ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 646
The Times of Israel liveblogged Friday’s events as they unfolded.
Despite IDF denials, The Wall Street Journal once again reports that the country is running low on missile interceptors for its air defense systems.
The paper says the US is making efforts to boost Israeli defenses: by resupplying a THAAD air defense system it deployed in Israel last year, and by sending a fourth destroyer to the region decked with ballistic missile interceptor systems.
The report says Israel could run out of interceptors if the conflict continues for several more weeks, though the IDF is continuing to degrade Iran’s ability to launch missiles by destroying caches and launchers.
Israel estimates its strikes on Iran have delayed Tehran’s potential to develop a nuclear weapon by “at least two or three years,” Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says in an interview.
Israel’s offensive has produced “very significant” results, Sa’ar tells German newspaper Bild, saying: “We already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb.”
Global equities were mixed today, while oil prices retreated as markets weighed the latest developments in the war between Iran and Israel.
Markets rose after US President Donald Trump said he would allow for up to two weeks before possible US military action against Iran. But on Friday afternoon, Trump expressed doubt that European powers would be able to help end the Iran-Israel war, telling reporters, “Europe is not going to be able to help in this.”
Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished lower following a choppy session. Analysts pointed to broad investor unease.
“We have a situation in the Middle East where missiles are still firing, there’s no ceasefire and there’s a fear that the US may be involved,” says Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments.
In light of uncertainty on Iran, trade and other areas, “investors are de-risking, they’re selling stocks ahead of the weekend,” Sarhan says.
The Brent international crude benchmark contract dropped more than two percent after Trump’s remarks, with analysts pointing to investor relief following fears that the United States could immediately join the Israeli campaign.
US oil prices fell more modestly because a US holiday on Thursday kept trading volumes low that day.
“News that President Trump would delay any decision on joining Israel’s attacks against Iran has boosted the market mood,” says Kathleen Brooks, an analyst at trading firm XTB.
“Brent crude has dropped… as traders price out the worst-case scenario for geopolitics.”
A federal judge has indefinitely paused Donald Trump’s bid to block Harvard from enrolling foreign students as the US president has said a “deal” with the Ivy League school was in the works.
The order by District Judge Allison Burroughs will allow international students to continue to attend the elite university while a lawsuit filed by Harvard plays out in the courts.
Trump, who has cut federal grants for Harvard and tried a host of different tactics to block the institution from hosting international students, said that his administration has been holding negotiations with Harvard.
“Many people have been asking what is going on with Harvard University and their largescale improprieties that we have been addressing, looking for a solution,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“We have been working closely with Harvard, and it is very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so,” he said. “If a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be ‘mindbogglingly’ HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.”
Arab League foreign ministers gathered in Istanbul earlier today to discuss the escalating war between Iran and Israel, Turkish state news agency Anadolu say, quoting diplomatic sources.
The ministers are in Turkey’s largest city on the eve of weekend gathering of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which is also slated to discuss the air war launched a week ago.
Some 40 top diplomats are slated to join the weekend gathering of the OIC which will also have a session dedicated to discussing the Iran-Israel crisis, the Turkish foreign ministry said.
The Arab League ministers are expected to release a statement following their meeting, Anadolu says.
Police in Ohio say they arrested a man after he allegedly ran a Jewish US Congressman off a road, threatened the politician and his family, and yelled antisemitic slurs and waved a Palestinian flag before fleeing.
Police in Rocky River, Ohio, say in a statement that they had arrested Feras Hamdan, 36, of Ohio, in connection to the alleged targeting on Thursday of US Representative Max Miller, a Republican representing Ohio, in the suburb about 10 miles (16 km) west of downtown Cleveland. Hamdan, police say, voluntarily turned himself into police.
Hamdan was arraigned earlier today and charged with aggravated menacing and ethnic intimidation, according to Deborah Comery, the Rocky River Municipal Court clerk. Hamdan, who could face up to five months in jail, pleaded not guilty and is being held on a $500,000 bond.
Hamdan’s attorney, Issa Elkhatib, says in a written statement that the allegations against Hamdan were “baseless and outrageous” and that they “amount to defamatory attacks on his character and reputation.”
Elkhatib says that Hamdan was a respected local doctor who had no prior criminal history, and that he was confident “the truth will win and that Dr. Hamdan’s good name will be fully vindicated.”
The Rocky River police statement says that Miller called 911 on Thursday morning to report that he was run off the road while traveling with his family on Interstate 90 in Ohio. The police said Miller reported an assailant yelled antisemitic slurs and waved a Palestinian flag.
A drone launched from Iran was shot down by the Israeli Air Force off the coast of Haifa a short while ago, according to the military.
The IDF says that no sirens sounded, “according to protocol.”
Another wave of Israeli airstrikes was carried out in western Iran a short while ago.
The strikes targeted ballistic missile storage and launch sites, according to a military official.
The IDF says some 15 fighter jets used 30 munitions during strikes on Iranian ballistic missile launch sites.
Since this morning, the Israeli Air Force has shot down more than 15 drones launched from Iran at Israel, the military says.
The drones were shot down by fighter jets, helicopters, as well as ground-based systems.
The IDF issues footage of the interceptions.
Since this morning, the Israeli Air Force has shot down more than 15 drones launched from Iran at Israel, the military says.
The drones were shot down by fighter jets, helicopters, as well as ground-based systems. pic.twitter.com/8Plu4ceO1H
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) June 20, 2025
US President Donald Trump says he will “always [be] a peacemaker,” but “sometimes you need some toughness to make peace.”
Asked about the potential for sending in US ground troops to fight against Iran, Trump tells reporters, “That’s the last thing you want to do.”
Asked about the two-week window he provided yesterday for making a decision on whether to join Israel in the war, Trump says he’s giving Iran “a period of time.”
“I would say two weeks would be the maximum,” he says.
Trump indicates that Israel wouldn’t be able to take out Iran’s Fordo underground nuclear facility on its own. “They really have a very limited capacity. They could break through a little section, but they can’t go down very deep. They don’t have that capacity.”
“Maybe it won’t be necessary,” he adds.
US President Donald Trump is very dismissive of the European effort to de-escalate tensions just hours after the top diplomats of the UK, France, Germany and the European Union met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi in Geneva.
“They didn’t help. Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this,” Trump claims.
Asked about concerns that the US is potentially being dragged into a war under false pretexts, as it did before invading Iraq over 20 years ago. Trump says in the case of Iraq, there were no weapons of mass destruction. This time, however, Iran has amassed a “tremendous amount of material” and was “within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months [from being] able to have a nuclear weapon.”
Earlier this week, Trump put the timeframe at weeks, not months. Israel has claimed that it could have been a matter of days.
Pressed again on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s March assessment that Iran has not made a decision to build a nuclear weapon, Trump reiterates that “she’s wrong.”
Asked whether he’d allow Iran to have a civilian nuclear program where it is allowed to enrich at low, non-weapons grade levels, Trump says he doesn’t understand why Tehran would need this, given how much oil it has.
US President Donald Trump indicates that he doesn’t want to ask Israel to halt its strikes against Iran, despite Tehran’s foreign minister arguing that such a halt would be necessary in order for negotiations to succeed.
“I think it’s very hard to make that request right now,” Trump tells reporters. “If somebody is winning, it’s a little bit harder to do that [than] if somebody’s losing. But we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran.”
“Israel is doing well, in terms of war, and… Iran is doing less well. It’s a little bit hard to get somebody to stop,” he adds.
A 5.1-magnitude earthquake shook northern Iran, the US Geological Survey says, as Israel pounded the country with repeated waves of airstrikes.
The quake, which Iran’s Tasnim news agency says measured 5.2, struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (six miles) some 37 kilometers (23 miles) southwest of the city of Semnan, the USGS says.
European powers urged Iran to hold nuclear talks “without awaiting” an end to Israeli air strikes on the Islamic Republic, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says.
“We invited the Iranian minister to consider negotiations with all sides, including the United States, without awaiting the cessation of strikes, which we also hope for,” he says after he and his British, German and EU counterparts held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva.
“It is illusory and dangerous to want to impose a regime change from the outside. It is up to the people to decide their own destiny,” Barrot adds after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not rule out killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
US President Donald Trump presided over a national security meeting about Iran with top aides at the White House on Friday, a US official says.
The official also says that US special envoy Steve Witkoff is in regular contact with the Iranians, both directly and indirectly, with Qatar acting as an intermediator.
All sides agreed to keep talking, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says after European foreign ministers met their Iranian counterpart for talks in Geneva.
Speaking to reporters, Barrot also says there could be no purely military solution to the challenge posed by Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says that Tehran backs the continuation of discussions with Germany, France, Britain and the EU and is prepared to meet again in the near future following talks in Geneva.
“Iran is ready to consider diplomacy once again and once the aggression is stopped and the aggressor is held accountable for the crimes committed… We support the continuation of discussion with” Britain, France, Germany and the European Union “and express our readiness to meet again in the near future,” Araghchi tells reporters following the talks at a Geneva hotel.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and the UK along with the foreign policy chief of the European Union have wrapped up their meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi in Geneva.
A US judge orders that Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil be released from immigration custody, a major victory for rights groups that challenged what they called the Trump administration’s unlawful targeting of a pro-Palestinian activist.
Khalil, a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, was arrested by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan on March 8. US President Donald Trump, a Republican, has called the protests antisemitic and vowed to deport foreign students who took part.
