Israelis welcome return to normal life, but fears for Gaza hostages resurface
TEL AVIV/HAIFA, Israel, June 25 (Reuters) - Pop music blared from a Tel Aviv school on Wednesday as children arrived for their first day back after 12 days of air war with Iran kept them confined to safe rooms and bomb shelters with stressed parents.
The sight of children carrying or wheeling their colourful backpacks into school was one of the most vivid signs of life returning to routine in Israel after days and nights of huddling indoors in fear of being hit by an Iranian missile.
Avi Behagen looked euphoric after dropping off his 9-year-old twin boy and girl.
"In one word? Thank you, God!" he said, raising his eyes and hands to the heavens.
"It's good to bring the kids back to school, good for us the parents, and also good for the kids, because they don't admit it, but they do miss the school. And I have twins, so it's a double happiness."
During the conflict with Iran, many families with safe rooms within their homes spent most of their time there, while those reliant on public shelters would run there every time there was an alert, disrupting nighttime sleep and daytime routines.
Israel started attacking Iran on June 13, saying it aimed to destroy its arch-enemy's nuclear capabilities. Its strikes wiped out a senior echelon of Iran's military command and killed several nuclear scientists. Iranian authorities said 610 people were killed and nearly 5,000 injured in the country.
Tehran's retaliatory missiles killed at least 28 people in Israel and damaged hundreds of buildings, until a ceasefire came into effect on Tuesday.
At a Tel Aviv beach, people were swimming, relaxing and playing beach volleyball, but despite the peaceful scene some expressed mixed emotions -- relief, hopes of lasting peace with Iran, but also anxiety and pain over the ongoing Gaza war and the Israeli hostages still held in the enclave.
"I think we kind of focused this past two weeks on the war (with Iran), but we haven't focused on Gaza at all," said Rony Hoter-Ishay Meyer, 38, sitting on the beach promenade.
"So now we're very much concerned about the hostages. Even today, there were seven soldiers killed in Gaza, so I think our heart is still there, exhausted, but still there."
During the war with Iran, deadly violence has continued in Gaza with no respite. Israeli forces killed at least 40 Palestinians in Gaza and ordered new evacuations on Tuesday, local medics and residents said.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to reach U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites since late May as they sought food, the Gaza health ministry said.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel's assault on the strip has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, while displacing most of the population and causing hunger.
Militants took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attacks, of whom 50 remain in Gaza. Only 20 are believed to be alive, and their plight is a central preoccupation for most Israelis. Most Israeli media gives little coverage to how Palestinians are affected by the war in Gaza.
In the northern port city of Haifa, people were sipping coffees and fruit juices at a cafe terrace, chatting, reading newspapers or scrolling on their phones, but some also felt Israel's problems had not ended with the Iran ceasefire.
"We have one trouble less than we had before. That's the situation, you know? Nothing is all right here, nothing," said Ina Marom, 71, a family doctor.
Some hoped that the Iran ceasefire would provide momentum for a deal on Gaza.
"I think Gaza should be part of it because it's all connected," said Jonatan, 45, an estate agent who did not wish to give his surname.
For some, the joy of normal life was enough for now.
"Today I feel freedom. I feel that I'm back to life," said Orly Sapir, 66, a lawyer who had just enjoyed a workout at the gym. "It's life! And I know now much more to appreciate it."
