airstrikes

Video shows Israeli drones launching intense airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday. At least one person was killed in the town of Toura. Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah sites despite a ceasefire agreed to with the group last year.

The UN on Friday warned of devastating consequences for civilians in the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces intensified their attacks via airstrikes on the besieged enclave at an alarming frequency, Anadolu reports

Citing the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference that “Israeli forces have stepped up their operations over the past 24 hours, with devastating consequences for civilians. On average, this meant an airstrike every eight or nine minutes.”

He said the UN teams monitoring population movement “counted about 16,500 displaced people from Northern Gaza to the south” on Thursday alone.

Dujarric noted that aid workers remain positioned along displacement routes to provide support but warned of mounting challenges.

“Aid workers remain stationed along displacement routes, offering psychosocial first aid, referring people to specialized services when needed, and educating new arrivals on the danger of explosive ordinances,” he said.

Despite these efforts, hundreds of thousands of people remain in Gaza City amid widespread insecurity. They rely heavily on humanitarian assistance because more critical services have been forced to close or relocate, he said.

On Israel’s continued access restrictions, he reported that on Thursday, “out of 15 movements that we tried to coordinate with Israeli authorities to support people in different parts of Gaza, only seven were fully facilitated.”

Dujarric stressed that OCHA has urged Israel to “fully facilitate humanitarian operations, including unimpeded movements of aid into and across the Gaza Strip.”

Turning to the situation in the occupied West Bank, he said more than 3,000 Palestinians, half of them children, have been displaced by illegal Israeli settler attacks and Israeli access restrictions since October 2023.

June 29 (UPI) — A Ukrainian F-16 pilot died overnight Sunday during one of Russia’s largest attacks since the invasion in 2022 that included several hundred drones and missiles, Ukraine‘s Air Force said.

Lt. Colonel Maksym Ustymenko, 31, died after his fighter jet was damaged trying to intercept Russian missiles and drones, Ukraine’s Air Force said. Ustymenko, who destroyed seven enemy air targets and managed to steer his jet away from populated areas but didn’t eject in time.

“Ustymenko did everything possible, but his jet was damaged and started losing altitude. He died like a hero!” Ukrainian military officials said.

Ustymenko became Ukraine’s third F-16 pilot to die in combat since the nation added U.S.-made planes last year.

Russia attacked Ukraine with 537 missiles and drones, including 477 Shad-type attack drones and decoys launched into Russian-occupied Crimea, the Kiev Post reported from the military. Of those, 475 were shot down, including Shahed drones and 225 drones suppressed by electronic warfare.

Russia’s missile attack lasted nearly three hours and the drone siege went on for almost 10 hours.

A Ukrainian drone strike on Russia’s Kirovske airfield in Crimea destroyed several helicopters and an air defense system, the Security Service of Ukraine said.

“The SBU is systematically working to reduce the Russian Federation’s capabilities to carry out air and bombing strikes on the territory of Ukraine,” the military said. “The occupiers must realize that their expensive military equipment and ammunition are not protected anywhere: neither on the front line, nor in temporarily occupied territories, nor in the enemy’s deep rear.”

The agency said Mi-8, Mi-26 and Mi-28 helicopters were destroyed.

A dozen Ukrainians were injured in attacks against infrastructure, residential buildings and storage buildings in Lviv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Kyiv.

Several explosions were reported in Kremenchuk and Lviv. And an industrial facility in the Poltava region caught fire as a result, officials said.

A production site in Zaporizhzhia also was damaged.

Russia, under Russian President Vladimir Putin, has increased its attacks on Ukraine’s cities during a summer offensive, Politico Europe reported.

“Just this week alone, there have been more than 114 missiles, over 1,270 drones, and nearly 1,100 glide bombs,” Zelensky said on Telegram. “Putin long ago decided he would keep waging war, despite the world’s calls for peace.”

Neighboring Poland, a member of NATO, scrambled jets and activated its ground-based air defense system, its military said.

Zelensky urged more protection from its allies, including ballistic missiles, and efforts to end the war.

“Ukraine must strengthen its air defense — the thing that best protects lives,” Zelensky said. “These are American systems, which we are ready to buy. We count on leadership, political will, and the support of the United States, Europe, and all our partners. I thank everyone who is helping.”

Last week during the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. might be able to provide anti-ballistic missiles.

