
14 Dead In Israel, 224 In Iran As Cross-Border Conflict Escalates For Third Straight Day
Last Updated:
Israeli strikes reportedly focused on military and nuclear infrastructure, killing multiple senior generals and scientists, deepening fears of a broader war.
The death toll surged to at least 238 as Israel and Iran exchanged missiles for the third consecutive day, pushing the region closer to a prolonged conflict. Israeli airstrikes targeted Iran's Defence Ministry headquarters in Tehran and key nuclear-linked sites, while Iranian missiles struck deep inside Israeli territory, breaching air defences and hitting residential zones.
In Iran, the Health Ministry reported 224 deaths since the strikes began on Friday, with 1,277 people hospitalized—over 90% of them civilians. In Israel, 10 more people were killed overnight, raising the country's toll to 14, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service. Israel's main international airport remained closed for a third straight day.
The situation escalated dramatically with the reported assassination of top Iranian military figures. Tehran Times reported that Mohammad Kazemi, the intelligence chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed in the latest Israeli attack. His deputy, Hassan Mohaghegh, and senior commander Mohsen Baqeri were also killed, the report added. The IRGC issued an official statement confirming the deaths on Sunday.
Israeli strikes reportedly focused on military and nuclear infrastructure, killing multiple senior generals and scientists, deepening fears of a broader war.
Former US President Donald Trump distanced Washington from the conflict, stating, 'The US had nothing to do with the attack on Iran," while warning Tehran of severe consequences if it retaliated against American interests. 'Expect the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces," he said.
As casualties mount and infrastructure suffers on both sides, global leaders have urged restraint—but the path ahead appears increasingly volatile.
(With inputs from AP)
First Published:
June 16, 2025, 09:36 IST
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Indian Express
26 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Take action against encroachments on Jewish cemetery land, Bombay HC tells Panvel civic body
The Bombay High Court on Monday directed Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) to remove unauthorised or illegal constructions on land belonging to a 200-year-old Jewish cemetery. A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Sandeep V Marne was hearing a plea by Jewish Heritage Trust, filed through its chief trustee Raymond A Gadkar alleging that certain encroachments in the form of unauthorised hutments and hoardings are made on its land reserved for Jewish community's burial rituals and repeated complaints to PMC have availed no action. The Trust, through senior advocate A S Khandeparkar, claimed that despite ongoing proceedings before legal forums, the PMC has repeatedly failed to take any action against the alleged encroachers despite it having identified them. The plea also raised grievances over the discharge of waste generated through the encroachments into the holy Israeli tank/lake. The petitioner Trust, which was formed to manage and protect Jewish heritage sites, said the tank is used to wash/clean the bodies prior to their burial as per Jewish rituals. 'Undoubtedly, under the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning (MRTP) Act,1966 and Maharashtra Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, 1949, the Panvel Municipal Corporation is under a statutory obligation to remove encroachment and to keep the water bodies clean,' the HC noted. The court noted that whether the alleged construction was raised on a plot belonging to Subhan Shah Dargah or on the designated cremation ground of the petitioner Trust was 'a question of fact,' which it could not determine under Article 226 of the Constitution. Therefore, the court directed the ward officer of PMC to all persons or parties who may be in occupation of the concerned land and then take action against structures/encroachments as per law and the said exercise be completed within three months. The HC clarified that it did not express any opinion on the merits of the matter and any person or party aggrieved due to demolition or removal action was at liberty to take recourse to the remedy prescribed under the law. The court then disposed of the plea.
