killed and another 130,101 wounded since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, without saying how many were civilians or combatants.

The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel, when Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. They still hold 53 hostages, more than half of them believed to be dead.

Israel says it destroyed majority of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers

Israel said its airstrikes have destroyed around two-thirds of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers, according to an Israeli military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations. The official said on Thursday that Israel estimates Iran still has over 100 missile launchers remaining active.

“We are hitting all the chain of production, from the military factory all the way to the launcher itself, we’re stopping all of the elements,” the official said. Israel estimates that before Friday, Iran had around 2,000 ballistic missiles.

The official would not comment on Israeli impact on Iran’s nuclear program. “We said we’re going to damage severely the nuclear facilities, but we didn’t say we’re going to destroy it totally,” the official said. “We know our limits.”

At least 8 killed near aid distribution site in Gaza

Health officials in the Gaza Strip say at least eight Palestinians were killed and 60 wounded near an aid distribution site run by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed humanitarian group.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza, which received the dead and wounded, confirmed the toll.

It appeared to be the latest of near-daily shootings of Palestinians seeking desperately-needed food in the territory, which experts say is at risk of famine because of Israel’s blockade and ongoing military campaign.

Multiple Palestinian witnesses have said Israeli forces routinely fire on the crowds. Local health officials say scores have been killed and hundreds wounded. The military says it has fired warning shots at people it describes as suspects who approached its forces.

Russia warns the U.S. against entering the Israel-Iran conflict

“U.S. military interference would be “an extremely dangerous step with truly unpredictable negative consequences,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing Thursday. .

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he doesn’t want to carry out a U.S. strike on Iran but suggested he stands ready to act if it’s necessary to extinguish Iran’s nuclear program.

China’s Xi calls for ceasefire

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on Israel and Iran to implement an immediate ceasefire in their conflict, which he says risks spreading to other countries in the region.

“If the conflict escalates further, not only will the conflicting parties suffer greater losses, but regional countries will also suffer greatly,” Xi said during a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

“The parties to the conflict, especially Israel, should cease fire as soon as possible to prevent the situation from escalating in turn and resolutely avoid the spillover of war,” he added.

China has sought to maintain warm ties with both the Arab States on the one side and Israel on the other, to little practical effect.

Iran’s supreme leader appoints new commander

Iran’s supreme leader has appointed Brigadier General Mohammad Karami as the new ground forces commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force that controls Iran’s ballistic missiles, after Israeli strikes last week killed several high-ranking military officials in Tehran.

Karami is replacing Mohammad Pakpour, who was appointed last week to become the new commander of the Guard following the killing of Hossein Salami.

Iraqi militia threatens to attack US citizens if Iranian leader is targeted

Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iran-backed militias in Iraq, threatened to attack U.S. citizens in the event that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is targeted in the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict.

“No soldier, diplomat, or even a bearer of your nationality in our region will be safe. All your direct and indirect interests will become legitimate targets for us, as long as we draw breath in this vile world,” the statement said.

Iraqi militias have thus far largely held their fire in the conflict, although three drones launched at the Ain al-Asad base housing U.S. troops in western Iraq were reportedly shot down on Friday, after Israel’s began its barrage of strikes on Iran. No group claimed responsibility for the attack on the base.

French foreign minister: France and Europeans willing to negotiate with Iran

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Thursday that France and Europeans partners are ready to “resume negotiations” with Iran.

The comments come after Iran’s state media said the country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will meet with European counterparts in Geneva on Friday.

Barrot did not confirm the Geneva meeting.

The message from Iranian authorities was “relatively clear: there is a willingness to resume talks, including with the United States, provided that a ceasefire can be reached,” Barrot told a news conference in Paris.

“On our side, there is a willingness to resume negotiations, provided that these negotiations can lead to lasting, substantial steps backward by Iran regarding its nuclear program, its ballistic program and its activities to destabilize the region,” Barrot said.

Patients wheeled out of Israeli hospital hit by missile

Patients were wheeled out of a major Israeli hospital that was hit by the latest Iranian missile barrage as emergency responders assessed the damage to the building.

A missile struck the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba, damaging its surgical ward. The roof of the building was smashed in, and after the building was hit, smoke could still be seen smoldering from the side. Chunks of cement and glass lay scattered on the ground.

Hospital staff said several dozen people were lightly injured, adding that most patients had already been moved to safe spaces.

Emergency responders assessed the damage at the Soroka hospital Thursday after a missile struck the surgical ward.

Staff said it wasn’t clear how secure the building was, or if parts were going to collapse.

Two hospital staff who did not want to named told The AP the strike hit almost immediately after sirens went off and they went into the safe room.

Dust and debris at Iran’s state-run broadcaster after Israeli strike

The broadcaster allowed reporters on Thursday to film the aftermath of an Israeli strike against its building in Tehran this week.

Associated Press journalists saw the dust and debris now filling an Iranian state television studio. Its windows were blown out by the blast. Chairs sat singed.

Israel conducted the strike against the building Monday during a live broadcast there, an hour after it issued a public warning for the wider area of Tehran in which the building is located.

Iranian officials have said three employees of the broadcaster, formally known as the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, were killed in the attack.

US diplomat warns Hezbollah against supporting Iran

U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said it would be a “very bad mistake” for Lebanon if the Hezbollah militant group intervened to support Iran militarily in its conflict against Israel.

Barrack made the remarks to journalists Thursday after visiting top officials in Lebanon. Iran-backed Hezbollah has condemned Israel’s surprise strikes on Iran that sparked the conflict and endorsed Iran’s missile barrages over Israel, but has stopped short of saying it will take military action.

Israel says Iran’s Supreme Leader ‘cannot continue to exist’

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “cannot continue to exist.”

Katz spoke after the latest wave of Iranian missiles struck a hospital and wounded at least 40 people.

“A dictator like Khamenei, who heads a country like Iran and has made the destruction of Israel his mission, cannot continue to exist,” Katz said. “The IDF has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist.”

U.S. officials said this week that President Donald Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Khamenei. Trump later said there were no plans to kill him “at least not for now.”

Putin and Xi condemn Israeli attacks on Iran

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping condemned the Israeli attacks in a phone call on Thursday.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said that Moscow and Beijing agree that “the current situation and the issues related to the Iranian nuclear program can’t be solved by force.” They believe that “a settlement can and must be reached exclusively by political and diplomatic means.”

Putin informed Xi about his calls with the “key players” in the conflict and his readiness to help broker an end to the hostilities, Ushakov said, adding that Xi welcomed Russia’s mediation.

Iran’s foreign minister to meet with European counterparts on Friday

Iran’s foreign minister will meet with European counterparts in Geneva as an Israeli airstrike campaign continues to target his country, state media reported Thursday.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will travel to Geneva for the meetings Friday, the state-run IRNA news agency report.

IRNA said the meeting would include foreign ministers from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, and the European Union’s top diplomat.

Iran warns the US to avoid direct involvement in conflict with Israel

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Thursday warned the U.S. again to avoid getting directly involved in the conflict between the Islamic Republic and Israel, saying in a statement that “direct” role by the Americans would “expand the conflict to the region.”

“We warn the criminal United States: any direct involvement in this war would lead to its expansion across the region and will result in severe and irreparable blows,” the paramilitary guard in a statement carried by Iranian state T.V. The warning echoes recent statements made by other Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and comes as Trump has said he’s not looking for a fight’ with Iran but stands ready to act if necessary.

IAEA confirms Iran’s Arak heavy water research reactor was hit in a strike

The Arak reactor was not loaded with nuclear material at the time of the strike, meaning there is no risk to the public of any radioactive contamination.

“It was not operational and contained no nuclear material, so no radiological effects,” said the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.

The IAEA said it had no information on whether the heavy water plant next to the reactor had been hit.

Israel later released black-and-white footage of its strike on the Arak reactor, showing a bomb dropping on its dome and sending up a massive plume of fire and smoke.

UK’s Lammy to meet Rubio in Washington for Mideast talks

U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy is flying to Washington on Thursday for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the crisis in the Middle East.

The trip comes after Prime Minister Keir Starmer chaired a meeting of senior ministers, military chiefs and intelligence officials at the government’s crisis committee, known as COBRA, on Wednesday. Discussions included how the U.K. would respond to a potential U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The U.S. may want to use the U.K.-controlled base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in a potential strike on Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Fordo but is not believed to have requested to do so yet.

Britain has continued to urge de-escalation, but has deployed two refueling tankers and 14 Typhoon jets to Cyprus to protect British personnel and interests in the Middle East. The Foreign Office has evacuated family members of British Embassy staff from Israel but not advised U.K. nationals to leave the country.

Israeli police stop media broadcast said to expose location of Iranian missile impacts

The Israeli police said in a statement that it dispatched cars to a facility to prevent “news agencies utilized by Al Jazeera” from transmitting “unauthorized and unlawful content.”

Israeli authorities have repeatedly warned media outlets not to share the location of Iranian missile interceptions and hits, though these have in some cases been disclosed in Israeli and foreign media.

Israel banned Al Jazeera last year, accusing it of incitement and of endangering troops by disclosing their locations. The network has denied the allegations.

China offers to play a role in restoring peace and stability in Middle East

Guo Jiakun, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, says China is willing to play an intermediary role in helping end the conflict.

