Gaza Faces Unyielding Assault Amid Global Silence
As the 615th day of relentless Israeli aggression unfolds, Israeli occupation forces continue their devastating campaign in the Gaza Strip, employing aerial bombardments and artillery strikes that exacerbate the humanitarian crisis for the region's starving and displaced population. This aggression persists with backing from American political and military support, while the international community remains largely inactive.
Reports from Gaza indicate that numerous airstrikes have been launched, resulting in additional civilian casualties as the plight of over two million displaced individuals intensifies under worsening famine conditions.
In the early hours of the morning, amid the darkness, residents in northern Gaza struggle to reach aid distribution centers to receive desperately needed flour amid the ongoing Israeli war of hunger.
All of the border crossings leading to Gaza have been sealed off by Israel… pic.twitter.com/BMBHZKL7ba
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) June 12, 2025
Gaza Ministry of Health has confirmed multiple fatalities due to Israeli airstrikes across the territory since early morning. Among the victims were three individuals who lost their lives when Israeli occupation forces targeted a tent sheltering displaced families in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis. Among those killed were Abdul Wahab Abu Haddaf, his wife, and their child.
A medical source reported that 13 people were martyred and around 200 injured when Israeli occupation forces opened fire on civilians awaiting aid near Netzarim in southern Gaza. The bodies of a woman and her child were also recovered following an airstrike on Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Yunis.
With heartbreak and tears, a Palestinian mother says a final goodbye to her son who was shot dead by Israeli occupation forces as he waited for food aid at Al-Nabulsi roundabout in western Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/MaCzXMQH0S
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) June 11, 2025
Reports of further injuries emerged as a child was wounded during an attack on tents housing displaced individuals in the Al-Mawasi region.
At Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, four people were confirmed dead, with over 100 others—many of them children and women—injured due to Israeli drone strikes on civilian gatherings near an aid distribution point at the so-called 'Netzarim checkpoint.'
As dawn broke, Israeli aircraft targeted the Al-Mawasi area once again. Furthermore, a martyr was reported at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, having succumbed to injuries from gunfire while waiting for aid near Netzarim.
In its latest statistics, the Ministry of Health announced that the death toll from the Zionist aggression had risen to 50,052 martyrs and 114,000 injuries.
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Ya Libnan
40 minutes ago
- Ya Libnan
After years of threatening, Israel's Netanyahu finally makes his move on Iran
By Crispian Balmer Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025 REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab JERUSALEM, June 13 (Reuters) – Iran once ridiculed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the boy who cried wolf for his constant public warnings about Tehran's nuclear program , and his repeated threats to shut it down, one way or another. 'You can only fool some of the people so many times,' Iran's then-foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said in 2018 after Netanyahu had once again accused Iran of planning to build nuclear weapons. On Friday, after two decades of continually raising the alarm and urging other world leaders to act, Netanyahu finally decided to go it alone, authorizing an Israeli air assault aimed, Israel says, at preventing Iran from obtaining weapons of mass destruction. In an address to the nation, Netanyahu, as he has so often before, evoked the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust in World War Two to explain his decision. 'Nearly a century ago, facing the Nazis, a generation of leaders failed to act in time,' Netanyahu said, adding that a policy of appeasing Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had led to the deaths of 6 million Jews, 'a third of my people'. 'After that war, the Jewish people and the Jewish state vowed never again. Well, never again is now today. Israel has shown that we have learned the lessons of history.' Iran says its nuclear energy program is only for peaceful purposes, although the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday declared the country in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years. Netanyahu, a former member of an elite special forces unit responsible for some of Israel's most daring hostage rescues, has dominated its politics for decades, becoming the longest-serving prime minister when he won an unprecedented sixth term in 2022. Throughout his years in office, he rarely missed an opportunity to lecture foreign leaders about the dangers posed by Iran, displaying cartoons of an atomic bomb at the United Nations, while always hinting he was ready to strike. In past premierships, military analysts said his room for maneuver with Iran was limited by fears an attack would trigger instant retaliation from Tehran's regional proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, that would be hard to contain. But the past two years have upended the Middle East, with Israel hammering Hamas after it launched a massive surprise attack of its own against Israel in October 2023, and then dismantling much of Hezbollah in just a few days in 2024. BLINDSIDED BY TRUMP Israel has also sparred openly with Tehran since 2024, firing rocket salvos deep into Iran last year that gave Netanyahu confidence in the power of his military reach. Israeli military sources said the strikes disabled four of Iran's Russian-made air-defense systems, including one positioned near Natanz, a key Iranian nuclear site that was targeted, according to Iranian television. 