Israel Iran war live: Missile strikes continue as Trump undecided on US involvement
Destroyed building of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) after it was hit a few days earlier in an Israeli strike, in Tehran.
The conflict between Israel and Iran has entered its eighth day, and both sides continue to fire missiles and drones at each other. Israel bombed nuclear targets in Iran on Thursday and Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel after hitting an Israeli hospital overnight. Iranian missiles struck a major hospital in southern Israel and hit residential buildings in Tel Aviv on Thursday, injuring 240 people and causing widespread damage. ...Read More
Israel's Defence Minister, Israel Katz, blamed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and has given the army instructions to achieve their goals in Iran at any cost.
"Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist,' Katz said in a post on X.
Israel launched strikes on Iran's Arak heavy water reactor, marking its latest assault on Iran's extensive nuclear program. Iranian state television reported that the facility had been evacuated prior to the attack and assured there was 'no radiation danger whatsoever.'
The White House says President Donald Trump will decide within the next two weeks whether to strike Iran. It says Trump still sees a 'substantial' chance that negotiations can achieve US and Israeli demands on Iran's nuclear program.
What is the latest in Israel-Iran conflict Israel bombed Iranian nuclear and missile facilities again on Thursday following Iran's missile and drone strikes, including one that damaged a hospital in Beersheba.
Over 270 people have been injured in Israel from Iranian strikes; Iran has not updated its casualty figures since Sunday. Israel accuses Iran of using cluster munitions in the hospital attack.
US President Donald Trump may decide within two weeks whether the US will intervene on Israel's side, with ongoing back-channel talks between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran's foreign minister.
Iran's nuclear program has been severely damaged but not destroyed, according to reports. Israel continues airstrikes to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, which Iran denies pursuing.
Israeli leaders have called for intensifying strikes on Tehran and openly questioned the future of Iran's Supreme Leader, while Iran warns that US involvement would bring "hell" to the region.
Follow all the updates here:
June 20, 2025 6:08 AM IST
Israel Iran war Live: President Donald Trump said he will decide within two weeks whether the US military will get directly involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran given the 'substantial chance' for renewed diplomatic negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program.
June 20, 2025 6:02 AM IST
United Airlines said Saturday it has indefinitely paused flights between Newark, New Jersey, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
American Airlines said it is suspending flights between Philadelphia and Doha, Qatar, at least through Sunday and will make 'additional adjustments as needed.'
Both airlines said they are monitoring the situation and are working to rebook customers.
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Hindustan Times
19 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei faces his greatest test: Things to know about Iran's Supreme Leader
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who crushed internal threats repeatedly during more than three decades in power, now faces his greatest challenge yet. His archenemy, Israel, has secured free rein over Iran's skies and is decimating the country's military leadership and nuclear program with its punishing air campaign. It is also threatening his life: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Khamenei 'cannot continue to exist.' The 86-year-old leader faces a choice. He could escalate Iran's retaliation against Israel and risk even heavier damage from Israel's bombardment. Or he could seek a diplomatic solution that keeps the US out of the conflict, and risk having to give up the nuclear program he has put at the center of Iranian policy for years. In a video address Wednesday he sounded defiant, vowing 'the Iranian nation is not one to surrender' and warning that if the US steps in, it will bring 'irreparable damage to them.' When he rose to power in 1989, Khamenei had to overcome deep doubts about his authority as he succeeded the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. A low-level cleric at the time, Khamenei didn't have his predecessor's religious credentials. With his thick glasses and plodding style, he didn't have his fiery charisma either. But Khamenei has ruled three times longer than the late Khomeini and has shaped Iran's Islamic Republic perhaps even more dramatically. He entrenched the system of rule by the 'mullahs," or Shiite Muslim clerics. That secured his place in the eyes of hardliners as the unquestionable authority — below only that of God. At the same time, Khamenei built the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard into the dominant force in Iran's military and internal politics. The Guard boasts Iran's most elite military and oversees its ballistic missile program. Its international arm, the Quds Force, pieced together the 'Axis of Resistance,' the collection of pro-Iranian proxies stretching from Yemen to Lebanon that for years gave Iran considerable power across the region. Khamenei also gave the Guard a free hand to build a network of businesses allowing it to dominate Iran's economy. In return, the Guard became his loyal shock force. The first major threat to Khamenei's grip was the reform movement that swept into a parliament majority and the presidency soon after he became supreme leader. The movement advocated for giving greater power to elected officials – something Khamenei's hardline supporters feared would lead to dismantling the Islamic Republic system. Khamenei stymied the reformists by rallying the clerical establishment. Unelected bodies run by the mullahs succeeded in shutting down major reforms and barring reform candidates from running in elections. The Revolutionary Guard and Iran's other security agencies crushed waves of protests that followed the failure of the reform movement. Huge nationwide protests erupted in 2009 over allegations of vote-rigging. Under the weight of sanctions, economic protests broke out in 2017 and 2019. More nationwide protests broke out in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini after police detained her for not wearing her mandatory headscarf properly. Hundreds were killed in crackdowns on the protests, and hundreds more arrested amid reports of detainees tortured to death or raped in prison. Still, the successive protests showed the strains in Iran's theocratic system and lay bare widespread resentment of clerical rule, corruption and economic troubles. Trying to defuse anger, authorities often eased enforcement of some of the Islamic Republic's social restrictions. When Khamenei took power, Iran was just emerging from its long war with Iraq that left the country battered and isolated. Over the next three decades, Khamenei turned Iran around into as assertive power wielding influence across the Middle East. One major boost was the US's 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, which eventually brought Iranian-allied Shiite politicians and militias to power in Iraq. Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel brought a massive Israeli retaliation on the Gaza Strip. It also brought a turnaround in Israeli policy. After years of trying to fend off and tamp down Iran's allies, Israel made crushing them it's goal. Hamas has been crippled, though not eliminated, even at the cost of the decimation of Gaza. Israel has similarly sidelined Hezbollah — at least for the moment — with weeks of bombardment in Lebanon last year, along with a dramatic attack with booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies that stunned the group. An even heavier blow to Hezbollah was the fall in December of Syria's Bashar Assad when Sunni rebels marched on the capital and removed him from power. Now, a government hostile to Iran and Hezbollah rules from Damascus. Iran's Axis of Resistance is at its lowest ebb ever.