“China has maintained communication with Iran, Israel, Egypt, Oman and other parties, calling on all sides to take immediate measures to de-escalate tensions and prevent the region from falling into greater turmoil,” Guo said Thursday at a daily briefing.

“China is willing to continue working with countries in the region and the international community to play a constructive role in restoring peace and stability in the Middle East as soon as possible,” he added.

Many aircraft dispersed from major air base in Middle East used by US military

A major air base in the Middle East used by the U.S. military has seen many of the aircraft typically on its tarmac dispersed this weekend.

The Al Udeid Air Base outside of Doha, Qatar, is the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command. Typically, the air base is filled with multiple transport planes, fighter jets and drones.

In a satellite photo taken Wednesday by Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press, the air base’s tarmac had emptied.

The U.S. military has not acknowledged the change. However, it comes after ships off the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet base in Bahrain also have dispersed. That’s typically a military strategy to ensure your fighting ships and planes aren’t destroyed in case of an attack.

Al-Sistani warns against a strike on Iran’s senior religious or political leadership

Iraq’s top Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, warned Thursday that a strike on Iran’s senior religious or political leadership could ignite uncontrollable chaos across the region, an apparent reference to threats that Israel or the U.S. might kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In a statement, al-Sistani denounced the ongoing Israeli military campaign against Iran. He said that targeting the country’s top leadership would be a “criminal act (that) would shatter regional stability, deepen human suffering, and inflict far-reaching harm on the interests of all nations.”

He called on the international community — particularly Muslim countries — to increase diplomatic pressure, halt the aggression and broker a peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.

Widely seen as a voice of moderation, al-Sistani represents a school of thought in Shiism opposed to direct rule by clerics, the system in place in Iran, where Khamenei has the final word in all matters.

Patients evacuated from Soroka Medical Center after missile strike

Black smoke rose from the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba as emergency teams evacuated patients.

Two doctors told The Associated Press that the missile struck almost immediately after air raid sirens went off, causing a loud explosion that could be heard from a safe room. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

— Sam Mednick in Beersheba, Israel

Iran says attack on Israel targeted a military site

Iran, through its state-run IRNA news agency, claimed it targeted an Israeli military site, not the hospital.

Iran claimed the “blast wave” of the missile struck the hospital.

Egyptian FM pushes for ‘de-escalation’ dialogue on call with European diplomats

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty spoke with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and British National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell on Thursday about the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel.

In a statement after the call, Abdelatty said that the E3, an informal foreign and security cooperation arrangement between the U.K., Germany and France, is responsible for opening “channels for dialogue and negotiation and utilize all available channels with the Iranian side to reach compromises that contribute to de-escalation.”

Attack on Arak reactor meant to prevent plutonium production, Israel says

Israel’s military said its fighter jets targeted the Arak facility and its reactor core seal to halt it from being used to produce plutonium.

“The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,” the Israelis said.

Iran has long maintained its program is for peaceful purposes. However, it also enriches uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich at that level.

Israel separately claimed to have struck another site around Natanz it described as being related to Iran’s nuclear program.

Several countries prepare to evacuate their citizens from Iran and Israel

Japan, China, Indonesia and Oman said Thursday they were preparing to help evacuate their citizens from Iran and Israel as the conflict between the two countries intensified.

Japan said it is dispatching two military aircraft to Djibouti ahead of a possible airlifting of Japanese nationals from Iran. Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said he ordered the dispatch of two C-2 transport aircraft, along with 120 service members, to the Horn of African nation where Japan has a military base. About 280 Japanese are based in Iran and 1,000 others are in Israel.

The Chinese Embassy in Israel, meanwhile, said it will organize group evacuations by bus from Israel starting Friday. A notice posted on the embassy’s WeChat social media account said Chinese citizens would be taken out through the Taba border crossing to Egypt.

The Indonesian government said it would evacuate its citizens from Iran. About 386 Indonesians, mostly students, are in Iran, primarily in the city of Qom, he said. His ministry, meanwhile, said earlier that about 194 Indonesians are in Israel, the majority of whom are in the southern city of Rafah.

And Oman said it had evacuated 245 of its citizens and a number of nationals from other countries via the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, along the country’s Persian Gulf coast.

Israel’s main hospital in south sustained direct hit from Iranian missile with ‘extensive damage’

Israel’s main southern hospital sustained a direct hit Thursday from an Iranian missile, with officials reporting “extensive damage” there.

Soroka Medical Center is the main hospital in Israel’s south.

A spokesperson for the Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheba said the hospital suffered “extensive damage” in different areas and people were wounded in the attack. The hospital has requested people not come for treatment.

The hospital has over 1,000 beds and provides services to the approximately 1 million residents of Israel’s south, according to the hospital’s website.

Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639, rights group says

Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639 people and wounded 1,329 others, a human rights group said Thursday.

The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists offered the figures, which covers the entirety of Iran. It said of those dead, it identified 263 civilians and 154 security force personnel being killed.

Human Rights Activists, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, cross-checks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country.

Iran has not been offering regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. Its last update, issued Monday, put the death toll at 224 people being killed and 1,277 others being wounded.

Israel-Iran Conflict Highlights: Amid the ongoing growing hostilities, the United States is now weighing its role. The White House has confirmed that President Donald Trump is likely to decide ”within two weeks” whether the US will get involved on Israel’s behalf. The conflict between the two heavily armed nations, Iran and Israel, has entered its seventh day. Iran launched a barrage of missiles into Israel, which damaged four key sites in central and southern regions. Among the affected locations was Soroka Medical Centre, the largest hospital in southern Israel, which suffered “extensive damage,” according to Israeli officials. At least 47 people have been reported injured in these Iranian strikes.

Check LIVE Updates Here: Israel-Iran conflict

Israel hits back: Israeli forces, in response to this, have intensified strikes on Iran. It targeted its Arak heavy water reactor, a critical nuclear facility. The attack came just hours after Israel issued evacuation warnings to civilians in Iran.

It also said that it struck an inactive nuclear reactor in Arak, which is a key component in plutonium production; a nuclear weapons development site, Ballistic missile & air defence production facilities, and Radar systems & missile storage sites.

‘I may do it, I may not,’ says Trump on US involvement: US President Donald Trump said that he is unsure if he will join the ongoing conflict in the Mideast. “I may do it, I may not do it… Nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Trump said. He added that he prefers to make decisions “one second before it’s due”.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump said that they know Khamenei’s whereabouts and that he is an “easy target”. He also said that the US will not kill him at the moment and demanded an “unconditional surrender” from Iran.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, before demanding Iran’s “unconditional surrender” in a separate post.

‘Battle has begun,’ declared Iran: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared war on Israel yesterday, adding that they will show no mercy to Zionists.

“We must give a strong response to the terrorist Zionist regime. We will show the Zionists no mercy,” Khamenei wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). In another post, he wrote, “The battle begins”. It accompanies a poster of a man entering a cave set on fire with a sword and lions on either side as others look at him. It is a reference to the historic Battle of Khaybar.

He also warned that the US military involvement would cause “irreparable damage to them”.

Iran said that it would not “grovel at the gates of the White House,” rejecting the idea of backing down in the face of American or Israeli aggression.

Russia offers to mediate: Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to mediate between Iran and Israel. He proposed helping broker an agreement that would allow Iran to pursue a peaceful nuclear program while addressing Israel’s security concerns. According to reports, the proposal has been shared with leaders in Iran, Israel, and the United States.

Diplomatic efforts are also underway, with high-ranking European diplomats expected to hold nuclear talks with Iran on Friday. The discussions, reported by the Associated Press, are aimed at de-escalating the crisis, though the United States is not expected to participate at this stage. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reaffirmed the country’s position, stating that Iran remains “committed to diplomacy” and reiterated that it does not seek, and has never sought, nuclear weapons.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in contrast, emphasised that their military offensive is not aimed at the Iranian people. “We are doing everything we can to protect them,” he told Iran International, before adding, “That’s the difference between a terrorist regime and a democracy like ours, fighting a just war with just means.”

Why did Israel attack Iran? The attack came after tensions between Iran and the international community escalated sharply after Tehran announced the activation of a third nuclear enrichment facility. The announcement came just hours after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued its first formal censure against Iran in two decades, criticising its failure to meet nuclear non-proliferation commitments. However, it confirmed that no increase in radiation levels has been observed at the Natanz nuclear site, Iran’s largest uranium enrichment facility.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched “Operation Rising Lion” against Iran and stated the attack was on “the heart of Iran’s ballistic missiles program”. He asserted strikes would continue “for as long as it takes to remove this threat”. IDF Chief of Staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir emphasised the urgency of the operation, saying, “We had reached the point of no return. Freedom is granted to those willing to fight for it.”

War casualties: Iran’s health ministry reported that at least 224 Iranians have been killed in Israeli strikes since Friday, while the Israeli death toll has climbed to 24. 500 people in Israel have been injured in the ongoing conflict. Despite repeated international calls for de-escalation, tensions continue to spiral.

Live Updates

Israel-Iran Conflict Live Updates: Stay up to date with all the latest updates and breaking news from the region as the Middle East heads into a dangerous war.

