Iranian drones launched towards Israeli targets as US reportedly moves B-2 bombers to Guam – as it happened

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt has expressed his government’s “complete rejection” of Israel’s campaign against Iran, calling for a negotiated solution to the conflict.

El-Sissi’s comments came in a phone call Saturday with Iranian president Masoud Pezezhkin, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

The statement said el-Sissi voiced Egypt’s “complete rejection of the ongoing Israeli escalation against Iran,” as a threat to the Middle East’s security and stability.

The Egyptian leader called for an immediate ceasefire to resume negotiations with the aim of reaching a “sustainable, peaceful solution to this crisis.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have announced the launch of suicide drones towards Israel, the latest wave of attacks as fighting between the two fores entered the tenth day, AFP reports.

“A vast wave of attack and suicide drones has been heading for hours towards their (Israeli) strategic targets throughout the regime’s territory, from the north to the south of the occupied territories,” Guards spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini was quoted as saying by Iranian state television.

Iranian media said Saturday that Israel had launched strikes on the southern city of Shiraz, which hosts military bases, triggering the air-defence systems, Agence France-Presse reports.

“Shiraz’s air defenses have been activated in some areas of the city and have been engaged in fighting hostile targets and Zionist aircrafts,” Mehr news agency reported.

Iran’s atomic agency chief Mohammad Eslami said Saturday that the Arak heavy water reactor hit by Israel earlier this week was dedicated to “health and medicine”.

“The products of the Arak heavy water plant are used in the fields of health and medicine. You [Israel] are targeting a centre active in the field of medical radiopharmaceutical research,” said Eslami, according to a government statement seen by Agence France-Presse.

Israel’s military has said it killed two top Iranian military officials in overnight strikes as European diplomatic efforts to bring the US and Iran back to the negotiating table stalled.

An Israeli military official said on Saturday that Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestine Corps of al-Quds, the foreign branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), had been killed in a strike on a flat in the city of Qom, central Iran.

The Israeli military said Izadi had played a key role in the financing and arming of Hamas before its attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

The official said Behnam Shahriyari, another senior official in al-Quds responsible for helping finance the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, had also been killed in a strike.

For the full story, click here:

Iran has threatened to attack shipments of military aid to Israel.

“We warn that sending any military or radar equipment by boat or aircraft from any country to assist the Zionist regime will be considered participation in the aggression against Islamic Iran and will be a legitimate target for the armed forces,” a spokesman said in a video statement broadcast on state TV on Saturday, Agence France-Presse reports.

A former bodyguard for Hassan Nasrallah, the former leader of Hezbollah who was assassinated last year by Israel, was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Iran on Saturday, Agence France-Presse reports.

Hussein Khalil - commonly known as Abu Ali, and nicknamed Nasrallah’s “shield” - was killed near the Iraqi border after crossing into Iran, the Hezbollah official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

An Iraqi armed group said one of its commanders was killed in the attack, and confirmed the death of Khalil and his son.

Here are some images coming through the newswires from Iran and Israel:

An Israeli attack in western Iran killed at least five army personnel and wounded nine others on Saturday, Agence France-Presse reports, citing Iranian media.

“Five army officers were killed and nine others were wounded in today’s attack by the Israeli regime on the western city of Sumar” in Kermanshah province, the Fars news agency reported, quoting a provincial official.

Israel’s assault on Iran, including its nuclear and ballistic weapons programme, is unlikely to secure its long-term strategic objectives, even if Benjamin Netanyahu manages to persuade the Trump administration into joining the conflict in the coming days and weeks, experts have said.

According to diplomats, military specialists and security analysts, Israel – and its prime minister – is likely to face mounting headwinds in the campaign, amid warnings that it risks dangerously destabilising the region.

There is mounting scepticism over whether even the US’s use of massive ground-penetrating bombs would be able to knock out Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility, which is buried deep beneath a mountain, and questions have emerged about Israel’s ability to sustain a long-range offensive that has exposed its cities to counterattack by ballistic missiles.

Experts make the distinction between Israel’s operational success in targeting key Iranian sites and individuals, and its strategic objectives which appear to have expanded to regime change in Tehran, on top of destroying its nuclear programme.

For the full story, click here:

Israel has accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Saturday of trying to attack Israeli citizens in Cyprus.

Writing on X, Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar said that the attack was thwarted, “thanks to the activity of the Cypriot security authorities, in cooperation with Israeli security services.” He did not provide more details on the attack.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Saturday that Cyprus police have arrested a British man on suspicion of terror-related offences and espionage.