Hindustan Times
24 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Iran fires cluster bombs at Israel as conflict enters 8th day: Death toll mounts, no diplomatic breakthrough
Iran launched a missile carrying cluster submunitions into central Israel on Thursday, in what Israeli officials say marks the first use of such weapons in the eight-days at war. The Iranian missile reportedly scattered dozens of bomblets over civilian areas to maximise the chance of damage inflicted on the enemy side. "Today, the Iranian Armed Forces fired a missile that contained cluster submunitions at a densely populated civilian area in Israel," the Israeli embassy in Washington said in a statement to Reuters. The attack came amid a fresh wave of missile exchanges between Iran and Israel on Friday. According to Israeli media reports, the missile's warhead detonated at an altitude of around 7 kilometers, releasing approximately 20 submunitions over a radius of 8 kilometers in central Israel. Iranian officials have not commented on the allegations. Follow Israel Iran war live. Israeli authorities said on Thursday that the body of a woman was recovered from a building hit by an Iranian missile four days earlier, raising Israel's death toll to 25 since the war began, according to AFP. Iran, meanwhile, has reported at least 224 deaths from Israeli strikes as of Sunday. The killed individuals include top military officials, nuclear scientists, and civilians. However, Tehran has not given an updates figure since. European diplomats convened in Geneva with Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday in a last-ditch effort to prevent further escalation. Foreign ministers from France, Germany, the UK, and the EU urged restraint and diplomacy. British foreign secretary David Lammy emphasised the urgency, saying the coming two weeks represent 'a window... to achieve a diplomatic solution.' The UN Security Council is also expected to hold a second emergency session on the conflict, following a request from Iran backed by Russia, China, and Pakistan, diplomats confirmed. Back in Washington, President Donald Trump, said he would decide 'within the next two weeks' whether to back Israeli military action. 'There is still a substantial chance of a negotiated end to this,' Trump was quoted by AFP, as saying. The Wall Street Journal reported that while he has approved strike plans, he is waiting to see whether Iran shows willingness to abandon its nuclear ambitions. Meanwhile, Russia warned that any American involvement 'would be an extremely dangerous step.' Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq also threatened retaliation. Satellite imagery on Thursday revealed that several US military aircraft had been relocated from a base in Qatar. Iran, still reeling from last week's loss of senior officials, has appointed Brigadier General Majid Khadami as the new head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards' intelligence division, the state-run IRNA reported on Thursday. He replaces Mohammed Kazemi, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike that also claimed the lives of commanders Hassan Mohaghegh and Mohsen Bagheri. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tehran would pay a 'heavy price' after Iran's missile barrage hit Soroka Hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. The 1000-bed hospital's director Shlomi Codish said 40 people were injured, and the facility was left in flames. However, Tehran claimed the hospital was not the intended target; instead, it said the nearby military and intelligence base was the primary objective. This came as the Israeli military announced overnight strikes on Iranian nuclear infrastructure, including an 'inactive nuclear reactor' in Arak and the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz. A military spokesperson said the operation aimed to 'prevent the reactor from being restored.' (With AFP, Reuters, AP inputs)
Hans India
24 minutes ago
- Hans India
Trump Weighs Response to Iran, Decision Expected in Coming Weeks
Trump Middle East updates: President Trump said on Thursday he would decide within two weeks whether the United States would Trump on Iran strike, shifting from earlier remarks that suggested the Trump Iran attack decision could come soon and opening the possibility for new talks on Iran's nuclear program. The latest Iranian missile salvo hit a residential street in a city in southern Israel, the emergency services in Israel announced. The missile left a large crater in the street, blowing out balconies on several apartment buildings and setting a number of cars on fire, pictures and video released by the police and Magen David Adom, Israel's main ambulance service, showed. In a phone interview with Sky News published early on Friday, the Kremlin's spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, said talk of regime change in Iran was 'unimaginable' and 'even talking about it should be unacceptable.' If Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, were killed, which both Israel and U.S. leaders have alluded to in recent days that would only lead to extremism in Iran he said. He did not say how or if Russia would react. Peskov also warned against escalation and Iran US conflict 2025 involvement, which he said would make the situation more dangerous if there were more players. Britain's foreign secretary, David Lammy, said the situation with Iran remained 'perilous' after a meeting he held on Thursday at the White House with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, President Trump's special envoy for the Middle East. 'A window now exists within the next two weeks to deliver a diplomatic solution,' Lammy said, a reference to a timeline announced by Trump earlier on Thursday. Lammy made it clear in his written statement before the meeting that Iran should not be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. 'Tomorrow I will be going to Geneva to meet the Iranian Foreign Minister together with my French, German and EU counterparts,' he said.