President Trump will decide on whether to strike Iran within two weeks as the White House says there is a chance of negotiations

Iranian missiles hit a hospital as Israel carries out fresh strikes on Tehran, including on a nuclear facility

UK displays ‘astonishing’ lack of help, say citizens in Israel

People shelter in an underground train station in Ramat Gan, Israel, after reports of an incoming missile fired by Iran

By Peter Chappell and Aubrey Allegretti

Britons trapped in Israel have accused the government of failing to help them get home after the US signalled it would lay on charter planes and ships for its own citizens.

Those stranded said the UK government had displayed an “astonishing” lack of help and sometimes issued contradictory advice.

Commercial airlines stopped flights out of Israel after the country launched airstrikes on Iran, which saw the Islamic regime retaliate with missile strikes on Tel Aviv.

Israel and Iran have since closed their airspaces. But UK government sources are hopeful that Israel will lift the ban imminently.

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• Read in full: Help us get home, Britons trapped in Israel beg Foreign Office

Iran-backed militia threatens action if US joins war

An Iraq-based Shia militia has said US military bases in the region will become “akin to duck-hunting grounds” if the Trump administration enters the Israeli conflict with Iran.

“We reaffirm, with even greater clarity, that should the United States enter into this war, the deranged Trump shall forfeit all the trillions he dreams of seizing from this region,” Abu Ali al-Askari, a military official from Kataib Hezbollah, said in a statement.

“Operational plans have been established for that purpose,” he added.

Al-Askari threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman and target oil ports along the Red Sea.

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The US blamed the Iran-backed militia for a drone attack on a military base in Jordan that killed three American soldiers and wounded dozens more last year.

‘Too weak’ Trump criticised for two-week pattern

President Trump has been derided on social media over musing about joining Israeli air strikes on Iran after the White House announced he would make a final decision in two weeks.

Trump’s tendency to delay controversial decisions — specifically by a period of two weeks — have been highlighted in video compilations on social media including TikTok and X, exploiting the wordplay “too weak”.

The pattern dated back to his first run for the presidency in 2016 when he teased policy announcements and continued through his first term in office on subjects from trade to climate change, infrastructure to terrorism.

More recently, Trump gave President Putin a two week ultimatum to figure out a peace plan for the war with Ukraine, only for the deadline to pass without any further action.

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Grenade launched at ambassador’s Tel Aviv residence

A grenade was thrown and exploded at the Tel Aviv residence of Norway’s ambassador to Israel, Norwegian media reported on Thursday.

No one was said to have been injured in the incident, which was confirmed and condemned by the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, the Dagbladet newspaper reported.

“I recently spoke with Norway’s ambassador to Israel, Per Egil Selvaag, where a grenade was thrown into his garden this evening. I strongly condemn this serious and dangerous act,” Sa’ar said.

He was confident police would “act quickly and decisively to find those responsible”, he said

The circumstances of Thursday’s incident were not clear. However, this month Norway was one of five countries, along with Britain, to announce sanctions against hard-right ministers in the Israeli government.

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Britain needs closer relationship with Bahrain, says PM

Sir Keir Starmer and the crown prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, agreed on the need for closer relationships to support stability in the Middle East, a spokesman for the prime minister said.

“The leaders called for de-escalation and both agreed on the need for enduring and closer relationships across the region to support stability,” the spokesman said, referring to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Starmer and the prince met in London on Thursday to discuss strengthening ties through security, defence and investment agreements.

Israeli hospital was ‘near’ military target, says Iran

Iran has claimed it was intending to hit an Israel Defence Forces command and intelligence centre during missile strikes that damaged the Soroka hospital on Thursday.

A spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard told its Fars news agency that the military target was “located near a hospital”.

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Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, previously posted on X that the strikes had “eliminated an Israeli military command, control and intelligence HQ and another vital target”. He added that the blast had caused “superficial damage” to a section of the hospital.

Israeli officials have accused Iran of committing war crimes by deliberately targeting the hospital southern city of Beersheba. More than 70 people were injured in the attack.

Netanyahu under fire for comment over son’s wedding

Binyamin Netanyahu has been criticised within Israel for suggesting the cancellation of his son’s wedding for security reasons was a “personal cost” of his military campaign against Iran.

The Israeli prime minister had compared Iran’s missile strikes to the blitz of German bombing that Britain faced during the Second World War and paid tribute to his family.

Gilad Kariv, a Knesset member for the opposition Democrats party, described Netanyahu as a “borderless narcissist”.

“I know many families who were not forced to postpone a wedding, but who will now never celebrate the weddings that were once meant to take place,” Kariv said.

He also ridiculed Netanyahu’s claim that his wife was a “hero”.

“The doctors who leave home for night shifts are the heroes,” Kariv said. “The teachers who keep our children together on Zoom and phone calls are the heroes.”

Who are the dissidents opposing the Iranian regime?

Opponents of the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, include Reza Pahlavi, son of the deposed Shah, and the rapper Toomaj Salehi

By Samer Al-Atrush, Middle East Correspondent

The banner was unfurled over a Tehran bridge by night, with a message scrawled in spray paint. “Those who experienced the Iran-Iraq war,” it read, “demand no war again.”

The dissidents behind this modest protest a few months ago sought to cover their tracks, wary of the unforgiving punishment that befalls critics of the Islamic regime.

But they had decided to take the risk, one organiser in Iran said, because they “believe Iran is very close to opening a new regional war, which will cost Iran and all Iranians … Enough is enough. If you don’t take risks, you can’t expect rewards.”

• Read in full: Inside the Iranian opposition, from a rapper to the Shah’s son

War leaves pilgrims stranded in Saudi Arabia

Some 12,500 Iranian pilgrims are stranded in Medina, Saudi Arabia, after flights to Iran were suspended due to the ongoing conflict with Israel, according to Iranian state media.

Millions of Muslims visited the holy sites of Mecca and Medina this month for the annual Hajj pilgrimage and to celebrate Eid al-Adha on June 6.

Iran said it was co-ordinating with Saudi Arabia and Iraq to facilitate the pilgrims’ return via land border crossings.

Strikes on nuclear sites are war crimes, says Iran

The Iranian mission to the United Nations claimed Israel had committed a war crime by striking nuclear facilities.

In a letter to the UN Security Council, Iran accused Israel of “repeated acts of aggression” that were “flagrant violations” of the UN charter, international law and an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution.

“They also represent an unprecedented and dangerous assault on the integrity of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime and the system of multilateral safeguards administered by the IAEA,” the mission said.

It cited Israeli strikes on the Arak heavy water research reactor, a uranium conversion plant and centrifuge production sites in Tehran and Karaj.

Iranians flee country as conflict escalates

Iranians fear war as they flee across the border

How the US could hit Iran from Diego Garcia

By Larisa Brown, Rhys Blakely and Alistair Dawber

Shortly after 10pm in the middle of the Indian Ocean, four B-2 Spirit stealth bombers take off under the cover of darkness, heading to Iran.

Each of the bombers is capable of carrying two Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs) — 6m-long, 13.6-tonne bombs that can smash through layers of rock and destroy underground bunkers.

They have never been fired in anger. The sheer weight of the bombs means the journey from Diego Garcia, a joint UK-US base, could take longer than planned. Nevertheless, the pilots aim to arrive by 3.30am at the target: Fordow, Iran’s most heavily fortified nuclear site.

The time is chosen because it is when the enemy is at its weakest. “Between 2am and 4am is the best time to attack … whether that’s with a machinegun or dropping a bomb on their head,” explains a former fast jet pilot.

“Human beings,” he adds, “don’t work well in the small hours.”

• Read in full: How a US strike on Iran could unfold

Ukrainian mother killed in strike by Iran

The body of a Ukrainian mother who had gone to Israel to seek life-saving treatment for her daughter has been recovered, Israeli officials have said.

Maria Peshkarova, 31, was among nine people killed in an Iranian strike on an apartment in the coastal city of Bat Yam on Sunday.

Peshkarova had travelled to Israel in December 2022 on a medical visa to seek leukaemia treatment for her seven-year-old daughter, Anastasia. Her mother and two cousins were also killed in the missile strike.

The confirmed deaths take the total toll in Israel to 25 since the war with Iran started on Friday, according to authorities.

Peshkarova’s husband was reported to be fighting for Ukraine against Russia.

Iran deliberately targeted hospital, claims Israel

Patients and staff were evacuated from the Soroka Medical Centre ODED BALILTY/AP

The Israeli military has accused Iran of deliberately aiming a missile strike at a hospital that was hit today.

Iran had claimed it targeted a military site close to the Soroka Medical Centre in Beersheba, not the hospital itself.

However, Brigadier General Effie Defrin, an IDF spokesman, said: “Let there be no doubt, the Iranian regime deliberately and maliciously fired at the hospital and population centre with the intent to harm civilians.

“This is state-sponsored terrorism and a blatant violation of international law.”

The head of the World Health Organisation, which had repeatedly criticised Israel for bombing hospitals in Gaza, condemned the Iranian missile attack as “appalling”.

US airlines halt flights to Middle East

Two American airlines have paused flights to the Middle East as the conflict between Israel and Iran continues.

United Airlines said it paused flights from Newark Airport, near New York City, to Dubai and would work with customers to minimise disruptions.

American Airlines has also paused flights between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Doha, Qatar, until Sunday.

“We will continue to monitor the situation with safety and security top of mind and make any additional adjustments as needed,” it said in a statement.