Khalil condemned antisemitism and racism in interviews with CNN and other news outlets last year. Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States, says he is being punished for his political speech in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
US District Judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, ruled on June 11 that the government was violating Khalil’s free speech rights by detaining him under a little-used law granting the US secretary of state power to seek deportation of non-citizens whose presence in the country was deemed adverse to US foreign policy interests.
But the judge declined on June 13 to order Khalil’s release from a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, after Trump’s administration said Khalil was being held on a separate charge that he withheld information from his application for lawful permanent residency.
Khalil’s lawyers deny that allegation and say people are rarely detained on such charges. On June 16, they urged Farbiarz to grant a separate request from their client to be released on bail or be transferred to immigration detention in New Jersey to be closer to his family in New York.
Khalil, 30, became a US permanent resident last year, and his wife and newborn son are US citizens.
Trump administration lawyers wrote in a June 17 filing that Khalil’s request for release should be addressed to the judge overseeing his immigration case, an administrative process over whether he can be deported, rather than to Farbiarz, who is considering whether Khalil’s March 8 arrest and subsequent detention were constitutional.
Gaza is facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapse, the United Nations’ children’s agency says.
“Children will begin to die of thirst … Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder tells reporters in Geneva.
Israeli fire killed at least 44 Palestinians in Gaza today, many of whom had been trying to get food, local officials say.
At least 25 people awaiting aid trucks were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run local health authority says.
Asked by Reuters about the incident, the Israel Defense Force says its troops had fired warning shots at suspected militants who advanced in a crowd toward them.
An Israeli aircraft then “struck and eliminated the suspects,” it says in a statement, adding that it was aware of others being hurt in the incident and was conducting a review.
Separately, Gazan medics said at least 19 others were killed in other Israeli military strikes across the enclave, including 12 people in a house in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip, taking Friday’s total death toll to at least 44.
Contrary to multiple reports in US media, the Israeli military is not running low on air defense interceptors amid its conflict with Iran, the IDF has indicated.
The IDF has said it is “prepared and ready to handle any scenario,” but officially has declined to comment on specific munitions matters.
Military officials have told The Times of Israel that the operation in Iran was planned months in advance, and the planning took into account Iran’s stock of ballistic missiles and drones that it could fire at Israel.
Taking Iran’s stockpile into account means the IDF prepared ahead of time with enough interceptors to handle the threat.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said this evening that “we launched the campaign when Iran possessed around 2,500 surface-to-surface missiles.”
Additionally, the IDF is actually running through fewer interceptors than it anticipated at this point in the operation.
The IDF estimated that Iran would fire several hundred ballistic missiles at Israel in its initial response. In reality, it mustered just 100.
In all, some 470 ballistic missiles have been fired from Iran at Israel in the past week, below the IDF’s “reference scenario” for the operation.
Most of the Iranian missiles fired at Israel in recent days have been intercepted, at similar rates to Iran’s attacks in 2024, according to the IDF.
Military officials said 5-10 percent of the missiles “leak” through and impact Israel. This includes missiles that the IDF says it does not try to shoot down “according to protocol,” allowing them to strike open areas without causing damage to any critical infrastructure, as well as missiles it failed to intercept which hit urban areas and caused casualties and damage.
The military has routinely emphasized that, as good as Israel’s multilayered air defenses are, they are not hermetic.
Former defense minister Yoav Gallant urges US President Donald Trump to “finish the job” by striking Iran’s Fordo underground nuclear facility.
“Israel has moved and continues to move with determination and dispatch. The support of allies, first and foremost the US, has been crucial. Now, with a single exertion of its unmatched military strength, the US can shorten the war, prevent wider escalation and end the principal threat to Middle Eastern stability. It can also send a signal to those other authoritarian powers who have been Iran’s enablers that American deterrence is back,” Gallant writes in an op-ed he co-wrote in The Times British daily.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says it distributed 31,680 boxes of food at three different sites in Rafah, Khan Younis and central Gaza.
GHF says its boxes contain enough food for 5.5 people for 3.5 days, but the contents are dry food products that need to be prepared elsewhere in war-ravaged Gaza, where community kitchens and cooking supplies are limited.
The food distributed at GHF sites today amounted to 33 truckloads — far below the 300 trucks per day that the World Food Program says is needed to properly feed Gazans.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says that talks with Iran must remain open following discussions between the Iranian foreign minister and his counterparts from Germany, Britain and France, and Kallas herself.
Channel 12 reports that Israel’s security establishment has come to the realization that the military campaign against Iran will take longer than thought just days ago.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a phone call yesterday with US Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in order to discuss intelligence sharing regarding the ongoing Iran conflict, Channel 12 reports.
Iran says it will continue to defend itself against Israel during a UN Security Council session on Friday, while Israel’s UN ambassador vowed that his country would not stop its attacks until Iran’s nuclear threat is dismantled.
“We will not stop,” Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon says. “Not until Iran’s nuclear threat is dismantled, not until its war machine is disarmed, not until our people and yours are safe.”
Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani urges the Security Council to take action.
“Israel apparently declared that it will continue this strike for as many days as it takes. We are alarmed by credible reports that the United States… may be joining this war,” he says.
Iraq’s representative to the United Nations says 50 Israeli warplanes violated Iraqi airspace shortly before a UN meeting on the Israel-Iran conflict.
Abbas Kadhom Obaid Al-Fatlawi, charge d’affaires of Iraq’s UN mission, tells the UN Security Council the aircraft came from the Syrian-Jordanian border areas.
“Twenty airplanes started, followed by 30 airplanes heading to the south of Iraq, and they flew over Basra, Najaf and Karbala cities,” he says.
“These violations are violations of international law and the UN Charter,” he says, adding: “They also constitute a threat to the sacred sites and regions which might cause strong popular reactions, considering the importance of these holy sites for our peoples.”
Shockwaves from an Iranian missile that hit the downtown area of the northern city of Haifa on Friday have knocked out stained glass windows and caused infrastructure damage at the Al Jarina Grand Mosque, built in 1775 and extended in 1901.
The low, thick-walled stone building near Haifa’s port usually attracts up to 200 people on Fridays, but just 15 turned up today because of a Home Front prohibition on large gatherings, according to Wakf representative Khaled Dagash.
He said prayers had ended by the time the missile fell, and nobody was left in the building.
One person whose identity he didn’t know was lightly injured outside, he said.
The building was undergoing renovation, said Dagash, adding that he feared government compensation would not be enough to repair the damage.
Windows were also blown out at the even older Masjid Al-Saghir, built in 1761. No other damage was visible from the cordon outside.
President Isaac Herzog says Iran is trying “to kill Israelis of all faiths — Muslims included” — and asserts that Israel “will defend all Israelis. All faiths included.”
The Al-Jarina Mosque in Haifa’s Wadi Nisnas neighborhood was struck by an Iranian missile, injuring Muslim clerics and worshippers at prayer.
This outrageous attack took place in Haifa—a city that stands as a symbol of coexistence between Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze,… pic.twitter.com/nwhNFhQoOD
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) June 20, 2025
“The outrageous attack took place in Haifa, a city that stands as a symbol of coexistence between Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, Circassians and Bahá’ís,” the president adds.
Standing in front of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the world-renowned medical research institute was “smashed by a rocket from this evil regime.”
Speaking in English, he accuses Iran of working “to destroy human progress. That’s what this regime is about.”
“They subjugate their own people,” he continues. “They’ve trampled on them for almost 50 years — the long-suffering Iranian people whom we embrace. We understand what they’ve been going through, and we understand what the region has been going through, and what the world has been going through.”
Netanyahu argues that Israel is operating against Iran to save itself from annihilation, “but by doing so we’re saving many, many others.”
On Sunday morning, an Iranian ballistic missile, destroyed two buildings — a life science building and an empty building that was still under construction. Dozens more were damaged.
Established in 1934 by Israel’s first president and prominent scientist, Chaim Weizmann, the Weizmann Institute is a world-leading multidisciplinary research institution in the natural and exact sciences.
He says he told then-US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld ahead of the 2003 Iraq invasion that “you will finish this very quickly. But your primary goal is the Iranian regime. And the Iranian regime is trying to develop a nuclear weapon, even then.”
He says Israel had no evidence that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was trying to develop a nuclear weapon then, apparently contradicting congressional testimony he gave in 2022 in which he said there was “no question whatsoever that Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction.
Netanyahu has been ridiculed by some in the American press over the past week, which has been airing footage of that congressional testimony during which he urged the US to invade Iraq, insisting that it would stabilize the region.
Benjamin Netanyahu testifying to US congress in 2002 about Iraqs “Weapons of Mass Destruction”. pic.twitter.com/Dn0cEzd1Wn
— Morgan Cameron Ross (@Morgan_C_Ross) June 18, 2025
In 2002, Netanyahu addressed the United States Congress, saying Israel is certain Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and that America ‘must do something about this.’
This man has been playing this game for decades pic.twitter.com/4c4H9ED8zq
— Matthew Joseph (@matthew_sede) June 19, 2025
Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck several Hezbollah military sites in southern Lebanon a short while ago, the IDF says.
According to the military, the sites included rocket launchers and caches of weapons.
“The Hezbollah terror organization is attempting to restore its operations at these sites. The presence of weaponry and the organization’s activity constitutes a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the IDF adds.
The Israeli government approved a Defense Ministry and Home Front Command plan to renovate 500 public bomb shelters and deploy 1,000 mobile roadside shelters across the country, with an estimated cost of 100 million NIS.
“In light of the security situation, the government approved via a phone vote a plan to accelerate home front defense,” the Defense Ministry says.