'Iran is more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities. We have the opportunity to achieve our most important goal — to thwart and eliminate the existential threat,' Defence Minister Israel Katz said in November. But much to the consternation of Netanyahu, newly installed U.S. President Donald Trump blindsided him during a visit to the White House in April, when he announced the United States and Iran were poised to begin direct nuclear talks. Netanyahu has locked horns with successive U.S. presidents over Iran, most noticeably Barack Obama, who approved a deal with Tehran in 2015 imposing significant restrictions on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump pulled out of the accord in 2018, and Netanyahu had hoped that he would continue to take an uncompromising stance against Iran when he returned to office this year. In announcing talks, the White House set a two-month deadline for Iran to sign a deal. Even though a fresh round of meetings was set for this weekend, the unofficial deadline expired on Thursday and Netanyahu pounced. One Israeli official told state broadcaster Kan that Israel had coordinated with Washington ahead of the attacks and suggested recent newspaper reports of a rift between Trump and Netanyahu over Iran had been a ruse to lull the Tehran leadership into a false sense of security. IMAGE TARNISHED Trump – who said after the strikes began that Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb but that he wants talks to proceed – has previously hailed the right-wing Netanyahu as a great friend. Other leaders have struggled with him. In 2015, then-President Nicolas Sarkozy of France was overheard talking about Netanyahu with Obama. 'I can't stand him any more, he's a liar,' he said. The man once known as 'King Bibi' to his supporters has faced a difficult few years and at 75, time is running out for him to secure his legacy. His hawkish image was badly tarnished by the 2023 Hamas attack, with polls showing most Israelis blaming him for the security failures that allowed the deadliest assault since the founding of the nation more than 75 years ago. He has subsequently been indicted by the International Criminal Court over possible war crimes tied to Israel's 20-month invasion of Gaza, which has reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble. He rejects the charges against him. Polls show most Israelis believe the war in Gaza has gone on for too long, with Netanyahu dragging out the conflict to stay in power and stave off elections that pollsters say he will lose. Even as the multi-front war has progressed, he has had to take the stand in his own, long-running corruption trial, where he denies any wrongdoing, which has further dented his reputation at home. However, he hopes a successful military campaign against Israel's arch foe will secure his place in the history books he so loves to read. 'Generations from now, history will record that our generation stood its ground, acted in time and secured our common future. May God bless Israel. May God bless the forces of civilization, everywhere,' he said in Friday's speech. REUTERS
Nahar Net
an hour ago
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Israel attacks Iran's nuclear and missile sites, prompting Iranian drone-strike retaliation
by Naharnet Newsdesk 13 June 2025, 10:17 Israel attacked Iran's capital early Friday in strikes that targeted the country's nuclear program and killed at least two top military officers, raising the potential for an all-out war between the two bitter Middle East adversaries. It appeared to be the most significant attack Iran has faced since its 1980s war with Iraq. The strikes came amid simmering tensions over Iran's rapidly advancing nuclear program and appeared certain to trigger a reprisal, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning that "severe punishment" would be directed at Israel. Hours later, Israel's military said it had begun intercepting Iranian drones launched in retaliation. An Israeli official said the interceptions were taking place outside of Israeli territory, but did not elaborate. The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement. 