Israel’s strikes on Iran triggered an immediate closure of its airspace and major international airlines have suspended services to and from Israel. El Al has cancelled all scheduled flights until June 23.

US ‘fears’ attacks on bases as Iran demands third party in talks

Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy, with President Trump ANDREW HARNIK/GETTY IMAGES

By David Charter, Washington

President Trump is looking for an exit ramp from US military involvement in Iran as concern grows among his advisers about Iran’s ability to strike back at bases in the region and kill American troops, The Times understands.

His trusted negotiator, Steve Witkoff, is in near daily phone contact with Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, who is refusing to join further nuclear talks while his country is under attack from Israel.

Araghchi has raised another stumbling block, telling Witkoff that Iran wants a third party at the negotiating table and suggesting this could be China, The Times has learnt. Iran does not trust the nations presenting themselves as interlocutors for talks — the US, Britain and Germany — because of their hostile language about the regime in Tehran.

• Read in full: Why Trump is ‘looking for an exit ramp’

Iran posts propaganda Lego animation

Iranian state media has published a propaganda video showing the destruction of Israeli targets in Lego form.

Figures of Donald Trump and Binyamin Netanyahu are shown at a table conversing with the Devil before animated Lego models of Iranian missiles are shown being fired at buildings and Israeli F-35 war planes to destructive effect.

Netanyahu is then shown running in panic before holding a phone call with Trump, who is shown holding a hamburger.

The video, replete with stereotypes including a bearded character in orthodox Jewish dress and an image of a burning Israeli flag, ends with images of figures holding Lebanese, Yemeni and Palestinian flags celebrating Israel’s apparent destruction.

It is not clear who has made the video but it ends with a declaration that “we’re the ones who control the game”.

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Iran ‘never been closer’ to obtaining nuclear weapon

Asked whether America was relying on its own intelligence to determine if Iran was close to developing a nuclear weapon, the White House press secretary said: “It is a fact, and the United States government maintains this fact, that Iran has never been closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Karoline Leavitt declined to say whether President Trump would seek congressional approval for a military strike.

US ‘ready to defend’ interests at home and abroad

Karoline Leavitt was asked if the government was concerned about whether Iran would respond to a military strike with an assassination attempt on the president’s life.

The White House press secretary said: “I can assure the American public and the world that this administration is prepared and ready to defend American interests and assets, not just in the region, but here on our homeland as well.”

Last November the US Department of Justice charged an Iranian national with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump before the presidential election.

Trump will show ‘American strength’

Karoline Leavitt was asked about how confident the public could be that President Trump would stick to a two-week deadline after making similar promises in relation to the Russia–Ukraine war.

The White House press secretary said those were two “very different, complicated, global conflicts” and blamed the weakness of the Biden administration in failing to negotiate a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow.

She said: “Now we have American strength again. With respect to Russia and Ukraine, because of that American strength and the president’s leadership, we have seen these two sides engage in direct negotiations.”

‘Substantial chance’ of US–Iran negotiations

Karoline Leavitt said that negotiations between the United States and Iran had been ongoing in the past few days.

The White House press secretary added that the two-week delay in making a decision on whether to strike Iran was “based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future”.

Iran cannot obtain nuclear weapon, says White House

Asked what her message was for Americans who voted for Trump to reject foreign wars, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said: “Trust in President Trump.

“President Trump has incredible instincts and President Trump kept America and the world safe in his first term as president in implementing a peace through strength policy agenda.

“And with respect to Iran, nobody should be surprised by the president’s position that Iran absolutely cannot obtain a nuclear weapon. He’s been unequivocally clear about this for decades, not just as president, not just as a presidential candidate, but also as a private citizen.”

Trump to decide on Iran strike ‘within two weeks’

Lara Spirit, Washington

President Trump said he will make his decision on whether to strike Iran “in the next two weeks”.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, relayed a direct quote from the president to reporters indicating the president remained hopeful that negotiations might prevail.

Trump said: “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go in the next two weeks.”

Israel: Iran guilty of ‘war crime’ for hospital strike

The Israeli prime minister visited the damaged Soroka hospital MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/AFP/GETTY

Gideon Sa’ar, the Israeli foreign minister, said Iran’s attack on the Soroka hospital amounted to a war crime.

Speaking to reporters outside the medical facility where more than 70 people were injured in a missile strike, Sa’ar said: “Behind me you can see the surgery building. It is a building in which every day, the medical team, the doctors, are making tremendous efforts to save human lives.

“This is exactly the place where the Iranian regime targeted — a civilian hospital. This is clearly a war crime.

“It reflects the Iranian regime’s consistent strategy, they are deliberately targeting civilian population, civilian targets, civilians, children, elderly people. It is unacceptable.”

He vowed that Israel would not stop its military campaign against Iran until all of its goals were met.

“We will continue to hit nuclear objectives. We will continue to hit ballistic missile objectives. And we will not stop for even one minute before we complete the mission,” he said.

Netanyahu: Israel’s operations have been outstanding

Israel is “ahead of schedule” in its military campaign against Iran, “both in timing and results”, Binyamin Netanyahu has said.

On the seventh day of attacks, the prime minister told the public broadcaster Kan that the attacks had destroyed about half of Iran’s missile launchers. “The work has been outstanding,” he said.

He said he decided to commence the attacks after Israel had weakened Iran’s strongest proxy, Hezbollah, at the end of last year and when it was clear that Iran “was racing toward a nuclear capability”.

He said: “The elimination of [former Hezbollah head Hassan] Nasrallah broke the Iranian axis. What does [Iran] have left?

“This operation has been in planning for many months.”

Escalating conflict causes aviation disruption

Flights to and from the Middle East are subject to disruption ALAMY

By Chris Haslam

Huge areas of airspace in the Middle East have been closed to civil aviation as the conflict between Israel and Iran continues to intensify.

In a notice to airlines, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) warned that “ongoing military operations pose high risk not only to the airspace of Iran and Israel but also to that of neighbouring States affected by the hostilities and associated military activities, including interceptions.”

The advice continues: “The possession of all-altitude capable air-defence systems, cruise and ballistic missiles and the use of air assets capable to operate at all-altitudes, including interception capability beyond the borders of Iran and Israel, make the entire affected airspace vulnerable to spill-over risks, misidentification, miscalculation and failure of interception procedures.”

Our expert explains how airspaces, airports, flight routes and prices have been affected by the conflict so far.

• Read in full: Is it safe to fly across the Middle East?

Israel expects decision on US military support

Israel is expecting a decision from President Trump on whether the United States will join military strikes on Iran in the next day or two, according to media reports.

“The expectation is that they [the US] join, but no one is pushing them,” an Israeli official told The Times of Israel. “They have to make their own decision.”

“We’ll know in the next 24 to 48 hours,” the official added.

The defence minister, Israel Katz, was fully co-ordinated with the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, regarding his earlier threats towards Iran’s supreme leader, the official said.

“Katz always makes his statements according to what Netanyahu asks him to do. He’s not doing it on his own,” the official said.

Canada to evacuate citizens

Canada is planning overland evacuations for citizens stranded in Israel and Iran as the conflict continues.

Anita Anand, the foreign minister, said Canada had deployed additional consular staff to Israel, the West Bank, Armenia, Jordan and Turkey to provide options to leave the region, as airspaces remain restricted.

Anand encouraged Canadians in Israel and Iran to register with the foreign ministry in order to receive updates on the security situation.

British nationals in Israel have been advised to notify the Foreign Office to receive instructions on how to leave the country.

Trump ‘decided’ Iranian nuclear site must be disabled

President Trump has decided that “destroying” the Fordow nuclear site is necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb in a short space of time, CBS News has reported.

Sources indicated that the American president was reviewing strike options on Thursday and had not made a final decision on whether to commence an attack on the underground uranium enrichment facility.

He was still open to allowing the Iranians to disable Fordo but was reported to have made up his mind that the facility must not be allowed to continue to operate.

“He believes there’s not much choice,” one source said. “Finishing the job means destroying Fordo.”

Witkoff to meet Lammy and Rubio in Washington

Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy, is set to attend the meeting today between David Lammy, the foreign secretary, and Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state.

Witkoff has emerged among Trump’s closest advisers in recent months. He has communicated directly in recent days with Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, according to the US news website Axios.

The diplomat’s attendance will further fuel speculation that the meeting will feature discussion of a role for the joint British-American base on the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, which requires British permission to use as a staging post for any US operation for its B2 bombers.

The meeting is set to take place at 7pm, 2pm in Washington.

Israel ‘must hunt’ Iran’s commanders

The chief of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate has said the military must “hunt down” Iran’s commanders “wherever they flee”, the Times of Israel reported.

Addressing soldiers on Wednesday, Major General Shlomi Binder spoke of the assassination of Iran’s most senior military commander, Ali Shadmani, this week.

“Two days ago we managed to strike one of their secret headquarters in the mountains. Some of the commanders managed to escape to another location. Twelve hours later, we struck the chief of staff of Khatam al-Anbiya [the headquarters of the Iranian Armed Forces], who had fled to another mountainous area near Tehran,” he said.

“We have to hunt them down wherever they flee.”

Does Iran have nuclear weapons?

