We’re moving our rolling coverage to a new page, which you can find here.
Here’s a look at where things stand:
At least nine people are dead and more than 100 injured after Iran launched a barrage of missile strikes at Israel overnight, in retaliation for Israel’s Friday strikes which Israel said targeted Tehran’s nuclear program, hitting key sites including its defence ministry.
An unknown number of missiles evaded Israel’s air defence system to hit Rehovot and Bat Yam in Tel Aviv, killing a 69-year-old woman, an 80-year-old woman, and two children including a 10-year-old boy, according to Israeli emergency services. More than 100 have been injured, and dozens still missing under rubble.
Earlier strikes on Saturday night killed at least four Palestinian citizens of Israel in the northern town of Tamra, including a woman and her two daughters aged 13 and 20.
Two oil facilities in Iran are on fire – one in Shahran and another in southern Tehran – after they were hit by Israeli strikes.
The Israeli military said Iran still has an arsenal that can cause grave damage to Israel. The Israeli military added that “at this hour, we are striking Iran”, and that “Iranian attacks are not behind us”.
Iran has said 78 people were killed there on the first day of Israel’s attack, and scores more on the second, including 60 when a missile brought down a 14-storey apartment block in Tehran, where 29 of the dead were children.
Oman has announced the latest Iran-US nuclear talks that were scheduled to be held in Muscat have been cancelled. “The Iran US talks scheduled to be held in Muscat this Sunday will not now take place. But diplomacy and dialogue remain the only pathway to lasting peace,” Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, said in a post on X.
Ali Shamkhani, Iran’s top adviser to its supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has died in the hospital a day after Israel launched airstrikes across the country, Iranian media reports. Shamkhani had previously served as Iran’s top national security official for a decade and had represented Iran in the China-facilitated rapprochement talks with Saudi Arabia.
Iranian authorities said that Israel’s airstrikes on Friday killed at least 30 military personnel in East Azerbaijan province, according to news agency ISNA. “Following the Zionist regime’s aggression against this province since Friday morning, 30 military personnel and one Red Crescent member have been martyred in defence of the Islamic homeland, and 55 people have been injured,” ISNA reported on Saturday, quoting East Azerbaijan provincial authorities.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel’s strikes have set Iran’s nuclear programme back, possibly by years, and that heavier blows were yet to come. “We will hit every site and every target of the Ayatollahs’ regime and what they have felt so far is nothing compared with what they will be handed in the coming days,” Netanyahu said in a video message.
The death toll from Iran’s strikes on Israel has climbed to at least eight, after emergency services said a child was the fourth confirmed fatality in Tel Aviv.
One of Iran’s missiles appears to have struck the Weizmann Institute of Science in Tel Aviv. CCTV footage shows a blast at the site. In its social media post below, Iranian state media suggests the strike appeared to be targeted in response to Israel’s assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists, but that has not been confirmed.
این ویدئو اصابت موشک ایران به انستیتو وایزمن در تلآویو را نشان میدهد.
— خبرگزاری فارس (@FarsNews_Agency) June 15, 2025
به نظر میرسد این حمله پاسخی به ترور دانشمندان هستهای ایران است.
انستیتو وایزمن از مهمترین مراکز علمی اسرائیل تلقی میشود و هنوز چندین نفر در آن گرفتار هستند . pic.twitter.com/1VDbPFT1lG
Israel’s emergency services said the three people killed in the strikes were a 69-year-old woman, an 80-year-old woman and a 10-year-old boy.
The spokesperson for Magen David Adom (Israel’s ambulance service) said 100 others were wounded in a rocket strike “in the central region”, and 37 people wounded in Shfela region.
Below are some of the images coming in of the Iranian missile strikes, Israel’s air defence system responding, and the damage caused by the missiles not intercepted.
Updated
The confirmed death toll in central Israel has risen to three, with at least 166 injured by the Iranian missile strikes, according to Haaretz.
Israeli police have separately said on social media there are “multiple confirmed fatalities” among “dozens of civilian casualties reported”, but did not give specifics.
The four women killed in the earlier Iranian strike on Tamra have been identified as all from the same family.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the victims are Palestinian citizens of Israel, Manar al-Qasem Abu al-Heija Khatib, her two daughters aged 13 and 20, Hala and Shada, and their relative, Manar Diab Katib.
Meanwhile emergency services are responding to injuries and cases of people trapped in rubble in central and northern Israel following that last wave of strikes which hit at least two areas in Tel Aviv. The number of injured reported is rising quickly, Israeli media so far reporting more than 60.
MDA Spokesperson: Following rocket strikes—
— Magen David Adom (@Mdais) June 15, 2025
In Gush Dan: Woman (60) confirmed dead, some 20 injured (moderate & mild).
In Shfela: 24 injured near 3-entrance building (2 serious, 8 moderate, 14 mild).
EMTs, paramedics on scene. Rescue ops ongoing. pic.twitter.com/SVUX5WWztQ
At least one person was killed and 20 injured in that last wave of Iranian missile strikes on Israel.
Emergency ambulance services have reported 20 people injured “to varying degrees” in Rehovot and Bat Yam, two areas in Tel Aviv that appear to have borne the brunt of strikes. According to Israeli media, the service said one woman in her 60s was killed in Bat Yam.
