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Here’s where things stand on Wednesday 25 June 2025:
- The ceasefire between Israel and Iran, announced by US President Donald Trump, appears to be holding, despite an Iranian missile attack and an Israeli assault on Tehran after the truce came into effect.
- White House refutes intelligence reports that say US bombings of Iran’s nuclear sites did not completely destroy the facilities and only set the programme back by a few months.
- Both Israel and Iran have claimed victory in the 12-day war, with Iranians holding celebrations in Tehran and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming a triumph that will stand for generations.
- Earlier, Trump publicly scolded both Israel and Iran for truce violations using a televised expletive, and ordered Israel to end its bombing operations and bring its fighter jets home.
- Iran says at least 610 people, including 13 children, have been killed and at least 3,056 others wounded since Israel launched its attack on June 13. In Israel, at least 28 people have been killed in Iranian strikes.
Seven Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza fighting: Military
Israel’s military has released the names of six soldiers who were killed in Gaza and is withholding the name of a seventh soldier until his death has been notified to this family.
The seven were all killed on Tuesday in Gaza, according to the military, and ranged in age from 19 to 21 years old.
Those identified were all members of Israel’s 605th Combat Engineering Battalion.
An eight soldier from the same unit was also several wounded on Tuesday night in Gaza and has been medically evacuated to Israel, the military said.
BRICS bloc slams Israel, US military strikes against Iran
The BRICS group of countries – a bloc of emerging economies that includes Brazil, China, India, South Africa and Russia – has expressed “grave concern” over the recent Israeli and US strikes against Iran, describing them as a “violation of international law” and the UN Charter.
In a statement issued after the ceasefire between Iran and Israel took effect, the BRICS group criticised the attacks on Iran’s “peaceful nuclear installations”, which it said were carried out in violation of international law and regulations of the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.
The bloc urged the warring parties to return to diplomacy, “with a view to de-escalating the situation and resolving their differences through peaceful means”.
BRICS, which also includes Iran and the UAE, said there is a “need to break the cycle of violence and restore peace” through dialogue.
Battle of the ‘victory’ narratives continues between Israel, Iran: Analyst
Sina Azodi, director of the Middle East studies programme at George Washington University, said Israel has claimed victory over Iran, but Tehran has also claimed victory over Israel.
Amid these competing narratives, Azodi sensed that many in Israel were unhappy with “how the war evolved”.
“They’ve gone after Iranian military infrastructure, decapitation of their senior military command, some of the nuclear facilities and other government institutions. They can also claim that Iran’s missile programme has been weakened because Iran has used many of its missiles, and it will be difficult for Iranians to replace them,” Azodi told Al Jazeera.
“Iranians can also claim victory by suggesting that the region’s most powerful country in terms of military power – the only country that has nuclear weapons in the region – has been forced to seek a ceasefire with Iranians,” Azodi said.
“Clearly, the Israelis have not been able to achieve their objectives in destroying the Iranian nuclear programme or forcing Iran to capitulate. So I don’t think the prime minister in the long-term… he may have achieved and can claim some short-term victory, but in the long-term, I don’t think his leadership serves Israel’s interests.”
US Embassy in Israel resumes operations as ceasefire holds
The US Embassy in Israel has lifted all restrictions and resumed regular consular services, as the ceasefire between Iran and Israel appears to hold for a second day.
In a statement posted on the embassy’s website, the US government said “shelter in place orders” for government employees and their family members have also been lifted.
Passport and other consular service appointments are back to normal scheduling, the statement added, while visa operations will resume in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Monday, June 30.
US government employees and their family members, however, are still restricted from travel outside the greater Tel Aviv area, including Herzliya, Netanya, and Even Yehuda, as well as Jerusalem, and Beersheva “until further notice”.
What is the NPT, and why has Iran threatened to pull out of the treaty?
As the ceasefire between Iran and Israel appears to hold, there are now questions about the future of the Iranian nuclear programme.
Currently, Iran is a non-proliferation treaty partner, but politicians in the country are calling for the country to pull out of it.
Oil slides, stocks rise as Iran-Israel ceasefire holds
Oil prices sank for a second straight day and stock markets mostly rose as a ceasefire between Iran and Israel appeared to be holding firm for a second day.
Crude futures slumped in volatile trading after US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire, extending earlier steep losses in oil after Iran’s response to the US attack on its nuclear programme did not hit energy infrastructure in the region.