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Reuters
31 minutes ago
- Reuters
Iran turns to internal crackdown in wake of 12-day war
ISTANBUL/BAGHDAD, June 25 (Reuters) - Iranian authorities are pivoting from a ceasefire with Israel to intensify an internal security crackdown across the country with mass arrests, executions and military deployments, particularly in the restive Kurdish region, officials and activists said. Within days of Israel's airstrikes beginning on June 13, Iranian security forces started a campaign of widespread arrests accompanied by an intensified street presence based around checkpoints, the officials and activists said. Some in Israel and exiled opposition groups had hoped the military campaign, which targeted Revolutionary Guards and internal security forces as well as nuclear sites, would spark a mass uprising and the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. While Reuters has spoken to numerous Iranians angry at the government for policies they believed had led to the Israeli attack, there has been no sign yet of any significant protests against the authorities. However, one senior Iranian security official and two other senior officials briefed on internal security issues said the authorities were focused on the threat of possible internal unrest, particularly in Kurdish areas. Revolutionary Guard and Basij paramilitary units were put on alert and internal security was now the primary focus, said the senior security official. The official said authorities were worried about Israeli agents, ethnic separatists and the People's Mujahideen Organisation, an exiled opposition group that has previously staged attacks inside Iran. Activists within the country are lying low. "We are being extremely cautious right now because there's a real concern the regime might use this situation as a pretext," said a rights activist in Tehran who was jailed during mass protests in 2022. The activist said he knew dozens of people who had been summoned by authorities and either arrested or warned against any expressions of dissent. Iranian rights group HRNA said on Monday it had recorded arrests of 705 people on political or security charges since the start of the war. Many of those arrested have been accused of spying for Israel, HRNA said. Iranian state media reported three were executed on Tuesday in Urmia, near the Turkish border, and the Iranian-Kurdish rights group Hengaw said they were all Kurdish. Iran's Foreign and Interior Ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. One of the officials briefed on security said troops had been deployed to the borders of Pakistan, Iraq and Azerbaijan to stop infiltration by what the official called terrorists. The other official briefed on security acknowledged that hundreds had been arrested. Iran's mostly Sunni Muslim Kurdish and Baluch minorities have long been a source of opposition to the Islamic Republic, chafing against rule from the Persian-speaking, Shi'ite government in Tehran. The three main Iranian Kurdish separatist factions based in Iraqi Kurdistan said some of their activists and fighters had been arrested and described widespread military and security movements by Iranian authorities. Ribaz Khalili from the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) said Revolutionary Guards units had deployed in schools in Iran's Kurdish provinces within three days of Israel's strikes beginning and gone house-to-house for suspects and arms. The Guards had taken protective measures too, evacuating an industrial zone near their barracks and closing major roads for their own use in bringing reinforcements to Kermanshah and Sanandaj, two major cities in the Kurdish region. A cadre from the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), who gave her nom de guerre of Fatma Ahmed, said the party had counted more than 500 opposition members being detained in Kurdish provinces since the airstrikes began. Ahmed and an official from the Kurdish Komala party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, both described checkpoints being set up across Kurdish areas with physical searches of people as well as checks of their phones and documents.
BBC News
34 minutes ago
- BBC News
Satellite images reveal new signs of damage at Iranian nuclear sites
Satellite images have revealed new signs of damage to access routes and tunnels at Iran's underground Fordo enrichment facility which was targeted by Israel on 23 June, a day after the US dropped bunker-buster bombs on the unseen damage is also visible near tunnel entrances at Iran's Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre after it was hit by the US. Meanwhile, there are signs work is already underway to fill in craters at the Natanz enrichment complex in the wake of US strikes.A leaked US intelligence document has cast doubt on the overall impact of the strikes. Media coverage of its conclusions prompted an angry response from President Donald new satellite images reveal previously unseen damage at a university in north-east Tehran and an area adjacent to a major airport west of the and subsequently the US, said strikes were aimed at preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Iran has consistently denied those allegations, insisting its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. New damage at Fordo The Fordo enrichment facility, buried underground in a mountainside near the city of Qom, was struck with US bunker-buster munitions on 22 June, resulting in six large craters visible in satellite images, as well as grey dust and debris scattered around across the area.A day later, Israel said that it had struck Fordo again, this time targeting access routes to the facility. The attack was later confirmed by Iranian satellite images captured on 24 June and published by Maxar Technologies show new craters and damaged buildings that were not visible in the aftermath of US new crater can be seen on an access road that leads to a tunnel entrance north-west of the facility. At least two craters are also visible near a tunnel opening at the southern edge of the images also show a destroyed installation north of the facility, alongside air strike craters and grey dust in the same area. One new additional crater and scorch marks can be seen in the middle of an access road at the western edge of the believed the