This image is being widely shared, Israeli media describes as “central Israel”.
Beit Yam, Tel Aviv
— Saboteamos (@saboteamos) June 15, 2025
15 de junio 2025 pic.twitter.com/Ujwa200lQ0
Israeli authorities are now telling the public they can leave shelters.
Three killed in Palestinian majority town
There are more details about the incident in the north of Israel earlier. Reports are now that an Iranian strike has killed at least three women in the town of Tamra, where the population are Palestinian citizens of Israel. At least 10 others were injured, according to Israeli media reports.
Updated
Israel says it has hit Iranian nuclear sites, Iran fires at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem
There’s quite a bit going on at the moment. We’re working through the information coming in, but it appears that not long after Israel’s air force said it hit Iranian nuclear project sites, including the ministry of defence, Iran returned fire, and explosions have been heard in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Iranian state TV has announced a missile salvo against Israel.
In the last 20 minutes or so air raid sirens, explosions, and interceptions have been heard in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, according to Reuters and Guardian reporters on the ground.
Videos are now emerging of buildings on fire in Tel Aviv following the strikes. We are working to verify footage. Some scenes are recognisable Tel Aviv streets.
Israeli media reports “multiple” impacts by Iranian missiles. Israeli police so far have reported rockets and shrapnel falling in Tel Aviv causing damage but no injuries.
Two oil facilities in Iran are on fire – one in Shahran and another in southern Tehran – after they were hit by Israeli strikes.
In a statement Iran’s revolutionary guard said its operations “will continue to be more ferocious and widespread if the atrocities and attacks continue”.
Israel sounded an alarm earlier in northern Israel over “hostile aircraft infiltration”.
Updated
There are alarms sounding in Tel Aviv, reports Emma Graham-Harrison, the Guardian’s chief Middle East correspondent, who can hear the interceptions.
Separately, witnesses have told Reuters they’ve heard the sound of explosions in Jerusalem.
A short time ago blasts were reportedly heard across Tehran. Israel’s air force has just confirmed it has carried out further strikes on the city. On social media it posted:
Air Force fighter jets recently completed an extensive wave of strikes in Tehran against several targets of the Iranian nuclear weapons project, including the headquarters of the Iranian Ministry of Defense, the headquarters of the nuclear project, and other targets. These goals advance the effort to obtain nuclear weapons, in which the Iranian regime has hidden its nuclear archive.
Israel’s military says sirens have been activated in northern Israel due to “hostile aircraft infiltration”.
Hello, this is Helen Davidson here to take over the blog for the next while. Thanks to colleagues for all the coverage so far.
Iran’s revolutionary guards said facilities for fighter jet fuel production in Israel were hit by Iranian missiles, Reuters reports.
It added that if Israel continues its offensive, Iran’s attacks “will become heavier and more extensive”.
Israel targeted the headquarters of Iran’s ministry of defence in Tehran, according to the Tasnim news agency.
The IDF has said it is operating to intercept missiles launched from Iran and the air force is striking military targets in Tehran.
Updated
Elham, 39, lives with her elderly parents near the oil depots in Shahran, Iran hit by Israeli strikes, writes Deepa Parent.
She told the Guardian: “Unlike the first night when we were asleep during the strikes, tonight they’ve been nonstop, and we’ve been awake the whole time.
“Just after midnight, I heard very loud explosions near my neighbourhood in Shahran. At first, we thought it was just air defence but then we saw fire and, soon after, black smoke rising from nearby rooftops.
“There are oil depots around here, so I was really worried. I stayed away from the windows and turned off the air conditioning because the smoke smelled toxic.
“Some neighbours lost electricity, but we still have power and are charging our phones while waiting anxiously for what the night will bring. We’re not leaving the neighbourhood because it feels too dangerous.”
Updated
A fire has broken out after Israel’s attack on the Tehran oil refinery, according to Iranian state media.
Summary
Here’s a look at where things stand:
Several missiles have been seen over Jerusalem, a witness told Reuters. Air raid sirens are also going off in Haifa, Reuters is reporting. The Israeli military said it identified missiles launched from Iran on Saturday, and systems were operating to intercept them.
The Israeli military said Iran still has an arsenal that can cause grave damage to Israel. The Israeli military added that “at this hour, we are striking Iran”, and that “Iranian attacks are not behind us”.
Oman has announced the latest Iran-US nuclear talks that were scheduled to be held in Muscat have been cancelled. “The Iran US talks scheduled to be held in Muscat this Sunday will not now take place. But diplomacy and dialogue remain the only pathway to lasting peace,” Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, said in a post on X.
Ali Shamkhani, Iran’s top adviser to its supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has died in the hospital a day after Israel launched airstrikes across the country, Iranian media reports. Shamkhani had previously served as Iran’s top national security official for a decade and had represented Iran in the China-facilitated rapprochement talks with Saudi Arabia.
Iranian authorities said that Israel’s airstrikes on Friday killed at least 30 military personnel in East Azerbaijan province, according to news agency ISNA. “Following the Zionist regime’s aggression against this province since Friday morning, 30 military personnel and one Red Crescent member have been martyred in defence of the Islamic homeland, and 55 people have been injured,” ISNA reported on Saturday, quoting East Azerbaijan provincial authorities.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel’s strikes have set Iran’s nuclear programme back, possibly by years, and that heavier blows were yet to come. “We will hit every site and every target of the Ayatollahs’ regime and what they have felt so far is nothing compared with what they will be handed in the coming days,” Netanyahu said in a video message.
