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Here’s where things stand on Friday 26 June 2025:
- During a meeting in Brussels, the EU said it “deplores the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, the unacceptable number of civilian casualties and the levels of starvation”.
- At least 71 people have been killed this morning in Israeli attacks on Gaza, hospital sources tell Al Jazeera. At least 14 of that number were killed in the north
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Kahmenei congratulated the country’s armed forces and said US bases could be attacked again in case of future threats.
- President Donald Trump says US and Iran officials will talk next week, as Iran’s Guardian Council suspends cooperation with UN’s IAEA.
- Iran’s Health Ministry says at least 627 people were killed and more than 4,870 injured during Israel’s 12 days of attacks on the country. At least 28 people were killed in Iranian strikes on Israel.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 56,156 people and wounded 132,239, 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.
Iran calls US ‘self-defence’ justification for strikes a distortion of international law
Iranian media reported that the government wrote to the UN formally condemning the US for its recent strikes on nuclear facilities and rejecting its “self-defence” justification for the attacks.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that in the letter, Iran’s representative to the UN rejected Washington’s attempts to justify its strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities as an act of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter.
He said Iran denounced the explanation as a “blatant distortion” of international law and the UN’s Charter, saying the attacks were a violation of Tehran’s sovereignty, and contravened principles governing the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
In remarks to a UN Security Council briefing on non-proliferation and Iran on Tuesday, acting US Ambassador Dorothy Shea said the “precision operation” against Iran’s nuclear sites was carried out “in accordance with the inherent right to collective self-defense, consistent with the UN Charter”.
Was the Iran war to establish Israel’s control over the Middle East?
Hours after President Trump said he wanted two weeks to think about whether to join Israel in bombing, he gave the order for a bunker-busting bomb attack that put the US in the middle of a major conflict.
Trump says Iran’s enrichment facilities have now been completely “obliterated”, but military experts say they’re not so sure.
So, what has he achieved by attacking Iran, and what options does Iran have now?
Gaza officials call aid sites ‘death traps’ amid rising casualties, missing civilians
Earlier today, Gaza’s Government Media Office said that at least 549 Palestinians have been killed trying to access aid since the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating four weeks ago.
The attacks at the “death traps”, it said in a statement, have also caused 4,066 injuries, and led to 39 missing people among starving Palestinian civilians.
“The occupation is using food as a weapon of mass killing, turning what it claims to be ‘aid’ into a tool of extermination and domination,” Gaza’s Government Media Office added.
France condemns Israeli settler attacks
France has called on the Israeli government to take “decisive action” after four Palestinians were killed in settler attacks in recent days.
Three Palestinians were killed in a settler attack on Kafr Malek, while a fourth person, identified by the Palestinian Health Ministry as a 48-year-old man, was killed in the town of Surif near Hebron last week.
“France condemns the repeated attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “France reiterates its condemnation of settlement activity and its strong opposition to any form of annexation.”
US senator maintains Iran’s nuclear programme only set back months
Trump administration officials have held a classified briefing with members of Congress, after spending the day pushing back on reports that US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were less effective than they have said.
Despite those claims, US Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, said that Trump officials did not provide any new information to support that Iran’s nuclear programme had been “obliterated”.
“To me it still appears that we have only set back Iranian nuclear programme by a handful of months,” Murphy told reporters, noting he could not provide further details on the classified information presented.
“There’s no doubt there was damage done to the programme, but the allegations that we have obliterated their programme just don’t seem to stand up to reason.”
Murphy also questioned the Trump administration’s transparency, asking why the director of national intelligence was not present at the briefing.
Photos: Protesters in Tel Aviv call for end of war on Gaza, release of captives
Two infants die in Gaza from malnutrition
The Palestinian news agency has reported that two infants have died today in Gaza due to malnutrition and the lack of formula milk.
The Wafa news agency quoted the uncle of one of the infants as saying that five-month-old Nidal died as a result of “lack of food and unavailability of milk”.
It cited the father of the other infant, 10-day-old Kinda, saying she had died of malnutrition and lack of medicine. Both infants were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Israel has severely limited aid access to Gaza in recent months, instead funnelling most deliveries through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Earlier today, the WHO said it delivered its first medical aid delivery to Gaza since March 2, calling it a “drop in the ocean”.
How Israel used drones launched from inside Iran
Just hours after the Israeli army and Mossad spy agency started their attacks on Iran before dawn on June 13, they released footage that appeared to have been recorded at night from undisclosed locations inside Iran.
One grainy video showed Mossad operatives, camouflaged and wearing tactical gear, including night-vision goggles, crouched in what looked like desert terrain, deploying weapons that aimed to destroy Iran’s air defence systems to help pave the way for incoming attack aircraft.
Others showed projectiles, with mounted cameras, descending to slam into Iranian missile defence batteries, as well as ballistic missile platforms. The projectiles appeared to be Spike missiles – relatively small, precision-guided anti-armour missiles that can be programmed to fly to targets that are out of their line of sight.
Israel also appears to have used a large number of explosives-laden small drones and quadcopters during the 12-day war to overwhelm Iranian defences as part of its multipronged assault operations.
Read more about how Israel launched attacks from inside Iran to sow chaos during war here.
In Gaza, every piece of bread comes with a risk
For the people of Gaza, chasing the illusion of help can be more dangerous than hunger itself. The shelling never stops, and panic spreads fast.
For many, the distribution points run by the US and Israelis have become what the UN is now calling a death trap.
But now, not all aid lines end in bloodshed. In northern Gaza, coordination between Palestinian tribes has allowed for safer, locally secured distribution points. No shooting. No bombings. Just food and a shred of dignity.
In coordination with UN agencies and other international aid groups, Israel is allowing 100 aid trucks back into Gaza a day. This, after devastating scenes of crowds being shot at and hundreds being killed after Israeli attacks on aid distribution points run by US contractors.
In Gaza, every piece of bread comes with a risk. But even among the rubble, people find moments of unity and ways to survive. A single package might last only a few days, while the need is overwhelming and continuing.
Competing narratives on Capitol Hill regarding US strikes on Iran
More information has been given to US senators here on Capitol Hill by the defence secretary, who was here a short while ago.
This was conducted behind closed doors and no classified information was shared. However, as you can imagine, the responses largely fell along party lines.
Lindsey Graham, a notable Republican senator, said he believed the US did obliterate Iran’s nuclear programme. He said this would set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions by years.
He noted that he had not shared information on whether the enriched uranium stockpile that Iran had prior to the strikes had been moved in time. And he said that further US strikes on Iran were not off the table.
Democrats, including Chris Murphy, had a different take. He said that Trump was lying when he said that the nuclear programme was obliterated.
Murphy said the programme was certainly damaged, but there is still remaining capability, and he believes that the programme was set back by only a few months, which is what the preliminary intelligence assessment that was leaked had also concluded.
Iran says detailed assessment of damage being carried out at nuclear sites
Iran’s Foreign Minister Araqchi adds that a detailed assessment of the damage by US air strikes on Iranian nuclear sites is being carried out by experts from the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.
He said that the damage is serious, and expert assessments and political decision-making are also under way at the same time.
Iran denies any meeting with US next week
Iran currently has no plan to meet the US government, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said, contradicting President Trump’s statement that Washington planned to have talks with Iran next week.
The Iranian foreign minister said Tehran was assessing whether talks with the US were in its interest, following five previous rounds of negotiations that were cut short by Israel and the US attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Araqchi said the damages to nuclear sites “were not little” and that relevant authorities were figuring out the new realities of Iran’s nuclear programme, which he said would inform Iran’s future diplomatic stance.
Qatar’s emir, Turkiye’s president discuss Iranian strike
Qatar’s emir has spoken with Turkiye’s President Erdogan, in the latest call regarding Iran’s strike on a US air base in Qatar on Monday.
During the call, Erdogan “stressed his country’s absolute rejection of any aggression that threatens the security and safety”.
As we reported earlier, Sheikh Tamim also spoke with Iraq’s president about the Iranian attack.