Several Cypriot news outlets reported the suspect was a man of Azeri ethnic descent and had been arrested in the Zakaki suburb of the coastal city of Limassol, Reuters reports.

The suspect was thought to have had a British RAF military base in nearby Akrotiri under surveillance, as well as Cyprus’s own Andreas Papandreou Air Base in the western region of Paphos since mid-April, Cyprus’s ANT1 news portal reported.

It remains unclear whether the thwarted attack referred to by Saar and the arrest of the British national are related.

Here is a map of where Iran’s top military official Saeed Izadi was killed overnight by an Israeli airstrike:

A senior Iranian official said on Saturday that proposals put forward by European powers at talks in Geneva about his country’s nuclear programme were “unrealistic”, suggesting that if they stuck to them it would be difficult to reach an accord, Reuters reports.

“The discussions and proposals made by the Europeans in Geneva were unrealistic. Insisting on these positions will not bring Iran and Europe closer to an agreement,” the senior official told Reuters, while speaking on condition of anonymity.

“In any case, Iran will review the European proposals in Tehran and present its responses in the next meeting,” the official said.

The UN nuclear agency confirmed on Saturday that a centrifuge manufacturing workshop at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site had been hit, in the latest strike amid Israel’s bombing campaign, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“A centrifuge manufacturing workshop has been hit in Esfahan, the third such facility that has been targeted in Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear-related sites over the past week,” the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement quoting its chief Rafael Grossi.

“We know this facility well. There was no nuclear material at this site and therefore the attack on it will have no radiological consequences,” Grossi was quoted as saying.

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi that a resumption of negotiations is the only solution to the nuclear dispute, reports Reuters, citing the Turkish presidency.

Erdoğan also told Araghchi that Turkey is ready to be a facilitator and that direct talks are needed between US and Iranian officials as soon as possible to pave the way for diplomacy.

The discussions and proposals made by the European powers to Iran over its nuclear programme in Geneva were unrealistic and insisting on them will not bring both sides closer to an agreement, a senior Iranian official told Reuters.

“In any case, Iran will review the European proposals in Tehran and present its responses in the next meeting,” the official said.

He added that zero enrichment was a dead end and that Iran would not negotiate over its defensive capabilities, including its missile programme.

Germany has temporarily relocated the staff of its embassy in Tehran abroad due to the current threat situation, a foreign ministry official said on Saturday, according to Reuters.

The embassy remains operational and can be contacted via phone by Germans who are still in Iran, the official said, adding it would continue to advise on possible options for leaving the country by land.

Thousands of protesters are marching towards Whitehall from Russell Square in central London.

Protesters waved Palestinian flags and chanted “free, free Palestine”, “occupation no more, Israel is a terrorist state” and “stop bombing Iran”, reports the PA news agency.

Many chanted “shame on you” as they walked past dozens of counter-protesters, organised by pro-Israeli group Stop The Hate, near Waterloo Bridge.

Internet-access advocacy group NetBlocks.org reported on Saturday that the limited internet access that had come back in Iran (see 12.03pm BST) has once again “collapsed”, reports the Associated Press (AP).

The group said on X that the disconnect came after “a brief period when residents could exchange messages with the outside world”.

A nationwide internet shutdown has been in place for several days, isolating Iranians, reports the AP.

Iran cited concerns about Israeli cyber-attacks for the shutdown of mobile and web services. But many Iranians and activists see it as another example of state information control and targeted internet shutdowns the Islamic Republic has deployed during periods of protests and unrest.

Several “powerful explosions” were heard Saturday afternoon in south-western Iran’s Ahvaz, the daily Shargh reported.

Ahvaz is the capital of Khuzestan province, which is situated on the Iraqi border and is Iran’s main oil-producing region. The Israeli military had previously announced it was striking “military infrastructure” in the south-west (see 1.39pm BST).

Israel’s military said on Saturday it was conducting strikes on “military infrastructure” in Iran’s south-west, on the ninth day of the war sparked by Israel’s attack on the Islamic republic.

“Fighter jets are currently striking military infrastructure in south-western Iran,” the military said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Citing local media, AFP also reported on Saturday that several “powerful” blasts had been heard in south-west Iran.

Here are some of the latest images coming in via the newswires:

Here is the Guardian’s latest news story on the Israel-Iran conflict:

Israel’s military has said it killed two top Iranian military officials in overnight strikes as Iran warned it would be “very dangerous for everyone” if the US intervened in the conflict.