Updated
Israel’s emergency services said on Saturday that an Iranian missile hit on a home in the country’s Haifa region left 14 people injured, including one in a critical condition.
“Teams have reported 14 casualties at a two-storey home in the western Galilee, including one in critical condition and the rest with varying levels of injury,” Israel’s Magen David Adom agency said in a statement.
Updated
The Israeli media said on Saturday that the country’s military recently attacked Yemen, attempting to assassinate a senior Houthi figure.
The Iran-backed Houthis, who control parts of Yemen, have carried out more than 100 attacks on ships plying the Red Sea since November 2023, in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Updated
Iran said the Shahran oil depot in Tehran was targeted in an Israeli attack on Saturday but the “situation was under control”.
“The fuel volume in the targeted tank was not high, and the situation is fully under control,” Iran’s oil ministry’s SHANA news agency reported.
Jordan has suspended its airspace again until further notice amid the tensions between Israel and Iran, Jordan’s state news agency said.
Israel's police: Several casualties after fallen explosive device in the north
Israel’s police said there has been a fallen explosive device in the north and initial reports indicate several casualties and damage at the scene, Reuters reports.
Israeli military says the public are now permitted to leave protected spaces in all areas across the country, Reuters reports.
The UK’s foreign secretary David Lammy said he spoke to his Israeli counterpart Gideon Sarr earlier.
Lammy wrote on X: “I expressed my concern for civilians in Israel and reiterated the UK’s call for a de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East.
“Now is the time for restraint, calm and a return to diplomacy.”
Iran’s offensive operation against Israel includes missile and drone strikes, according to Iran’s state TV.
'Several missiles seen over Jerusalem'
Several missiles have been seen over Jerusalem, a witness told Reuters.
Air raid sirens are also going off in Haifa, Reuters is reporting.
The Israeli military said it identified missiles launched from Iran on Saturday, and systems were operating to intercept them.
“Upon receiving an alert, the public is instructed to enter a protected space and remain there until further notice,” the IDF said.
Updated
In a new post on Truth Social, Donald Trump said that he spoke to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, this morning.
Trump said that Putin “feels, as do I, this war in Israel-Iran should end”, adding that he told the Russian president that “his war [with Ukraine] should also end”.
Updated
Iraq on Saturday called on the US to prevent Israeli aircraft from breaching Iraqi airspace to carry out attacks against Iran, citing bilateral agreements and international law, Reuters reports.
“The Iraqi government urges the United States to uphold its responsibilities under the agreements signed between the two countries and prevent aircraft belonging to the Zionist entity from once again violating Iraqi airspace,” military spokesperson Sabah al-Numan said in a statement.
Updated
Despite the strikes earlier in the day, Sahar and her family decided to take a stroll in one of Tehran’s parks on Friday night, the eve of Eid al-Ghadir, a major Shia holiday.
The Guardian’s William Christou, Shah Meer Baloch and Deepa Parent report:
But, instead of the usual festive fireworks, the sky was lit up by bright red anti-aircraft missiles streaking across the horizon.
“Seeing Iranian missiles over your heads worries you, you worry what’s going to come next. Will it be a war, destruction?” said Sahar over the phone. She sent a video to the Guardian that shows people in the park hurriedly packing up and looking up as the crack of anti-aircraft munitions rings out overhead.
Iranians are reeling as the country enters its second day of open war with Israel, the most intense exchange of fire in the two countries’ histories, with a level of violence not seen in Iran since its war with Iraq in the 1980s.
For the full story, click here:
Updated
IDF: 'At this hour, we are striking Iran'
The Israeli military said that Iran still has an arsenal that can cause grave damage to Israel.
The Israeli military added that “at this hour, we are striking Iran”, and that “Iranian attacks are not behind us”.
The military went on to say: “We will continue to attack and destroy Iranian surface-to-surface missile sites.”
Updated
In Cyprus, the European Union’s nearest member state to the Middle East, authorities have activated an emergency evacuation plan that, as in previous crises, has seen the strategic island become a hub for third world nationals fleeing conflict in the region.
With all eyes on the island’s British sovereign base areas – a legacy of colonial rule – the Cypriot president, Nikos Christodoulides, has been keen to underscore the humanitarian role the country has to play.
“The Republic of Cyprus, I repeat, is not involved in any way in this conflict,” he earlier said today. “Our role is purely humanitarian, and we are ready, we have activated the ‘Estia plan’, in case the need arises to play our role, which is purely humanitarian,” he told reporters referring to the evacuation scheme.
Christodoulides said Cyprus’s national security council had been informed by the UK that none of the military installations – which include a Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Akrotiri and an intelligence-gathering facility at Dhekelia in the south of the island – had been used since the crisis erupted early on Friday with Israeli strikes on Iran. Tehran has vowed it will target UK bases and ships – and assets belonging to the US and France – if either of the countries attempts to obstruct the missile and drone attacks Iran has launched in retaliation.
In Limassol, a popular port town in the south of Cyprus, Iranian missiles aimed at Israel were clearly visible late on Friday. The local government has informed the public that defense shelters are ready, should the need arise, with the interior ministry launching a mobile app, available in Greek and English, informing people of shelter locations.
