Dozens of US military aircraft are no longer on the tarmac at a major US base in Qatar, satellite images show — a possible move to shield them from eventual Iranian air strikes, as Washington weighs whether to intervene in Israel’s aggression on Iran.

Nearly 40 military aircraft — including transport planes like the Hercules C-130 and reconnaissance aircraft — were parked on the tarmac at the Al Udeid base on June 5, according to images published by Planet Labs PBC and analysed by the AFP news agency.

In an image taken on June 19, only three aircraft are visible.

The US embassy in Qatar announced on Thursday that access to the base would be limited “out of an abundance of caution and in light of ongoing regional hostilities,” and urged personnel to “exercise increased vigilance.”

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At least 240 people have been killed in Iran since Israel began airstrikes on June 13. Israel has reported 24 deaths from Iranian attacks.

Iran’s foreign minister said an Israeli hospital was damaged in a missile attack on Israeli military targets. Israel military targets were nearby.

WASHINGTON − President Donald Trump said there was a “substantial chance” of U.S. negotiations with Iran and that he would decide within two weeks whether diplomacy keeps America out of the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict.

The statement took down the temperature as the world waited for news of whether he would commit U.S. forces to Israel’s campaign against Tehran’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,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, quoting Trump.

Iran has said it won’t negotiate under duress, raising the question of whether Israel and the U.S. will support a ceasefire in the seven-day conflict.

Earlier on June 18, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed revenge after a hospital was struck by an Iranian ballistic missile.

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

Iran’s foreign minister said its forces “will continue to pummel the criminals who target our people until they cease and pay for their criminal aggression.”

The conflict has killed at least 240 Iranians and 24 Israelis since June 13. Israeli warplanes struck three nuclear sites in Iran on June 18. However, Iran has stopped giving updates on the death toll, and state media have ceased showing widespread images of destruction.

Israeli hospital had taken patients underground hours before missile hit

Shattered glass and piles of rubble littered the floors of Soroka Medical Center after an Iranian missile ripped through the hospital in Israel’s south, injuring dozens.

The major public hospital, which serves around 1 million people living in southern Israel, sustained extensive damage in the strike. Several wards were completely destroyed, with debris scattered across the parking lot and surrounding walkways.

“We knew from the noise that it wasn’t like anything we were used to, that it wasn’t like anything we had seen before,” said Nissim Huri, who was working in the kitchen and took refuge in a concrete shelter during the strike.

-Reuters

Israel says Iran fired major cluster bomb-bearing missile

Iran launched a missile at Israel on June 19 that scattered small bombs with the aim of increasing civilian casualties, the Israeli military and its Washington embassy said, the first reported use of cluster munitions in the seven-day-old war.

Cluster bombs are controversial because they indiscriminately scatter submunitions, some of which can fail to explode and kill or injure long after a conflict ends.

The Israeli military released a graphic as a public warning of the dangers of unexploded ordnance.

“The terror regime seeks to harm civilians and even used weapons with wide dispersal in order to maximize the scope of the damage,” Israel’s military spokesperson, Brigadier General Effie Defrin, told a briefing.

-Reuters

U.S. suggests direct talks with Iran are ongoing

Reuters reported on June 19 that Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had spoken by phone several times since Israel began its strikes on June 13, citing three diplomats. Araqchi told Witkoff nuclear negotiations could not resume until the attacks halted.

At a press briefing the White House confirmed conversations were taking place with the Iranians and suggested that at least some of them were direct.

“I can confirm that correspondence has continued,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. She declined to provide further details.

Araqchi will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday with European nations. Witkoff was not expected to attend.

-Francesca Chambers

White House says Iran ‘has all it needs’ to produce nuclear weapon

The White House said Iran is “close” to developing a nuclear weapon and could do so within weeks.

“It is a fact, and the United States government maintains this fact, that Iran has never been closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Leavitt told reporters, without citing specific intelligence.

