Israel-Iran Attacks Live Updates: Iran, Israel Launch Fresh Attacks As Tehran Rules Out Nu

Israel has intensified its military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon as tensions mount across the region following recent escalations between Israel and Iran. The Israeli military confirmed on Friday that it had killed a key Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, citing an urgent need to neutralise imminent threats to its northern border.

The commander, Mohammad Khadr al-Husseini, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was a senior figure in Hezbollah’s operations. According to the military, al-Husseini had played a central role in orchestrating multiple attacks on Israeli cities, including Nahariya and Haifa, and had recently been tasked with rebuilding Hezbollah’s depleted artillery units.

“His actions constituted a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon. The IDF will continue to operate to remove any threat to the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said.

Shortly after 2:30 am in Israel (2330 GMT on Friday), the Israeli military warned of an incoming missile barrage from Iran, triggering air raid sirens across parts of central Israel, including Tel Aviv, as well as in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Interceptions were visible in the sky over Tel Aviv, with explosions echoing across the metropolitan area as Israel’s air defence systems responded.

Israel launched a fresh strike, on missile facilities, in central Iran, as the conflict between the two countries entered its ninth day on Saturday.

Hundreds of American citizens have departed Iran using land routes over the past week since an aerial war between the Islamic Republic and Israel broke out, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters on Friday.

While many left without problem, “numerous” citizens had faced “delays and harassment” while trying to exit, the cable said. It said, without giving further details, that one unidentified family had reported that two U.S. citizens attempting to leave Iran had been detained.
The internal cable dated June 20 underscores the challenge Washington is facing in trying to protect and assist its citizens in a country with which it has no diplomatic relations and in a war in which the United States may soon get involved.

Israel estimates its strikes on Iran have delayed Tehran’s potential to develop a nuclear weapon by “at least two or three years”, Israel’s foreign minister said in an interview published Saturday.
Israel’s offensive, which has hit hundreds of nuclear and military sites, killing top commanders and nuclear scientists, has produced “very significant” results, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told German newspaper Bild.
“According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb,” said Saar.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was wrong in suggesting that there is no evidence Iran is building a nuclear weapon.

Arab League foreign ministers gathered in Istanbul late Friday to discuss the escalating war between Iran and Israel, Turkish state news agency Anadolu said, quoting diplomatic sources.

The ministers were in Turkey’s largest city on the eve of weekend gathering of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which was also slated to discuss the air war launched a week ago. 
Israel began its assault in the early hours of June 13, saying Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, triggering an immediate immediate retaliation from Tehran in the worst-ever confrontation between the two arch-rivals.

The conflict between Israel and Iran is reaching a point of no return, Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after he warned that the conflict will create a migration problem for Europe. 

Iran fires new missile salvo at Israel: state media

Thousands of supporters of powerful Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr rallied Friday in Baghdad and other cities against Israel’s war with Iran, AFP correspondents said.

“No to Israel! No to America!” chanted demonstrators gathered after Friday prayers in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, Moqtada Sadr’s stronghold in the capital, holding umbrellas to shield themselves from Iraq’s scorching summer sun.

“It is an unjust war… Israel has no right” to hit Iran, said protester Abu Hussein.

“Israel is not in it for the (Iranian) nuclear (program). What Israel and the Americans want is to dominate the Middle East,” added the 54-year-old taxi driver. 

He said he hoped Iran would come out of the war victorious, and that Iraq should support its neighbour “with money, weapons and protests”.

In Iraq’s southern city of Basra, around 2,000 people demonstrated after the prayers, according to an AFP correspondent. 

Cleric Qusai al-Assadi, 43, denounced Israel’s use of Iraqi airspace to bomb Iran. “It is a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty,” he said, warning against “a third world war against Islam.”

Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran will have a harmful impact on Europe in terms of migration. Turkiye has stepped up security on its border with Iran since the start of Tehran’s conflict with Israel, but has not yet seen any increase in people trying to cross the frontier.

French President Emmanuel Macron said it is “essential to prioritise return to negotiations” and 

Europe would offer Iran a “diplomatic solution” to the conflict with Israel.

European foreign ministers will hold nuclear talks with their Iranian counterpart on Friday, as President Donald Trump mulls the prospect of US involvement in the Iran-Israel war.

Israel, saying Iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched a massive wave of strikes a week ago, triggering an immediate retaliation.

On the ground, Israel’s military said it struck dozens of targets in Tehran overnight, including what it called a centre for the “research and development of Iran’s nuclear weapons project”.

In Israel, sirens sounded after missiles were launched from Iran, the army said, while police said they, emergency response teams and bomb disposal experts were operating “at the site of a projectile impact” in a southern city.

European leaders have urged de-escalation in Iran’s war with Israel, while Trump has said he would decide “within the next two weeks” whether to involve the United States in the fighting.

Over the last eight days, Israel’s much-acclaimed air defence system, the Iron Dome, has been tested like never before against multiple waves of Israeli missiles. As the conflict stretches into its eighth day, questions mount over its performance and whether it can withstand a long conflict.

On Thursday, Iran confirmed a new wave of combined missile and drone attacks on military sites in Haifa and Tel Aviv, escalating tensions and prompting fears that Israel’s air defences may be cracking under pressure, reported Al Jazeera. 

On June 19, the strikes, which reportedly hit four locations – including Soroka Hospital in southern Israel – triggered a counterattack. Airstrikes were aimed at what are believed to be Iranian-linked nuclear facilities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was not ruling out a strike on Ayatollah Khamenei, while Defence Minister Israel Katz directly blamed the Iranian Supreme Leader for the attack on the hospital.