Ayatollah Khamenei and, left, dots indicate Iranian nuclear sites

By Samer Al-Atrush and Larisa Brown

It had long been assumed that Iran’s two main nuclear enrichment facilities were hidden so deeply into the country’s mountains that it would prove challenging for the Israeli military to destroy them.

That has not stopped Israel trying. Last Thursday’s wave of strikes aimed to destroy Iran’s capacity to manufacture a bomb. Some experts have questioned whether the attacks would do anything more than temporarily set back the nuclear programme.

Israel’s attack on Iran was, therefore, a gamble. Either it has degraded Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities sufficiently enough to halt further production, or the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has emboldened Tehran to accelerate its race to build a nuclear bomb.

• Read in full: Why Israel is attacking Iran now — the nuclear threat explained

Watch: Israeli PM visits hospital after attack

Binyamin Netanyahu visits Soroka hospital after Iranian missile strike

Israeli forces kill 72 in Gaza, Palestinian agency claims

Israeli forces have killed at least 72 people on Thursday, including 21 Palestinians who gathered near a food distribution site, the civil defence agency in Gaza has said.

The spokesman, Mahmud Bassal, told the AFP news agency that six people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern Gaza Strip along with 15 others in a central area known as the Netzarim Corridor, where thousands of Palestinians gathered daily in the hope of receiving food rations.

The Israeli army told AFP that its troops in the Netzarim Corridor, a strip of land militarised by Israel that bisects the Palestinian territory, had fired “warning shots” at “suspects” approaching, but that it was “not aware of any injured individuals”.

Bassal said that in northern Gaza, nine Israeli strikes killed a further 51 people, updating earlier tolls provided by the agency.

This week the Hamas-run health ministry said 397 Gazans had been killed while trying to get food and more than 3,000 had been wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May.

Britain must push for de-escalation, says Thornberry

The Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee has told Times Radio that Britain should not get involved in the growing Iran conflict because we are not “under threat ourselves”.

Dame Emily Thornberry said: “I think that we shouldn’t get involved. I don’t think that we are under threat ourselves and I think the argument that one of our allies is under threat and needs our active support is a weak one.

She added: “Donald Trump was in the middle of negotiations with Iran over cutting its nuclear material and ensuring that it didn’t have the ability to be able to build a bomb and the Israelis attacked. I think that the best thing to do is to try to de-escalate and we can’t on the one hand be saying de-escalate and then actively be involved.

Thornberry said she “certainly would not be supportive” of the United States using the base on Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands but added: “I would not actively get in the way.”

Germany supports strikes on Iran ‘in moderation’

The German chancellor has spoken to Binyamin Netanyahu and called for moderation in Israel’s campaign against Iran, Reuters has reported.

Friedrich Merz voiced Germany’s support in principle for Israeli military attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure during the call on Wednesday evening but stressed the importance of seeking diplomatic solutions to the conflict.

Trump responds to planned Iran attack claim

President Trump responded to a report in the Wall Street Journal that claimed he had approved attack plans for Iran but had withheld a final order to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear programme.

Posting on Truth Social for the first time today, he wrote: “The Wall Street Journal has No Idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran!”

In pictures: Iran strikes Ramat Gan

The Israeli air defence system intercepts missiles during an Iranian attack over Tel Aviv LEO CORREA/AP

A baby is among the evacuated at the site of a direct strike in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv ODED BALILTY/AP

ODED BALILTY/AP

Continue with strength, Khamenei tells Iranians

The Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has told his people not to be scared in a message on social media.

He wrote on X: “I would like to tell our dear nation that if the enemy senses that you fear them, they won’t let go of you.

“Continue the very behaviour that you have had up to this day, continue this behaviour with strength.”

Iran blocks internet for record period

Iran’s internet blackout has lasted over 24 hours and is the longest restriction in six years, according to a monitoring group.

NetBlocks, which tracks internet blackouts, said the nationwide restriction in Iran had lasted over 24 hours as of Thursday afternoon, making it the most severe disruption since anti-government protests erupted in November 2019.

Netanyahu: I trust Trump for support

In further comments outside the hospital, Binyamin Netanyahu, when asked about American involvement in the war, said that the United States was “already helping a lot, because they’re participating in the protection of the skies over Israel and its cities”.

He added: “President Trump will do what’s best for America. I trust his judgment.”

PM’s son ‘pays price of Iran blitz’

Binyamin Netanyahu has said that all Israelis are “paying a personal price” because of the “blitz” inflicted by Iran, including his own family — his youngest son had to cancel his wedding.

Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Soroka hospital complex, which was hit by an Iranian missile MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/REUTERS

“The entire people of Israel are paying a price,” said the Israeli prime minister. “We are going through a blitz, and we are going through it in an astonishing way. There are personal costs, people have been hurt, families have lost their loved ones.

“Each of us bears a personal cost, and this did not escape my family. This is the second time that Benny Avner has cancelled a wedding due to missile threats. It is a personal cost for his fiancée as well, and I must say that my dear wife is a hero, and she bears a personal cost.”

The wedding was meant to go ahead on Monday but was cancelled because of the escalating conflict.

The Israeli leader has three children, two sons including Avner, and a daughter

Netanyahu vows to destroy Iran’s nuclear threat

Binyamin Netanyahu has vowed to “remove” the nuclear and ballistic missile threat posed by Iran.

“We are committed to destroying the nuclear threat, the threat of a nuclear annihilation against Israel,” the Israeli prime minister told reporters in the southern city of Beersheba, where a hospital was hit during an Iranian missile attack.

“Our goal is twofold — nuclear, ballistic missile. We’re going to remove them. We are in the process of completing the (removal of) this threat.”

Asked if Israel would target Ayatollah Khamenei, he said: “I gave instructions that no one is immune. I prefer not to deal with headlines and to let actions speak for themselves.”

Trump takes advice on bunker-buster bombs

President Trump has asked his military advisers if the US’s bunker-buster bombs would be effective against Iranian nuclear infrastructure, Fox News have reported.

Several Iranian nuclear sites — notably Fordow, just south of Tehran — were built at depths which Israeli munitions cannot penetrate. Targeted strikes on entrances could take them out of operation temporarily, but experts warn that the nuclear assets sheltered beneath would probably remain viable.

America’s 13.6-tonne GBU-57/B explosives, however, can destroy fortifications up to 60m below ground. Only the US’s B-2 Spirit bombers, which would probably take off from the UK’s Diego Garcia base on the Chagos Islands, are certified to carry such a heavy payload.

Watch: Israel Katz threatens ‘dictator’ Khamenei

Missile attack injury toll

Health officials in Israel say that 271 people were taken to hospital, four in a serious condition, after this morning’s ballistic missile attack by Iran.

At the Soroka medical centre in Beersheba, 71 people sustained minor injuries, officials said.

No comment from PM on legal concerns

Sir Keir Starmer would not be drawn on reports that Lord Hermer, the attorney general, has legal concerns over potential UK involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict.

The prime minister said: “The attorney’s advice is never disclosed by any government, but I can tell you the principle, the driving intent, which is that of de-escalation. Because the risk of escalation across the region is obvious, and the impact it would have.

“We need to deal with the nuclear programme, there’s no doubt about that in my mind, but it is better dealt with as a negotiated outcome”.

UK waits for Israel to reopen airspace

Ministers are hopeful that Israel will re-open its airspace within the next 24 hours amid fears that thousands of Britons could be stranded there.

The US is working to ready charter flights and cruise ships “for evac”, the US ambassador to Israel said on Thursday. But Britain has not said it will follow suit.

Israeli airspace was closed until further notice when the air war with Iran began.

Watch: Israeli stock exchange hit by Iranian missile

Chinese nationals evacuated from Iran and Israel

China has evacuated over 1,600 citizens from Iran, as well as hundreds of people from Israel.

The evacuation comes as thousands attempt to leave Iran following increasing hostility between the two countries following the beginning of Israeli attacks last week.

The Chinese embassy in Iran continues its call for citizens to leave the country via land despite its warning of delays at border checkpoints into Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

The embassy has said that border crossings are also possible through Turkey, Armenia and Iraq.

China’s embassy in Israel will also begin evacuating those who wish to leave the country via buses which will leave via the Taba Border Crossing into Egypt.

Beijing has called for an immediate end to the conflict.

60% of Americans oppose strike on Iran

Some 60 per cent of Americans oppose their country’s involvement in the conflict between Israel and Iran, according to YouGov polling.

Majorities of respondents from both big parties opposed military intervention when asked in the three days after Israel launched its attack last Thursday.

Only 23 per cent of Trump’s Republican Party support action. His “Make America Great Again” base is wary of conflict in distant lands, as his ardent ally Marjorie Taylor Green expressed to The Times in an interview.

Some 56 per cent of respondents — and similar majorities across the parties — said the US should engage in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme, with 18 per cent opposed.

Israel backtracks on Bushehr strike

An Israeli military official said that “it was a mistake” for a military spokesperson to have said earlier in the day that Israel had struck the Bushehr nuclear site in Iran.

The official would only confirm that Israel had hit the Natanz, Isfahan and Arak nuclear sites in Iran.

Pressed further on Bushehr, he said he could neither confirm or deny that Israel had struck the location, where Iran has a reactor.