Pressed later to explain, Leavitt said Iran is close to having enough enriched uranium to start building a weapon.

“Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon. All they need is a decision from the supreme leader to do that. And it would take a couple weeks to complete the production of that weapon,” she said.

-Francesca Chambers

Trump intellegence chief said Iran wasn’t chasing a bomb, flagged high uranium enrichment

Just three months ago, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, testified before Congress that the U.S. intelligence community had assessed that Iran “is not building a nuclear weapon.”

In her prepared testimony before the House and Senate Intelligence committees on March 25, Gabbard provided an overview of all threats to U.S. national security, including Iran. She was unequivocal in the assessment provided by the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies she oversees, including the CIA and the National Security Agency.

“The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamanei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003,” Gabbard said. “We continue to monitor closely if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program.”

Over the past year, Gabbard said, U.S. spies, intelligence analysts and specialized satellites have “seen an erosion of a decades long taboo in Iran on discussing nuclear weapons in public, likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decision-making apparatus.”

“Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons,” Gabbard said. “Iran will likely continue efforts to counter Israel and press for U.S. military withdrawal from the region by aiding, arming, and helping to reconstitute its loose consortium of like-minded terrorists, actors, which it refers to as its ‘Axis of Resistance.’“

-Josh Meyer

What does Trump need to see in a deal?

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Iran would have to agree to stop all uranium enrichment for Trump to find an agreement acceptable.

“Iran is absolutely not able to achieve a nuclear weapon,” she added. “The president has been very clear about that.”

Leavitt said a deal that the U.S. proposed through special envoy Steve Wiktoff prior to the Israeli strikes was “realistic and acceptable.” She did not provide specifics on what was in it.

-Francesca Chambers

Where’s President Trump today?

President Trump joined an 11:30 am meeting with members of his national security team in the White House Situation Room.

In the afternoon, he’ll hold a private, swearing-in ceremony for his ambassador to Ireland, Edward Walsh, a businessman from New Jersey.

Trump has no public events on his schedule – but he posted on Truth Social throughout the morning about various topics − including his extension of the deadline for a deal to save TikTok. He’s given no public clue on which way he’s leaning over a possible U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

June 19 is a federal holiday, but the White House is treating it like a regular work day, as Trump contemplates his options on Iran. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will hold an on-camera briefing at 1pm.

-Francesca Chambers

Foreigners flee Israel and Iran

The U.S. embassy in Jerusalem was working to evacuate Americans from Israel by commercial flights and on cruise ships after Israeli air and seaports were reopened. Foreigners are trying to flee both Israel and Iran in the face of a deepening crisis. Here’s who’s leaving:

AUSTRALIA: The Australian government evacuated by land a small group of the 1,200 Australians on June 18, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said. Around 1,500 Australians in Iran have registered for assistance.

AUSTRIA: Forty-eight Austrians have left Israel or neighboring Jordan, the Foreign Ministry said. Around 100 Austrians have requested to leave Iran. Forty-four Austrian and EU citizens have been evacuated towards Turkey and Armenia, it added.

CHINA: China has evacuated more than 1,600 citizens from Iran and hundreds more from Israel, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said June 19. Several thousand Chinese nationals are thought to reside in Iran, according to state media reports.

CZECH REPUBLIC: A flight with 66 people evacuated from Israel had landed near Prague, Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said.

FRANCE: France will arrange a convoy by the end of the week from Iran to the Turkish or Armenian borders, French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said. French citizens in Israel can board buses starting the morning of June 20 from the Jordanian border.

GERMANY: 345 German citizens have left the Middle-East region on charger flights, the foreign ministry said.

INDIA: India said had launched “Operation Sindhu” to evacuate Indian nationals from Iran. 110 Indian students were earlier evacuated from northern Iran to Armenia.

ITALY: Italy is organizing a charter flight from Egypt on June 22 to allow its citizens to leave Israel. Some 500 Italians are leaving Iran.

