Updates: Israel, Iran continue missile attacks; 144 killed in Gaza

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For more on the ongoing fighting between Israel and Iran, you can read our coverage here.

You can also find our reporting on Iran’s most significant strikes on Israel since the war began here.

You can also find our coverage of Israel’s latest deadly attack on crowds of Palestinians waiting for food assistance in Gaza here.

We will be closing the live page soon. Here’s a brief review of the day’s main events:

• Israel says it struck about 40 sites in Iran.
• Israel says 24 people have been killed in Iranian strikes, while more than 240 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Iran.
• Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei says Iran would not accept an “imposed war” and warned that US involvement in attacks on Iran would bring “irreparable consequences” as Trump continues to suggest that the US could enter the war against Iran.
• Israel has continued to carry out deadly attacks in Gaza, with 144 bodies brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours and at least 70 Palestinians killed after Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for food assistance near Khan Younis.
• Iran denied Trump’s claim that Iranian officials asked for a meeting at the White House, saying “the only thing more despicable than his lies is his cowardly threat to ‘take out’ Iran’s Supreme Leader”.

The streets of Tehran are telling a story of chaos: suitcases dragged across pavements, a single mother holding her young son with one hand while balancing a blanket and pillow in the other, heading into a subway station to spend yet another night underground.

With no shelters, alerts or public evacuation plans, young Iranians are turning to the only safe space left as Israel attacks Iran: the internet, and chat apps like Discord and WhatsApp.

Read more from Tehran here.

Rebuffing Israeli and US claims that Iran is close to having a nuclear weapon, Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi has reiterated that the country has “never sought and will never seek” such arms.

“If otherwise, what better pretext could we possibly need for developing those inhuman weapons than the current aggression by the region’s only nuclear-armed regime?” he wrote on X.

Stressing that Tehran is acting “solely… in self-defense” in the face of “the most outrageous aggression” against the country, Araghchi said the world should be “highly alarmed” by Israel’s attempts to broaden the conflict.

“With the exception of the illegitimate, genocidal and occupying Israeli regime, we remain committed to diplomacy. As before, we are serious and forward-looking in our outlook.”

By now, the whole world should know that:

(1) Iran solely acts in self-defense. Even in the face of the most outrageous aggression against our people, Iran has so far only retaliated against the Israeli regime and not those who are aiding and abetting it. Just like Netanyahu… pic.twitter.com/cEUCaLHpAL

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) June 18, 2025

The research group Airwars, which monitors civilian harm caused by strikes in numerous conflict zones around the world, has released a report finding that US attacks in Yemen over the last 52 days killed nearly as many civilians as all US strikes in that country during the last 23 years.

The US previously said that the multiweek campaign of strikes aimed at the Houthis for their attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping in solidarity with Gaza were based on “detailed” intelligence and an emphasis on “minimizing risk to civilians”.

Instead, the report found an unprecedented toll.

“In the period between the first recorded US strike in Yemen to the beginning of Trump’s campaign in March, Airwars tracked at least 258 civilians allegedly killed by US actions,” the report states. “In less than two months of Operation Rough Rider, Airwars documented at least 224 civilians in Yemen killed by US airstrikes – nearly doubling the civilian casualty toll in Yemen by US actions since 2002.”

Human rights groups have called for the investigation of two especially deadly incidents, the US bombing of Ras Isa Port and Saada’s Remand Detention Prison, which allegedly killed a combined 152 civilians and injured nearly 200 more.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is urging Americans to pressure their elected officials to vote in favour of a resolution in the House of Representatives that would prohibit the US from getting involved in the war with Iran without congressional approval.

Earlier this week, Republican and Democratic Congressmen Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna introduced a measure reaffirming that only the US Congress has the authority to declare war – and seeking to prevent the executive branch from unilaterally taking military action.

“The American people do not want to be dragged into another endless and unauthorized war in the Middle East,” Robert McCaw, CAIR’s director of governmental affairs, said in a statement.