Updated
Oman: Latest round of US-Iran nuclear talks canceled
Oman has announced that the latest Iran-US nuclear talks that were scheduled to be held in Muscat have been canceled.
“The Iran US talks scheduled to be held in Muscat this Sunday will not now take place. But diplomacy and dialogue remain the only pathway to lasting peace,” Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, said in a post on X.
Updated
Iranian media: Top adviser to supreme leader dies in hospital following Israeli attack
Ali Shamkhani, Iran’s top adviser to its supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has died in the hospital a day after Israel launched airstrikes across the country, Iranian media reports.
Shamkhani had previously served as Iran’s top national security official for a decade and had represented Iran in the China-facilitated rapprochement talks with Saudi Arabia.
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Israel and Iran:
Updated
Iranian media reported a “massive explosion” on Saturday following an Israeli drone strike on the South Pars refinery in the southern port city of Kangan, Agence France-Presse reports.
“An hour ago, an Israeli drone hit one of the South Pars Phase 14 refineries, causing a massive explosion and fire in the refinery,” the Tasnim news agency said, while the Fars agency reported firefighters were working to extinguish a blaze that had erupted as a result of the attack.
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, spoke to both his Israeli and Iranian counterparts on Saturday, according to a statement from Beijing’s foreign ministry.
Wang told Iran’s Abbas Araghchi that China would support Tehran in “defending its legitimate rights and interests”, the ministry said, while he told the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, that Beijing opposed Israel’s actions of “attacking Iran with force”, the statements said.
Updated
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan has told Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman that Israel’s attack on Iran demonstrated that Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat was the greatest threat to regional stability, according to Erdogan’s office.
In a phone call on Saturday, Erdogan told bin Salman that Israel must be stopped to reduce tensions that that the nuclear dispute could only be resolved through negotiations.
A potentially devastating war could create waves of irregular migration to all countries in the region, Erdogan also said, according to the statement.
Iran: Israeli airstrikes kills at least 30 military personnel in east Azerbaijan province
Iranian authorities said that Israel’s airstrikes on Friday killed at least 30 military personnel in East Azerbaijan province, according to news agency ISNA.
“Following the Zionist regime’s aggression against this province since Friday morning, 30 military personnel and one Red Crescent member have been martyred in defence of the Islamic homeland, and 55 people have been injured,” ISNA reported on Saturday, quoting East Azerbaijan provincial authorities.
Netanyahu: Israel will strike 'every site and every target of the Ayatollahs' regime'
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel’s strikes have set Iran’s nuclear program back, possibly by years, and that heavier blows were yet to come.
“We will hit every site and every target of the Ayatollahs’ regime and what they have felt so far is nothing compared with what they will be handed in the coming days,” Netanyahu said in a video message.
He added that the military was now destroying Iran’s ability to manufacture ballistic missiles.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araqchi in a phone call on Saturday that Moscow condemns Israel’s use of force against Iran and is ready to help de-escalate the situation in the Middle East.
Russia is prepared to continue to work to resolve issues surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Iran and Israel traded missiles and airstrikes on Saturday, the day after Israel launched a sweeping air offensive against its old enemy, killing commanders and scientists and bombing nuclear sites in a stated bid to stop it building an atomic weapon.
Lavrov expressed his condolences to Araghchi for the Iranians killed in the strikes, the statement said.
Germany said on Saturday that the danger of further escalation in the Middle East is real and that Iran’s nuclear programme poses a threat not just to Israel but also to Saudi Arabia and the stability of the entire region.
The foreign ministry issued its statement on X after a visit by German foreign minister Johann Wadephul to Saudi Arabia where he met with his counterpart.
In the hours after Israel attacked Iran, food shipments and distribution in Gaza stopped and a French-Saudi summit meant to pave the way for wider recognition of a Palestinian state was postponed indefinitely.
International pressure over starvation and civilian killings in Gaza had apparently dissipated in little more than the time it took for the smoke of the first missile strikes to clear over Tehran.
Israel’s military moved fast to declare Iran its top priority, with the battle for Gaza relegated to second place. That shift was echoed in foreign ministries and newsrooms around the world.
“The fact that Israel attacked Iran doesn’t mean [the war in] Gaza ended. Today we had dozens of people killed, the only difference is this will have far less attention than yesterday,” said Xavier Abu Eid, a political scientist and former adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
“Israel’s message [with these attacks] is that there is no political solution for anything in the region. By striking Iran they want to sabotage the US-Iran negotiations as well as the international wave of support for concrete measures on Palestine.”
The decision by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to take out the security threat posed by Iran’s nuclear programme had also defanged a significant diplomatic and economic threat to his government.
Some of Israel’s closest allies in Europe had become increasingly outspoken about both the impact of the war in Gaza on civilians, and escalating violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Even historically strong alliances with countries such as the Netherlands and Germany had been faltering in the face of an 11-week siege of Gaza, UN warnings of a looming famine and repeated mass killings of hungry crowds trying to reach food distribution sites.
Here is a map which highlights the reported Israeli airstrikes on Iran …
And here we can see the impact of the Iranian response against Israel …
Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 35 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, most of them near an aid distribution site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said.