JAPAN: Japan’s government said it would send two Self-Defense Forces transport aircraft to Djibouti in preparation for the evacuation of Japanese nationals from Iran and Israel.

-Reuters

Trump disputes report he approved attack plans

The president took aim at a report in the Wall Street Journal that he had green-lighted plans for U.S. forces to attack Iran’s nuclear program.

Citing three people familiar with the deliberations, the Journal reported on June 18 that Trump had approved a strike plan but had not issued an order to proceed with it, as he waited to see if Tehran would agree to give up its nuclear enrichment program.

On June 19, Trump disparaged the report. “The Wall Street Journal has No Idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran!” he wrote in a single-line post on Truth Social.

-Francesca Chambers

Iran shadow fleet keeps the oil flowing

Iran is maintaining crude oil supply by loading tankers one at a time on the Persian Gulf and moving its seabound floating oil storage much closer to China, two vessel tracking firms told Reuters, as the country seeks to keep a key source of revenue while under attack from Israel.

The conflict between Iran and Israel poses a fresh hurdle for Iran, which uses a shadow fleet of tankers to conceal their origin and skirt U.S. sanctions reinstated in 2018 over its nuclear program.

Crude exports from Iran, OPEC’s third-largest producer, mainly head to China. Iran has loaded 2.2 million barrels per day of crude oil so far this week, marking a five-week high, analytics firm Kpler said.

Energy infrastructure in both countries has been targeted in missile exchanges, including the Haifa oil refinery in Israel and Iran’s South Pars gas field, though Iran’s major crude exporting facility at Kharg island has so far been spared.

Iran has moved part of its 40 million barrel floating storage fleet, which sits on 36 different vessels, much closer to China to minimize the impact of any disrupions on buyers, ship tracking firm Vortexa told Reuters.

-Reuters

Pakistan worries Iranian collapse could energize jihadis on the border

Separatist and jihadist militants on the Pakistan-Iran border could take advantage of any collapse of authority in Iran, fears that Pakistan’s army chief pressed in a meeting this week with the President Donald Trump.

Anti-Iranian and anti-Pakistan outfits operate on both sides of the 560-mile long border. As Israel bombs Iran’s nuclear program, its officials have repeatedly indicated that they are seeking to destabilize the Iranian government or see it toppled.

As well as worrying about chaos spilling over from Iran, Pakistan is concerned about the precedent set by Israel of attacking the nuclear installations of another country. Nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India fought a four-day conflict in May.

Following a June 18 lunch at the White House with Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, Trump said: “They’re not happy about anything,” referring to Pakistan’s views on the Israel-Iran conflict.

-Reuters

Israel eyes regime change in Tehran

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military had been instructed to intensify strikes on strategic-related targets in Tehran to eliminate the threat to Israel and destabilise what he called the “Ayatollah regime.”

He called Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “the modern Hitler” and said “this man should not continue to exist.”

Netanyahu has said Israel’s military attacks could result in the toppling of Iran’s leaders, and Israel would do whatever is necessary to remove the “existential threat” posed by Tehran. But Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said regime change was not an official goal, “for the time being.”

“The matter of changing the regime or the fall of this regime is first and foremost a matter for the Iranian people,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told public broadcaster Kan late on June 19. “There is no substitute for this.”

President Trump has focused on ending Iran’s nuclear program, but on June 17 he mused about the possiblity of killing Khamenei, calling him an “easy target.”

Trump has 40,000 reasons to worry

The Trump administration has at least 40,000 reasons to worry about the aftermath of a potential attack on Iran.

That’s the rough number of U.S. troops stationed in the Middle East, in bases from Bahrain to Syria and points in between. Not to mention U.S. citizens who live and work in the region.

They would be vulnerable to counterattacks that could involve Iranian ballistic missiles, drones or terrorism should the United States join Israel in its ongoing attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Iran can strike “all of them,” a U.S. Defense official said.