The ministry says the 500 public shelters that will be refurbished are mostly in central Israel, which has been repeatedly targeted by Iran in the past week.
The 1,000 roadside shelters will be placed “in sensitive areas nationwide,” it adds.
Despite the holdup, several locales in the Gush Dan area have already received portable shelters from the Home Front Command, including Bnei Brak and Ramat Hasharon.
There are indications that Israel has breached its human rights obligations under the terms of a pact governing its ties with the European Union, the bloc’s foreign policy arm said on Friday, according to a document seen by Reuters.
Citing assessments by independent international institutions, the European External Action Service said: “There are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.”
British police arrested eight men earlier today, including seven on suspicion of grievous bodily harm, following reports of an altercation involving pro and anti-Iranian protesters at a location close to the Iranian embassy in London.
London’s Metropolitan Police says a man had been taken into custody after he was arrested on suspicion of breaching conditions temporarily banning protest gatherings in the area until Sunday.
“Seven other men remain in police custody after being arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm,” the police say in a statement.
Local media reports that the arrests took place at a protest against the Iranian leadership.
Police do not link the arrests to the Iranian embassy, but say they took place on Prince’s Gate in London, which is where the embassy is located.
“Two men were treated for injuries at the scene and have been taken to hospital for further treatment by the London Ambulance Service,” the police said in an earlier statement.
Their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, the police say in an update.
“Police have cordoned off the area while initial investigations take place.”
The chief of Hamas’s finances and an aide to former deputy military wing chief Marwan Issa was killed in an airstrike in central Gaza this week, the IDF announces.
Ibrahim Abu-Shamala was struck on Tuesday.
The IDF says “Abu-Shamala served as the financial chief of the military wing of the Hamas terror organization” and was an aide to Issa until he was killed in a strike in March 2024.
“As part of his role, he planned and oversaw the military wing’s budget during the war and implemented it by transferring and smuggling terrorist funding worth millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip for the military wing,” the IDF says.
“With these funds, Abu Shumala contributed to Hamas’s rearming and enabled the distribution of salaries to the Hamas organization’s terrorists, providing meaningful support for Hamas’s ongoing terrorist activity throughout the war,” it adds.
Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations urges all parties in the Israel-Iran conflict to protect civilians and says restraint is vital to prevent further escalation.
“This is a dangerous moment for the entire region, and further escalation is in no one’s interest. Civilians must never be targeted, and we deplore the loss of civilian life,” Ambassador Barbara Woodward tells the UN Security Council.
“Restraint is vital to protect further escalation and loss of life… Military action cannot put an end to Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” Woodward says.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Russia is sharing unspecified ideas with Israel and Iran about how to end the bloodshed and said he believed that there was a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
Putin says Russia is in contact with “our Israeli and Iranian friends” and that Moscow’s proposals are currently being discussed.
One of the missiles fired earlier this afternoon from Iran caused significant damage to the Colel Chabad Daycare Center in Beersheba, the organization says.
“Miraculously, no children or staff were physically harmed, as the strike occurred Friday afternoon outside the center’s regular operating time. However, the destruction of classrooms and play areas has deeply impacted dozens of local families who rely on the center for stability, safety and childcare,” Colel Chabad says.
Iran likely targeted Beersheba with a cluster bomb in its latest attack on Israel, footage indicated.
Videos and photos from the southern city show several impacts of small munitions at multiple locations in the city, indicating that a ballistic missile carrying a cluster bomb warhead was used in the attack a short time ago.
🚨 BREAKING: Colel Chabad Daycare Center in Be’er Sheva Hit by Iranian Cluster Rocket 🚨
This morning, an Iranian cluster rocket struck our Colel Chabad Daycare Center in Be’er Sheva — The affected facility is the Tchelet Mordechai Campus, York Center, part of the Ohr Chaya and… pic.twitter.com/su8ff5NI6o
— Colel Chabad (@ColelChabad) June 20, 2025
Following a fresh assessment, the IDF Home Front Command says there are no changes to its guidelines amid the conflict with Iran.
Gatherings in most areas of the country are permitted up to 30 people, provided a shelter can be reached in time. On Israel’s borders, gatherings are permitted up to 50 people outdoors and 100 people indoors
Nationwide, workplaces will also be able to operate under the same conditions, but schools remain closed.
The guidelines remain in effect until Saturday night, when the Home Front Command will conduct another assessment.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir says Israelis must prepare for a “prolonged campaign” against Iran in order to “eliminate a threat of this magnitude.”
In a video statement, Zamir says that Iran has been “building for years a clear plan to destroy the State of Israel” and that in recent months, “the plan reached the point of no return, where the capabilities reached operational capability.”
“We launched the campaign when Iran possessed around 2,500 surface-to-surface missiles, with a high production rate, such that within approximately two years, they were expected to possess around 8,000 missiles,” he says.
Zamir says Iran’s ballistic missile efforts, proxies in the Middle East, and nuclear advancements, “compelled us to strike and deliver a preemptive blow.”
“The IDF will not stand by and watch as threats develop. As part of an emerging doctrine, we will act proactively and in advance to prevent an existential threat and to face any challenge,” he says.
Zamir says the IDF has “prepared for this operation for years,” and it was launched “thanks to the convergence of operational and strategic conditions.”
“Had we delayed, there was a risk of losing these conditions and entering the campaign in the future from a position of clear disadvantage. We understood that history would not forgive us if we failed to act now to defend the existence of the Jewish people in the State of Israel,” he says.
Zamir says the IDF’s opening “surprise” strikes on Iran “achieved extraordinary results.”
“We eliminated the enemy’s senior command, inflicted deep damage to components of the nuclear program, opened an aerial corridor to Tehran, identified and destroyed about half of the missile launchers, some just minutes before launch, and surprised the enemy despite its heightened state of alert,” he says.
Zamir continues, “Dear citizens of Israel, alongside the offensive operations, the defense of the home front continues. This is a different challenge from what we have known until now. The enemy, in its weakness, deliberately targets civilians, as we have experienced once again in the recent barrage. Our enemies do not understand that the Israeli home front is the source of the IDF’s strength, not its weakness.”
“We are preparing for a range of possible developments. We have embarked on the most complex campaign in our history. We launched this campaign in order to eliminate a threat of this magnitude, against such an enemy, which requires readiness for a prolonged campaign,” he says.
“The IDF is prepared for this. With each passing day, our freedom of action is expanding, and the enemy’s is shrinking,” Zamir says.
“The campaign is not over. While we have achieved significant results, challenging days still lie ahead, and we must remain alert and united until the mission is complete,” he says.
“I am confident that together, we will finish this campaign with Israel’s hand on top,” he adds.
The US Supreme Court has upheld a statute passed by Congress to facilitate lawsuits against the Palestinian Authority by Americans killed or injured in attacks abroad as plaintiffs pursue monetary damages for violence years ago in Israel and the West Bank.
The 9-0 ruling overturned a lower court’s decision that the 2019 law — the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act — violated the rights of the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization to due process under the US Constitution.
Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored the ruling, says the 2019 jurisdictional law comported with due process rights enshrined in the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment.
“It is permissible for the federal government to craft a narrow jurisdictional provision that ensures, as part of a broader foreign policy agenda, that Americans injured or killed by acts of terror have an adequate forum in which to vindicate their right” to compensation under a federal law known as the Antiterrorism Act of 1990, Roberts writes.
The US government and a group of American victims and their families had appealed the lower court’s decision that struck down a provision of the law.
Among the plaintiffs are families who in 2015 won a $655 million judgment in a civil case alleging that the Palestinian organizations were responsible for a series of shootings and bombings around Jerusalem from 2002 to 2004. They also include relatives of Ari Fuld, an Israeli settler in the West Bank who was fatally stabbed by a Palestinian in 2018.
“The plaintiffs, US families who had loved ones maimed or murdered in PLO-sponsored terror attacks, have been waiting for justice for many years,” said Kent Yalowitz, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
“I am very hopeful that the case will soon be resolved without subjecting these families to further protracted and unnecessary litigation,” Yalowitz adds.
US courts for years have grappled over whether they have jurisdiction in cases involving the Palestinian Authority and PLO for actions taken abroad.
Under the language at issue in the 2019 law, the PLO and Palestinian Authority automatically “consent” to jurisdiction if they conduct certain activities in the United States or make payments to people who attack Americans.
Earlier this year, PA President Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree cancelling legislation that granted stipends to Palestinian security prisoners based on the length of their sentence. The controversial policy had. been dubbed by critics as “pay to slay.”
Roberts in today’s ruling writes that Congress and the president enacted the jurisdictional law based on their “considered judgment to subject the PLO and PA (Palestinian Authority) to liability in US courts as part of a comprehensive legal response to ‘halt, deter and disrupt’ acts of international terrorism that threaten the life and limb of American citizens.”
New York-based US District Judge Jesse Furman ruled in 2022 that the law violated the due process rights of the PLO and Palestinian Authority. The New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling.
US President Joe Biden’s administration initiated the government’s appeal, which subsequently was taken up by President Donald Trump’s administration. The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on April 1.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva has raised “vehement objection” to Iran addressing the Human Rights Council ahead of talks with European counterparts in Geneva to try to de-escalate the Israel-Iran conflict, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
“Affording the Iranian foreign minister the floor before this body continues to undermine the council’s credibility and constitutes a blatant betrayal of the many victims of this regime worldwide,” Daniel Meron says in a letter addressed to council president Jurg Lauber.