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It could be within a few months," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as he vowed to pursue the attack for as long as necessary to "remove this threat." "This is a clear and present danger to Israel's very survival," he said. Israel is believed to have carried out numerous highly secretive attacks on Iranian soil over the years, though it has rarely acknowledged them. Most have been aimed at Iran's nuclear program, though Iran has also accused Israel of targeting its natural gas pipelines and of assassinating Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Over the past year, Israel has also been targeting Iran's air defenses, hitting a radar system for a Russian-made air defense battery in April 2024 and surface-to-air missile sites and missile manufacturing facilities in October. Some 200 Israeli aircraft took part in Friday's operation, hitting about 100 targets, Israeli army chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said, adding that the attacks were ongoing. In the aftermath, Defrin said Iran had launched more than 100 drones toward Israel and that "all the defense systems are acting to intercept the threats." Israel, Iraq, Iran and Jordan shut down their airspace to all flights as a precaution. Iran confirms top officials and scientists killed. Khamenei issued a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency. It confirmed that top military officials and scientists had been killed in the attack. Israel "opened its wicked and blood-stained hand to a crime in our beloved country, revealing its malicious nature more than ever by striking residential centers," Khamenei said. For Netanyahu, the operation distracts attention from Israel's ongoing and increasingly devastating war in Gaza, which is now over 20 months old. There is a broad consensus in the Israeli public that Iran is a major threat, and Israel's opposition leader, Yair Lapid, a staunch critic of Netanyahu, offered his "full support" for the mission against Iran. But if Iranian reprisals cause heavy Israeli casualties or major disruptions to daily life, Netanyahu could see public opinion quickly shift. Netanyahu expressed hope the attacks would trigger the downfall of Iran's theocracy, saying his message to the Iranian people was that the fight was not with them, but with the "brutal dictatorship that has oppressed you for 46 years." "I believe that the day of your liberation is near," the Israeli leader said. Multiple sites in the Iranian capital were hit in the attack, which Netanyahu said targeted both nuclear and military sites. Also targeted were officials leading Iran's nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that an Israeli strike hit Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and said it was closely monitoring radiation levels. The strike on Iran pushed the Israeli military to its limits, requiring the use of aging air-to-air refuelers to get its fighter jets close enough to attack. It wasn't immediately clear if Israeli jets entered Iranian airspace or just fired so-called "standoff missiles" over another country. People in Iraq heard fighter jets overhead at the time of the attack. Israel previously attacked Iran from over the border in Iraq. Tension had been growing for weeks ahead of attacks The potential for an attack had been apparent for weeks as angst built over Iran's nuclear program. President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he did not believe an attack was imminent but also acknowledged that it "could very well happen." Once the attacks were underway, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem issued an alert telling American government workers and their families to shelter in place until further notice. 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Iran immediately announced it would establish a third enrichment site in the country and swap out some centrifuges for more-advanced ones. Even so, there are multiple assessments on how many nuclear weapons it could conceivably build, should it choose to do so. Iran would need months to assemble, test and field any weapon, which it so far has said it has no desire to do. U.S. intelligence agencies also assess Iran does not have a weapons program at this time. In a sign of the far-reaching implications of the emerging conflict, Israel's main airport was closed and benchmark Brent crude spiked on news of the attack, rising nearly 8%. Both Iran and Israel closed their airspace. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that in the aftermath of the strikes, "missile and drone attacks against Israel and its civilian population are expected immediately." "It is essential to listen to instructions from the home front command and authorities to stay in protected areas," he said in a statement. As the explosions in Tehran started, Trump was on the lawn of the White House mingling with members of Congress. It was unclear if he had been informed, but the president continued shaking hands and posing for pictures for several minutes. Trump earlier said he urged Netanyahu to hold off on any action while the administration negotiated with Iran over nuclear enrichment. "As long as I think there is a (chance for an) agreement, I don't want them going in because I think it would blow it," Trump told reporters. ___ Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi, Amir Vahdat and Mehdi Fattahi in Tehran, Iran; Melanie Lidman and Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel; Eric Tucker in Washington; Bassem Mrour and Abby Sewell in Amman, Jordan; and David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.
LBCI
2 hours ago
- LBCI
Iran armed forces vow 'strong response' to Israeli attack
Iran vowed a "strong response" to deadly Israeli air strikes that hit multiple areas across the country on Friday, including nuclear facilities. "The armed forces will certainly respond to this Zionist attack," said Abolfazl Shekarchi, spokesman for the general staff of the armed forces, adding that Israel "will pay a heavy price and should await strong response from the Iranian armed forces." AFP