-Tom Vanden Brook and Cybele Mayes-Osterman

Iran targeted Israeli intelligence site when hospital was struck, foreign minister says

Iran’s foreign minister said that the Soroka hospital in Beersheba, Israel, was damaged in an attack on a nearby military command center, which Israel denied.

“Earlier today, our powerful Armed Forces accurately eliminated an Israeli Military Command, Control & Intelligence HQ and another vital target,” Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi said on X. “The blast wave caused superficial damage to a small section” of the Soroka hospital.

Araqchi pointed out Israel’s repeated attacks on hospital facilities in Gaza.

“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,” the IDF said in a Persian-language statement, the Times of Israel reported. “Attacking hospitals is a crime. Fabricating a reason does not justify it.”

No deaths were reported in the attack. Six people were seriously injured, emergency workers said.

Dozens killed in Gaza while seeking food aid

Like thousands of other Palestinians in Gaza, Hind Al-Nawajha takes a dangerous, miles-long journey every day to try to get some food for her family, hoping she makes it back alive.

The mother-of-four had to duck down and hide behind a pile of rubble on the side of the road as gunshots echoed nearby.

“You either come back carrying (food) for your children and they will be happy, or you come back in a shroud, or you go back upset (without food) and your children will cry,” said Nawajha, 38, a resident of Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza. “This is life, we are being slaughtered, we can’t do it anymore.”

In the past two days, dozens of Palestinians have also been killed by Israeli fire as they tried to get food from aid trucks brought into the enclave by the United Nations and international relief agencies, Gaza medics said.

On June 19, medics said at least 40 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Gaza Strip, the latest in near-daily reports of killings of people seeking food.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the incident.

In recent days, the Israeli military said its forces had opened fire and fired warning shots to disperse people who approached areas where troops were operating, posing a threat. It said it was reviewing reports of casualties among civilians.

-Reuters

Trump supporters will back an Iran strike, Steve Bannon says

The “vast majority” of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement “will get on board” with strikes on Iran, if he goes ahead with military action, his former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon says.

Should he decide there’s no diplomatic solution to be had, Trump will need to walk the American people and MAGA through his thinking, Bannon told reporters at a June 18 breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. But Trump is also likely to win ove most of his naysaying supporters.

“There will be some, but the vast majority of the MAGA movement will go, ‘look, we trust your judgement, you’ve walked us through this, we don’t like it, in fact maybe we hate it, but we’ll get on board,’” Bannon said.

-Francesca Chambers

Contributing: Reuters

“Will other countries get more actively involved in the Iran-Israel war if American strike? If so, which countries and who will support who?” – T M

“Do you think this will lead to a third world war?” – Roger

It’s difficult to predict what the fallout would be if the US attacks Iran.

It would also depend on the type of attack the US carried out — whether it was part of a series of strikes on the Fordow nuclear facility (which is the hard-to-reach site buried in a mountain) or part of a broader operation across the country.

But the real question would then be: How would Iran respond?

Iran says if the US gets involved, there will be “irreparable damage” to US assets.

Then the question becomes: Where could Iran target the US?

It could go after US military bases and troops in the Gulf.

An obvious one would be Qatar — it hosts the largest US base in the region, the Al Ubeid air base.

There are also US troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq.

All these could become targets for Iran.

But it would be a big call for Iran to hit its Gulf neighbours — it could force those countries to respond and the US to intervene further on their behalf.

US government and diplomatic staff abroad could also be targeted by Iranian agents operating around the world.

War can quickly spiral out of control and have unintended consequences in upsetting the regional order.

Hopefully, it won’t lead to World War III, but a broader war involving more countries than the US, Israel and Iran is always possible.

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 kilometres south-west 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.

It comes as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is due in Geneva on Friday (Saturday AEST) to negotiate with European diplomats – the country’s first face-to-face talks in the crisis.