As footage surfaces showing some missiles slipping past Israeli air defences, speculation has intensified – is the Iron Dome beginning to falter?

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah to exercise caution, saying Israel’s patience with “terrorists” who threaten it had worn thin.

The head of Iran-backed Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said on Thursday that the Lebanese group would act as it saw fit in the face of what he called “brutal Israeli-American aggression” against Iran.

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Israel Defence Minister Israel Katz while visiting the site of a missile strike at a hospital in Holon, said that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is “the modern Hitler” and “cannot continue to exist”.

הדיקטטור חמינאי הוא היטלר המודרני שחרט על דגלו את השמדת מדינת ישראל ומשעבד את כל המשאבים של המדינה שלו לקידום המטרה הנוראית הזאת.
הוא לא יכול להמשיך ולהתקיים.

— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) June 19, 2025

Australia said on Friday it had suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran, citing a deteriorating security situation as Israel hit Iran’s nuclear facilities again, and the week-old air war showed no sign yet of an exit strategy from either side.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australian defence personnel and aircraft were being deployed to the Middle East as part of contingency plans to help evacuate its citizens and diplomats when the airspace opens. They would not be used for combat, she added.

“We have a very volatile security situation in Iran,” Wong said during a media conference.

The Israeli military said on Friday it carried out strikes on dozens of military targets in Iran overnight, including an attack on the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), which it said is involved in Iran’s nuclear weapons development.

Satellite pictures from Maxar Technologies, dated June 19, confirm that Israel’s recent airstrike caused substantial structural damage to Iran’s heavy water reactor facility at Arak, also known as Khondab, roughly 250 kilometres southwest of Tehran. The high-resolution images reveal the collapse of the upper section of the reactor dome alongside visible destruction to adjacent infrastructure, including distillation towers.

While Iranian authorities acknowledged that “projectiles” had struck the compound, they did not initially disclose the extent of the destruction. The satellite images provide the most detailed visual confirmation of the Israeli strike’s impact.

Iran fired at least one missile at Israel that scattered small bombs with the aim of increasing civilian casualties, the Israeli military said on Thursday, the first reported use of cluster munitions in the seven-day-old war.

Israeli military officials provided no further details.

Israeli news reports quoted the Israeli military as saying the missile’s warhead split open at an altitude of about 4 miles (7 km) and released around 20 submunitions in a radius of around 5 miles (8 km) over central Israel.

One of the small munitions struck a home in the central Israeli town of Azor, causing some damage, Times of Israel military correspondent Emanuel Fabian reported. There were no reports of casualties from the bomb.

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

The Israeli Army today said that sirens were sounded after Iran launched missiles on the eighth day of the conflict.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met British Foreign Minister David Lammy on Thursday and held separate calls with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to discuss the conflict between US-ally Israel and its regional rival Iran.

The air war between Iran and Israel – which began on June 13 when Israel attacked Iran – has raised alarms in a region that was already on edge since the start of Israel’s military assault on Gaza in October 2023.

President Donald Trump will decide in the next two weeks whether the US will get involved in the war, the White House said on Thursday.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem has pledged “all forms of support” to Iran in its fight against Israel and the United States, saying Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful and aims to serve its people, The Jerusalem Post reported.

In a speech on Thursday night, Qassem said, “It does not harm anyone in the slightest way; rather, it represents a great scientific contribution to the advancement of Iran and the region, relying on its own capabilities without foreign tutelage.”

He accused the world of opposing Iran not because of its nuclear program, but because it stands for “faith, knowledge, and freedom” and benefits “the oppressed.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing fierce backlash after citing the delay of his son’s wedding as a “personal cost” of the ongoing conflict with Iran – remarks many Israelis have called tone-deaf and self-centered, according to the Guardian.

Speaking solemnly in front of a missile-damaged Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva, Netanyahu invoked the spirit of Britain during the Blitz, likening Israel’s current crisis to the World War II bombings. “It reminds me of the British people during the Blitz. We are going through a Blitz,” he said, attempting to draw parallels between his family’s experience and the hardships of everyday Israelis.

The prime minister pointed to the rescheduling of his son Avner’s wedding – for a second time due to security concerns – as an example of the sacrifices his family has made. He noted that the postponement had also deeply affected Avner’s fiance and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, calling her “a hero” for enduring the disappointment.

“There are people who were killed, families who grieved loved ones, I really appreciate that,” Netanyahu said. “Each of us bears a personal cost, and my family has not been exempt.”

A grenade was thrown at the residence of the Norwegian ambassador to Israel on Thursday evening in Tel Aviv, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said, causing no injury.

“I spoke a short time ago with the Norwegian Ambassador to Israel, Per Egil Selvag, in whose yard a grenade was thrown this evening. I strongly condemn this serious and dangerous crime. I am convinced that the Israel Police will act decisively to quickly locate the criminals who committed this so that they will face the full severity of the law,” he said on X.

שוחחתי לפני שעה קלה עם שגריר נורבגיה בישראל פר אגיל סלבאג, שלחצר ביתו הושלך הערב רימון רסס. אני מגנה בחריפות פשע חמור ומסוכן זה.
אני משוכנע שמשטרת ישראל תפעל בנחישות לאתר בהקדם את הפושעים שביצעו זאת על מנת שתמוצה עימם מלוא חומרת הדין.

— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) June 19, 2025

Russia warned Israel against striking Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, saying “it will be a catastrophe comparable to Chernobyl”. 

Russia has helped build Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant and some of the workers there are Russian. Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, said that the Kremlin is “particularly concerned about the safety of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which employs Russian specialists.”