Wall Street stocks spent the entire session in positive territory following the improved dynamics in the Middle East due to the ceasefire.
With the “de-escalation, the market seems to be doing better”, Art Hogan, the chief market strategist of B Riley Wealth, told the AFP news agency.
Trump envoy insists US attacks destroyed Iranian nuclear facilities
Steve Witkoff has dismissed an intelligence report that said US air strikes on Iran’s Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan sites did not destroy the country’s nuclear programme.
“All three of those had most, if not all, the centrifuges damaged or destroyed in a way that it will be almost impossible for them to resurrect that programme,” Witkoff told Fox News.
“In my view, and in many other experts’ views who have seen the raw data, it will take a period of years.”
Witkoff also called the leaking of the report as “treasonous”.
“It ought to be investigated. And whoever did it, whoever is responsible for it, should be held accountable,” he added.
US House drops effort to impeach Trump over Iran strikes
The House has voted overwhelmingly to set aside an effort to impeach President Trump on a sole charge of abuse of power for launching military strikes on Iran without congressional authorisation.
The Associated Press news agency reports that the attempt brought to the House by Democrat Al Green of Texas brought little debate and also split his party, many of whom joined with their Republican colleagues to vote down the impeachment attempt.
Speaking in advance of the vote, Green said he believed the US was at the “crossroads of democracy and autocracy”.
“I do this because no one person should have the power to take over 300 million people to war without consulting with the Congress of the United States of America,” Green said.
“I do this because I understand that the Constitution is going to be meaningful or it’s going to be meaningless,” he said.
Most Democrats joined the Republican majority to shelve the impeachment attempt with a vote tally of 344 to 79.
Trump lashed out earlier on Tuesday at Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York for suggesting his military action against Iran was an impeachable offence.
Iranian president praises public’s resilience through Israeli attacks
Today is another day and also, Tehran today is another city. Many people started getting back to their houses, to the shops – shops started opening.
Restaurants, coffee shops are full of people, and, of course, some of the squares, just like Enghlab Square or the Revolution Square in downtown Tehran, are packed with people who are celebrating the end of the war.
This experience, the 12-day experience, was heavy on the people. Therefore, they feel better now.
With the war ended and with security back, they can go to their homes. They can go back to the streets and they can express their feelings. This is the most important thing to them.
And President Pezeshkian sent a message to the people of Iran, giving them the credit for their resilience [after]…Israel has stopped this war that it started.
Iran diaspora in ‘Tehrangeles’ dream of ‘regime change’
Despite Trump’s declaration of a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, many Iranians living in the US believe that it is time for a “regime change” in their homeland after close to five decades under clerical rule.
In an Iranian neighbourhood of Los Angeles, grocery owner Mohammad Ghafari told the AFP news agency that while he is worried about his relatives, he also cherishes the hope of change in his native country.
Iran “is not capable of providing food to the Persian people,” said Ghafari, who left to study abroad before the 1979 revolution and never returned.
“If the people [there] were happy about a change of regime, I would be too.”
Any talk of toppling Iran’s clerical leadership resonates strongly in the Los Angeles area, where nearly 200,000 Iranian-Americans live, according to the AFP.
“Everyone would be happy,” agreed Fereshteh, one of Ghafari’s customers and a fellow resident of so-called “Tehrangeles” – a mash-up of Tehran and Los Angeles.
“It’s time for the Iranian people to rise up, because right now, the regime is very weak,” said Fereshteh, an Iranian of Jewish background who fled Iran in the 1980s during the war between her country and Iraq.
Video shows extensive damage to Iran’s Evin Prison after Israeli attack
The semi-official Islamic Students’ News Agency (ISNA) has posted footage of the damage at Tehran’s Evin Prison after an Israeli strike on the facility on Monday.
The agency said the attack caused part of the visitors’ lounge to collapse.
The video shows destruction at the gate to the facility, bombed-out walls, collapsed ceilings and blood-strewn floors.
Earlier, Iran’s judiciary said that several people were killed and wounded during the attack.
The notorious facility holds political prisoners and has been the subject of several reports of alleged human rights abuses carried out by Iranian authorities.
In tense call, Trump reportedly told Netanyahu to ‘tone it down’ on Iran attacks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is touting this as a huge victory for Israel, saying that they achieved a lot of what they wanted to.