Hitting Bushehr, which is close to Iran’s Gulf Arab neighbours and staffed in part by Russian experts, would represent a major escalation in hostilities. Earlier, the Russian foreign ministry urged Israel to immediately halt air attacks on Bushehr.

Chancellor watches oil prices

Rachel Reeves has called for a de-escalation in Middle East tensions and said the Treasury was monitoring the potential impact on the UK, particularly of rising oil prices.

“At all the times we’re monitoring situations around the world and the impact that that they may have”, the chancellor told The Times’ CEO summit. “I wouldn’t say that we are overly concerned about the movements we’ve seen today [in the oil price].

“Obviously, the concern would be that Strait of Hormuz is closed or at least that the trade is disrupted, which would have an impact on oil, but also on wider movements of goods, as we’ve seen in the past.”

No change in travel advice for Britons

Travel advice for Britons in Israel has not changed, though there are hopes among senior UK government figures that the country will open its airspace to allow commercial operators to resume flights.

No 10 tight-lipped on Diego Garcia permission

No 10 declined to release any legal advice regarding the UK’s potential participation in strikes on Iran.

Downing Street also refused to be drawn on whether Britain would need to give permission for any US military personnel to use Diego Garcia, on the Chagos Islands, for activity connected to the conflict – such as refuelling jets conducting strikes on Iran.

How close is Iran to building a nuclear bomb?

The regime has been accelerating its uranium enrichment programme but US and Israeli intelligence disagree on how imminent a threat that is.

• Read in full: How close is Iran to actually building a nuclear bomb?

No 10 defends policy on Israel

In the wake of Iran’s strike on a hospital, Downing Street has defended the UK decision not to offer Israel military support to help protect itself.

Sir Keir Starmer’s spokeman said: “Our position hasn’t changed. It is one that prioritises de-escalation, because that is the only path to peace.”

He said that Iran’s nuclear programme had “never been as advanced as it is today”, and called it “a clear threat to international security”.

All parties were urged to show “restraint” and Iran has been told it should “not develop a nuclear weapon“.

Starmer calls for de-escalation

Britain is urging the US not to join Israel in its strikes on Iran. A spokesman for Sir Keir Starmer said: “The priority for the PM has been consistent throughout, which is that the only path to peace is through a return to diplomacy. We continue to work with international partners, including the US.”

Starmer’s spokesman stressed that Britain was working to ensure “de-escalation” and added: “We would not want to see anything that ramps up the situation.”

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has flown to Washington for “high-level” meetings with figures including Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state.

Ayatollah is ‘the modern Hitler’

Israel Katz said earlier that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, “cannot continue to exist”. Now he has called him “the modern Hitler”.

At the site of a missile strike in Holon, Israel’s defence minister said: “I compare it to the scenario in which, during the horrific Holocaust, if the state of Israel had existed and a strong Israel Defence Forces had existed, and we knew we could send the IDF into a bunker to capture the enemy of the Jewish people, Hitler, in order to thwart his plan to annihilate the Jews, we would have done it.

“We would have sent the IDF, extracted him, and eliminated him. And just like that, correspondingly, I see the current situation — Khamenei is the modern Hitler.”

40 hurt in hospital strike

Shlomi Kodesh, the director of Soroka hospital, said that 40 people were injured in the Iranian attack.

“Several wards were completely demolished and there is extensive damage across the entire hospital with damage to buildings, structures, windows, ceilings across the medical centre,” he said.

‘We had to carry patients to the bomb shelters’

When a Iranian missile crashed into the largest hospital in southern Israel, doctors on the ground floor’s gastroenterology department were preparing to accept patients.

“Our shift had just started when we heard a massive boom and the door blew in,” a doctor said. “We were all ok, but it was a shock.”

Another doctor said: “We ran upstairs to the wards and had to carry patients four to five floors down to the bomb shelters.”

It was unclear how many patients had been taken to shelters before the early morning attack, which came after air raid sirens had sounded across the city.

The hospital reception area was also affected by the blast, which shattered windows and destroyed parts of the ceiling.

Outside, medical staff evacuated elderly patients to safer areas of the hospital while exhausted emergency workers lay in the shade, taking refuge from the relentless sun.

Israel ‘hits Iran’s only working nuclear plant’

Israel says it has struck Iran’s only functioning nuclear power plant on the coast of the Persian Gulf — which may represent a major escalation in its air war against Iran.

Israel has struck a number of Iranian nuclear targets since launching its attacks last week. But a strike on the Bushehr plant, which is on the opposite coast to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar, and employs technicians from Russia, would be seen as a big step.

The Israeli military said it had struck nuclear sites in Bushehr, Isfahan, and Natanz, and continued to target other facilities.

Bushehr uses Russian fuel. Russia takes back spent fuel, to reduce risk of nuclear proliferation.

IDF hits out at hospital strike ‘lies’

Targeting hospitals is a crime, the Israel Defence Forces have said, and claims on Iranian media that the medical centre hit by a ballistic missile this morning was being used as a military facility were “lies”.

In a Persian-language statement, the IDF said: “The claim of an attack on an intelligence base or the presence of military equipment under the hospital is another lie. We are not so despicable as to endanger civilians. Attacking hospitals is a crime. Fabricating a reason does not justify it.”

Soroka hospital was heavily damaged and several people were wounded in the strike.

Israel has been widely criticised for its strikes on hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza. Last year, a UN commission of inquiry said that attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza amounted to war crimes. It accused Israel of carrying out a “concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system” during its war with Hamas. Israel has accused the militants of using hospitals for military purposes.

Last month the WHO calculated that at least 94 per cent of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip are damaged or destroyed.

How long can Iran maintain attacks on Israel?

The response to operation Rising Lion has shown the limitations of Tehran’s missile programme — but has also proved that the regime can inflict serious damage on its enemy.

• Read in full: What weapons does Iran have and how long can it attack Israel?

Israeli missiles hit Iranian targets

Profile: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

An ally of the leader of the 1979 revolution, Khamenei, the ruthless supreme leader, doubled down on his hatred of Israel and built Iran into a regional power.

• Read in full: Who is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s ruthless supreme leader?

Putin and Xi condemn Israeli attacks

President Putin and President Xi have strongly condemned Israeli attacks on Iran in a phone call, the Kremlin has said. Both leaders called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

“Both sides adhere to identical approaches, strongly condemn Israel’s actions,” Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin aide, said. Moscow and Beijing believed the end to the hostilities “should be achieved exclusively by political and diplomatic means”, he said

Ayatollah ‘can no longer be allowed to exist’

Israel’s defence minister has said that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, “can no longer be allowed to exist”. Israel Katz was speaking after an Iranian missile attack struck an Israeli hospital.

“Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed — he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals. He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal,” Katz said. “Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist.”

‘Why try to kill doctors? They save lives’

The Iranian missile that struck a major hospital in southern Israel destroyed the top two floors of a building at the rear of the facility.

“Luckily, we think the upper two floors were empty when it hit. There were lots of laboratories there,” a member of the Israel Defence Forces said. “We don’t know if all the patients were in the shelters at the time.”

“This is horrifying,” another said. “Why try to kill doctors? They save lives. And some idiot’s missile could just take it in an instant.”

Iranian state media said Tehran had targeted a nearby military facility, a claim that was rejected by Israel.

The media have so far not been allowed into the hospital. However, widespread damage could be seen from outside. An Israeli soldier who had just left the hospital shrugged when asked what she had seen. “It’s all destroyed,” she said.

Some locals said the attack had made them decide to leave Israel with their families as soon as possible. “We are going to try and get out here. Maybe through Egypt,” said a construction worker as he carried supplies into the building.

No radiological effects after reactor strike

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says that Iran‘s Khondab heavy water research reactor has been hit by Israeli missiles, but no radiological effects have been reported.

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Lammy to meet Iran’s foreign minister

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, will join German and French foreign ministers in talks with their Iranian counterpart tomorrow in Geneva.

The three European ministers are expected to meet Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, before meeting Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister.

How the US could destroy Fordow nuclear site

President Trump will have one mission on his mind if he decides to join the war against Iran — destroying Fordow, its most heavily fortified nuclear site.

Buried deep beneath a mountain, only the Americans have the weapon capable of annihilating it. The Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb has a thick steel outer casing that can penetrate fortifications up to 60m below ground.

It is delivered by the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the only aircraft in the US air force inventory that is certified to carry the “bunker-buster” bomb, which has never been fired in anger.

• Read in full: How the US military could destroy Iran’s Fordow nuclear site

Destruction and chaos at stricken hospital

A patient at the Israeli hospital that was hit today by an Iranian ballistic missile described scenes of “total destruction.”

“It was chaos. Nurses were crying, patients were crying, it felt as if the whole room was shaking,” said Oscar, an elderly man, as he waited to be evacuated.

The Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, the largest in southern Israel, was “extensively damaged” in an attack, a spokesperson said.

The hospital was closed to the public and the media. From the street outside, a faint cloud of smoke could be seen rising from inside the facility.

Emergency officials said they were evacuating dozens of patients who had been injured in the strike. The families of other patients could be seen arguing with security guards as they tried to visit those who remained on wards that were unaffected by the blast.

Some ultra-orthodox Jews and religious nationalists in Israel are seeing the war with Iran as evidence of the impending end of the world. “This is the start of the end of days,” said Meriev, a woman who lives near the hospital. “After this war, God will send a new temple.”

