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Here’s where things stand on Wednesday 18 June 2025:
- Explosions rock Tel Aviv and Tehran as the conflict between Israel and Iran rages on for a sixth straight day.
- US President Donald Trump demands Iran’s “unconditional surrender”, saying, “We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran.” The US also deploys more fighter jets to the Middle East, reports say.
- The death toll from Israel’s attacks on Iran has risen to more than 240, including 70 women and children. More than 24 people have been killed in Iranian attacks on Israel.
- In Gaza, Israeli forces have killed at least 89 Palestinians, including 70 people seeking food aid in the city of Khan Younis.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 55,432 people and wounded 128,923, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks and more than 200 were taken captive.
Most Americans oppose US military involvement in Israel-Iran conflict
The survey by YouGov shows that some 60 percent of Americans surveyed think the US military should not get involved in the ongoing hostilities.
Only 16 percent favoured US involvement, while 24 percent said they were not sure.
Among the Democrats, those who opposed US intervention were at 65 percent, and among the Republicans, it was 53 percent. Some 61 percent of independents opposed the move.
The survey also showed that half of Americans view Iran as an enemy of the US, while 25 percent said it is unfriendly.
Iranian media reports on arrests of Israeli spy agency suspects
Local Iranian media have reported on the arrests of several people accused of spying for the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, as well as planning attacks.
The Tasnim News Agency reports that a foreign national was arrested in the southern port city of Bushehr while recording images of a “sensitive nuclear area” and accused of working for Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
The news site also reported that a “terrorist team” affiliated with Mossad was discovered during a vehicle check-in Baharestan county, on the outskirts of Tehran, where micro-drones, explosives, communications equipment and targeting systems were discovered.
Morad Moradi, the region’s acting governor, was quoted as saying the suspects had “intended to use this equipment to carry out widespread suicide operations in densely populated areas and, by creating fear and panic, undermine internal security”.
Iranian news website Eghtesadonline also reported that four people were arrested on suspicion of working as “mercenaries” for Israel after material used in the manufacture of “drones and micro-aircraft” was discovered in a workshop in Isfahan City, located near the country’s Isfahan nuclear facilities.
Iranians living abroad fear for family members in Tehran, Isfahan
Iranians living overseas are becoming more concerned over the safety of family members, who are left behind, as the conflict with Israel further escalates with orders of evacuation issued in the capital, Tehran.
Mehran Haghirian, director of regional Initiatives at the think tank Bourse and Bazaar, shared on social media that his father was forced to turn back home, “after the road out of Tehran was closed”.
“They were stuck for four hours at the Northwestern exit and then told to turn back,” he said. “They are back home now, despite all my pleas.”
“At 3.30am, while on the phone with them, we all heard massive explosions. They told me the windows shook,” he said. “I am horrified. I can only imagine what those in Tehran right now are feeling in anticipation of what is about to come.”
In the last two days, Israel has issued at least two evacuation threats to District 3 and District 18 of Tehran, a vast metropolitan of more than 10 million people.
Sina Toossi, senior fellow at Center for International Policy in Washington DC, also posted on social media saying that his 90-year-old grandmother who lives in Tehran has refused to evacuate.
“Last night, my father spoke with her caretaker and asked if she planned to leave. She replied, ‘I will not leave. I’ll be here until my last breath’.”
Another Iranian now living in Istanbul told Al Jazeera that her elderly parents had difficulty getting out of Tehran because they did not have a car.
“They cannot go anywhere. They are old, they are sick and they don’t have a car.”
Another Iranian, an artist also living in Istanbul, said that his family managed to get out of Tehran. “To be honest, I am horrified. My family is OK and I just received a message from them.”
Another Iranian, a computer engineer living in Canada’s Montreal, said that he is “stressed out” thinking about the safety of family members living in Isfahan, which has also been targeted by Israeli strikes. Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility is located in the province of Isfahan.
What is Iran’s hypersonic Fattah missile?
As we’ve been reporting, the IRGC has announced deploying the so-called “Fattah” hypersonic missiles in the latest wave of attack against Israel.
The IRGC said the missiles “successfully penetrated much-hyped air defences” of Israel, adding that the deployment marked “the beginning of the end” of the Iron Dome.
There’s been no comment from Israel on the claim as of yet.
Here’s what we know about the Fattah:
- Fattah, meaning “the opener”, is the first-ever hypersonic missile developed by Iran.
- It was launched in 2023.
- During its launch, IRGC aerospace chief Amir Ali Hajizadeh said Fattah represents a “generational leap” for Iranian missile technology as it can manoeuvre within and outside the earth’s atmosphere and penetrate any missile defence system. “The Fattah cannot be destroyed by any other missile due to how it moves in different directions and at different altitudes,” he said.
Explosion in eastern Tehran: Report
The Iranian Nour News outlet says an explosion has been heard in eastern Tehran, in the area of Hekmiyeh-Tehran Pars.
We’ll bring you more information when we have it.
Iran extends airspace closure
The IRIB state broadcaster says Iran’s airspace will remain closed until 2pm local time today (10:30 GMT).