An Israeli military official said on Saturday that Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestine Corps of al-Quds, the foreign branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp, had been killed in a strike on a flat in the city of Qom, central Iran.

The Israeli military said Izadi had played a key role in the financing and arming of Hamas before its attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

The official said Behnam Shahriyari, another senior official in al-Quds force responsible for helping finance the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, had also been killed in a strike.

After talks between the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and European counterparts in Geneva ended on Friday evening with no breakthrough, Iran launched a salvo of missiles at Israel in the early hours of Saturday morning. A building in central Israel caught fire after being hit by the shrapnel of an intercepted Iranian missile. Later on Saturday a drone strike hit a residential building in north Israel, damaging the building. No casualties were reported from the missile barrage or the drone strike.

Speaking in Istanbul on Saturday, Araghchi said it would be “very, very dangerous for everyone” if the US intervened militarily in Israel’s war with Iran. Donald Trump has said that he will decide within two weeks whether or not the US will join Israel in its bombing of Iran, saying he is waiting to give diplomacy a chance.

An estimated 1,500 young people who had been visiting Israel were evacuated by cruise ship on Saturday to Cyprus, the closest European country to Israel, at about 270 kilometers, the Associated Press (AP) reports.

It was the second such trip by the cruise ship bringing people out while ferrying stranded Israelis back to their homeland.

Noah Page says it’s one thing to watch missiles crisscrossing the sky on the news and another to experience it first-hand.

The Ohio-native told AP:

You see it on the news, you see everything, but you never really expect it to actually hit you when you’re there

Florida native Alex Rosenblum had been in Israel before in times of war, when the sounds of sirens urging citizens to rush to shelters had become almost routine. But he says this time it was different.

He said:

This situation with Iran has been a lot scarier because there’s a big difference between a rocket and a missile.

The pair found safety in underground shelters when digital alerts were sent out.

Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors have expressed concerns to UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi about the safety of nuclear facilities close to their countries amid the Israeli-Iranian crisis, Qatar state news agency reported on Saturday.

Reuters reports that the ambassadors warned Grossi during a meeting in Vienna about the “dangerous repercussions” of targeting nuclear facilities.

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency previously warned that attacks on nuclear facilities could result in “radioactive releases with great consequences within and beyond boundaries” of the state attacked.

The potential consequences of an attack on the Bushehr facility on the Gulf coast, Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant, have long been a concern in the Gulf states.

Iranians on Saturday began to see some internet access restored, giving people the opportunity to call friends and family for the first time in days, the Associated Press (AP) reports.

Those in the diaspora posted on social media about connecting to FaceTime or WhatsApp to call relatives they had been worried about.

Government officials had disconnected phone and web services earlier in the week for the more than 90 million people who live in Iran, citing cybersecurity threats from Israel.

The move left civilians unaware of when and where Israel would strike next, despite Israeli forces issuing warnings through their Persian-language online channels.

When the missiles landed, lack of internet connection meant not knowing for hours or days if their family or friends are among the victims.

Tasnim news agency, which is closely affiliated with Iran’s government, quoted the information minister as saying that access to “international” internet should be restored across the country by 8pm.

Syria’s security forces have detained Wassim al-Assad, a cousin of toppled leader Bashar al-Assad, state news agency Sana said on Saturday, according to Reuters.

Wassim al-Assad was sanctioned by the United States in 2023 for leading a paramilitary force backing Assad’s army and for trafficking drugs including the amphetamine-like drug captagon.

Bashar al-Assad was toppled by an Islamist-led rebel insurgency in December and fled to Moscow. Most of his family members and inner circle either fled Syria or went underground.

Syria’s new security forces have been pursuing members of the former administration – mainly those involved in the feared security branches accused of rights abuses.

Rights groups have called for a fully fledged transitional justice process to hold them to account.

The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said it would be “very unfortunate and very dangerous for everyone” if the US got involved in the war with Israel. He said Iran was exercising its right to self-defence against Israel’s “unprovoked” bombardment, which would need to stop before Iran returned to negotiations.

He spoke to reporters in Istanbul on his way home from talks in Geneva, which failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough. You can listen to his comments here:

The UNHCR said on Saturday that the intensity of the attacks is already triggering population movements in Israel and Iran: Some from Tehran and other parts of Iran have crossed into neighboring countries while shelling has caused people in Israel to seek shelter elsewhere in the country and, in some cases, abroad.

