Here is a video of Israel intercepting Iranian missiles. Israel Defense Forces said it had also intercepted Iranian drones, after sirens sounded in the Dead Sea and West Bank area. We are hearing conflicting reports about the number of senior Iranian nuclear scientists killed in the Israeli attacks. The Iranina semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday that three had died. The scientists were identified as Ali Bakaei Karimi, Mansour Asgari, and Saeid Borji, Tasnim said. But it comes as an Israeli military official claimed earlier on Saturday that the strikes had killed nine senior nuclear scientists, as we reported in our post here Iran’s Esfahan and Natanz nuclear sites were significantly damaged due to Israeli strikes on the two facilities, an Israeli military official said on Saturday. The official said that it would take more than a few weeks for Iran to repair damage at the two sites, adding that the strikes also killed nine senior nuclear Iranian scientists. Iran has warned the US, UK and France that their military bases and ships will be targeted if they help block the Iranian missile and drone retaliation for Israel’s attack, threatening to widen an already bloody war over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Donald Trump has said the US will help defend Israel, and American officials have been quoted in news reports saying that US forces have already helped shoot down Iranian drones and missiles as they approached Israel. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, also said on Friday that his country would help defend Israel against Iranian reprisals. The UK government has said its forces had not provided any military assistance to Israel as the prime minister, Keir Starmer, has emphasised the need for de-escalation. Tehran is seeking to deter western support for Israel’s defence at a time most of the missiles and drones it fires at Israel are being intercepted before they reach their targets. However, following through on the threat, delivered on Saturday through state media, would be an enormous gamble for Iran, drawing western forces into the conflict when it is already reeling under the force of sustained Israeli bombing. Speaking at a session of the UN security council on Friday, US diplomat McCoy Pitt warned: “No government proxy or independent actor should target American citizens, American bases or other American infrastructure in the region. The consequences for Iran would be dire.” To read our full report, see here: Nine senior Iranian nuclear scientists were killed in the Israeli airstrikes, according to an Israeli military official. They also told Reuters that they attacked more than 150 targets in Iran with hundreds of munitions, adding that both the Esfahan and Natanz nuclear sites were both “significantly damaged”. Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz warned Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that “Tehran will burn” if it keeps firing missiles at Israeli civilians. “The Iranian dictator is taking the citizens of Iran hostage, bringing about a reality in which they, and especially Teheran’s residents, will pay a heavy price for the flagrant harm inflicted upon Israel’s citizens. “If Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn,” Katz said in a statement. It comes after Iran warned the UK, US and France against helping to stop its strikes on Israel. We reported in our post at 09.47 BST how they threatened Western bases in the region. Iran has arrested five people in central city of Yazd for taking pictures and “collaborating with Israel”, Iranian news sites reported on Saturday. The arrests were made as Iran and Israel continue to target each other after Israel launched on Friday its biggest-ever air offensive against its longtime foe in a bid to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon. Two people were killed in an Israeli attack on a missile site in Assadabad in western Iran on Saturday, Iranian news sites reported. Iran has warned the United States, United Kingdom and France that their bases and ships in the region will be targeted if they help stop Tehran’s strikes on Israel, Iran state media reported on Saturday, according to Reuters. The UK government has already said that Britain did not provide military support to Israel’s attack on Iran or help shoot down Iranian drones. Prime minister Keir Starmer spoke to Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday afternoon during which, according to an official readout, he emphasised that “Israel has a right to self-defence” but also that the conflict needed a diplomatic solution. A spokesperson said Starmer “set out the UK’s grave concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme” but also “reiterated the need for de-escalation” in the interests of regional stability after Israel’s air and drone attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, air defence and military leadership. Earlier, the prime minister’s spokesperson said: “The UK did not participate in Israel’s strikes overnight,” and they indicated that the RAF had also not taken part in any military action to knock out Iranian drones attacking Israel in a counterattack launched by Tehran in the morning. Pope Leo XIV appealed on Saturday for authorities in Iran and Israel to act with “reason” after recent airstrikes and to pursue dialogue. According to Reuters, he told an audience in St Peter’s Basilica he was after the situation with “great concern”. “The situation in Iran and Israel has seriously deteriorated at such a delicate moment. I wish to forcefully renew an appeal for responsibility and reason,” the pope, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). “The commitment to build a safer world free from the nuclear threat must be pursued through a respectful meeting and sincere dialogue,” he said. “No one should ever threaten the existence of the other.” The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, has shared more on our post earlier, which stated Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson has not ruled out the possibility that the bilateral talks with the United States scheduled to take place in Muscat on Sunday will go ahead: Speaking to Iranian media the foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaee said: “It is still unclear what decision we will make in this regard on Sunday.” He added: The other side did something that practically rendered negotiations and dialogue meaningless. He emphasised that it is unthinkable for the Islamic Republic of Iran that “the Zionist regime [Israel]” would have committed such a war in the region without the coordination or conscious green light of the US. It had been expected that Iran would feel compelled immediately to end all talks, so the Iranian indecision is a surprise, possibly reflecting diplomatic pressure on the country to find a way out of the crisis. Donald Trump had urged Iran to attend the talks – the sixth set of talks that are being brokered by Oman. The meeting was due to be the first in which both sides would have tabled written proposals. The sticking point for both sides is whether Iran could retain the right to enrich uranium at much lower levels than now. Iran is content for this to happen subject to independent monitoring, but only on the condition that US sanctions are lifted. The US is insisting that Iran lose its right to enrich since there is no sure way of preventing Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb if it continues to enrich domestically. The US believes that if Iran is to have a civil nuclear programme it should import uranium from third countries. Iran says it is a sovereign right to enrich. Iran’s state TV reported on Saturday that about 60 people, including 20 children, were killed in an Israeli attack on a housing complex in the Iranian capital Tehran. We will update with more information as it comes in. Iran’s airspace has closed ‘until further notice’, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP), citing Iranian state media. Iran said the dialogue with the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme is “meaningless” but said it is yet to decide on whether to attend planned talks on Sunday, reports Reuters. “The other side [the US] acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime [Israel] to target Iran’s territory,” state media on Saturday quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying. “It is still unclear what decision we will make on Sunday in this regard,” Baghaei was quoted as saying. He said Israel “succeeded in influencing” the diplomatic process and the Israeli attack would not have happened without Washington’s permission, accusing Washington of supporting the attack. Iran earlier accused the US of being complicit in Israel’s attacks, but Washington denied the allegation and told Tehran at the UN security council that it would be “wise” to negotiate over its nuclear programme. The sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks was to be held on Sunday in Muscat, but it was unclear whether it would go ahead after the Israeli strikes. Iran denies that its uranium enrichment programme is for anything other than civilian purposes, rejecting Israeli allegations that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons. US president Donald Trump told Reuters that he and his team had known the Israeli attacks were coming but they still saw room for an accord. Lebanon said it had temporarily reopened its airspace on Saturday at 10am local time (7am GMT/8am BST), the state news agency NNA said. The airspace will be shut down again starting from 10.30pm local time (7.30pm GMT/8.30pm BST) till 6am (3am GMT/4am BST) on Sunday, NNA reported citing the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority. Israel’s military said on Saturday it was striking dozens of missile launchers in Iran, after announcing it had targeted air defences with a wave of strikes in the Tehran area overnight. The Israeli air force “continues striking dozens of surface-to-surface missile launchers in Iran”, the military said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Two deputy commanders at the Iranian armed forces’ general staff were killed in Israeli attacks, Iranian state media reported on Saturday. According to Reuters, it was unclear when the two commanders were killed but their deaths were announced on Saturday. Israel’s attacks on Iran since Friday have killed at least 78 people, including senior military officials, in what are Israel’s biggest attacks ever against Iran. Reuters has a breaking news line, citing Iranian