&w=3840&q=100)

Business Standard
26 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Higher crude oil prices, production gains positive for upstream players
Even if Iranian production is curtailed, the OPEC+ decision to ramp up production implies other supply would compensate Devangshu Datta Listen to This Article Brent crude oil prices have spiked 7 per cent (to $74 per barrel) after the war began between Israel and Iran. Iran's oil production is 3.5 million barrels per day (mmbpd) with around 2.5 mmbpd of exports. And, China is the buyer of over 80 per cent of this. The Israeli assault targeted Iranian infrastructure. There is also some chance of disruption of shipping via the Straits of Hormuz, which is a choke point for 20 per cent of global oil and gas traffic. It includes exports from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar. Even if Iranian production


The Hindu
27 minutes ago
- The Hindu
The war on Gaza, exposing Israel's hidden ambition
The discrepancy between Israel's declared goals for its war on Gaza and its actual actions is staggering. While Tel Aviv continues to repeat hollow slogans—returning hostages, dismantling Hamas, disarming Gaza — these narratives function more as propaganda tools aimed at securing international legitimacy than genuine military objectives. For global media consumption and western political cover, these slogans serve to justify an onslaught now surpassing 612 days — one that has claimed the lives of over 54,000 civilians in direct bombardments, caused more than triple that number in injuries, unleashed mass destruction, led to near-total displacement, criminalised UN humanitarian agencies, and waged a war of starvation—just to name a few. This propaganda machine has successfully framed the ongoing, televised slaughter campaign as a just response. Alarmingly, much of the western world has accepted and echoed this narrative — rationalising the live-streamed brutality unfolding in Gaza, where civilians are enduring what experts have identified as genocide. The sinister reality, from seven decades ago Initially, public discourse focused on Israel's stated objectives. More recently, attention shifted to the claim that the war exists primarily to save Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political career, preserving his coalition and shielding him from corruption charges. While these factors play a role, reducing this genocide to Mr. Netanyahu's survival obscures a far more sinister and enduring reality. This war is a continuation of a long-term strategy to complete what David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding father, initiated in 1948 — the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people. Many Israelis chillingly refer to this as 'finishing the job'. Among the vast majority of Israelis, there is a deeply rooted belief that Ben-Gurion missed a historic opportunity in 1948 by not expelling all Palestinians beyond the Jordan River. Today's military operations, along with mounting calls for mass expulsion represent efforts to finally 'complete the job'. The expulsion of Palestinians is neither a new policy nor a hidden agenda. It is a foundational and repeatedly tested strategy of the Zionist project. The Nakba of 1948, when Zionist militias ethnically cleansed over 9,50,000 Palestinians, was not a tragic byproduct of war but a deliberate, meticulously planned act aimed at establishing a Jewish-majority state. This strategy resurfaced in 1956 during the Sinai Campaign, when Israel briefly occupied Gaza. One key objective was the forced removal of Palestinian refugees from Gaza into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Although only partially executed due to Gazan resistance and international pressure, the intention was clear and well-documented. Israeli historian Avi Raz and others have demonstrated that the concept of 'voluntary transfer' or engineered displacement was actively discussed by Israeli officials during and after the war. Ben-Gurion and other leaders viewed the 1956 war as a second opportunity to 'finish the job'. This policy's continuity was exposed in a Haaretz investigative report dated December 5, 2024, titled 'We Give Them 48 Hours to Leave: Israel's Plans to Transfer Gazans Go Back 60 Years'. The article reveals that from the 1960s onward, Israeli officials quietly formulated policies aimed at reducing Gaza's Palestinian population — a central policy rather than a fringe idea. A demographic engineering On May 15, 2025, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported that 7.4 million Palestinians — Muslims and Christians — now live in historic Palestine, equalling the Jewish population. Despite decades of Israeli policies aimed at boosting Jewish birth rates and displacing Palestinians, the demographic balance now favours the indigenous Palestinian population. From the Israeli perspective, this 'demographic threat' is under constant scrutiny. The prospect of a Jewish minority ruling over a Palestinian majority is politically and morally untenable. To preserve its identity as a 'Jewish state', Israel has increasingly relied on apartheid, violent expulsions, and demographic engineering. On October 9, 2023, just two days after the war began, the Israeli government announced a special inter-ministerial committee tasked with facilitating the forced transfer of Palestinians from Gaza. It is no secret that Israeli officials have discussed relocating Palestinians to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula or even to African countries such as Rwanda and Uganda under the pretence of 'voluntary resettlement' — a thin veil for forced population transfer, which constitutes a war crime under international law. The concept of transforming Gaza's coast into a luxury zone devoid of Palestinians — the so-called 'Middle East Riviera' — was openly proposed by United States President Donald Trump, whose real estate background shaped his vision of the region as prime beachfront property rather than a homeland for a dispossessed people. Under the guise of regional development, Mr. Trump's real estate proposal repackaged ethnic cleansing as economic opportunity. Mr. Netanyahu embraced this vision wholeheartedly, describing it as 'the only viable plan to enable a different future for the region'. Deliberate erasure The widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and life in Gaza cannot be explained by military necessity or any declared war aims. Entire neighbourhoods, homes, towers, roads, and sewage systems have been obliterated. Schools, universities, hospitals, and water infrastructure have been systematically targeted. Agricultural lands have been scorched. Starvation has been weaponised. Over 1,50,000 people have been killed or wounded, many of them civilians. Thousands more have died indirectly due to hunger, thirst, disease and the collapse of Gaza's besieged health system. And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg. This is not collateral damage or incidental. It is a deliberate, methodical erasure of Palestinian life and society. It is the continuation of a long-standing project to 'finish the job' begun in 1948 and enact a final solution to the 'Palestinian demographic threat'. The real final goal of this war transcends military objectives or Mr. Netanyahu's political survival. It is a war over geography and demography — a campaign that began 77 years ago and still rages today. It aims to erase the indigenous Palestinian people from their homeland, uproot their presence from the map, and entrench Jewish supremacy from the river to the sea. Abdullah M. Abu Shawesh is the Ambassador of the State of Palestine to the Republic of India