The main component of that being depleting Iran’s nuclear capabilities and destroying arsenals of ballistic missiles that Israel said was a direct threat to them.
He also said that there is still work that needs to be done in Iran. But for now, the job is over.
However, there are some reports within Israeli media that say many Israeli officials, including the premier himself, were taken by surprise at US President Donald Trump’s comments that he was unhappy with Israel.
That they need to turn around planes and not continue on with their aggression on Iran and that they need to tone it down. And that he would be the one to do that.
There was a tense call between Netanyahu and the US president in which American officials really emphasised the fact that this ceasefire needs to remain in place.
Israel claims killing at least 14 Iranian scientists
The Associated Press news agency says Israel carried out targeted killings of at least 14 Iranian scientists, including chemists, physicists and engineers, during its assault on the country.
The agency cited Israel’s Ambassador to France, Joshua Zarka.
The envoy claimed the assassinations would make it “almost” impossible for Iran to build weapons from whatever nuclear infrastructure and material may have survived the Israeli and US bombings.
“The fact that the whole group disappeared is basically throwing back the programme by a number of years, by quite a number of years,” Zarka said.
The AP said Zarka spoke to them on Monday, while on Tuesday, Iran television reported the death of another Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohammad Reza Sedighi Saber, in an Israeli strike. Saber had survived an earlier attack that killed his 17-year-old son on June 13.
Despite Zarka’s claim, analysts say Iran has other scientists who can take the place of those killed and that the assassinations can only set back the country’s nuclear programme, not end it.
Some ’99 percent of Israelis’ believe attack on Iran was ‘inevitable’: Former PM
Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister between 2006 and 2009, told Al Jazeera in an interview earlier that the Israeli public was firmly behind Benjamin Netanyahu’s attacks on Iran.
“You know how much I criticise Netanyahu, and I don’t hesitate to say it in the most explicit manner. But 99 percent of Israelis thought that the Israeli attack on Iran was unavoidable and inevitable,” Olmert said.
“And they are very happy that we have succeeded to break down a major part of the military power of Iran,” he added.
“We don’t want to destroy Iran. We don’t want to continue the fighting with Iran. We want to change the pattern of our relations. But we will not agree, under any circumstances, to tolerate an option of Iran becoming nuclear.”
Israeli forces kill 21 Palestinians in Gaza
Medical sources in Gaza say Israeli forces have killed at least 21 Palestinians in the Strip since the early hours today.
Among them are children as well as eight people who were waiting for rations near a distribution point for the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
We’ll bring you more when we have it.
Israel says drones intercepted from Iran launched before ceasefire started
In the last couple of hours, the Israeli military released details about the two drones that were intercepted, the army said, outside of Israeli airspace, but they were making their way towards Israel.
The military says that they were launched from Iran in the early morning hours in addition to those six barrages of ballistic missiles that were sent over shortly before the ceasefire took place.
The military says the reason why those drones are just getting intercepted in the evening is because drones take a lot longer to travel through airspace because, remember, Iran is not next to Israel. So they have to go first over Iraq and then over Jordan and then to Israel.
But the military says that they were intercepted outside of the country’s airspace.
Iran’s airspace to remain closed until 2pm
The semi-official Mehr news agency is reporting that Iran has extended the closure of its airspace amid a fragile ceasefire.
“Following recent developments, the country’s airspace will remain closed until 2pm on Wednesday [10:30 GMT] to ensure the security of passengers and flights,” Majid Akhavan, a spokesman for the transport ministry, was quoted as saying.
Relief, concern in Iran as people celebrate ceasefire but distrust Israeli commitment to peace
What we see on the ground is a mixture of different sentiments across the country.
There is a sense of relief that we can see among the people.
We know that previously, a huge, or at least a considerable part of the population living in the capital, Tehran, decided to evacuate after US President Trump and Israeli officials called on the residents of Tehran to evacuate the city.
Now things are starting to get back to normal.
Added to that is a further layer regarding the anxieties and concerns that exist among the people.
They are looking at the historical background about Israelis and how they treat this idea of ceasefires.
Now in Tehran and Iran, there is this concern about whether the Israelis are going to be committed to this ceasefire or not.
We know that over the past 12 days, it was not just the nuclear facilities or military sites being targeted by the Israel strikes but the very ordinary citizens and their lives were all targeted and affected as a result.