The council says Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is due to be given the floor later today. Shortly afterwards, he was due to hold talks with the European Union foreign policy chief and his counterparts in Britain, France and Germany in order to de-escalate the conflict.
In the letter, Meron accuses Iran of using the council as an international stage to “promote the regime’s despotic campaign.”
On Wednesday, the Iranian ambassador to the UN in Geneva addressed the council and accused Israeli attacks as representing an act of “war against humanity.”
The rights council media office shared minutes from a meeting on Thursday, which stated that Lauber had granted Araghchi permission to address members in accordance with UN rules allowing exceptional addresses to the council by heads of state or senior ministers.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns on Friday that expansion of the Israel-Iran conflict could ignite a fire no one can control and called on parties to the conflict and potential parties to the conflict to “give peace a chance.”
Guterres makes the remarks to the United Nations Security Council as European foreign ministers met their Iranian counterpart, hoping to test Tehran’s readiness to negotiate a new nuclear deal despite there being scant prospect of Israel ceasing its attacks soon.
Switzerland says it will lift a raft of economic sanctions imposed on Syria, including the Middle Eastern country’s central bank.
After the toppling of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, targeted sanctions against individuals and entities linked to the former government will still remain in place, Switzerland’s governing Federal Council said.
“The aim of this decision is to promote the country’s economic recovery and an inclusive and peaceful political transition,” the council says in a statement.
After an initial easing of sanctions in March, Switzerland is now lifting restrictions on the provision of certain financial services, trade in precious metals and the export of luxury goods, the government says.
Some 24 entities including the central bank of Syria have also been removed from the sanctions list, it adds.
The announcement follows the EU’s decision to lift its economic sanctions on Syria at the end of May after a similar move by the US Treasury Department in the same month.
A European national was arrested in northwestern Iran for allegedly “spying on sensitive areas of the country,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency reports.
A 51-year-old woman collapsed and died after suffering a heart attack while sheltering in the northern city of Karmiel, as sirens there warned of the latest Iranian missile barrage, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says.
She was declared dead after resuscitation efforts, MDA says.
The service also updates to 23 the number of people wounded from an impact in Haifa.
Three of them were seriously wounded, according to MDA: a 16-year-old boy who sustained shrapnel wounds to his upper body, and two men, respectively aged 54 and 40, who sustained wounds to their lower bodies.
The 20 other wounded people in Haifa sustained light wounds, MDA says.
The military says some 25 missiles were fired at Israel in the latest barrage. No injuries have been reported from impacts in central and southern Israel.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog pleads for a diplomatic solution to end Israel’s strikes on Iran, saying his agency could guarantee strict monitoring in any deal on putting Iranian nuclear technology under international control.
“The IAEA can guarantee through a watertight inspection system that nuclear weapons will not be developed in Iran,” Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, tells the UN Security Council.
The head of the UN atomic watchdog warns that an Israeli strike on Iran’s southern nuclear plant of Bushehr could trigger a regional disaster, adding that radiation had not yet been detected in the conflict.
“Countries of the region have reached out directly to me over the past few hours to express their concerns, and I want to make it absolutely and completely clear — in case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity,” Rafael Grossi tells the UN Security Council.
Britain says it is temporarily withdrawing UK staff from its embassy in Iran due to the ongoing security situation there.
“We have taken the precautionary measure to temporarily withdraw UK staff from Iran. Our embassy continues to operate remotely,” Britain says on its travel advice website page for Iran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits an IDF intelligence base, and lauds the soldiers for providing “intelligence that wins wars.”
“And I cannot overstate the importance of the work that has been done, and the importance of the work that is being done right now, to achieving absolute victory,” he says.
Netanyahu is joined by Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, head of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, and his Military Secretary Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman.
Israel seeks genuine efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuclear capabilities from today’s meeting between European and Iranian ministers, not just another round of talks, Israel’s UN ambassador says.
“We have seen diplomatic talks for the last few decades, and look at the results,” Danny Danon tells reporters at the United Nations. “If there will be genuine effort to dismantle the capabilities of Iran, then that’s something we can consider, but if it is going to be like another session and debates, that’s not going to work.
“If it is going to be just another round of talks, that’s something which we cannot accept,” Danon says.
The Trump administration has issued fresh Iran-related sanctions, including on two entities based in Hong Kong, and counterterrorism-related sanctions, according to a notice posted to the US Treasury Department’s website.
The sanctions target at least 20 entities five individuals and three vessels, according to Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control.
The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Germany and France have begun their high-stakes meeting in Geneva with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi aimed at reaching a diplomatic solution to the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict.
שר החוץ האיראני עבאס עראקצ'י בפגישה עם שרי החוץ של בריטניה, צרפת, גרמניה והאיחוד האירופי סביב הגרעין האיראני pic.twitter.com/dakPdp6Gue
— ספיר ליפקין | Sapir Lipkin | سابير ليبكين (@sapirlipkin) June 20, 2025
Iran likely targeted Beersheba with a cluster bomb in its latest attack on Israel, footage shows.
Videos and photos from the southern city show several impacts of small munitions at multiple locations in the city, indicating that a ballistic missile carrying a cluster bomb warhead was used in the attack a short time ago.
One of the small munitions hit a daycare.
No injuries were reported in Beersheba.
Yesterday, the IDF Home Front Command confirmed that Iran launched at least one ballistic missile carrying a cluster bomb warhead at central Israel.
It said the missile’s warhead opened up while descending, at around an altitude of 7 kilometers, spreading around 20 smaller munitions with around 2.5 kilograms of explosives, in a radius of around 8 kilometers.
Iran likely targeted Beersheba with a cluster bomb in its latest attack on Israel, footage shows.
Videos and photos from the southern city show several impacts of small munitions at multiple locations in the city, indicating that a ballistic missile carrying a cluster bomb… pic.twitter.com/yPQqSXhbt8
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) June 20, 2025
No injuries are reported in southern and central Israel following Iran’s ballistic missile attack, rescue authorities say.
Fragment impacts were reported in Beersheba in the south and several cities in central Israel.
It is not immediately clear if Iran launched another cluster bomb warhead in the attack, which spreads smaller munitions over a wide area.
The escalating Iran-Israel confrontation is quickly reaching “the point of no return,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says, as Washington mulls the prospect of entering the war.
“Unfortunately, the genocide in Gaza and the conflict with Iran are quickly reaching the point of no return. This madness must end as soon as possible,” he says, warning the consequences could affect the region, Europe and Asia “for many years.”
The Swiss foreign ministry says it has decided to temporarily close its embassy in Iran, citing intense military operations there and the highly unstable situation on the ground.
“All expatriate staff have now left Iran and are safe,” the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs says in a statement, adding that the staff will return to Tehran as soon as the situation allows.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi calls Israel’s attacks on nuclear facilities in Iran grave war crimes, speaking at the United Nations in Geneva ahead of talks with European counterparts in the Swiss city.
Aragchi says Iran was supposed to hold nuclear talks with the US on June 15 aimed at “crafting a very promising agreement on our nuclear program” before Israel launched its pre-dawn attack on June 13.
Some 25 ballistic missiles are estimated by the IDF to have been launched from Iran at Israel in the latest attack.
One missile impact in Haifa wounded several people, including a teenager in serious condition, medics say. Other impacts were reported in southern and central Israel.
Two people are seriously wounded in the ballistic missile impact in Haifa, medics say.
Magen David Adom says it treated a total of 17 people, including a man in his 40s and a 16-year-old boy in serious condition, who were hit by shrapnel, and a 54-year-old in moderate condition.
Another 14 were lightly hurt, MDA says.
They were taken to a hospital.
אחת מזירות הנפילה בצפון | תיעוד >>>https://t.co/xuU14jJYSE pic.twitter.com/nQK3TZK0wQ
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) June 20, 2025
The IDF Home Front Command says civilians nationwide can leave bomb shelters following Iran’s ballistic missile attack.
Impacts were reported in Haifa, central Israel, and southern Israel.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Daniel Meron says he expects European foreign ministers to demand a complete rollback of Iran’s nuclear program when they meet their Iranian counterpart later on Friday.
Meron says the European ministers must take a “firm stance” against Iran.
Qatar held crisis talks this week with major energy companies after Israeli strikes on Iran’s huge gas field, which it shares with Qatar, an industry source and a diplomat in the region tell Reuters.
Doha was asking firms to raise US, UK and European governments’ awareness of increasing risks to global gas supply, they say.
QatarEnergy does not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Medics are responding to reports of ballistic missile impacts across the country following Iran’s latest attack on Israel.
In a rare instance, the Home Front Command issued a nationwide alert.
Sirens sound nationwide amid Iran’s latest ballistic missile attack on Israel.
Numerous loud explosions are heard in the Beersheba area in the south and in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The IDF says it has detected the launch of ballistic missiles from Iran.
Sirens are expected to sound in Israel in the coming minutes, as air defenses work to shoot down the threats.
Civilians in areas where sirens sound are instructed to enter bomb shelters and remain in them until further notice.
A Hezbollah commander whom the IDF says was responsible for numerous rocket attacks on northern Israel was killed in a drone strike earlier today.
The strike in Shabriha, near Tyre, eliminated Mohammed Khader al-Husseini, the commander of Hezbollah’s firepower unit in the Litani river area, the IDF says.
The military says that during the war, Husseini led numerous rocket attacks on Nahariya, Haifa and other northern towns.
Recently, he had been involved in efforts to restore Hezbollah’s rocket artillery capabilities, which the IDF says is a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire in Lebanon.
הוביל מתווי ירי רבים לעבר נהריה, חיפה וערים נוספות: צה"ל חיסל את מפקד מערך האש של גזרת הליטאני בחיזבאללה
מוקדם יותר היום, צה"ל תקף וחיסל באמצעות כלי טיס, את מחמד ח'צ'ר אלחסיני, מפקד מערך האש של גזרת הליטאני בארגון הטרור חיזבאללה, במרחב שבריחה שבדרום לבנון.
במהלך המלחמה המחבל… pic.twitter.com/tmbKvV77Ks
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) June 20, 2025
The Israeli Air Force’s aerial defense array used for the first time a new interceptor to shoot down an Iranian drone earlier today, the military says.
One of the five drones launched from Iran at Israel today was shot down by the ground-based Barak system, according to the IDF.
It is unclear which variant of the system was used. The Israeli Navy has on its Sa’ar 6-class corvettes the Barak MX system, which has also intercepted Iranian drones amid the conflict.
מוקדם יותר היום, מערכת ״ברק״ של מערך ההגנה האווירית של חיל-האוויר, יירטה כלי טיס בלתי מאוייש שחצה לשטח ישראל.
מערכת ״ברק״ פותחה בישראל על מנת להגן מפני איומים אוויריים.
חיל-האוויר ימשיך לפעול ליירוט מטרות שמאיימות על שמי מדינת ישראל, ועל שמירת העליונות האווירית במרחב. pic.twitter.com/wgTdBDSBuC
— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) June 20, 2025
The Israeli Air Force is carrying out a new wave of strikes in western and central Iran, the IDF says.
The IDF says it is striking Iranian military targets.
Following reports earlier today of an Israeli drone strike on an apartment building in Tehran, The Wall Street Journal reports that the target was an Iranian scientist who specialized in weaponry.
Citing an unnamed Israeli official, the Journal says that the scientist was being kept in a location outside of his home, apparently in an attempt to prevent Israel from targeting him.
Israel is said to have killed at least a dozen of Iran’s leading nuclear scientists since it launched its attack on the country’s nuclear program last Friday.
BREAKING
An #Israeli drone strike targeted an apartment in the Gisha neighborhood, central #Tehran. pic.twitter.com/ThcBuRHBJP— Barzan Sadiq (@BarzanSadiq) June 20, 2025
Britain is working with Israeli authorities to arrange charter flights for British nationals from Tel Aviv when the airport reopens, UK Foreign Minister David Lammy says.
“As part of our efforts to support British nationals in the Middle East, the government is working with the Israeli authorities to provide charter flights from Tel Aviv airport when airspace reopens,” Lammy says in a statement.
Ben Gurion Airport has been closed since last Friday due to the conflict with Iran.
On Monday, the British government advised its citizens in Israel to register their presence with British authorities, saying it was monitoring the situation and considering options for assistance.
It said it had increased its logistical support for citizens who have turned to overland routes into Jordan and Egypt.
A meeting in Geneva today between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and top European counterparts aims to revive nuclear negotiations halted by the Israel–Iran war, according to the French foreign ministry.
The meeting is being held with the goal “of calling for a return to the diplomatic path and continuing negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear program,” says the ministry in a statement.
During a phone conversation between French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last night, both ministers “emphasized that Iran’s nuclear and ballistic programs pose a threat to Israel, the region and Europe,” says a French diplomatic source.
Rubio stressed that the United States “is ready for direct talks with the Iranians at any time,” and Barrot presented Rubio with the framework for the Friday meeting between Araghchi and his counterparts from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, as well as the European Union’s foreign policy chief.
Rubio also spoke with his British counterpart, David Lammy, yesterday, as the US announced that it would decide within the next two weeks whether to join Israel’s offensive against Iran.
The IDF says the Israeli Air Force intercepted a drone launched toward Israeli territory, after sirens sounded in several areas in the southern Golan Heights.
The World Medical Association President, Dr. Ashok Philip, strongly condemns the “deliberate” Iranian ballistic missile attack on Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, which caused significant structural damage and led to the suspension of most hospital services.
“Soroka is one of the country’s largest medical centers, a Level-1 trauma hospital serving over one million people in southern Israel, including many vulnerable communities,” Philip says.
“Under international humanitarian law, healthcare facilities are protected spaces that must never be targeted; such attacks constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Convention,” he continues. “Any strike on a hospital violates international law.”
Philip says that the international medical community must reaffirm its commitment to the neutrality and safety of healthcare professionals in all conflict settings.
“We stand in solidarity with our colleagues at Soroka Medical Center,” Philip says.
Israeli Air Force strikes in Tehran earlier this week struck Iran’s “Internal Security headquarters” and the headquarters of Iran’s “special internal security unit,” the military says.
The internal security bodies are part of Iran’s armed forces, the IDF adds.
Danish shipping giant Maersk announces that it is temporarily suspending vessel calls in Israel’s Haifa port due to the country’s conflict with Iran.
Maersk says it made the decision after “careful analysis of threat risk reports in the context of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, specifically regarding the potential risks of calling Israeli ports and the ensuing implications for the safety of our vessel crews.”
“At the moment, we are not experiencing further disruptions to our scheduled operations in the region,” it adds in a statement.
Haifa and the surrounding area have sustained repeated ballistic missile attacks from Iran over the past week.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
An airstrike in the Gaza Strip this week eliminated a senior commander in the Mujahideen Brigades terror group, who was involved in burying the bodies of slain hostages Gadi Haggai and Judih Weinstein, the military says.
The IDF says Ali Saadi Wasfi al-Agha was killed in a strike on a hideout in central Gaza on Monday.
Al-Agha headed the terror group’s southern Gaza unit and was set to take over the organization after its leader, Asaad Abu Sharia, was killed in a strike earlier this month, according to the military.
“Al-Agha, along with other senior members of the terror group, led the abduction, murder, holding in captivity, and burial of Israeli civilians” during the October 7 onslaught, the military says.
The IDF adds that he was specifically responsible for the burial of Haggai and Weinstein, whose bodies were recovered from Al-Agha’s home in Khan Younis this month.
Al-Agha was also involved in “directing terror activity under Iranian guidance” in the West Bank and Israel, and recruiting terror operatives, as well as carrying out attacks on troops in Gaza.
This past week, amid the conflict with Iran, the IDF says it struck some 300 “terror targets” in Gaza, including operatives, buildings used by terror groups, weapon depots, and missile and sniper posts.
Yair ‘Yaya’ Yaakov, who was killed by invading terrorists on October 7, 2023, outside his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz and his body taken hostage, was buried at the kibbutz cemetery on Friday, after IDF forces recovered his body on June 12.
Yaakov, who had three children and lived with his partner, Meirav Tal, on Nir Oz, grew up in Ofakim and settled in Nir Oz when he married the mother of his children, Renana Gome.
On October 7, both Yaya and Meirav were taken hostage from their home. Yaya was killed, while Meirav was released in a weeklong truce that November.
His two teenage sons, Or and Yagel, were alone at their mother’s house that day and were also taken hostage and released in November. His daughter Shir, the oldest of the three siblings, was at her own home in the kibbutz and survived the onslaught.
Yaya is described as a man of the land who will be remembered for his friendship, modesty and laughter, and his love for sharing a beer and listening to music with friends.
His children, partner, siblings, and former wife all speak of Yaya’s dream to travel around the world by caravan once he turned 60. He was 59 when he was killed.
Musician Eviatar Banai sings two songs, “Abba” (Father) and “Layla KeYom Yair.”
Shir says that with her father gone, every day is Memorial Day, while her brother Or says it is hard to speak about his father in the past.
“I’m so glad we got to this moment, to these last words, to be able to say goodbye,” says Yagel, his youngest son, who marked his bar mitzvah while his father was still in captivity. “I can’t believe this happened to our family and our home.”
Yagel says through tears that he and his father fought a lot, but that their last night together, on October 6, “was the best night, really a night of goodbyes.”
He says that every time he drinks beer, plays backgammon, or hears a favorite song, it will remind him of his father.
Meirav, Yaya’s partner, says that perhaps it took a long time to return his body for burial because the world was not quite ready to make them part.
She says he was the funniest person she knew, but that he didn’t know how funny he was.
“You’re still with me all the time, in every breath and thought,” says Meirav. “Your kids are always with me, they don’t leave me for a moment — and I look at them and see you — your look, your smile.”
Yaya’s ex-wife, Renana Gome, speaks about the complicated relations they had in recent years, but she’s proud they succeeded despite the complications.
“We saw images of you on your feet on October 7 and had huge hopes that you’d return,” says Gome. “I hope you didn’t suffer. You can be sure I’ll take care of our children, and we will remember you as you were.”
Yesterday, 95 humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announces.
Israel resumed aid deliveries to Gaza on May 19, after a pause since March 2. Since then, 1,879 trucks have entered the Strip.
The aid underwent an inspection by Israeli authorities before entering Gaza via the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings.
El Al is offering its customers and the general public stranded abroad an alternative option of returning to Israel from Cyprus via the sea on a cruise ship.
The cruise voyage chartered by Mano Maritime, which will leave on June 26 from Limassol to the port of Ashdod, will be free of charge to El Al and Sun D’Or customers, whose flights were cancelled since Israel closed its airspace last Friday. One-way ticket prices for the general public will cost €550 and can be booked via the El Al website.