In pictures: direct hit in Ramat Gan

A baby is evacuated from the site of a direct hit by an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan, a city near Tel Aviv ODED BALILTY/AP

Emergency personnel work inside the damaged building AMMAR AWAD/REUTERS

The missile hit a block of flats NIR ELIAS/REUTERS

NIR ELIAS/REUTERS

Iran hits out at UN nuclear watchdog

Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, has criticised Rafael Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and accused the UN watchdog of being partner to an “unjust war of aggression” initiated by Israel.

Baghaei responded on X to an interview with CNN in which Grossi said there was no evidence of a systematic Iranian effort to develop nuclear weapons.

“This is too late, Mr Grossi,” Baghaei wrote. An IAEA resolution declaring Iran in breach of its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty had been used as a pretext for Israel to strike Iran, he claimed.

“Misleading narratives have dire consequences, Mr Grossi, and demand accountability. You betrayed the non-proliferation regime; you’ve made IAEA a partner to this unjust war of aggression.”

• Iran will never surrender, ayatollah tells Trump

UK cannot ‘hide behind legal advice’

The UK can not “hide behind legal advice at a time of crisis” Dame Priti Patel has told Times Radio.

Lord Hermer, the attorney general, has reportedly warned Sir Keir Starmer that the UK’s involvement in US attacks on Iran could be illegal.

Patel said: “I don’t think we can hide behind legal advice at a time of crisis and national security when we have to work alongside our biggest ally in the world, the United States, when they look to us for potentially — I say this, potentially — setting out operational activities through our own military bases.

“We’ve got bases in the region that could be not just part of action, but actually supporting any intervention.”

Army base was target of missile that hit hospital

Iran has claimed that the target of a missile attack that hit a hospital in southern Israel was a military and intelligence base, not the health facility.

“The main target of the attack was the Israeli army command and intelligence base (IDF C4I) and the army intelligence camp in Gav-Yam technology park, located in the vicinity of the Soroka Hospital,” the state news agency IRNA said.

The hospital was “exposed only to the blast wave” and the “direct and precise target” was the military facility, IRNA claimed.

Ukrainian cancer victim, 7, dies in Iranian strike

A seven-year-old girl from Odessa, Ukraine, who had travelled to Israel to be treated for blood cancer was killed in an Iranian missile strike along with her mother, grandmother and two cousins.

Nastia Borik, her mother Maria Peshkurova, 30; her grandmother Lena Peshkurova, 60; and two of her cousins, Konstantin Totvich, 9, and Ilya Peshkurov, 13, died when missiles hit the city of Bat Yam on Saturday.

The girl’s father, named by media as Artyom, is thought to be fighting at the front in Ukraine. He had helped raise money for his daughter to fly to Israel for treatment. The Ukrainian embassy in Israel confirmed that five of its citizens had died in the attack, which also killed four other people.

China urges ‘especially Israel’ to desist

China says it is opposed to the “use of force” by the US after President Trump said he was weighing up military intervention in the Israel-Iran conflict.

Beijing “opposes any act that … infringes upon the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of other countries, and opposes the use or threat of use of force in international relations”, Guo Jiakun, foreign ministry spokesman, said.

Jiakun called for an end to the war in the Middle East, urging “especially Israel” to desist. “China strongly calls on all parties involved in the conflict, especially Israel, to put the interests of the region’s people first, immediately cease fire and stop fighting,” he said.

Trump may strike Fordow tonight

President Trump has probably “already taken the decision to hit” Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility, according to Sir Niall Ferguson, the historian.

Sir Niall, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, told The Times CEO Summit: “My Israeli sources and some of my sources in Washington think it happens tonight.”

• Sir Niall Ferguson: Iranian regime in death throes risks a major economic shock

Putin balks at threats to Ayatollah

President Putin, asked how he would react should Israel kill Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, with the assistance of the United States, said: “I do not even want to discuss this possibility. I do not want to.”

All sides should look for ways to end hostilities in a way that ensured Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear power and Israel’s right to the unconditional security of the Jewish state, he said.

Listen: how Iran could strike the US

Tory support for UK military action

The Conservatives have signalled that they would support Sir Keir Starmer if he considers it necessary to join the military fight.

Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, told ITV: “While we want peace in the region, we’re crystal clear that Iran should not be able to obtain nuclear weapons.

“And if the government judges that such action is necessary to avoid that then we would absolutely support the government if it deemed it necessary to ensure that we can defend our country, our citizens and effectively a lot of our strategic equities in the Middle East region.”

She added that she believed the opposition would be able to hold the government to account without a vote in parliament on military action.

Starmer prioritises diplomacy

Sir Keir Starmer will keep a “cool, calm head” and prioritise a “diplomatic solution” to ending the current conflict between Israel and Iran, a minister has said.

The prime minister’s top priority is “de-escalating the situation”, said Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy minister. Events were “very volatile” and “fast moving”, and Starmer and David Lammy, the foreign secretary, were “monitoring the situation and calibrating our response”.

• UK considers military support as Trump threatens to bomb Iran

The prime minister was also in regular contact with President Trump as he weighed up whether to launch a US attack on Iran, Fahnbulleh told Sky News.

She said the government was working “to make sure that we are doing our bit to work with all sides in order to de-escalate — that has got to be the objective — and to get people negotiating away again so that we can find a diplomatic solution”.

Fahnbulleh would not be drawn on reports that the attorney general, Lord Hermer, had cautioned against Britain launching offensive action.

In pictures: airstrike on Holon

An Iranian missile hit a block of flats in Holon, a coastal city south of Tel Aviv CHEN KALIFA/REUTERS

Dozens of Iranian missiles hit Israeli cities overnight AMIR LEVY/GETTY IMAGES

JACK GUEZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Deaths in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israeli forces have killed at least 18 people today, including 15 who had gathered at a food aid distribution site in central Gaza.

Mohammad al-Mugghayyir, a civil defence official, said that “18 people have been killed due to ongoing Israeli shelling on the Gaza Strip since dawn today, 15 of whom were waiting for aid”. The other three were killed by shelling near Gaza City.

Earlier this week, Gaza’s health ministry, run by Hamas, said 397 Palestinians had been killed while trying to get food and more than 3,000 had been wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May,

In pictures: sheltering from Iran’s bombardment

People in Tel Aviv take refuge from Iranian missiles in an underground car park NIR KEIDAR/ANDALOU/GETTY IMAGES

People — and their pets — set up camp in a station on Tel Aviv’s light rail network ABIR SULTAN/EPA

ABIR SULTAN/EPA

Iran will defend itself, US is warned

Iran’s deputy foreign minister has warned against any direct US involvement in the escalating conflict, saying Iran had “all the necessary options on the table”.

“If the US wants to actively intervene in support of Israel, Iran will have no other option but to use its tools to teach aggressors a lesson and defend itself … our military decision-makers have all necessary options on the table,” Kazem Gharibabadi said.

“Our recommendation to the US is to at least stand by if they do not wish to stop Israel’s aggression.”

The conflict in maps, video and satellite images

Israel has struck nuclear facilities, eliminated senior commanders and attacked a state broadcaster, while Tehran has hit back with numerous missile barrages.

• Read in full here

Israelis hit while running for shelter

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service says that scores of people were injured in Iran’s latest missile strikes, 18 of whom were injured “while running to shelter”.

Three people were seriously injured, MDA said. “An additional 42 people sustained minor injuries from shrapnel and blast trauma, and 18 civilians were injured while running to shelter”.

• Israelis lose faith in their safe rooms after Iranian strikes

Iran’s attacks ‘are a war crime’

Israel’s defence minister has called Iran’s attacks a “war crime” and vowed to hold Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, “accountable for his crimes”.

Israel Katz also said he had instructed Israel’s military to intensify attacks in order to “undermine the ayatollahs’ regime”.

“The cowardly Iranian dictator sits in the depths of the fortified bunker and fires aimed shots at hospitals and residential buildings in Israel,” Katz wrote on X. “These are war crimes of the most serious kind — and Khamenei will be held accountable for his crimes.”

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He added: “The prime minister and I have instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against government targets in Tehran in order to remove threats to the State of Israel and undermine the ayatollahs’ regime.”

Soroka hospital was a ‘symbol of harmony’

Israeli president Isaac Herzog said the Soroka Medical Center, which was hit by an Iranian ballistic missile this morning, was a symbol of harmony between Jews and Arabs.

Medical staff continue their work at Soroka Medical Center following the missile strike overnight AMIR COHEN/REUTERS

“A baby in intensive care and his caring mother at his bedside, a dedicated doctor going from patient to patient, an elderly woman in a nursing home — these were the targets of the Iranian missile attack on Israeli citizens this morning,” Herzog wrote on X.

He said the hospital in Beersheba was one of the best in Israel.

“The dedicated hospital staff — both Jewish and Arab — work shoulder to shoulder in extraordinary harmony, united in the sacred mission: saving the lives of the residents of the Negev of all religions, beliefs and lifestyles — Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

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Israel targets nuclear reactor

Israel says it has targeted the nuclear reactor in the area of Arak in Iran overnight and struck what it called a nuclear weapons development site in the area of Natanz.

Among its nuclear sites, Iran had a partially built heavy water research reactor, originally called Arak and now named Khondab. Heavy water reactors pose a nuclear proliferation risk because they can easily produce plutonium which, like enriched uranium, can be used to make the core of an atom bomb.