According to the Associated Press (AP), the UN agency urged states in the region to respect the right of people to seek safety where needed and to facilitate humanitarian access.

“This region has already endured more than its share of war, loss, and displacement — we cannot allow another refugee crisis to take root,” the UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said.

He added:

The time to de-escalate is right now. Once people are forced to flee, there’s no quick way back – and all too often, the consequences last for generations.

The Italian foreign ministry said 24 Italians, who are the second group to evacuate via Azerbaijan’s Baku, are on their way back home, reports the Associated Press (AP).

“After about nine hours of travel and a very long wait at the border, the group was welcomed by representatives of the Italian embassy in Baku, and then moved to the airport of the Azerbaijani capital to wait to return to Italy with the first available flights,” the ministry said.

The group included an Italian doctor and his partner, an Iranian woman, and their 18-month-old child, the ministry said.

Another convoy from Iran could depart from Tehran as early as Monday, reports the AP.

The first group that arrived in Italy via Baku in recent days had 34 Italian nationals.

Italy’s foreign ministry also said it chartered a flight to help evacuate its citizens from Israel via Sharm el-sheikh, Egypt, on Sunday.

Agence France-Presse has more on the comments made by Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan that we reported on earlier (see 10.05am BST).

Speaking at a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, Fidan said:

Israel is now leading the region to the brink of total disaster by attacking Iran, our neighbour …

There is no Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, Yemeni or Iranian problem but there is clearly an Israeli problem.

He called for an end to the “unlimited aggression” against Iran, adding:

We must prevent the situation from deteriorating into a spiral of violence that would further jeopardise regional and global security.

Israel’s first responders said on Saturday that a residential building in north Israel had been hit by a drone after the army reported an intrusion in the Beit Shean valley, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“A drone strike hit a two-storey residential building in northern Israel”, the Magen David Adom said in a statement, adding that its rescue teams found no visible casualties as they arrived.

On the topic of Russia and Iran, my colleague Pjotr Sauer has written an analysis on how the Iranian regime collapse would be serious blow for Russia:

The Kremlin is unlikely to arm Iran, let alone get involved in the fighting, said a Russian source with ties to the foreign ministry. “Moscow clearly doesn’t want conflict with Trump and is also doing everything it can to urge the US to return to diplomacy. But Russia’s priority remains avoiding any moves that could undermine its warming ties with the new US administration or prompt a shift in Trump’s stance on Ukraine,” the source said.

Still, the Kremlin stands to lose from a prolonged US-backed Israeli military campaign that devastates Iran’s economic and military infrastructure and threatens the survival of the regime in Tehran.

“If the current Iranian regime collapses, it would be both a strategic and reputational blow for Russia,” the source with ties to the Russian foreign ministry said.

“A bigger loss than the fall of Damascus,” the source added, referring to Moscow’s diminished influence over Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, a longtime Kremlin ally whose eventual defeat marked the end of a costly decade-long Russian intervention.

The United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, has urged more international support for Syria to speed up reconstruction and enable further refugee returns after 14 years of civil war, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“I am here also to really make an appeal to the international community to provide more help, more assistance to the Syrian government in this big challenge of recovery of the country,” Grandi told reporters on Friday on the sidelines of a visit to Damascus.

Syrians who had been displaced internally or fled abroad have begun gradually returning home since the December overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, whose brutal repression of peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 triggered war.

But the wide-scale destruction, including to basic infrastructure, remains a major barrier to returns. Grandi said more than two million people had returned to their areas of origin, including about 1.5 million internally displaced people, while 600,000 others have come back from neighbouring countries including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

“Two million of course is only a fraction of the very big number of Syrian refugees and displaced, but it is a very big figure,” he said, reports AFP. According to UNHCR, 13.5 million Syrians remain displaced internally or abroad.

Grandi said that after Assad’s toppling, the main obstacle to returns was “a lack of services, lack of housing, lack of work”, adding that his agency was working with Syrian authorities and governments in the region “to help people go back”.

He said he discussed the importance of the sustainability of returns with Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani, including ensuring “that people don’t move again because they don’t have a house or they don’t have a job or they don’t have electricity” or other services such as health.

Sustainable returns “can only happen if there is recovery, reconstruction in Syria, not just for the returnees, for all Syrians”, he said. He added that he also discussed with Shaibani how to “encourage donors to give more resources for this sustainability”.