“President Trump must stop intervening militarily and stop aiding Israel’s escalation toward war with Iran. It’s time to respect the Constitution, listen to the will of the people, and put an end to the reckless path to conflict.”

Urge Your Representatives to Support this Bipartisan Resolution to Block Unauthorized U.S. Military Action Against Iran: https://t.co/AL99cAAGyX https://t.co/gwZwZiCvmc

— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) June 18, 2025

Foreign ministers of UK, France and Germany will be meeting with the Iranian foreign minister.

What we also understand is that this meeting is being coordinated with the US, which means these Western governments are in consultation with Washington.

This is a significant matter. We do not know, and have not been told, whether the US will have a direct representative there. At this stage, it appears not.

However, it is very clear that there’s strong coordination between the US and those European foreign ministers in what could be another tranche of attempts to reach an end to this ongoing conflict via a negotiated means.

This is the third such internet disruption since last week, NetBlocks said, adding that “the incident is likely to severely limit most residents’ ability to communicate”.

Israel’s deadly attacks continue across the Gaza Strip, with the local health ministry saying earlier today that at least 144 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours.

Putin mentioned that Russia has nationals working in the Bushehr nuclear facility. This is one of the facilities that the Israelis have not attacked.

Russia started construction on the Bushehr nuclear plant in 2005, and it came online in 2011.

But Russia clearly has a very important role in Iran’s nuclear programme. They have already signed a 20-year strategic agreement with Iran that includes building at least three more nuclear facilities inside Iran.

So these developments that we’re seeing on the ground really do affect Russia.

We know that Putin has been speaking to Trump, he has spoken to Netanyahu, he has spoken to Iran’s president. Putin has been highlighting that this conflict also has ramifications for Russia.

Of course, the two countries have had a very complicated history, but nonetheless, it is in Russia’s best interests that there is no complete collapse of Iran as a result of this conflict.

In a statement to the state-run news agency KCNA, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson slammed Israel’s unprovoked war against Iran.

“The DPRK expresses serious concern over Israel’s military attack and resolutely denounces it,” the spokesperson said, using the acronym for the country’s official name, adding that Israel’s killing of civilians is an “unpardonable crime against humanity”.

“The illegal act of state-sponsored terrorism by Israel [is] raising the danger of a new all-out war in the Middle East region.”

Here is a quick summary of comments from Russia’s president on the war between Israel and Iran:

• He is in contact with Trump and Israel.
• Iranian society is “consolidating” around the country’s leadership.
• Russia could help broker an agreement that addresses the interests of both Iran and Israel.
• Russia has workers at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, but Israel has agreed to ensure their safety.

Palestinian news service Wafa has reported than a young man was injured with bullet shrapnel after Israeli forces opened fire during a raid on the towns of Ya’bad and Rummana, located near Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

The report states that a child on a bicycle was also assaulted by Israeli forces, which raided several homes and confiscated surveillance camera footage.

Wafa also reports that Israeli forces have been using 11 homes in the town of Rummana as a base of operations in the area after expelling their inhabitants.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says that it has started operating a field hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The PRCS says that the facility includes 60 beds, two operating rooms, an emergency department, a laboratory, and an x-ray department, with hopes to expand inpatient capacity with four intensive care beds.

“On its first day, the hospital witnessed a large turnout of residents, receiving dozens of cases that received immediate medical care and performing three successful surgeries, reflecting the urgent need for such interventions in the region,” the group said in a social media post.

Throughout the war in Gaza, rights groups say Israeli forces have systematically targeted medical workers and facilities.

Israel, Trump and some European officials have repeatedly commented on Iran being “weeks away” from building a nuclear weapon.

This is what Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Al Jazeera earlier this week:

“We did not find, in Iran, elements to indicate that there’s a systematic plan to build a nuclear weapon. We have not seen elements to allow us inspectors to affirm that there was a nuclear weapon being manufactured or produced somewhere in Iran.”