Israeli hospital ‘extensively damaged' following Iran air strike
Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, Israel, was extensively damaged by a direct hit from an Iranian missile.
The attack on Thursday, June 19, 2025, injured at least 65 people, according to emergency services.
Iranian state media claimed the primary target of the missile strike was a military facility in the same region.
Explosions were also reported in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as the conflict entered its seventh day.
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Reuters
21 minutes ago
- Reuters
Iran's divided opposition senses its moment but activists remain wary of protests
DUBAI, June 19 - Iran's fragmented opposition groups think their moment may be close at hand, but activists involved in previous bouts of protest say they are unwilling to unleash mass unrest, even against a system they hate, with their nation under attack. Exiled opponents of the Islamic Republic, themselves deeply divided, are urging street protests. In the borderlands, Kurdish and Baluchi separatist groups look poised to rise up, with Israeli strikes pummelling Iran's security apparatus. While the Islamic Republic looks weaker than at nearly any point since soon after the 1979 revolution, any direct challenge to its 46-year rule would likely require some form of popular uprising. Whether such an uprising is likely - or imminent - is a matter of debate. The late shah's son, U.S.-based Raze Pahlavi, said in media interviews this week he wants to lead a political transition, proclaiming it the best chance to topple the Islamic Republic in four decades and saying "this is our moment in history". Triggering regime change is certainly one war goal for Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing Iranians to say "we are also clearing the path for you to achieve your freedom". Within a ruling system long adept at quashing public displays of dissent, there are signs it is readying for protests. Mohammad Amin, a member of the Basij militia that is often deployed against protesters, said his unit in Qom had been put on alert to root out Israeli spies and protect the Islamic Republic. However, while the strikes have targeted a security hierarchy that crushed previous bouts of protest, they have also caused great fear and disruption for ordinary people - and anger at both Iranian authorities and Israel, the activists said. "How are people supposed to pour into the streets? In such horrifying circumstances, people are solely focused on saving themselves, their families, their compatriots, and even their pets," said Atena Daemi, a prominent activist who spent six years in prison before leaving Iran. Daemi's concerns were also voiced by Iran's most prominent activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, in a social media post. Responding to an Israeli demand for people to evacuate parts of Tehran, she posted: "Do not destroy my city." Two other activists Reuters spoke to in Iran, who were among the hundreds of thousands involved in mass protests two years ago after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, said they also had no plans to demonstrate yet. "After the strikes end we will raise our voices because this regime is responsible for the war," said one, a university student in Shiraz, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. Another, who had lost her university place and been jailed for five months after the 2022 protests and who also requested anonymity, said she believed in regime change in Iran but that it was not time to take to the streets. She and her friends were not planning to stage or join rallies, she said, and dismissed calls from abroad for protests. "Israel and those so-called opposition leaders abroad only think about their own benefits," she said. Apart from Pahlavi's monarchists, the main opposition faction outside Iran is the People's Mujahideen Organisation, also known as the MEK or MKO. A revolutionary faction in the 1970s, it lost a power struggle after the shah was toppled. Many Iranians have not forgiven it for then siding with Iraq during the stalemated war of 1980-88 and rights groups have accused it of abuses at its camps and of cult-like behaviour, both of which it denies. The Mujahideen are the main force behind the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which like Pahlavi has cultivated close ties with some Western politicians. At a Paris forum this week, the council's leader Maryam Rajavi reiterated her opposition to any return of the monarchy, saying "neither the shah nor the mullahs". How far opposition groups outside Iran enjoy any support inside the country is uncertain. While there is fond nostalgia among some Iranians for the period before the revolution, it is an era that most are too young to remember. Within Iran, the successive rounds of national protests have also focused around differing issues. In 2009, demonstrators flooded the streets over what they saw as a stolen presidential election. In 2017, protests focused on falling living standards. And in 2022 women's rights were the trigger. Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the election candidate protesters said had been cheated in 2009, has been under house arrest for years and is now 83. His policy was to reform the Islamic Republic rather than replace it - the goal of many protesters in later movements. For opponents of the Islamic Republic inside Iran, those unanswered questions of whether or when to stage protests, what agenda to pursue, or which leader to follow are only likely to grow more pressing as Israel's airstrikes continue.