The Mano cruise, which can carry about 1,500 people, will depart for Limassol from the port of Ashdod on June 24, carrying passengers from Israel who purchased tickets.
The cruise is expected to arrive at the port of Ashdod next Friday, June 27.
Customers who register for a cruise from Cyprus to Israel will not be able to register for repatriation flights. Cruise tickets, booked by El Al and Sun D’Or customers and the general public can’t be cancelled.
Defense Minister Israel Katz says he has instructed the IDF to “intensify strikes on regime targets in Tehran” to “destabilize” the Iranian regime.
“We must strike all symbols of the regime and its mechanisms of oppression, such as the Basij, as well as the base of the regime’s power, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Katz says during an assessment this morning with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and other top officers this morning.
Katz says Israel must bring about “a mass evacuation of the population from Tehran, in order to destabilize the regime and increase deterrence in response to missile fire on Israel’s home front, while continuing to target facilities and scientists to thwart Iran’s nuclear program, until all objectives of the operation are fully achieved.”
Media outlets in Gaza report that some 20 people were killed and dozens more injured by IDF gunfire this morning while waiting for humanitarian aid in the Nitzanim Corridor area in central Gaza.
The reports do not specify whether the incident occurred near a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution center, although there is one in the area.
The reports are not accompanied by any footage, and the IDF has yet to comment on the reported incident.
A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip hit an open area near the border community of Be’eri a short while ago, the IDF says.
There are no injuries.
An Israeli drone strike was carried out in Tehran a short while ago, according to unconfirmed reports in Iran.
Army Radio reports that the target was an Iranian nuclear scientist.
The IDF has not yet commented.
فوری/ گزارشهای اولیه/
نقطهزنی در گیشای تهران،
هدف هنوز معاوم نیست. pic.twitter.com/gk3Y0KJPFx— Pouria Zeraati (@pouriazeraati) June 20, 2025
یک مخاطب با ارسال ویدیویی به ایراناینترنشنال نشان داد که صبح جمعه ۳۰ خرداد انفجاری در تهران رخ داده و از جمله «نان سحر گیشا» مورد اصابت قرار گرفته است pic.twitter.com/cHefq5diGB
— ايران اينترنشنال (@IranIntl) June 20, 2025
A wave of Israeli Air Force strikes this morning destroyed some 35 missile launchers and storage sites in Iran’s Tabriz and Kermanshah, the military says.
The IDF says 25 fighter jets were involved in the strikes, during which “more than 35 infrastructure sites for the storage and launching of missiles” were hit.
An anti-Israel activist group claims that its members damaged two military aircraft at a British Royal Air Force base overnight.
In a statement published online, Palestine Action says that two activists broke into the RAF Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire, England, and “used repurposed fire extinguishers to spray red paint into the turbine engines of two Airbus Voyagers and caused further damage using crowbars.”
It says that its activists also sprayed red paint “symbolizing Palestinian bloodshed” across the runway, and then snuck back out of the airbase, all while evading detection.
The group claims that there are daily flights from RAF Brize Norton to an RAF base in Cyprus, where “British planes collect intelligence, refuel fighter jets and transport weapons to commit genocide in Gaza.”
“By putting the planes out of service, activists have interrupted Britain’s direct participation in the commission of genocide and war crimes across the Middle East,” reads the statement.
BREAKING: Palestine Action break into RAF Brize Norton and damage two military aircrafts.
Flights depart daily from the base to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
From Cyprus, British planes collect intelligence, refuel fighter jets and transport weapons to commit genocide in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/zzmFqGKW8N
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) June 20, 2025
The UK Ministry of Defense said in December 2023 that it would conduct surveillance flights over Gaza to aid in hostage recovery efforts following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, assault in southern Israel, when 251 people were taken hostage.
It denied at the time that it was carrying out the flights for any other purpose, and stressed that the surveillance aircraft would be “unarmed, do not have a combat role, and will be tasked solely to locate hostages.”
The flights are said to have continued until now, and UK Defense Secretary John Healey reiterated to investigative journalism group Declassified UK last week that the only intelligence passed on to Israel from the surveillance flights is “linked to finding and helping freed hostages.”
Germany, together with its European partners, is open to further discussions with Iran if there is a serious willingness from Tehran to provide assurances on its nuclear and missile programs, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says.
“My colleagues in the United Kingdom, France and also the High Representative (for the European Union) have always said that we are ready to talk,” Wadephul says ahead of a meeting with the Iranian foreign minister in Geneva.
“This requires Iran’s serious willingness to renounce any enrichment of nuclear material, which could lead to nuclear weaponization. This also requires that the missile program can be included. If this serious willingness exists, then the consequence on our part will also be that we are prepared to hold further talks,” he adds.
Despite the upcoming talks in Geneva, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said earlier that Tehran is “not seeking negotiations with any party” until Israel stops its offensive.
Iran planned a larger ballistic missile barrage on Beersheba this morning, but Israeli strikes foiled its plans, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin says in a press conference.
“The Iranians planned this morning a larger barrage at Beersheba. Before the launch, we identified preparations of three primed launchers… we destroyed them,” he says.
Defrin says the Israeli Air Force’s continued strikes on Iran “reduce the harm to the home front.”
The IDF earlier released footage of the strikes on the launchers.
Soroka Medical Center Director General Prof. Shlomi Kodesh calls on policymakers to fortify the entire hospital against missiles and other projectiles after yesterday’s ballistic missile strike.
“We’ve had construction plans ready for years,” Kodesh says. “We just need to make a decision and implement it immediately.”
Iran’s attack yesterday caused significant damage at the Beersheba hospital, but its emergency room is operating in a protected area and continues to provide urgent care to the residents of the Negev.
The hospital has an approximately 23 percent occupancy rate, with 270 patients.
In the last 24 hours, 95 casualties were taken to the hospital’s emergency room, all in mild condition and suffering from anxiety.
“The values of dedication, professionalism, and humanity that guide the workers of Soroka are stronger than any missile,” Kodesh says. “Our spirit is strong. We will rise, we will rebuild.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi tells Iranian state television that Tehran will not hold talks “with any party” until Israel ceases to strike the Islamic Republic.
Araghchi is expected to meet with the foreign ministers of Germany, France, and Britain in Geneva later today to discuss de-escalation.
He also claims that the US wants to return to the negotiating table to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, but that Tehran rejected the request.
“There is no room for negotiations with the US until the Israeli aggression stops,” he says, accusing the US of being “a partner to Israeli crime against Iran.”
Iranian state media claims that Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is alive and recovering from serious injuries in a hospital, despite reporting last week that he had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Several news outlets, including the IRGC-controlled Fars News Agency and the semi-official Mehr news agency, carry a statement attributed to Shamkhani. Last week, the same agencies reported that he had been killed in Israel’s initial wave of airstrikes on June 13.
“I am alive and ready to sacrifice myself,” reads the statement attributed to Shamkhani.
The news outlets claim that he is recovering from serious wounds sustained in the Israeli strike and that he is in stable condition.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has information that key buildings at Iran’s Khondab heavy water research site were damaged in Israeli strikes, including the distillation unit, it says in a post on X.
The information is an update on an assessment from Thursday, in which the IAEA said the reactor had been hit but there were no radiological effects.
The first Mano Maritime cruise ship bringing stranded Israelis back from Cyprus, in coordination with the Transportation Ministry, arrived in Israel earlier this morning.
Some 2,000 passengers were on the luxury ship Crown Iris for its voyage from Limassol in Cyprus to the Ashdod port in southern Israel, the Transportation Ministry says.
Transportation Minister Miri Regev, alongside Transportation Ministry director general Moshe Ben Zaken, Ashdod port chairman Shaul Schneider, and other officials, welcomed the returnees upon their arrival at the port.
“Operation Safe Return is a national mission,” says Regev. “We continue to work vigorously, with all tools and means, to return Israeli citizens home safely.”
About 50 buses and minibuses were waiting at the port to take arriving passengers free of charge to the Ashdod train station, and to Beersheba, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem.
The Transportation Ministry emphasizes that the maritime space remains open, and repatriation operations are ongoing, subject to the approval of defense officials to maintain the safety of passengers.
“This is a complex logistical operation carried out in full cooperation between all authorities,” says Ben Zaken. “The Mano cruise is the first but not the last one – additional passengers are expected to return this way in the coming days.”
Ashdod port CEO Nissan Levi adds: “During these days, port workers are continuing to work tirelessly between sirens to meet the needs of the Israeli economy and to receive repatriation ships with dedication and responsibility. This is a testament to the Israeli spirit that characterizes us.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz warns Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem to tread carefully after he said yesterday that his terror group would “act as we see fit” in response to the war between Israel and Iran.
“The Hezbollah leader hasn’t learned from his predecessors and is threatening to act against Israel,” says Katz, referring to former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated by Israel last September.
I suggest that the Lebanese proxy be careful, and understand that Israel has lost patience with the terrorists who threaten it,” Katz adds, warning: “If there is terror — there will be no Hezbollah.”
Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck several Iranian air defense batteries in Isfahan and Tehran in recent days, which the IDF says expands its air supremacy in Iran.
The military says the strikes hit the surface-to-air missile launchers and radars, “that were intended to target IDF aircraft and prevent their operations.”
IAF fighter jets and drones “continue to operate freely over Iran, striking military targets of the Iranian regime in western and central Iran,” the IDF says, adding that it will “continue working to expand aerial freedom of action in Iranian skies and to achieve air superiority.”