state media, that two deputy commanders at Iran’s armed forces general staff have been killed in Israeli attacks. More details soon … Iran confirmed that its Fordow nuclear facility sustained limited damage after recent attacks, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Saturday, citing a spokesperson for the country’s atomic energy organisation. “There has been limited damage to some areas at the Fordow enrichment site,” state atomic energy agency spokesperson Behrouz Kamalvandi said, reports Reuters. “We had already moved a significant part of the equipment and materials out, and there was no extensive damage and there are no contamination concerns.” France and Saudi Arabia have postponed next weeks UN conference in New York on a two state solution. The high level three day conference starting 17 June was seen as a moment for countries such as France and the UK to clarify their plans formally to recognise the state of Palestine. There was a concern that the sudden Iran crisis meant senior Arab ministers would not have felt able to leave the region to fly to New York. Many Gulf states are trying to ensure they do not become drawn into the Iran-Israel conflict. Decisions about recognition – bound to be denounced as a betrayal by the Israeli government – would also be harder to take at a time when Israel is locked in military combat with Iran. The postponement underlines how Israel can still lead in shaping the agenda in the Middle East. Iran’s Fars news agency has reported that the country’s strikes against Israel will continue, citing senior Iranian military officials. “This confrontation will not end with last night’s limited actions and Iran’s strikes will continue, and this action will be very painful and regrettable for the aggressors,” Fars cited an unnamed official as saying. Emma Graham-Harrison, the Guardian’s chief Middle East correspondent, has spoken to families who live in a Tel Aviv neighbourhood that was struck by Iran’s retaliatory attacks. At midnight on Friday Sveta’s four-year-old daughter was asleep on the floor outside their shattered apartment block, as the rest of the family weighed up where they should spend the night. A missile from the first Iranian salvo fired at Tel Aviv had landed a couple of blocks away, killing at least one person, injuring at least 16 others and damaging hundreds of shops and homes in this quiet residential area. The 37-year-old was sanguine about her own losses, and backed the government decision to attack Iran even though it had so quickly cost her family their home. “I support it completely,” she said as her older daughter stroked their chihuahua. “This is nothing compared to what they will be able to do if they get their hand on the A-bomb [nuclear weapons]. We can’t afford for the Iranians to get them. “We tell [our daughters] that as long as we go to the shelter together, everything is OK. The damage in the house is just material things.” The Israeli military said its air force carried out a wave of strikes over Tehran last night, targeting Iran’s air defences. “Overnight, the IAF struck dozens of targets, including surface-to-air missile infrastructure, as part of the effort to damage the Iranian regime’s aerial defence capabilities in the area of Tehran,” the military said in a statement. “For the first time since the beginning of the war, over 1,500 kms from Israeli territory, the IAF (Israeli military) struck defence arrays in the area of Tehran.” An air attack on Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport overnight targeted a hanger that was housing fighter jets, Iranian state media has reported. Video showed thick plumes of smoke rising near to the airport, which was reportedly struck by two projectiles. A missile fired from Yemen by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, killed five Palestinians including three children in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. It was earlier reported that a missile hit the Palestinian town of Sa’ir. The Israel Defence Force said no interceptors were launched to prevent the missile strike. Sirens had sounded in Jerusalem and the southern West Bank settlements, according to local media. Israel Defence Force said it has intercepted several Iranian drones, after sirens sounded in the Dead Sea and West Bank area. In a separate update, it said it is continuing air strikes on targets in Iran. Earlier, Iranian state media reported that Iranian forces had shot down and pushed back Israeli drones at its north western border. Images coming in from news agencies show the impact of Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel overnight. Earlier, Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif reported that dozens of civilians in Gaza were killed or wounded early on Saturday after they were attacked by Israeli forces as they gathered to wait for aid north of the Nuseirat refugee camp. The Guardian has not been able to confirm the details of this report. Israel has not allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza since 7 October 2023, unless they are under Israeli military escort. A complete internet blackout in the Gaza Strip since Thursday has made reporting even more challenging. There have been repeated deadly attacks on Palestinians queuing for food aid and the GHF scheme of distributing food from a restricted number of heavily militarised sites has been strongly criticised. For months, humanitarian experts have warned that Gaza is on the brink of famine. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said in a statement it will not distribute food aid on Saturday. It did not provide an explanation, but said food assistance would resume on Sunday. Jordan reopened its airspace at 7:30 a.m. (0530 GMT), the civil aviation commission said, a day after it suspended flights amid Iran-Israel tensions. This earlier visualisation from Flightradar24, which tracks air traffic, shows how rapidly the Iranian and Iraqi airspace cleared on Friday following Israel’s attack on Iran. At least three people were killed across Israel and over 40 injured, emergency services reported early on Saturday. It was the most intense and deadly few hours inside Israel since the Hamas cross-border attacks on 7 Oct 7 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza, but the toll was dwarfed by the damage that Israel inflicted on Iran. Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East, where Iran has launched a wave of retaliatory attacks after Israel killed scores of people and injured hundreds in a surprise attack on Friday morning that it claimed was aimed at preventing its arch enemy from developing a nuclear weapon. Explosions were heard over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv early on Saturday. Two people were reported to have been killed, one in Tel Aviv in an attack on Friday night and one in central Israel on Saturday morning. In Iran, fresh explosions were reported at an airport in Tehran that houses an air force base, and across the Hakimiyeh and Tehranpars neighbourhoods in the east of the capital. The Israeli military said its air defence systems were operating. “In the last hour, dozens of missiles have been launched at the state of Israel from Iran, some of which were intercepted,” the Israeli military said. Rescue teams were working at a number of locations across the country where fallen projectiles were reported, it said. In Iran, several explosions were heard in the capital, Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. The Fars news agency said two projectiles hit Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, and Iranian media said flames were reported there. Close to key Iranian leadership sites, the airport hosts an air force base with fighter jets and transport aircraft. Israeli media said a suspected missile came down in Tel Aviv, and a loud boom was reported in Jerusalem. In other developments: Iran’s envoy to the UN security council, Amir Saeid Iravani, said 78 people including senior officials had been killed in the Israeli attacks on Friday, and that more than 320 were injured, most of them civilians. He said the US was complicit in the attacks and accused Israel of seeking “to kill diplomacy, to sabotage negotiations and to drag the region into wider conflict”. The US role in the attack remained murky with President Donald Trump giving conflicting accounts as to his approval and foreknowledge. In the run-up to the Israeli 200-plane attack, Trump had publicly urged Israel to give diplomacy more of a chance, before US-Iranian talks that were planned for Sunday. But on Friday, the US president insisted he had been well informed of Israel’s plans and described the Israeli attack as “excellent”. Iran launched a fresh wave of attacks on Israel early on Saturday, state media said, after Israel’s military reported it detected inbound missiles from Iran. “New round of Honest Promise 3 attacks,” state television reported, referring to the name of the Iranian military operation against Israel. Israel’s ambulance service said 34 people were injured on Friday night in the Tel Aviv area, most with minor injuries. Police later said one person had died. On Saturday Israeli media quoted emergency services as saying one person had been killed and 19 injured by a direct Iranian strike on an area in central Israel. A top-level UN conference on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians scheduled for next week has been postponed, French president Emmanuel Macron said on Friday. France and Saudi Arabia had been due to co-chair the conference hosted by the UN general assembly in New York on 17-20 June, and Macron had been among leaders scheduled to attend. Dozens of Palestinians were killed and injured after Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting to receive aid near a checkpoint north of Nuseirat, Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif and Drop Site News reported, in the latest such massacre. More Palestinians were killed when Israeli gunboats targets the tents of displaced people on a beach north-west of Gaza City, al-Sharif reported. It was impossible to independently verify the reports as Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering the territory. It has also cut off internet to Gaza since Thursday. Israel closed all checkpoints to the Israeli-occupied West Bank as the country attacked Iran, a military official said Friday. The move sealed off entry and exit to the territory, meaning that Palestinians could not leave without special coordination.
Author: Amy Sedghi and Tom Ambrose (now) and Rebecca Ratcliffe (earlier)