The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
Tucker Carlson is doing a better job than Democrats of countering Trump on Iran: ‘We're in such a bizarro world'
As the drums of war beat ever louder and Donald Trump weighs whether to launch strikes in the Middle East, an unlikely anti-war firebrand has emerged. Welcome to the resistance… Tucker Carlson? In the past two weeks, the former Fox News host has become the loudest and most effective opponent of the push for the United States to join Israel's war against Iran. Carlson, a longtime Trump ally and sometime informal adviser to the president, has taken to the airwaves, toured MAGA podcasts and used his own media network to argue against U.S. intervention. He has turned on former allies, accused Trump of being 'complicit' in Israel's attack on Iran and warned that a 'full-scale war' could end his presidency. But Carlson is not just any peacenik, preaching to the converted. He is a double agent turned from the other side. He knows the ways of the neocons — their secrets, their tricks, their dodges — because he was once one of them. In his previous bow-tie-wearing iteration, Carlson was part of the media circus that helped to convince the American public that Saddam Hussein was an imminent safety threat that required the full might of an American military invasion. 'We know today for certain that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction… There's a lunatic with weapons that could kill the civilized world. What do we do about it?' he said in 2003 on his Crossfire show, echoing the calls being made today about Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He quickly came to regret his support for the war just one year in, calling it 'a total nightmare and disaster,' and became a staunch anti-interventionist in the years that followed. Do not be fooled, Carlson is no liberal. His rise through the ranks of mainstream media and to the heights of Fox News was fueled by rage and racism. He described Iraqis as 'semiliterate primitive monkeys,' called white supremacy 'a hoax' and railed against diversity in America. At any dinner party, in any progressive household, he would likely be cancelled by the first course. But on matters of foreign policy, he often finds common ground with liberals. And those years of regret over Iraq have made him extremely effective when attacking the people now pushing for a war with Iran. That became clear when he sat down with Ted Cruz, a fellow Trump devotee, and interrogated the senator in a now-viral interview on his support for Israel's war and a U.S. role in it. 'How many people live in Iran, by the way?' Carlson asked Cruz. 'I don't know the population at all,' Cruz answered. Carlson became incredulous: 'You don't know the population of the country you seek to topple?' It went downhill from there. Carlson grilled Cruz in a way he has never grilled a fellow Republican, on everything from Iran's ethnic makeup to his interpretations of Biblical texts. 'You don't know anything about Iran,' the TV host said, pointedly and accurately. Carlson even touched the third rail of Republican politics by quizzing Cruz on the donations he has received over the years from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). In an exchange that had echoes of Gore Vidal and Bill Buckley's infamous wordy showdown at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Carlson accused Cruz of being a 'sleazy feline' when the Texas senator suggested his line of questioning was anti-Semitic. Carlson's spat with Cruz was noteworthy not just because two MAGA figureheads were battling it out so viciously in public, but because Carlson appeared to be doing the job of dismantling the case for war far better than most Democrats or liberal commentators. His interview even earned the reluctant praise of his longtime nemesis Jon Stewart, who once humiliated Carlson so badly on his own show that it went viral before that was even a concept. 'We're in such a bizarro world, you've got me nodding my head to Tucker Carlson videos,' Stewart said Thursday. 'You got Tucker Carlson going, 'Why are we going why are we going to war with Iran again?' And I'm like, 'Yeah, you tell him, brother!' Like, that's how f---ing upside down we find ourselves in this moment.' Stewart wasn't alone in backing Carlson, with support from Democrat Congressman Ro Khanna, former Obama staffer Tommy Vietor, liberal commentator Mehdi Hasan and even leftist streamer Hasan Piker, who tweeted: 'why is tucker carlson capable of conducting an adversarial interview about the dangers of american intervention in iran with ted cruz better than everyone else in legacy media? Shame.' Carlson's anti-war appearances could be powerful. He is a MAGA influencer with the president's phone number. He was, not long ago, the host of the most-watched cable news show in the country. His influence may have waned since then, but if Trump is at all susceptible to pressure from his base, Carlson is appearing in all the right places to apply that pressure. His history as purveyor of neocon propaganda from the belly of the beast, Fox News, allows him to dismantle the entire media-political apparatus that builds the case for war. The interview with Cruz came days after Carlson appeared on Steve Bannon's War Room Podcast, where he railed against Fox News for 'turning up the propaganda hose to full blast, and just trying to knock elderly viewers off their feet and make them submit to more wars.' 'The one theme that runs longitudinally through the history of Fox is the promotion of wars that don't help the United States,' he said of his former employer. But Carlson is aware of his limits. Bannon, a fellow skeptic, asked Carlson if he thought the U.S. would eventually join the war, to which he answered, 'Yes.' 'I'm really afraid that my country's gonna be further weakened by this. I think we're gonna see the end of the American empire,' he added. The president dismissed those comments Monday, and described Carlson as 'kooky.' But a couple of days later, he revealed that he and Carlson had spoken by phone. 'It's interesting, because I did ask Tucker, I said, 'Well, are you OK with nuclear weapons being in the hands of Iran?' And he sort of didn't like that. And I said, 'If it's OK with you, then you and I really do have a difference. But it's really not OK with him. Therefore, you have to fight, and maybe it will end, and maybe it will end very quickly,' he said. It's unclear if they have spoken again, but both sides are continuing to make their case on the airwaves. Trump, meanwhile, has been circumspect on his plans regarding an attack on Iran: "I may do it, I may not do it. Nobody knows what I'm gonna do," he said Wednesday.
Reuters
35 minutes ago
- Reuters
Israel restarts limited gas exports amid ongoing conflict, Egypt still waiting
CAIRO, June 19 (Reuters) - Israel has resumed limited natural gas exports from surplus supplies, the country's Energy Ministry said on Thursday, nearly a week after shutting down two key offshore fields as Israel and Iran waged an air battle. A ministry spokesperson told Reuters that exports are now resuming "from surpluses, after domestic needs are met." An energy ministry source said most of the limited exported gas is currently flowing to Jordan, and only "tiny volumes" reached Egypt this week. Egyptian fertilizer producers, who were forced to halt operations due to the supply disruption, told Reuters they have yet to receive any gas but expect flows to resume next week. The Egyptian Petroleum Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Following military escalation in the region, Israel halted exports on June 13 after closing the Leviathan field, operated by Chevron and the Karish field operated by Energean. Only the Tamar field has remained operational, supplying mainly domestic demand. Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said on Wednesday that exports would only resume once military authorities deemed it safe. "I don't want to use our strategic storage, so therefore, I needed to cut exports," he told Reuters. Egypt, which has increasingly relied on Israeli gas since a domestic production decline in 2022, is scrambling to compensate for the supply gap. The country has ramped up fuel oil use in power plants and has signed deals to import over $8 billion worth of liquefied natural gas, while preparing additional floating regasification units. Israeli gas typically accounts for up to 60% of Egypt's total gas imports and around a fifth of its total consumption, according to data from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI).