Medics at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in central Gaza areas, where most of the casualties were moved to, said at least 15 people were killed as they tried to approach the GHF aid distribution site near the Netzarim corridor.
The rest were killed in separate attacks across the enclave, they added. There has been no immediate comment by the Israeli military or the GHF on Saturday’s incidents, Reuters reported.
British prime minister Keir Starmer and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman have “agreed on the need to de-escalate” the conflict between Iran and Israel, Downing Street has said.
The two leaders spoke on Saturday afternoon, according to a read-out issued by Number 10.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “They discussed the gravely concerning situation in the Middle East and agreed on the need to de-escalate.
“The prime minister updated on his conversations with partners so far, and reiterated that the UK is poised to work closely with its allies in the coming days to support a diplomatic resolution.”
Continuing Iran-US nuclear talks is unjustifiable while “barbarous” Israeli attacks persist on the country, Iranian state media cited Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi as saying on Saturday.
On Friday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the dialogue with the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme is “meaningless” after Israel’s biggest-ever military strike against on Iran, accusing Washington of supporting the attack.
A China-led 10-state regional group said it strongly condemns Israel’s military strikes on Iran and expressed serious concern over the escalation of the situation in the Middle East, according to a statement from the organisation.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a Eurasian security and political group, said Israel’s act targeted civilian facilities and nuclear facilities, causing civilian casualties, Reuters reported.
“This seriously violated the principles of international law and the UN Charter, undermined Iran’s sovereignty, undermined regional and international security, and had a serious impact on global peace and stability,” SCO said.
Reuters has a breaking news line, citing Iranian news channel Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN), that Esmail Kosari, a member of the parliament’s security commission, has said closure of the strait of Hormuz is seriously being reviewed by Iran.
The strait of Hormuz is a key route for about 20% of global oil flows and an even higher proportion of liquified natural gas haulage, according to Derren Nathan, the head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Updated
An Iranian missile strike wounded seven soldiers in central Israel overnight, a military spokesperson said on Saturday, one of several barrages launched in response to Israel’s attack on military and nuclear sites.
“Seven … soldiers were lightly injured last night, as a result of an Iranian missile hit to central Israel,” the spokesperson said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
UK foreign secretary says he is 'alarmed' by strikes in Middle East overnight
David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, has said he is “alarmed” by the strikes in the Middle East overnight, reports our political correspondent Eleni Courea.
In a post on X, the foreign secretary said “we must urgently de-escalate and prevent any further harm to civilians”.
Lammy said he had spoken to Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday “to urge calm”, as well as his counterparts in the region, Europe and the US. He is expected to spend Saturday in further talks with counterparts across the Middle East and elsewhere.
The foreign secretary did not address Iran’s threat to target UK bases and ships in the region if the UK military helps intercept Iranian strikes on Israel.
Updated
Lebanon will aim to keep its airspace open, a minister said on Saturday, hours after officials said the airspace would be shut down in the evening amid the Iran-Israel
conflict.
“The airport will remain open unless something emerges beyond our control,” Lebanese minister of public works and transport Fayez Rasamny said while touring in the Beirut-Rafic Hariri international airport, reports Reuters.
The Middle East Airlines (MEA), Lebanon’s national carrier, will increase its flights to compensate the delayed flights, Rasamny said.
Earlier, state news agency NNA cited the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority as saying the country would temporarily reopen its airspace on Saturday at 10am local time. (7am GMT/8am BST), and it would be shut down again from 10.30pm local time (7.30pm GMT/8.30pm BST) till 6am (3am GMT/4am BST) on Sunday.
Here are some images coming in via the newswires:
My colleague Joseph Gedeon has written a piece on how, from Gaza to Ukraine to Iran, US president Donald Trump’s “peacemaker” promise is collapsing.
You can read his analysis here:
It has now been confirmed that Israel killed three more Iranian nuclear scientists, state television reported Saturday.
“Three of the country’s nuclear scientists – Ali Bekaei Karimi, Mansour Asgari, and Saeed Borji – were martyred during the Zionist regime’s terrorist attacks,” the broadcaster said.
Iranian media had said earlier that six others were killed in the Israeli attack, as we reported in our post at 11.56BST.
Updated
Here is a video of Israel intercepting Iranian missiles. Israel Defense Forces said it had also intercepted Iranian drones, after sirens sounded in the Dead Sea and West Bank area.
We are hearing conflicting reports about the number of senior Iranian nuclear scientists killed in the Israeli attacks.
The Iranian semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday how three had died.
The scientists were identified as Ali Bakaei Karimi, Mansour Asgari, and Saeid Borji, Tasnim said.
But it comes as an Israeli military official claimed earlier on Saturday that the strikes had killed nine senior nuclear scientists, as we reported in our post here.
Updated
Iran's Esfahan and Natanz nuclear sites significantly damaged, says Israeli military official
Iran’s Esfahan and Natanz nuclear sites were significantly damaged due to Israeli strikes on the two facilities, an Israeli military official said on Saturday.
The official said that it would take more than a few weeks for Iran to repair damage at the two sites, adding that the strikes also killed nine senior nuclear Iranian scientists.