At Natanz, Iran built a complex that lies at the heart of its nuclear programme. It includes two enrichment plants, and has already been struck in the six days since Israel launched its air war.

Hospital missiles were launched by ‘Nazis’

Itamar Ben Gvir, the Israeli minister of national security who was recently sanctioned by the UK, said that “Nazis” had launched missiles at hospitals in Israel.

Writing on X after a dawn missile attack hit a hospital in the desert city of Beersheba, Ben Gvir said that if Iran had a nuclear weapon, they would fire it “without even a second thought.”

“Nazis launch missiles at hospitals, the elderly, and children — if they had atomic weapons, they would fire them without even a second’s thought. This is the most righteous campaign that Israel has ever embarked on in history,” he said.

Ben Gvir belongs to Netanyahu’s hardline coalition government and is a leader of the movement to resettle Palestinian lands in the West Bank and Gaza. The UK and other countries imposed sanctions upon him for incitement of violence and abuses of Palestinian rights.

Hospital attack was ‘criminal’

By Marc Bennetts in Beersheba

An Iranian attack on a hospital in Israel that injured dozens of people was “criminal” and “deliberate,” the Israeli government has said.

Smoke rises from Soroka medical centre in Beersheba after the Iranian missile strike AMIR COHEN/REUTERS

AMIR COHEN/REUTERS

At least 32 people were injured across Israel on Thursday morning in a barrage of ballistic missile strikes. Emergency services said two people were in serious condition, while 30 had less severe blast and shrapnel injuries. The number of casualties at the hospital was unclear.

Israel will ‘exact the full price from tyrants’

Binyamin Netanyahu has said Israel will “exact the full price from the tyrants” in his first response to Iran’s missile attack on a hospital in southern Israel.

“This morning, Iran’s terrorist tyrants launched missiles at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba and at a civilian population in the center of the country,” he wrote on X. “We will exact the full price from the tyrants”

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Trump approves plan to attack Iran, pending final order

President Trump has told senior aides that he approved plans for a US attack on Iran but was waiting to see if Tehran abandoned its nuclear programme before giving the final order, it has emerged.

The Wall Street Journal said that the US military was poised to directly join Israel’s war with Iran, pending the president’s approval.

Trump’s separate comments at the White House on Wednesday morning that “I may do it, I may not do it” confirmed what had been widely reported in the past 24 hours: that the president, who came to power on an electoral platform of ending US involvement in Middle East wars, was considering joining forces with Israel in its bombardment of Iran.

Images show extensive damage from Iranian strike

Iranian missiles hit a high-rise flat block in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, and other sites in central Israel.

A hospital in Tel Aviv said it was treating 16 wounded people, three with serious injuries.

Emergency personnel work at the site of an Iranian strike in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv NIR ELIAS/REUTERS

NIR ELIAS/REUTERS

NIR ELIAS/REUTERS

ODED BALILTY/AP

Israeli paramedics report 23 injuries after strikes

Israeli paramedics at separate scenes in central and southern Israel said one man, aged 60, was in a serious condition with shrapnel injuries.

Magen David Adom, of Israel’s ambulance service, said one person was seriously injured and 22 more were “lightly injured” after an Iranian missile hit a hospital in southern Israel, as well as other locations.

The Soroka Medical Centre, the main hospital in Israel’s south, has reported “extensive damage”.

Israelis can leave shelters, says military

Israelis are now permitted to leave shelters in several parts of the country, Israel’s military said on Thursday.

“Following the situational assessment, the Home Front Command published that it is now permitted to leave protected spaces in several areas across the country,” the Israel Defence Forces said in a statement.

A military official added that “dozens of ballistic missiles were launched at Israel in the last barrage from Iran”.

US limits access to largest military base in Middle East

The US embassy in Qatar has issued an alert temporarily restricting its personnel from accessing the Al Udeid airbase.

The base in the desert outside Doha is the largest US military installation in the Middle East.

The embassy on Thursday told personnel and US citizens in Qatar to step up vigilance in “an abundance of caution and in light of ongoing regional hostilities”.

Australia and New Zealand evacuate citizens from Iran and Israel

Australia has started evacuating almost 3,000 citizens caught up in the conflict.

However, efforts had been hampered by missile barrages that made it “too risky” for civilian aircraft to land in either country, Penny Wong, the foreign minister, said on Thursday.

About 1,500 Australians had registered to be evacuated from Iran, while more than 1,200 were seeking to get out of Israel, said Wong.

“There’s no capacity for people to get civilian aircraft in, it is too risky, and the airspace is closed,” she told ABC. “We have taken the opportunity to get a small group of Australians out of Israel through a land border crossing. We are seeking to try and do more of that over the next 24 hours.”

New Zealand closed its embassy in Iran, evacuating two staff members and their families to neighbouring Azerbaijan by land. “If and when opportunities arise to assist the departure of other New Zealanders in Iran and Israel, we will pursue them with urgency,” the foreign minister, Winston Peters, said.

Israel strikes area near Iranian research reactor

Israel has struck an area near a partially built Iranian research reactor, the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) said on Thursday.

Officials announced that the Khondab heavy-water facility was evacuated before the attack and there was no radiation risk, ISNA added.

The research reactor, part of Iran’s nuclear programme, was partially built and previously known as Arak. Tehran had informed the UN nuclear watchdog that it planned to operate the facility next year.

Iranian missiles ‘hit hospital in southern Israel’

Israel came under heavy rocket attack at dawn on Thursday as Iranian missiles hit the Soroka hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel.

Video posted on social media showed a direct hit on the hospital, with the sound of impact and a mushroom cloud billowing out the top. The emergency room, from pictures posted, appeared to have sustained damage.

A spokesman for the hospital reported “damage to the hospital and extensive damage in various areas. We are currently assessing the damage, including injuries. We ask the public not to come to the hospital at this time.”

Reports also indicated that other sites in Tel Aviv and central Israel had been hit.

The rocket barrage came after an air-raid siren was sounded at midnight, with that volley causing no damage or injuries.

Israel starts wave of strikes in Tehran

The Israeli military said it was carrying out new strikes on Tehran and other parts of Iran on Thursday morning, telling two villages, Arak and Khondab, to evacuate.

“The Air Force has now begun a wave of strikes in Tehran and other areas in Iran,” the Israel Defence Forces wrote on X.

Israel’s military said it was “flying over surface-to-surface missile launch and storage sites … [and] striking those attempting to reactivate sites that have already been hit”.

Air-raid sirens sound in Israel amid fresh attack from Iran

Air-raid sirens sounded across Israel as Iran’s state news reported a new wave of missiles fired at the country.

Several explosions were reported over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

“A short while ago, sirens sounded in several areas across Israel following the identification of missiles launched from Iran toward the State of Israel,” the military said in a post on Telegram.

Earlier, Israel’s military said it had intercepted a drone launched from Iran.

An Israeli military official said that Iran had fired about 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones since Friday. About 20 missiles had struck civilian areas in Israel, the official added.

Trump considers involvement in Israel-Iran conflict

Donald Trump was still deciding whether to join Israel’s strikes on Iran on Wednesday.

Claiming Tehran now wants talks at the White House the US President added they may have waited too long.

Trump held his second Situation Room meeting in two days with his national security team, leaving the world guessing about his potential order of military action.

“I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Trump told reporters at the unveiling of one of two giant new flagpoles at the White House.

“I can tell you this, that Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate.”

He added that “the next week is going to be very big” when it comes to determining Iran’s fate.

The White House said Trump would be briefed in the Situation Room again on Thursday, a holiday in the United States.

Trump’s comments came after the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected his demands for an unconditional surrender and warned the United States of “irreparable damage” if it intervenes.

Thank you for joining us today as we covered the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran. We will be back soon with more live coverage of the conflict, so please join us then.

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Here’s a quick overview of the latest developments from the Middle East:

Iran launched several missiles on Thursday morning hitting civilian areas in Israel, including a hospital in the south. Other parts of Israel ,including Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan, were also targeted.

Iran’s state media said Iranian missiles were targeting the IDF’s command and intelligence headquarters adjacent to the Soroka Hospital that was struck.

Senior US officials are preparing for a possible strike on Iran in the coming days, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign that Washington is assembling the infrastructure to enter a conflict with Tehran.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned Iran’s missile attacks and instructed the IDF to increase its intensity of strikes against Iran.

Rescue workers and military personnel inspect the site of a direct hit from an Iranian missile strike in Israel on Thursday. Credit: AP

The IDF claimed it had killed two Hezbollah commanders during strikes in southern Lebanon overnight. Hezbollah has not confirmed either of the two deaths.

Israel said it had attacked an Iranian nuclear reactor in Arak and dozens of other military and government targets throughout the country overnight. The IAEA reported there was no radiation threat, and the site was not operational.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister warned against any direct US involvement in the conflict between Israel and Iran, saying Iran had “all the necessary options on the table.”

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi will meet his British, French and German counterparts as well as the European Union’s top diplomat on Friday in Geneva, Iranian state media reported.

You can catch up with everything we know about the Israel and Iran conflict on our regularly updated “what we know so far” page.

We’ll be back on Friday morning with more coverage of the rapidly developing crisis in the Middle East.