Mourners gather around the coffins of people killed in Israeli attacks in Khorramabad during their funeral in the city in central western Iran on June 16, 2025. Photo: Aziz Babnezhad/ AFP

Iran called on US President Donald Trump today to force Israel to cease fire as the only way to end the four-day-old aerial war, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was on the “path to victory”.

Israeli forces stepped up their bombardment of Iranian cities, while Iran proved capable of piercing Israeli air defences with one of its most successful volleys yet of retaliatory missile strikes.

“If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X.

“Israel must halt its aggression, and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue. It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu. That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.”

Sources told Reuters that Tehran had asked Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman to press Trump to use his influence on Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire. In return, Iran would show flexibility in nuclear negotiations, said the two Iranian and three regional sources.

Netanyahu told Israeli troops at an air base that Israel was on its way to achieving its two main aims: wiping out Iran’s nuclear programme and destroying its missiles.

“We are on the path to victory,” he said. “We are telling the citizens of Tehran: ‘Evacuate’ — and we are taking action.”

‘DESPERATE’

Israel launched its air war on Friday with a surprise attack that killed nearly the entire top echelon of Iran’s military commanders and its leading nuclear scientists. It has said it now has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate its campaign in coming days.

Tehran’s retaliation is the first time in decades of shadow war and proxy conflict that missiles fired from Iran have pierced Israeli defences in significant numbers and killed Israelis in their homes.

Iran says more than 224 Iranians have been killed, most of them civilians. Media published images of wounded children, women, and the elderly from cities across the country.

State TV broadcast scenes of collapsed presidential buildings, burned-out cars, and shattered streets in Tehran. Many residents were trying to flee the capital, describing queues for petrol and bank machines that were out of cash.

“I am desperate. My two children are scared and cannot sleep at night because of the sound of air defence and attacks, explosions. But we have nowhere to go. We hid under our dining table,” Gholamreza Mohammadi, 48, a civil servant, told Reuters by phone from Tehran.

In Israel, 24 people have been killed so far in Iran’s missile attacks, all of them civilians. Round the clock television images showed rescuers working in ruins of flattened homes.

“It’s terrifying because it’s so unknown,” said Guydo Tetelbaum, 31, a chef in Tel Aviv who was in his apartment when the alerts came in shortly after 4 a.m. He had tried to reach a shelter but his door was blown in.

“This could be the beginning of a long time like this. Or it could get worse, or hopefully better, but it’s the unknown that’s the scariest.”

Trump has consistently said that the Israeli assault could end quickly if Iran agrees to US demands that it accept strict curbs to its nuclear programme.

Talks between the United States and Iran, hosted by Oman, had been scheduled for Sunday but were scrapped, with Tehran saying it could not negotiate while under attack.

On Monday, Iranian lawmakers floated the idea of quitting the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, a move bound to be seen as a setback for any negotiations.

‘TEHRAN WILL PAY THE PRICE’

Before dawn on Monday, Iranian missiles struck Tel Aviv and Haifa, killing at least eight people and destroying homes. Israeli authorities said a total of seven missiles fired overnight had landed in Israel. At least 100 people were wounded.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the latest attack employed a new method that caused Israel’s multi-layered defence systems to target each other so missiles could get through.

“The arrogant dictator of Tehran has become a cowardly murderer who targets the civilian home front in Israel to deter the IDF,” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said.

“The residents of Tehran will pay the price, and soon.”

Global oil prices had shot up on Friday at the prospect of conflict disrupting supplies from the Gulf. Prices eased somewhat on Monday, suggesting traders think exports could be spared despite Israeli attacks that hit domestic Iranian oil and gas targets.

Still, the sudden killing of so many Iranian military commanders and the apparent loss of control of airspace could prove to the biggest test of the stability of Iran’s system of clerical rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran’s network of regional allies who could once have been expected to rain rockets on Israel – Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon – have been decimated by Israeli forces since the start of the Gaza war.

Netanyahu has said that, while toppling the Iranian government is not Israel’s primary aim, it believes that could be the outcome.

Iran’s currency has lost at least 10% of its value against the US dollar since the start of Israel’s attack.

Art teacher Arshia, 29, told Reuters that his family was leaving Tehran for the town of Damavand, around 50 km (30 miles) to the east, until the conflict was over.

“My parents are scared. Every night there are attacks. No air raid sirens, and no shelters to go to. Why are we paying the price for the Islamic Republic’s hostile policies?” said Arshia, who withheld his surname for fear of reprisal from authorities.

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Israel and Iran traded air strikes for a third consecutive day after Tel Aviv launched a massive surprise attack on Tehran that killed its top military officials, senior scientists and more than 60 civilians, including 20 children on June 13.

1. Death toll crosses 220 in Iran: Israel’s renewed attacks on Iran on Saturday struck the country’s oil reserves and hit population centres in Tehran, raising the death toll to 224, including 70 women and children.

Among the killed were the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)’s intelligence organisation, Mohammad Kazemi, and two other generals.