Iran has warned the US, UK and France that their military bases and ships will be targeted if they help block the Iranian missile and drone retaliation for Israel’s attack, threatening to widen an already bloody war over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Donald Trump has said the US will help defend Israel, and American officials have been quoted in news reports saying that US forces have already helped shoot down Iranian drones and missiles as they approached Israel. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, also said on Friday that his country would help defend Israel against Iranian reprisals.
The UK government has said its forces had not provided any military assistance to Israel as the prime minister, Keir Starmer, has emphasised the need for de-escalation.
Tehran is seeking to deter western support for Israel’s defence at a time most of the missiles and drones it fires at Israel are being intercepted before they reach their targets. However, following through on the threat, delivered on Saturday through state media, would be an enormous gamble for Iran, drawing western forces into the conflict when it is already reeling under the force of sustained Israeli bombing.
Speaking at a session of the UN security council on Friday, US diplomat McCoy Pitt warned: “No government proxy or independent actor should target American citizens, American bases or other American infrastructure in the region. The consequences for Iran would be dire.”
To read our full report, see here:
Nine senior Iranian nuclear scientists were killed in the Israeli airstrikes, according to an Israeli military official.
They also told Reuters that they attacked more than 150 targets in Iran with hundreds of munitions, adding that both the Esfahan and Natanz nuclear sites were both “significantly damaged”.
'Tehran will burn': Israeli defence minister warns Iran over missile strikes
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz warned Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that “Tehran will burn” if it keeps firing missiles at Israeli civilians.
“The Iranian dictator is taking the citizens of Iran hostage, bringing about a reality in which they, and especially Teheran’s residents, will pay a heavy price for the flagrant harm inflicted upon Israel’s citizens.
“If Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn,” Katz said in a statement.
It comes after Iran warned the UK, US and France against helping to stop its strikes on Israel. We reported in our post at 09.47 BST how they threatened Western bases in the region.
Updated
Iran has arrested five people in central city of Yazd for taking pictures and “collaborating with Israel”, Iranian news sites reported on Saturday.
The arrests were made as Iran and Israel continue to target each other after Israel launched on Friday its biggest-ever air offensive against its longtime foe in a bid to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Updated
Two people were killed in an Israeli attack on a missile site in Assadabad in western Iran on Saturday, Iranian news sites reported.
Updated
Iran warns US, UK and France against helping stop Iranian strikes on Israel
Iran has warned the United States, United Kingdom and France that their bases and ships in the region will be targeted if they help stop Tehran’s strikes on Israel, Iran state media reported on Saturday, according to Reuters.
The UK government has already said that Britain did not provide military support to Israel’s attack on Iran or help shoot down Iranian drones.
Prime minister Keir Starmer spoke to Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday afternoon during which, according to an official readout, he emphasised that “Israel has a right to self-defence” but also that the conflict needed a diplomatic solution.
A spokesperson said Starmer “set out the UK’s grave concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme” but also “reiterated the need for de-escalation” in the interests of regional stability after Israel’s air and drone attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, air defence and military leadership.
Earlier, the prime minister’s spokesperson said: “The UK did not participate in Israel’s strikes overnight,” and they indicated that the RAF had also not taken part in any military action to knock out Iranian drones attacking Israel in a counterattack launched by Tehran in the morning.
Updated
Pope Leo XIV appealed on Saturday for authorities in Iran and Israel to act with “reason” after recent airstrikes and to pursue dialogue.
According to Reuters, he told an audience in St Peter’s Basilica he was after the situation with “great concern”.
“The situation in Iran and Israel has seriously deteriorated at such a delicate moment. I wish to forcefully renew an appeal for responsibility and reason,” the pope, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The commitment to build a safer world free from the nuclear threat must be pursued through a respectful meeting and sincere dialogue,” he said. “No one should ever threaten the existence of the other.”
Updated
The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, has shared more on our post earlier, which stated Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson has not ruled out the possibility that the bilateral talks with the United States scheduled to take place in Muscat on Sunday will go ahead:
Speaking to Iranian media the foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaee said: “It is still unclear what decision we will make in this regard on Sunday.” He added:
The other side did something that practically rendered negotiations and dialogue meaningless.
He emphasised that it is unthinkable for the Islamic Republic of Iran that “the Zionist regime [Israel]” would have committed such a war in the region without the coordination or conscious green light of the US.
It had been expected that Iran would feel compelled immediately to end all talks, so the Iranian indecision is a surprise, possibly reflecting diplomatic pressure on the country to find a way out of the crisis.
Donald Trump had urged Iran to attend the talks – the sixth set of talks that are being brokered by Oman. The meeting was due to be the first in which both sides would have tabled written proposals.
The sticking point for both sides is whether Iran could retain the right to enrich uranium at much lower levels than now. Iran is content for this to happen subject to independent monitoring, but only on the condition that US sanctions are lifted.
The US is insisting that Iran lose its right to enrich since there is no sure way of preventing Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb if it continues to enrich domestically. The US believes that if Iran is to have a civil nuclear programme it should import uranium from third countries. Iran says it is a sovereign right to enrich.
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Iran’s state TV reported on Saturday that about 60 people, including 20 children, were killed in an Israeli attack on a housing complex in the Iranian capital Tehran.
We will update with more information as it comes in.
Iran’s airspace has closed ‘until further notice’, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP), citing Iranian state media.