strikes were intended to make these sites difficult to reach and repair. The volume of grey dust visible in some of the satellite images may be sign of the level of destruction beneath the surface, analysts believe."Deep below ground detonations of sufficient magnitude to expel the concrete as described would cause significant blast damage to underground structures," said Trevor Lawrence, head of the Centre for Energetics Technology, Cranfield University and an expert on effect of explosions."Given the complexity of building these structures, significant damage is very unlikely to be repaired in the short term, if at all." Damage to tunnel entrances at Isfahan complex The Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre, located south-east of the city of Isfahan, is Iran's largest nuclear research complex. It also houses a uranium conversion facility where natural uranium is converted into material that could be enriched in the country's two uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz and complex was struck twice by Israel. It was then targeted by the US on 22 June, resulting in more extensive damage across the Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the efficacy of the US strikes on Iran, apparently referencing the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan."You can't do a nuclear weapon without a conversion facility, yet we can't even find where it is, where it used to be on the map - because the whole thing is just blackened out… it's gone… wiped out."The overall complex has been captured in the latest Maxar images, and there is extensive destruction to a large number of buildings. One structure, previously identified by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) as the main uranium conversion building has been mostly images of the aftermath of US strikes also reveal damage to tunnel entrances located north of the complex. Damage can be clearly seen to one tunnel entrance at the northern tip of the facility near a complex by the mountainside. Additional damage is also visible at two more tunnel entrances in another from intelligence analysis firm Maiar assessed that the entrances probably sustained "moderate" structural damage. They noted scorching around the entrances but also the relative lack of damage to the adjacent concrete and the fact that there wasn't visible caving in of the earth above the prior efforts to reinforce the entrances by piling up earth may have reduced the effectiveness of the US attacks. "One Isfahan tunnel entrance looks like there was an internal explosion and fire, given the darkened debris spilling out of the entrance. If so, that would take years to repair," said Mark Cancian, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies."On the other hand, the discoloration could be caused by the weapon itself and not any penetration. The other tunnel entrance looks like it was covered with sand and dirt. If that's all that happened, it could be opened in a few weeks." Craters covered in Natanz Natanz, Iran's primary uranium enrichment facility, was targeted by both Israel and the US during the images captured on 22 June in the immediate aftermath of US strikes revealed two visible craters in a large area at the centre of the complex. The craters are believed to be above underground buildings housing centrifuge halls, where uranium enrichment takes place. A new image, taken on 24 June, shows the craters have since been covered with dirt, which may suggest work is underway to address damage inflicted on the facility. "Think of what you do if you have a hole in your roof," says David Albright, from the ISIS, "and also they likely want to at least offer some resistance to another earth penetrator hitting the same spot." Mehrabad airport A key target of Israeli strikes during the conflict was Mehrabad airport, located west of Tehran. Videos and images authenticated by BBC Verify show it was bombed multiple times by the capital's main international airport, it now mostly serves domestic shared footage of it targeting two F-14 Tomcat fighter jets, purchased by the Shah before the 1979 Islamic revolution, at the image, captured in an industrial area immediately south of the runway, shows damage to multiple structures. Another image shows an area west of the runway, where at least one warehouse appears to have been completely area is home to several aerospace companies which have been linked to Iran's defence industry. Shahid Rajaei university Satellite images also show multiple buildings targeted at Shahid Rajaei University, located in Tehran's northeastern district of verified by the BBC confirm Lavizan was the target of multiple air strikes by Israel during the conflict. Satellite images reveal extensive damage to multiple large buildings near the university campus, with debris scattered around the area. The latest images do not address one central question in the aftermath of the US and Israeli strikes: does Iran still retain its stocks of enriched uranium?"Overall, Israel's and US attacks have effectively destroyed Iran's centrifuge enrichment program, said Mr Albright. "It will be a long time before Iran comes anywhere near the capability it had before the attack."That being said, there are residuals such as stocks of 60 percent, 20 percent, and 3-5 percent enriched uranium and the centrifuges manufactured but not yet installed at Natanz or Fordow. These non-destroyed parts pose a threat as they can be used in the future to produce weapon-grade uranium." What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?
Sky News
36 minutes ago
- Sky News
Why is the UK buying nuclear-carrying fighter jets?
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈 👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈 The government has announced it is purchasing at least 12 new F-35 stealth jets that can carry nuclear warheads. It's a move that's been described by Downing Street as the most significant strengthening of the nation's nuclear capability in a generation. So, what are these jets? And why is the UK expanding its nuclear capability? Sarah-Jane Mee speaks to Dr Thomas Withington, an award-winning analyst and expert in air defence, to understand just how big a change in defence spending this is, what the move means for the UK in NATO, and what it tells us about the shift to make the country war-ready.