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, rejects the notion that his agency and the report it released last month on Iran’s nuclear activities are in any way responsible for triggering Israel’s assault on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
“A report on the nuclear verification in Iran could hardly be a basis for any military action,” Grossi tells CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “Military action, from whomever it comes, is a political decision that has nothing to do with what we’re saying.”
Tehran previously suggested that the report, and the subsequent IAEA declaration that Iran violated its nuclear safeguards obligations, had “prepared the ground” for Israel’s attack.
Grossi notes that much of what was included in the report was “essentially not new,” and that the nuclear watchdog has been warning for years that Iran was refusing to share data on its nuclear activities.
“In that report, I also said that, at this point, we do not have any indication that there is a systemic program in Iran to manufacture a nuclear weapon,” Grossi cautions, stressing that the IAEA only reports on what it can verify itself, and does not engage in speculation.
Asked about the timeline in which Iran could theoretically produce a nuclear weapon, even an extremely crude one, Grossi says it is one thing to have enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon — the IAEA report had estimated that Iran had enough uranium, if enriched further, for nine nuclear bombs — but another thing entirely to have a warhead to put it in.
“It’s true that in the early 2000s, there had been some activities which were assessed at that time as related to nuclear weapon development…we are not seeing this now,” he says, adding that, therefore, discussing a timeline would be nothing more than “pure speculation.”
He reiterates, however, that Iran is the only non-nuclear weapon state to be enriching uranium to the level that it is.
The Israeli Air Force struck three ballistic missile launchers primed for an attack on Israel a short while ago, along with an Iranian military commander who was operating at the launch site in Iran, the military says.
The IDF issues footage of the strikes.
One ballistic missile was launched by Iran in this morning’s attack on Beersheba, according to a military official.
The missile was not intercepted and struck just outside several apartment blocks, causing damage and lightly injuring five people.
El Salvador has extradited two members of an extremist Jewish sect under investigation for alleged child abuse to Guatemala and Israel, authorities announced yesterday.
Lev Tahor, described by an Israeli court in 2017 as a “dangerous cult,” adheres to an extreme, idiosyncratic interpretation of Judaism and kosher dietary laws that largely shield members from the outside world. The men spend most of their days in prayer and studying specific portions of the Torah, and women and girls are required to dress in black robes that completely cover their bodies.
The sect has been the subject of a months-long probe in Guatemala for the mistreatment of minors.
In December 2024, authorities there rescued 160 minors from a farm used by Lev Tahor in Oratorio, southwest of Guatemala City. Lev Tahor has accused the government of religious persecution.
Prosecutors in El Salvador announced that they have extradited Eluzur Rumpler to Israel, though the Israeli government has identified him as Eliezer Rumpler.
Rumpler, a US and Israeli citizen, is accused of mistreating students in education centers under his direction, prosecutors said, without detailing when the alleged offenses occurred.
Students were forced to disrobe before being beaten, they said.
Rumpler was detained in January after entering El Salvador from Guatemala.
Guatemalan prosecutors meanwhile announced that Salvadoran authorities have extradited 23-year-old Jonathan Cardona, another sect member, to face allegations of rape, child abuse and human trafficking.
The Lev Tahor sect was formed in the 1980s, and some members settled in Guatemala in 2013.
It has run into legal problems in various countries, and is known to have members in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Israel.
Luke Tress contributed to this report.
Five people were lightly injured by the Iranian missile impact in Beersheba, Magen David Adom says.
The missile struck just outside several apartment blocks, causing heavy damage to the nearby homes.
MDA says the five were injured by the shockwave, blunt trauma, and smoke inhalation, as well as acute anxiety.
Soroka Hospital in Beersheba says that despite yesterday’s missile impact at the medical center, it continues to operate and admitted seven people hurt in this morning’s Iranian attack on the southern city.
The hospital says they are all in good condition, after being injured while running for shelter or by the shockwave from the missile impact.
Four drones launched from Iran at Israel overnight were intercepted, the IDF says.
One was shot down over Haifa, while the other three were intercepted over the Dead Sea area.
The IDF releases footage showing some of the interceptions.
צה״ל השלים סדרת תקיפות הלילה בלב טהראן: הותקפו עשרות מטרות בהן אתרי תעשייה צבאיים לייצור טילים ומטה ספ'נד למחקר ופיתוח פרויקט הנשק הגרעיני
יותר מ-60 מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו במהלך הלילה (ה') עשרות מטרות צבאיות באיראן בהכוונה מודיעינית מדויקת של אגף המודיעין באמצעות כ-120… pic.twitter.com/odzJvrl7oM
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) June 20, 2025
The Israeli Air Force carried out a wave of strikes in Tehran overnight, targeting dozens of Iranian military facilities and a nuclear research site, the IDF says.
More than 60 fighter jets were involved in the strikes, dropping 120 munitions, according to the military.
The IDF says the targets included “several industrial missile production sites” in Tehran, which had served as “the industrial core of Iran’s Defense Ministry.”
“Among the targets were military industrial sites producing missile components and facilities for manufacturing raw materials used in casting missile engines,” the IDF says.
The strikes also hit the “headquarters of the SPND nuclear project,” the military says, a site that has been targeted already during the conflict.
“SPND serves as a hub for research and development of advanced technologies and weaponry for the Iranian regime’s military capabilities. It was established in 2011 by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the founder of Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” the military’s statement says.
Another site that was struck had been used to manufacture a “component essential to the regime’s nuclear weapons program,” the IDF adds.
A US appeals court rules that US President Donald Trump can continue control of National Guard troops in Los Angeles, over the objections of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
In a unanimous 38-page ruling, the three-judge panel says Trump’s “failure to issue the federalization order directly ‘through’ the Governor of California does not limit his otherwise lawful authority to call up the National Guard.”
Heavy damage was caused by the Iranian ballistic missile that struck Beersheba.
The missile struck just outside several apartment blocks, setting several cars on fire. Damage was caused to the nearby homes.
There are no immediate reports of injuries.
https://twitter.com/kann_news/status/1935900607577006541
The IDF Home Front Command tells Israelis they can leave shelters after Iranian missiles triggered sirens in the Beersheba area.
An Iranian ballistic missile impacted in Beersheba, causing damage.
Medics say there are no reports of injuries.
Sirens are sounding in Beersheba and surrounding towns in southern Israel amid an Iranian ballistic missile attack.
The IDF says it has detected the launch of ballistic missiles from Iran.
Sirens are expected to sound in Israel in the coming minutes, as air defenses work to shoot down the threats.
Civilians in areas where sirens sound are instructed to enter bomb shelters and remain in them until further notice.
US intelligence agencies continue to believe that Iran has yet to decide whether to build a nuclear bomb, The New York Times reports, citing unnamed intelligence and American officials.
The assessment remains the same as the one publicized by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard during a March congressional hearing.
While such a decision has not yet been made, Iran has developed enough stockpiles of enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb if it wants.
From Gaza to the Democratic Republic of Congo, violence against children in conflict zones reached “unprecedented levels” in 2024, a United Nations annual report says.
“In 2024, violence against children in armed conflict reached unprecedented levels, with a staggering 25 percent surge in the number of grave violations in comparison with 2023,” according to the report from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The report verified 41,370 grave violations against children in 2024 — including 36,221 committed in 2024 and 5,149 committed previously but confirmed in 2024 — the highest number since the monitoring tool was established nearly 30 years ago.
The new high beats 2023, another record year, which itself represented a 21 percent increase over the preceding year.
In its appendix, a “list of shame” calls out those responsible for these violations — a powerful coalition of Haitian gangs was added this year — which include child killings and mutilations, recruitment to violence, kidnappings, denial of humanitarian aid and sexual violence.
The IDF, which was named last year along with Hamas, remain on the list.
The Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank occupy the top spot in the dismal rankings, with more than 8,500 serious violations, the vast majority attributed to Israeli forces, including more than 4,800 in the Gaza Strip.
This figure includes confirmation of 1,259 Palestinian children killed in Gaza, and the UN notes it is currently verifying information on an additional 4,470 children killed in 2024 in the war-torn territory.
Violence erupted there following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel says Hamas uses civilians as human shields in what leads to higher death tolls in Gaza.
The report also calls out Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, where more than 500 children were killed or injured last year.
Following the Palestinian territories, the countries where the UN recorded the most violence against children in 2024 are: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (more than 4,000 grave violations), Somalia (more than 2,500), Nigeria (nearly 2,500), and Haiti (more than 2,200).
Two women in their 20s were found shot to death in their family home in the southern town of Tel Sheva, police say, adding that they’ve opened an investigation into the incident.
Earlier today, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read aloud a statement from US President Trump in which he declared that he would decide whether Washington would join Israel in the war against Iran within two weeks.
Several news outlets have pointed out that Trump has used “two weeks” several times when providing a time frame for when he will provide an answer on major issues of his presidency.
Eight weeks ago, Trump was asked if he could trust Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump responded, “I’ll let you know in about two weeks.”
“Tax plans, health care policies, evidence of conspiracy theories he claimed were true, the fight against ISIS, the opening of some coal mines, infrastructure plans — all were at one point or another riddles he promised to solve for the public in about two weeks.
A reporter at today’s briefing who noticed the trend pointed it out to Leavitt, saying that Trump has several times given two-week deadlines regarding Russia’s war with Ukraine that ended up being ignored.
“How can we be sure he’s going to stick to this one on making a decision on Iran?” the reporter asks.
Leavitt dismissed the question, saying that Iran and Russia are separate issues.