Iran unlikely to comply with Trump’s ‘surrender’ demand, entire region now at risk
We’ve been speaking with Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, who said a little earlier that Iran was unlikely to “surrender to American terms” and that there is a risk the war on Iran could “bring the entire region down”.
Vaez said that US President Trump “provided the green light for Israel to attack Iran just two days before the president’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, was supposed to meet with the Iranians in Muscat”.
Imagine viewing, from the Iranian perspective, Trump giving the go-ahead for the attack while also saying that diplomacy with Tehran was still ongoing, Vaez said.
Now Trump “is asking for Iranian surrender”, he said.
“I think the only thing that is more dangerous than suffering from Israeli and American bombs is actually surrendering to American terms. Because if Iran surrenders on the nuclear issue and on the demands of President Trump, there is no end to the slippery slope, which would eventually result in regime collapse and capitulation anyway.
“So the risk is that with the Islamic Republic going down, it would try to bring the entire region down with it, and so the risk of a regional conflagration now is higher than ever before.”
Benjamin Netanyahu’s 33 years of Iran nuclear warnings
Israel’s first attack five days ago was under the premise of dismantling Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons.
The UN watchdog has never said there is evidence of Tehran having a nuclear arms programme.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been saying that Iran is “very close” to developing a nuclear weapon for more than 30 years.
Czech, Slovak planes evacuate 181 people from Israel
The Czech Republic and Slovakia have brought back 181 people home on government planes from Israel amid its conflict with Iran, according to authorities.
The two countries are among the first to send evacuation planes to the Middle East since Israel closed its airspace on Friday after conducting strikes on Iran.
A Czech government plane carrying 66 people landed in Prague on Tuesday morning, while two Slovak planes have taken 115 evacuees to Bratislava over the past two days.
“I am glad they are all OK. The transport was really demanding in the difficult environment,” Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said about the Czech flight on X.
The Defence Ministry said most of them were Czech nationals.
“It was not possible to send the army plane straight to Israel,” the ministry said in a statement, citing the airspace closure. “The evacuees were taken to an airport in a neighbouring country by buses. They crossed the border on foot.”
Trump fully supportive of Israel’s wars despite opposition from MAGA
US President Donald Trump’s latest statements and language show that Washington clearly is in full support of Israel in its action against Iran in this ongoing attack.
Trump cut short his visit to Canada, where he was attending the G7 summit, saying that he had to deal with the situation in the Middle East.
Indeed, it’s been a busy day at the White House. There was a full national security meeting that lasted for one hour. Subsequent to that, there were a number of separate individual meetings with the secretary of state and the special envoy to the Middle East, as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the military. The last to leave the White House was Vice President JD Vance.
What is being planned and what Trump is deciding are still uncertain. However, those social media messages certainly ratchet up the pressure on Iran.
Trump has several options on the table, but some of those are igniting a split even within the Republican Party, and particularly with the MAGA faction, about whether the US should be directly involved in the conflict.
Many in the MAGA faction are arguing that the US should not get involved, and it is not the business of the US, and that it should only be “America First”, which is their slogan.
There are domestic constraints. But these in the past have not proven to have very much sway over what Trump decided to do, or not to do.
France’s Macron urges US to restart diplomacy
French President Emmanuel Macron says the US has a critical role to play in restarting diplomacy with Iran, again warning that any attempt to force the overthrow of the government in Tehran would bring “chaos”.
“I believe we need the United States of America to bring everyone back around the table,” Macron told reporters at a G7 summit in Canada.
“We don’t want Iran to get a nuclear weapon,” the French leader said. “But the biggest error would be to use military strikes to change the regime because it would then be chaos, and our responsibility is to return discussions as quickly as possible to be able to set a course again on the nuclear and ballistic question.”
He pointed to the effects of US-led wars in Iraq and Libya and asked: “Does anyone think that what was done in Iraq in 2003 was a good idea? Does anyone think that what was done in Libya the next decade was a good idea? No!”
Most Israelis remain supportive of Netanyahu’s war on Iran
We’ve been speaking to Ori Goldberg, an Israeli political commentator.
He, too, says the Iranian barrages over the past day have become smaller.
“Perhaps this is because Israel has limited Iran’s ability to launch massive barrages of dozens of missiles, and perhaps because this is a change in Iranian strategy,” he said from Tel Aviv.
“But the periods where sheltering is compulsory are growing shorter and shorter. Ten to 15 missiles reach Israel every time, and after some of them… ones that get through [and] actually make contact and impact, then the citizens are led outside the shelters by the home front.”
Goldberg said the Israeli public, to a great extent, remains “united behind” Netanyahu’s government.
“You have to remember that at least one generation of Israelis, perhaps even two, were raised on a narrative that describes Iran as Israel’s existential enemy, an enemy set out to destroy Israel,” Goldberg said.
“The majority of Israeli citizens, Jewish Israelis, certainly support this war. Some support it fervently. People are talking about a historic moment, about removing the Iranian threat using our own prowess, and not being dependent on anybody else, perhaps again, on changing the Middle East and becoming the hegemon.”
However, it is becoming clear that Israel does not know what it is going for, he said.
“More and more people are realising that this strike on Iran is eerily reminiscent of Israel’s war in Gaza, most particularly in the sense of having no clear end game or no clear off ramp.”
US shuts embassy in Israel until Friday
The United States Embassy in Jerusalem and consular section in Tel Aviv will be shut from today through Friday due to the conflict between Israel and Iran and to comply with instructions from Israel’s Home Front Command, the US State Department said.
“The US Embassy has directed that all US government employees and their family members continue to shelter in place in and near their residence until further notice,” the embassy said in a statement.
The embassy also said that it had “no announcement about assisting private US citizens to depart” Israel at this time.
“We will alert the US citizen community if there is additional information to share regarding departure options,” it said.
“Ben Gurion Airport remains closed, and there are no commercial or charter flights operating from there. Seaports in Israel are also closed,” it added.
“Land crossings to Jordan are currently operating and are scheduled to be open on Wednesday.”
Iran launches 9 attacks in 24 hours, though number of missiles reducing
Reporting from Amman, Jordan
Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.
That most recent one makes, we think, around nine in the last 24 hours.
The most consequential was in the early hours of Tuesday morning when about 30 missiles were fired at Israel in one wave, according to the Israeli military.
Again, most of them were destroyed. But a couple managed to get through and debris managed to get through and hit an area called Herzliya, where the Iranians say there was some sort of military base or militarily-significant location.
The Israeli military says they’ve destroyed about 200 missile-launching locations across Iran and they say they believe the Iranians can’t fire as many missiles as they want to.
Certainly, since Saturday, the number of missiles that Iran has been firing has been fewer, according to Israel. Over 200 on Saturday night into Sunday; 65 or so from Sunday night into Monday, and 30 or so from Monday night into Tuesday. So the numbers are going down because Iran is, maybe, not able to fire as many.
Nevertheless, some are getting through and they are causing the sort of damage you see. No immediate reports of casualties from this latest incident but 24 Israelis have been killed in all missile attacks in Israel since Friday.
IRGC claims ‘complete control’ over Israel’s skies
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has issued a statement on its latest attacks against Israel, saying that its “powerful and manoeuvrable” Fattah missiles broke through Israel’s missile defence shield, “sending a message of Iran’s authority” to the rival country.
In the statement, carried by Iranian news agencies, it said the attack “showed we have gained complete control over the skies of the occupied territories and that its residents are completely defenceless” against Iranian attacks.
There were no further details.
According to Israeli media, the latest barrage set off explosions over Tel Aviv and ignited a fire at a parking lot. It is not clear if there were other hits as Israel censors information about impacts at strategic sites.
The IRGC statement comes after Trump claimed complete control over Iran’s skies and demanded the country’s unconditional surrender.
Iranians ‘extremely distraught, worried’ as Israel launches more attacks
We’ve heard of two major explosions in Tehran over the past hour and another one in the suburb of Karaj, west of the capital.
Air defences have been activated there due to the latest strikes, as well as in the city of Tabriz, northwest of the country, and in Bushehr in the south.
What we are also hearing from the Israeli military is that they are issuing, again, another forced evacuation threat. This time, in the District 18 of Tehran which is known as the Shadegh area. It is a densely-populated area that is home to about 400,000 people, and is located south of the Mehrabad airport, the domestic airport, which has not been operational since Friday.
This is the second time that Israel issued an evacuation threat highlighting a specific neighbourhood, and it is coming in the middle of the night.
Internet is also down in the country due to a cyberattack, so it is not clear if most people would get the information that they are supposed to evacuate.
People are extremely distraught and worried. Those who have fled the capital are also facing issues of food supply in the areas where they have fled to. There’s lots of concern and nowhere to go, and they are not able to access information easily.
A recap of recent developments
- Israel launches new attacks on Iran’s capital, Tehran, after issuing an evacuation threat for residents of an area known as District 18, near the Mehrabad airport.
- The attacks come as Iran launches more missiles towards Israel, with explosions reported over Tel Aviv and shrapnel igniting a fire at a parking lot in a central area of the country.
- Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says “the battle begins”, in a post on X, after US President Donald Trump issued a warning, saying: “We know exactly where the so-called Supreme Leader is hiding… We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now…Our patience is wearing thin.”
- Trump has also demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and said, “We now have complete control over Iran’s skies.” This comes amid reports that the US is deploying more fighter jets to the Middle East.
- The International Atomic Energy Agency says an Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear complex Natanz directly hit the underground enrichment plant there in a revision of its initial assessment.
- In Gaza, US forces have killed at least 89 Palestinians, including 70 people who were seeking food aid in the city of Khan Younis.
Welcome to our live coverage
Hello and welcome to our coverage of the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Stay with us for up-to-the-minute coverage of Israel’s attacks on Iran and Iran’s retaliatory barrages of missiles.
You can find all our updates from Tuesday, June 17, here.