2. 14 killed in Israel: Iran has retaliated with missile attacks, hitting the center of Tel Aviv and causing havoc in residential suburbs, killing 14 people and wounding 390 others.

3. Iran-US nuclear talks cancelled: The surprise attacks came days before scheduled talks between U.S. and Iran on the future of Tehran’s nuclear program, which has been cancelled in the wake of Israeli strikes. Israel, the sole but undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, has said its attacks were pre-emtive to stop Iran from developing a nuclear program.

4. US officials say Trump foiled Israel’s plan to assassinate Khamenei: In an indication of how far Israel was seemingly prepared to go in its recent conflict with Iran, a U.S. official told The Associated Press that President Donald Trump nixed Tel Aviv’s plan to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who serves as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and controls the powerful Revolutionary Guard.

5. Trump calls for a deal between Iran, Israel: US President Donald Trump on Sunday called on Iran and Israel to “make a deal,” and stressed he would be able to mediate talks between the warring sides.

The statement came hours after in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, he sought to distance US from Israel’s attacks on Iran.

Tehran: Iran’s state broadcaster in Tehran was hit by an Israeli strike Monday evening, media report.

Earlier Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a cryptic statement that Iran’s state television and radio were “about to disappear.”

He made the statement after an evacuation warning was issued for a district in northern Tehran where the broadcaster is based.

Israel urges evacuation of Tehran district

Israel’s military urged residents of a district in northern Tehran to evacuate “immediately” on Monday evening, saying it intended to carry out airstrikes.

“In the coming hours, the (Israeli military) will operate in the area, as it has in recent days throughout Tehran, to strike military infrastructure of the Iranian regime,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a post on X in Persian.

The post showed a part of Tehran’s District 3 on a map. The area is known as an upmarket part of Tehran home to at least four hospitals and medical centers, a major police building and state broadcaster IRIB.

Shortly thereafter, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said residents of Tel Aviv should evacuate, Iranian state media reported.

An Iranian newsreader was forced to run for cover during a state TV broadcast as Israeli missiles hit Tehran.

The cameras rolled as debris appeared to fall from its ceiling and smoke filled the room, with the anchor disappearing off-screen.

The feed to the rest of Iran was cut shortly after.

Israel’s defence minister had warned moments earlier that state TV and radio were “about to disappear”.

A spokesman said shortly after: “Military targets are currently being struck in Tehran. More details as the situation progresses.”

Just before the strike, the newsreader said: “Dear noble people of Iran, beware that what you just heard was the voice of the force that has invaded the soil of our motherland…”

After the strike, she said: “What you just saw and the noise that you heard is the dusty atmosphere of the studio…”

The cry of ‘Alhuakbar, Alahuakbar’ could be heard coming from a man off-screen.

Israel’s military had earlier urged residents in a portion of the capital’s northern District 3, where the state broadcaster is housed, to evacuate “immediately” on Monday, saying it intended to carry out air strikes there.

“In the coming hours, the (Israeli military) will operate in the area, as it has in recent days throughout Tehran, to strike military infrastructure of the Iranian regime,” the military said in a post on X in Persian.

The area marked for evacuation is an upmarket part of the Iranian capital home to at least four hospitals and medical centres, a major police building and state broadcaster IRIB.

It also houses several embassies, including those of Qatar, Oman and Kuwait, as well as UN offices and the Agence France-Presse bureau.

Israel said Tehran would “pay the price” for the third night of missile strikes on Israeli cities, which have so far killed at least 24 people and wounded more than 500.

Benjamin Netanyahu has declared Israel now “controls the skies” above Tehran after its military claimed to have wiped out one third of all Iran’s surface-to-surface missile launchers.

In response to the threat, thousands of Iranians are fleeing the capital and stockpiling essential supplies with huge traffic jams reported on its main roads.

Areas of Tehran where there are military garrisons and facilities have been left empty, while locals are stocking food and boarding up windows in anticipation of further bombing raids.

The government has imposed a news blackout, forcing citizens to search for information from foreign news agencies and satellite channels.

‘We have nowhere to go’

Gholamreza Mohammadi, 48, a government employee in Tehran, said there were “no sirens” and “no shelters” for residents to hide in during air raids.

“I am desperate,” he said. “My two children are scared and cannot sleep at night because of the sound of air defence and attacks, explosions. But we have nowhere to go. We hid under our dining table.”

According to Iranian officials, the death toll has reached at least 224, 90 per cent of whom are said to be civilians.

In Israel, 24 people have been killed by retaliatory Iranian missile strikes, all of them civilians.

Israeli strikes since Friday have killed Iran’s key military leaders, intelligence chiefs and nuclear scientists and caused some damage to its nuclear facilities. Its leaders say its attacks will continue until Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme is destroyed.

It was reported on Monday that Iran has been frantically signalling that it wants to end its escalating conflict with Israel and resume nuclear talks.

Tehran has been sending urgent messages that it would be open to returning to the negotiating table if the US doesn’t join in the attacks, while telling Israel it is in both sides’ interests to restrain the violence, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

Iran was later reported by Reuters to have asked Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman to press Donald Trump to tell Israel to agree an immediate ceasefire.