The Israeli security establishment has identified Iranian attempts to target Israeli-linked sites abroad, such as diplomatic missions or locations where planes belonging to Israeli airlines are parked, Channel 12 reports, without citing any sources.
In order to thwart such attacks, the Shin Bet security service is conducting extensive security operations in Europe, sending additional personnel to the continent.
The Iranian efforts come as Israel is working to repatriate roughly 100,000 citizens who have been stranded abroad since the outbreak of the conflict with Iran last week.
Dubbed Operation Narnia, Israel’s opening attack against Iran last week saw the simultaneous killing of nine of the Islamic Republic’s top ten nuclear scientists, Channel 12 reports.
The nuclear scientists were killed using a special weapon whose details were barred from publication, Channel 12 says.
The 10th nuclear scientist was killed shortly after the other nine, as part of the overnight Thursday-Friday Israeli operation, which included strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program and the Natanz nuclear site, along with the elimination of top members of the Islamic Republic’s military leadership, the network says.
The nuclear scientists were all killed while they were sleeping in their beds, with Israel deciding to carry out the assassinations simultaneously so that there wouldn’t be time to tip off those being targeted.
The scientists apparently believed they were safe from such targeting in their homes, a senior Israeli official tells Channel 12, noting that previously assassinated nuclear scientists were killed while heading to their cars after work.
Israel had been tracking Iranian nuclear scientists for years and the ten killed last week were marked for assassination in November of last year, Channel 12 says.
Israeli intelligence officials felt that the killing of the nuclear scientists was the most important part of Operation Narnia because the military leadership and equipment killed would be more easily replaceable, while the knowledge held by the nuclear scientists would take much longer to ascertain, the network said, citing an unnamed senior Israeli official.
The IDF says the Israeli Air Force intercepted another two Iranian UAVs that had triggered sirens in the Dead Sea area shortly after 3 a.m.
The interceptions came minutes after another Iranian UAV was intercepted over the same area.
The IDF says that the Israeli Air Force intercepted an Iranian UAV that triggered sirens in the Dead Sea area just before 3 a.m.
The New York City Police Department says its hate crime unit is probing anti-Muslim threats against mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, while in another incident, US Representative Max Miller of Ohio says he was “run off the road” by another driver with a Palestinian flag.
These marked the latest US incidents to raise concerns about the rise in hate against Americans of Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Israeli and Palestinian heritage since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in late 2023.
An NYPD spokesperson says police received reports that on Wednesday at 9:45 a.m., Mamdani, a Democratic state assembly member and mayoral candidate, reported that he “received four phone voicemails, on various dates, making threatening anti-Muslim statements by an unknown individual.”
There have not been any arrests so far, and the investigation remained ongoing, the NYPD added. The New York Daily News reported that a man threatened to blow up Mamdani’s car. Mamdani has no immediate comment.
Separately, Republican US Representative Max Miller from Ohio say on X he was “run off the road” in the city of Rocky River on Thursday while he and his family were threatened by a person with a Palestinian flag. He said he had filed a police report.
“Today I was run off the road in Rocky River, and the life of me and my family was threatened by a person who proceeded to show a Palestinian flag before taking off,” says Miller, who is Jewish and pro-Israeli. He labeled the incident, which was also condemned by top congressional Democrats, as antisemitic.
Morgan Ortagus is departing her post as US deputy envoy to the Mideast to become a senior policy adviser at the US Mission to the United Nations, a US official confirms to The Times of Israel.
As deputy Mideast envoy, Ortagus had been the Trump administration’s point person on Lebanon, traveling there several times this year.
Ortagus’s move is the latest extension of a shakeup in the Trump administration’s national security team that began with Mike Waltz being removed from his position as national security adviser. Waltz was subsequently nominated to become the US ambassador to the UN, so Ortagus will work under him.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy will travel to Geneva on Friday for talks with his French and German counterparts, as well as EU High Representative Kaja Kallas and Iran’s foreign minister, to push for a diplomatic resolution over Iran’s nuclear program.
The meeting comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East and follows Lammy’s visit to Washington, where he met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.
“A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution,” Lammy says in the foreign ministry statement.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy says after talks at the White House with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that there is still time to reach a diplomatic solution with Iran over its nuclear program, to avert a wider conflict.
“The situation in the Middle East remains perilous. We are determined that Iran must never have a nuclear weapon,” Lammy says in a statement released by the UK embassy in Washington.
“We discussed how Iran must make a deal to avoid a deepening conflict. A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution,” Lammy says of his talks with Rubio and US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
The situation in the Middle East remains perilous. We are determined that Iran must never have a nuclear weapon. Meeting with @SecRubio and @SteveWitkoff in the White House today, we discussed how a deal could avoid a deepening conflict. A window now exists within the next two… pic.twitter.com/UKAOsnDAm8
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) June 19, 2025
Dozens of US military aircraft are no longer on the tarmac at a major US base in Qatar, satellite images show — a possible move to shield them from eventual Iranian air strikes, as Washington weighs whether to intervene in Tehran’s conflict with Israel.
Between June 5 and 19, nearly all of the aircraft visible at the Al Udeid base are no longer anywhere in plain sight, according to images published by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by AFP.
Nearly 40 military aircraft — including transport planes like the Hercules C-130 and reconnaissance aircraft — were parked on the tarmac on June 5. In an image taken on June 19, only three aircraft are visible.
The US embassy in Qatar announced Thursday that access to the base would be limited “out of an abundance of caution and in light of ongoing regional hostilities,” and urged personnel to “exercise increased vigilance.”
The White House says US President Donald Trump will decide sometime in the next two weeks whether to join ally Israel’s strikes on Iran. The Islamic Republic could then respond by striking US bases in the region.
US Warplanes Quietly Pulled from Qatar Airbase
Satellite images analyzed by the Associated Press show an unusually empty runway at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, suggesting the U.S. military has redeployed many aircraft. The move follows similar naval dispersals in Bahrain, seen as… pic.twitter.com/TVqqdcGnei
— Ahmad Algohbary (@AhmadAlgohbary) June 19, 2025
Iran has appointed a new chief of intelligence at its Revolutionary Guards on Thursday, the official Irna news agency says, after his predecessor was killed in an Israeli strike last week.
Major General Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), appointed Brigadier General Majid Khadami as the new head of its intelligence division, Irna says.
He replaces Mohammed Kazemi, who was killed on Sunday alongside two other Revolutionary Guards officers — Hassan Mohaghegh and Mohsen Bagheri — in an Israeli strike.
Pakpour had himself been recently appointed after Israel killed his predecessor Hossein Salami in a strike on June 13.
Revolutionary Guard Commander Mohammad Pakpour appointed Majid Khadami as head of the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence organization. pic.twitter.com/qBQF9fnlYC
— Niv Calderon (@nivcalderon) June 19, 2025
“During the years that our martyred commanders Kazemi and Mohaqeq led the IRGC Intelligence, we witnessed significant growth in all aspects of intelligence within the IRGC,” says Pakpour.
Upon his appointment by Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei last Friday, Pakpour threatened to open “the gates of hell” in retaliation for Israel’s attacks.
The IDF issues an evacuation warning for Iranian civilians in the Sefidrood Industrial Park and the village of Kalash Taleshan in the country’s northwest.
The warning is issued ahead of what the IDF says is a continuation of its strikes on Iranian military infrastructure across the country.
With Iran’s internet being shut off to the outside world, it’s unclear just how many people in Iran would be able to see the message.
The Israeli Air Force just intercepted over the Haifa area a UAV that was launched from Iran, the army says.
No sirens were triggered, as there was no threat posed to civilians, the IDF adds.
Edan Alexander, an American-Israeli who was released from Hamas captivity last month, returns home to jubilant crowds in New Jersey.
A video shared by the local branch of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum shows hundreds lining the streets of Alexander’s hometown of Tenafly. The crowd cheers, waves Israeli flags, holds signs that say “Welcome home,” and chants “Edan.”
Alexander drives through the crowd in the passenger seat of a black SUV, escorted by a police motorcade.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that Russia’s defense of Iran’s authorities underscores the need for intensified sanctions against Moscow.
Zelenskiy says Russia’s deployment of Iranian-designed Shahed drones and North Korean munitions was proof that Kyiv’s allies were applying insufficient pressure against Moscow.
“Now Russia is trying to save the Iranian nuclear programme. There cannot be any other possible explanation for their public signals and their non-public activity on this,” Zelenskiy says in his nightly video address.
“When one of their accomplices loses their capability to export war, Russia is weakened and tries to interfere. This is so cynical and proves time and again that aggressive regimes cannot be allowed to unite and become partners.”
When Russia deploys weaponry from Tehran and Pyongyang, he says, “it is a clear sign that global solidarity and global pressure are not strong enough.”
Russia signed a strategic partnership with Iran this year. Moscow has denounced Israeli strikes against Iran and offered to mediate. A Russian deputy foreign minister said Moscow was urging Washington to refrain from direct involvement.
In his address, he says he is “very much counting on” US President Donald Trump to consider tougher sanctions and boost diplomatic efforts to end the war. Trump has so far ruled out calls to intensify sanctions against Moscow.
Australia has suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran due to the deteriorating security environment in Iran and has directed the departure of all Australian officials, Foreign Minister Penny Wong says.
Australia’s ambassador to Iran will remain in the region to support the government’s response to the crisis, Wong says.
“We are continuing planning to support Australians seeking to depart Iran, and we remain in close contact with other partner countries,” Wong says in a statement.