Iran says planned Sunday talks with US 'meaningless' after Israel attack, but yet to decide on attendance
Iran said the dialogue with the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme is “meaningless” but said it is yet to decide on whether to attend planned talks on Sunday, reports Reuters.
“The other side [the US] acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime [Israel] to target Iran’s territory,” state media on Saturday quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying. “It is still unclear what decision we will make on Sunday in this regard,” Baghaei was quoted as saying.
He said Israel “succeeded in influencing” the diplomatic process and the Israeli attack would not have happened without Washington’s permission, accusing Washington of supporting the attack.
Iran earlier accused the US of being complicit in Israel’s attacks, but Washington denied the allegation and told Tehran at the UN security council that it would be “wise” to negotiate over its nuclear programme.
The sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks was to be held on Sunday in Muscat, but it was unclear whether it would go ahead after the Israeli strikes.
Iran denies that its uranium enrichment programme is for anything other than civilian purposes, rejecting Israeli allegations that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons.
US president Donald Trump told Reuters that he and his team had known the Israeli attacks were coming but they still saw room for an accord.
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Lebanon said it had temporarily reopened its airspace on Saturday at 10am local time (7am GMT/8am BST), the state news agency NNA said.
The airspace will be shut down again starting from 10.30pm local time (7.30pm GMT/8.30pm BST) till 6am (3am GMT/4am BST) on Sunday, NNA reported citing the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority.
Israel’s military said on Saturday it was striking dozens of missile launchers in Iran, after announcing it had targeted air defences with a wave of strikes in the Tehran area overnight.
The Israeli air force “continues striking dozens of surface-to-surface missile launchers in Iran”, the military said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Two deputy commanders at Iranian armed forces' general staff killed in Israeli attacks, state media reports
Two deputy commanders at the Iranian armed forces’ general staff were killed in Israeli attacks, Iranian state media reported on Saturday.
According to Reuters, it was unclear when the two commanders were killed but their deaths were announced on Saturday.
Israel’s attacks on Iran since Friday have killed at least 78 people, including senior military officials, in what are Israel’s biggest attacks ever against Iran.
Reuters has a breaking news line, citing Iranian state media, that two deputy commanders at Iran’s armed forces general staff have been killed in Israeli attacks.
More details soon …
Iran confirms limited damage at Fordow nuclear site, atomic body says
Iran confirmed that its Fordow nuclear facility sustained limited damage after recent attacks, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Saturday, citing a spokesperson for the country’s atomic energy organisation.
“There has been limited damage to some areas at the Fordow enrichment site,” state atomic energy agency spokesperson Behrouz Kamalvandi said, reports Reuters.
“We had already moved a significant part of the equipment and materials out, and there was no extensive damage and there are no contamination concerns.”
France and Saudi Arabia have postponed next weeks UN conference in New York on a two state solution. The high level three day conference starting 17 June was seen as a moment for countries such as France and the UK to clarify their plans formally to recognise the state of Palestine.
There was a concern that the sudden Iran crisis meant senior Arab ministers would not have felt able to leave the region to fly to New York. Many Gulf states are trying to ensure they do not become drawn into the Iran-Israel conflict.
Decisions about recognition – bound to be denounced as a betrayal by the Israeli government – would also be harder to take at a time when Israel is locked in military combat with Iran.
The postponement underlines how Israel can still lead in shaping the agenda in the Middle East.
Iran’s Fars news agency has reported that the country’s strikes against Israel will continue, citing senior Iranian military officials.
“This confrontation will not end with last night’s limited actions and Iran’s strikes will continue, and this action will be very painful and regrettable for the aggressors,” Fars cited an unnamed official as saying.
Emma Graham-Harrison, the Guardian’s chief Middle East correspondent, has spoken to families who live in a Tel Aviv neighbourhood that was struck by Iran’s retaliatory attacks.
At midnight on Friday Sveta’s four-year-old daughter was asleep on the floor outside their shattered apartment block, as the rest of the family weighed up where they should spend the night.
A missile from the first Iranian salvo fired at Tel Aviv had landed a couple of blocks away, killing at least one person, injuring at least 16 others and damaging hundreds of shops and homes in this quiet residential area.
The 37-year-old was sanguine about her own losses, and backed the government decision to attack Iran even though it had so quickly cost her family their home.
“I support it completely,” she said as her older daughter stroked their chihuahua. “This is nothing compared to what they will be able to do if they get their hand on the A-bomb [nuclear weapons]. We can’t afford for the Iranians to get them.
“We tell [our daughters] that as long as we go to the shelter together, everything is OK. The damage in the house is just material things.”
Israeli forces target Iran's air defences in Tehran
The Israeli military said its air force carried out a wave of strikes over Tehran last night, targeting Iran’s air defences.
“Overnight, the IAF struck dozens of targets, including surface-to-air missile infrastructure, as part of the effort to damage the Iranian regime’s aerial defence capabilities in the area of Tehran,” the military said in a statement.
“For the first time since the beginning of the war, over 1,500 kms from Israeli territory, the IAF (Israeli military) struck defence arrays in the area of Tehran.”
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An air attack on Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport overnight targeted a hanger that was housing fighter jets, Iranian state media has reported.
Video showed thick plumes of smoke rising near to the airport, which was reportedly struck by two projectiles.