With the recent lifting of western sanctions, the new Syrian authorities hope for international support to launch reconstruction, which the UN estimates could cost more than $400bn.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican) has described the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran as a “terrifying reminder of how close the world remains to nuclear disaster”, arguing Australia should condemn illegal military attacks and ratify the global treaty banning nuclear weapons.

Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities violate international law, Ican has alleged, and could cause radioactive contamination with long-term consequences for human health and the environment.

“The prospect of radiation release, the erosion of non-proliferation norms, and the emboldening of nuclear-armed states to act without accountability – this is the deadly logic of nuclear deterrence playing out in real time,” said Gem Romuld, the Australian director of Ican, a Nobel prize-winning anti-nuclear group.

“We need urgent de-escalation and a return to diplomacy. Australia should press its allies, particularly the United States, to act responsibly and stop enabling this cycle of violence.”

Israel, the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, is widely believed to be modernising its arsenal. It remains outside the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), but is estimated to have 90 nuclear warheads. Israel has never officially acknowledged that it possesses nuclear weapons.

Iran, which had previously proposed a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East, is a state party to the NPT but has now threatened to withdraw. The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, insisted Iran’s nuclear programme was peaceful and that it sought an end to hostilities:

Iran is ready to consider diplomacy once again – once the aggression is stopped and the aggressor is held accountable for the crimes committed.

Police in Iran’s Qom province said on Saturday that 22 people “linked to Israeli spy services” had been arrested since 13 June, Fars news agency reported.

“Twenty two people were identified and arrested on charges of being linked to the Zionist regime’s spy services, disturbing public opinion and supporting the criminal regime,” the agency said, citing the head of police intelligence in Iran’s Qom province.

It came after Iranian police announced the arrest on Thursday of 24 people accused of spying for Israel and of seeking to tarnish the country’s image, according to a statement carried by Tasnim news agency.

A European national was also arrested for spying, Tasnim reported on Friday, without giving their nationality or the date of the arrest.

Iran regularly announces arrests of suspected spies. Several have been executed in recent weeks.

Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said at least 223 people have been arrested nationwide on charges related to collaboration with Israel, cautioning that the actual figure was likely higher.

Israel’s military says its navy has hit a Hezbollah “infrastructure site” near the southern Lebanese city of Naqoura, a day after Israel’s foreign minister warned the Lebanese armed group against entering the Iran-Israel war.

The military claimed the site was used by Hezbollah’s Radwan Force “to advance terror attacks against Israeli civilians”, AFP reports.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in Istanbul, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reports, for a meeting with Arab League diplomats to discuss Tehran’s escalating conflict with Israel.

About 40 diplomats are slated to join the weekend gathering of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as Israel and Iran continue to exchange missile strikes, Agence France-Presse reports.

Araghchi’s arrival in Turkey on Saturday morning comes after he met with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany in Geneva on Friday.

“At this meeting, at the suggestion of Iran, the issue of the Zionist regime’s attack on our country will be specifically addressed,” Tasnim quoted Araghchi as saying.

Araghchi said on Friday that Tehran was ready to “consider diplomacy” again only if Israel’s “aggression is stopped”.

The Arab League ministers are expected to release a statement after their meeting, Turkish state news agency Anadolu said.

Iran’s Fars news agency has said the Isfahan nuclear facility – one of the country’s biggest – has been targeted in Israel’s latest attacks but there is no leakage of hazardous materials.

Iranian media also said Israel attacked a building in the city of Qom, with initial reports of a 16-year-old killed and two people injured.

Israeli bombing has killed at least 639 people and wounded 1,326, according to Iranian media, while Iranian missiles have killed at least 25 people and wounded hundreds in Israel.

As fighting continues to escalate, the Israeli military chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, said Israelis must prepare for “difficult days” ahead.

“To remove a threat of such magnitude, against such an enemy, we must be ready for a prolonged campaign,” he said on Friday. “Day by day, our freedom to operate is expanding and the enemy’s is narrowing.”

This and other key developments are in our latest full report here:

More here on Israel claiming it has already set back Iran’s presumed nuclear programme by at least two years.

Israel said on Saturday its air force had launched fresh airstrikes against missile storage and launch sites in central Iran, Agence France-Presse reports, as it kept up a wave of attacks it says are aimed at preventing its rival from developing nuclear weapons – an ambition Tehran denies.

“According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb,” Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said in an interview published in Germany’s Bild newspaper on Saturday.

He said Israel’s week-long onslaught would continue.

We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat.

The comments come a day after US president Donald Trump warned Tehran it has a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes.