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Here’s where things stand on Wednesday 25 June 2025:
- President Trump says US and Iranian officials will talk next week to continue a dialogue interrupted by the 12-day war between Israel and Iran adding the “war is done”.
- Iran’s parliament passes a bill to suspend cooperation with the UN’s IAEA, which still needs approval from its national security council.
- Iran says at least 627 people, including 13 children, were killed and 4,870 wounded since Israel launched its attack on June 13. In Israel, at least 28 people were killed in Iranian strikes.
- Israel’s assault on Gaza continues, killing at least 51 people today. Its war on Gaza has killed at least 56,077 people and wounded 131,848, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and more than 200 taken captive.
3 Palestinians killed during settler attack in the occupied West Bank
At least three Palestinians have been killed and seven others injured in a settler attack on the town of Kafr Malik, northeast of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
Dozens of Israeli settlers attacked the town, burning vehicles and homes as residents of neighbouring villages attempted to confront them, local sources said. Israeli troops provided protection for the settlers and fired live rounds.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated wounded Palestinians who suffered gunshot wounds with some in serious condition.
The occupied West Bank is home to more than three million Palestinians who live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority governing in limited areas.
Israel has so far built more than 100 settlements across the West Bank, which are home to about 500,000 settlers. Settlers are Israeli citizens living illegally on private Palestinian land in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
Earlier, in a raid on al-Yamoun, west of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers shot a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in the neck. The boy is reported to have later died from his wounds.
France reiterates calls for a ceasefire in Gaza
French President Emmanuel Macron has reiterated calls for a ceasefire in Gaza after a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I reiterated to the Prime Minister the absolute necessity of establishing a ceasefire in Gaza,” Macron wrote on X.
He also stressed the need for “large-scale access for humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip” and reaffirmed support for a two-state solution – a political path to peace that Israel has increasingly disregarded amid its genocide on the Palestinian people.
Macron added that both leaders shared the goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Netanyahu denies pressuring US into Iran strikes
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed as “nonsense” a Washington Post report claiming Israel pressured the United States into joining its attack on Iran.
“The Washington Post story suggesting that Israel pushed President Trump into his bold decision to bomb Iranian nuclear sites is nonsense,” his official X account posted, adding that Trump “acted in the best interest of the USA based on the same intel we had”.
Multiple current and former Israeli officials were quoted as saying Netanyahu ordered preparations for strikes months in advance, with Israeli officials lobbying US counterparts.
While both Trump and Biden-era intelligence agencies consistently assessed that Tehran had not decided to pursue nuclear weapons, Israel’s Channel 12 has also reported that Trump was personally urged by Netanyahu to “take part in history”.
‘UNRWA has become an objective of this war,’ says agency chief
The head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency says UNRWA is being deliberately targeted in a broader effort to erase Palestinians’ human rights.
“UNRWA has become an objective of this war, which aims to strip Palestinians of their refugee status,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the agency’s commissioner-general.
“Despite the extraordinary adverse and hostile environment, further compounded by the implementation of anti-UNRWA Israeli legislation, our activities continue.”
Lazzarini praised the “courage and determination” of Palestinian staff, “despite arrests, intimidation and harassment”, saying they continue to deliver essential healthcare and education to refugees.
Israel banned UNRWA from operating on its territory earlier this year. The ban also impacted the agency’s work in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Lazzarini warned on Tuesday that UNRWA may soon be forced to make an “unprecedented decision” about its services as it faces a $200m funding shortfall.
Israeli attacks kill at least 64 as Trump signals progress in Gaza talks
Israeli attacks have killed at least 64 people in the Gaza Strip, including 14 Palestinians who were waiting near aid distribution centres, medical sources tell Al Jazeera.
The deadly violence comes as President Donald Trump said “great progress” is being made to bring an end to Israel’s 20-month war that’s killed at least 56,000 Palestinians – mostly children and women.
As Israel continues its bloody assault, its military said seven soldiers were killed in combat in Gaza on Tuesday.
Read the full story here.
Hamas says truce talks ‘intensify’ to end Israel’s war on Gaza
Key Gaza war mediator Qatar has announced it launched a new push for a ceasefire with Hamas, saying talks have ramped up.
“Our communications with the brother mediators in Egypt and Qatar have not stopped and have intensified in recent hours,” Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said.
He cautioned, however, that the group has “not yet received any new proposals” to end the war.
US President Donald Trump said “great progress” is being made to end Israel’s war on Gaza as a new ceasefire push begins more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.
Trump linked his optimism about imminent “very good news” to a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Iran.
Making sense of the ’12-day war’ between Israel and Iran
So much has happened since Israel launched strikes on Iran on June 13 and there are so many questions about what could happen next.
Al Jazeera’s Sandra Gathmann speaks with Mike Fitzpatrick, a former US diplomat and an expert on nuclear issues, to try to make sense of it all.
Mossad chief says Israel ‘will not take its eyes off Iran’
Mossad chief David Barnea has made a rare public appearance in a video released to Israeli media, promising the intelligence agency “will not take its eyes off Iran’s projects, about which we have extensive knowledge”.
“We will be there, like we have been there,” Barnea said.
He described the agency’s actions as “unimaginable”, citing public reports of assassinations of senior Iranian military officials and attacks on nuclear, drone, and missile sites.
“We worked for months and years to do all of the right actions to get to the right moment … We understood the fatefulness of the hour,” said Barnea.
US intel czar says ‘new intel’ shows Iran’s nuclear sites ‘destroyed’
US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says “new intelligence” has confirmed Iran’s nuclear facilities have been “destroyed”.
“New intelligence confirms what @POTUS has stated numerous times: Iran’s nuclear facilities have been destroyed. If the Iranians chose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities [Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan] entirely, which would likely take years to do,” Gabbard said on social media.
Her comments come after a “top secret” intelligence report – published by major US news outlets – said the US strikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday failed to destroy underground facilities, and set Tehran’s nuclear programme back only by a few months.
Estimated 20,000 passengers on diverted flights cleared within 24 hours: Qatar Airways
The airline’s CEO, Badr Mohammed al-Meer, says all passengers from flights that were diverted as Iran launched a retaliatory missile attack on a US airbase in Qatar were cleared within 24 hours.
About 20,000 passengers in all were affected by the flight diversions, he said in a statement.
Israel tops UN child rights blacklist for second consecutive year
Once again, Gaza is at the top of the UN’s children’s rights blacklist report and Israel is named on this “list of shame” of countries that perpetrate grave violations of children.
The UN has been producing this report for 20 years now, and Israel has fought to stay off of this and not be named for many years. And now, it’s been listed two years running.
There are a lot of violations cited in the report against Israel for violations against children. This can be attributed, of course, to Israel’s continued war on Gaza.
But also beyond is its increased violence against children in the occupied West Bank.
Iran’s defence minister arrives in China for security forum
Iran’s Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh has arrived in China for a regional security forum – his first known trip abroad since the start of the war with Israel.
He is expected to attend a meeting in Qingdao with defence ministers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a bloc founded by China and Russia that also includes India, Pakistan, and Belarus.
A video of Nasirzadeh’s arrival was posted by Yuyuantantian, a publication linked to China’s state broadcaster CCTV.
The two-day forum, hosted by Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun, runs Wednesday and Thursday. Iran joined the SCO in 2023.
Mapping Israel’s expanding battlefronts across the Middle East
An analysis of data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project shows that between October 7, 2023, and before Israel attacked Iran on June 13, Israel carried out nearly 35,000 recorded attacks across five countries: the occupied Palestinian territory, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran.
These attacks include air and drone strikes, shelling and missile attacks, remote explosives, and property destruction.
Read the full story here.
More Gaza aid hub killings as GHF called ‘an abomination’
At least 60 Palestinians were killed while trying to get aid in Gaza in the past 24 hours.
More than 500 have been killed since the US-and-Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation took over distribution, a process condemned as a “death trap” by UN officials.
US didn’t destroy Iran’s nuclear programme: Here’s what new intel says
US strikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites failed to destroy underground facilities and set Tehran’s nuclear programme back only by a few months, according to a top-secret assessment.
The document prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the intelligence arm of the Pentagon, and published by major US news outlets on Tuesday is at odds with President Donald Trump’s claims about the strikes.
Trump insists the nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan were “obliterated” by a combination of bunker-busting and conventional bombs.
Read the full story here.
Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission says Iran’s nuclear capabilities pushed back ‘many years’
Netanyahu’s office has shared an assessment from the Israel Atomic Energy Commission on Iran’s nuclear capacity, saying recent attacks have knocked the Fordow facility completely out of operation and set back Iran’s nuclear programme “many years”.
“The destructive US strike on Fordow has destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable,” said the commission’s assessment shared by the prime minister’s office. “We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other components of Iran’s military nuclear programme, have set back Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon by many years,” it added.
“This achievement will be preserved as long as Iran does not regain access to nuclear material.”
Israel killed at least 627 people in Iran during war
The spokesperson for Iran’s Health Ministry has released an updated death toll from Israel’s attacks on Iranian territory.
In a post on X, Hossein Kermanpour said at least 627 people were killed and 4,870 wounded in Israeli strikes.
Tehran recorded the highest number of casualties, followed by Kermanshah, with Khuzestan, Lorestan, and Isfahan reporting significant losses, he said.
“I make no judgments,” Kermanpour wrote. “I do not describe the painful scenes of the arrival of injured children, mothers, and civilians, and I leave it to the judgment of humanity’s conscience today.”
About 86.1 percent of the victims died at the scene, while 13.9 percent succumbed to their wounds in hospitals.
Mayor in central Israel believes government should end Gaza war
Miriam Feirberg-Ikar, mayor of the central Israeli city of Netanya, says, “If it were up to me, I would end the war in Gaza” in order to get back all remaining Israeli captives.
She said Israel cannot fully root out Hamas because “it is an ideological movement, not just a group of individuals”.
“We must pursue an Egyptian initiative that would lead to stable governance in Gaza and create a more secure buffer between Israel and the Strip,” Feirberg-Ikar said in comments carried by Israel’s Maariv news.
She also suggested that Netanyahu, whose Likud party she is also a member of, consider snap elections as she believes the party is currently in a strong position.
Trump details US military base defence during Iran attack in Qatar
President Trump has outlined how Iran’s attack on the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar unfolded.
“We have the best military hardware in the world. You saw how 14 missiles were shot at us the other day. They [the Iranians] were very nice, they gave us warning. They said ‘we’re going to shoot’em, is one o’clock okay?’ We said it’s fine and everybody was emptied off the base so they couldn’t get hurt, except for the gunners,” Trump told the NATO summit at The Hague.
“Out of 14 high-end missiles that were shot at the base in Qatar, all 14 as you know were shot down by our equipment. Amazing stuff. It’s like shooting a bullet with a bullet. Fourteen out of 14 and they [the gunners] were not even surprised. I said ‘do you do that well often?’ They said ‘we pretty much do, sir’.”
After the US attack on its nuclear facilities, Iran said it targeted the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar because it “serves as the command centre of the US Air Force and is the largest strategic asset of the American terrorist army in West Asia”.
Iranian commander Shadmani dies of wounds from Israeli attack
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard command centre, Ali Shadmani, has died of wounds sustained during Israel’s military strikes on the country, Iranian state media report.
The Guard’s command centre promised “harsh revenge” for his killing, state media added.
Israel’s military said on June 17 that it killed Shadmani, who it identified as Iran’s wartime chief of staff and most senior military commander.
‘I’ll never forget the wailing of the father saying goodbye to his son’
Palestinians in Gaza are sometimes having to head to aid distribution sites in the middle of the night “to try to fight for whatever aid they can get,” says Dr Bushra Othman, a volunteer surgeon.
A “state of chaos” at the distribution sites exists because of the desperation of the people, the doctor with the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah.
“We’re seeing gunshot wounds, either to the brain or to the chest … shrapnel injuries that are either piercing spinal cords and making people paraplegic.
“We had a 13-year-old boy the other day who’d had shrapnel injury through his brain, [that] tore through his right eye, pierced through his heart and shattered his intestines.
“I’ll never forget the wailing of the father saying goodbye to his son who passed away on the operating table.
“We’re seeing really horrific injuries in the emergency department, with gunshots coming in through the front of the face and going back, through the back of the mouth or the throat or the spinal cord again, and plenty of severely life-threatening abdominal injuries as well.
“In the clamour of all of the chaos, people are sometimes getting run over by either the cars or the trucks that are there. So we’re seeing limbs that are mangled and shattered.
“On top of all of that, you’ve still got bombs going off, or you’ve got quacopters firing at people”, Othman said.