A missile fired from Yemen by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, killed five Palestinians including three children in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
It was earlier reported that a missile hit the Palestinian town of Sa’ir. The Israel Defence Force said no interceptors were launched to prevent the missile strike.
Sirens had sounded in Jerusalem and the southern West Bank settlements, according to local media.
Israel Defence Force said it has intercepted several Iranian drones, after sirens sounded in the Dead Sea and West Bank area.
In a separate update, it said it is continuing air strikes on targets in Iran.
Earlier, Iranian state media reported that Iranian forces had shot down and pushed back Israeli drones at its north western border.
Images coming in from news agencies show the impact of Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel overnight.
Dozens of Palestinians killed or wounded while waiting for food, reports say, as GHF aid distribution cancelled on Saturday
Earlier, Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif reported that dozens of civilians in Gaza were killed or wounded early on Saturday after they were attacked by Israeli forces as they gathered to wait for aid north of the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The Guardian has not been able to confirm the details of this report. Israel has not allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza since 7 October 2023, unless they are under Israeli military escort. A complete internet blackout in the Gaza Strip since Thursday has made reporting even more challenging.
There have been repeated deadly attacks on Palestinians queuing for food aid and the GHF scheme of distributing food from a restricted number of heavily militarised sites has been strongly criticised. For months, humanitarian experts have warned that Gaza is on the brink of famine.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said in a statement it will not distribute food aid on Saturday. It did not provide an explanation, but said food assistance would resume on Sunday.
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Jordan reopened its airspace at 7:30 a.m. (0530 GMT), the civil aviation commission said, a day after it suspended flights amid Iran-Israel tensions.
This earlier visualisation from Flightradar24, which tracks air traffic, shows how rapidly the Iranian and Iraqi airspace cleared on Friday following Israel’s attack on Iran.
9-second video of the clearing of Iranian and Iraqi airspace. pic.twitter.com/VZLWbmk9sC
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) June 13, 2025
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At least three people were killed across Israel and over 40 injured, emergency services reported early on Saturday.
It was the most intense and deadly few hours inside Israel since the Hamas cross-border attacks on 7 Oct 7 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza, but the toll was dwarfed by the damage that Israel inflicted on Iran.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East, where Iran has launched a wave of retaliatory attacks after Israel killed scores of people and injured hundreds in a surprise attack on Friday morning that it claimed was aimed at preventing its arch enemy from developing a nuclear weapon.
Explosions were heard over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv early on Saturday. Two people were reported to have been killed, one in Tel Aviv in an attack on Friday night and one in central Israel on Saturday morning. In Iran, fresh explosions were reported at an airport in Tehran that houses an air force base, and across the Hakimiyeh and Tehranpars neighbourhoods in the east of the capital.
The Israeli military said its air defence systems were operating. “In the last hour, dozens of missiles have been launched at the state of Israel from Iran, some of which were intercepted,” the Israeli military said.
Rescue teams were working at a number of locations across the country where fallen projectiles were reported, it said.
In Iran, several explosions were heard in the capital, Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. The Fars news agency said two projectiles hit Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, and Iranian media said flames were reported there. Close to key Iranian leadership sites, the airport hosts an air force base with fighter jets and transport aircraft.
Israeli media said a suspected missile came down in Tel Aviv, and a loud boom was reported in Jerusalem.
In other developments:
Iran’s envoy to the UN security council, Amir Saeid Iravani, said 78 people including senior officials had been killed in the Israeli attacks on Friday, and that more than 320 were injured, most of them civilians. He said the US was complicit in the attacks and accused Israel of seeking “to kill diplomacy, to sabotage negotiations and to drag the region into wider conflict”.
The US role in the attack remained murky with President Donald Trump giving conflicting accounts as to his approval and foreknowledge. In the run-up to the Israeli 200-plane attack, Trump had publicly urged Israel to give diplomacy more of a chance, before US-Iranian talks that were planned for Sunday. But on Friday, the US president insisted he had been well informed of Israel’s plans and described the Israeli attack as “excellent”.
Iran launched a fresh wave of attacks on Israel early on Saturday, state media said, after Israel’s military reported it detected inbound missiles from Iran. “New round of Honest Promise 3 attacks,” state television reported, referring to the name of the Iranian military operation against Israel.
Israel’s ambulance service said 34 people were injured on Friday night in the Tel Aviv area, most with minor injuries. Police later said one person had died. On Saturday Israeli media quoted emergency services as saying one person had been killed and 19 injured by a direct Iranian strike on an area in central Israel.
A top-level UN conference on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians scheduled for next week has been postponed, French president Emmanuel Macron said on Friday. France and Saudi Arabia had been due to co-chair the conference hosted by the UN general assembly in New York on 17-20 June, and Macron had been among leaders scheduled to attend.
Dozens of Palestinians were killed and injured after Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting to receive aid near a checkpoint north of Nuseirat, Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif and Drop Site News reported, in the latest such massacre. More Palestinians were killed when Israeli gunboats targets the tents of displaced people on a beach north-west of Gaza City, al-Sharif reported. It was impossible to independently verify the reports as Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering the territory. It has also cut off internet to Gaza since Thursday.
Israel closed all checkpoints to the Israeli-occupied West Bank as the country attacked Iran, a military official said Friday. The move sealed off entry and exit to the territory, meaning that Palestinians could not leave without special coordination.