“We’re going to see if we can make some available,” Trump said. “They’re very hard to get. We need them too. We were supplying them to Israel, and they’re very effective. A hundred percent effective — hard to believe how effective.”

The F-16 is a single-engine, single-seat supersonic jets have been produced by Lockheed Martin since 1976.

June 28 (UPI) — Dozens of Palestinians died in several rounds of Israeli airstrikes from Friday night until Saturday morning, officials said.

At least 44 people died in the Gaza Strip since dawn, hospital sources told Al Jazeera Arabic. The Guardian reported at least 62 people died in overnight strikes.

The Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by the Iran-funded militant group Hamas, said 81 people have died and 422 were wounded over 24 hours.

Al Jazeera reported an airstrike in a residential building in Gaza City killed at least 20 Palestinians, including nine children.

“We were sitting peacefully when we received a call from a private number telling us to evacuate the entire block immediately — a residential area belonging to the al-Nakhalah family. As you can see, the whole block is nearly wiped out,” Mahmoud al-Nakhala told Al Jazeera.

“We still don’t know why two, three-story homes were targeted … It’s heartbreaking that people watch what’s happening in Gaza — the suffering, the massacres — and stay silent. At this point, we can’t even comprehend what’s happening here anymore,” he added.

Rescuers were working to remove victims from under rubble. Those hurt were taken to al-Ahli Hospital, which is lacking medical resources.

There were also drone strikes elsewhere on Gaza Strip, including in the city of Khan Younis and the Bureij refugee camp.

The Guardian reported that a dozen people were killed near a displacement camp near Palestine Stadium in Gaza City, after which a nearby airstrike nearby killed at least 11 people and a family sleeping in a tent was reported to have died in a strike in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza.

At least 56,412 Palestinians have been killed 133,054 wounded since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Hamas’ attack on Israel that day killed approximately 1,200 people and 251 hostages were taken.

President Donald Trump on Friday said there could be a cease-fire agreement “within the next week” despite no signs of negotiations underway.

Humanitarian conditions in Gaza have worsened since Israel resumed airstrikes on March 18 after a cease-fire that ran from Jan. 19 to March 1. Unicef said last week that 60% of water production facilities in Gaza weren’t working and acute child malnutrition increased 51% from April to May.

In a separate strike in southern Lebanon on Friday, Israel Defense Forces killed Hezbollah terrorist Hassan Muhammad Hammoudi, the military told the Jerusalem Post on Saturday night.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of continually violating the U.S.-brokered cease-fire deal.

June 22 (UPI) — Iran and Israel exchanged targeted airstrikes Sunday after President Donald Trump ordered the bombing of nuclear sites in Iran, leaving his administration and lawmakers divided over U.S. involvement.

“We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” Vice President JD Vance said in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday. It marked the first major official rhetoric that the United States is indeed “at war.”

Vance declined to confirm that Iran’s nuclear sites were completely destroyed, saying that the U.S. has “substantially delayed” Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. His comments come after Russia said Sunday that other countries could provide Iran with nuclear weapons.

The strike by the Trump administration has divided his supporters. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, criticized what she called “neocon warmongers” in a post on social media Sunday afternoon.

“America is $37 TRILLION in debt and all of these foreign wars have cost Americans TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS of dollars that never benefited any American,” the lawmaker wrote in her post.

“American troops have been killed and forever torn apart physically and mentally for regime change, foreign wars, and for military-industrial base profits. I’m sick of it. I can easily say I support nuclear-armed Israel’s right to defend themselves and also say at the same time I don’t want to fight or fund nuclear armed Israel’s wars.”

Rep. Thomas Massie, another Republican, went as far to call the strike on Iran “not Constitutional” in his own post. He later criticized fellow Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson for stating that Trump “made the right call” with the airstrike.

“Why didn’t you call us back from vacation to vote on military action if there was a serious threat to our country?” Massie said in his remarks to Johnson. He reiterated that point Sunday in an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

Massie was joined on “Face the Nation” by fellow lawmaker Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat, with whom he worked last week to introduce a war powers resolution to prohibit U.S. forces from striking Iran without authorization from Congress.

Khanna said in the interview that Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed a desire for Iran to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes but the lawmaker noted that Iran had already been under a nuclear deal that the United States withdrew from.

According to Khanna, under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, which was negotiated by Iran, the United States and the European Union in 2015, the International Atomic Energy Agency did not find a single violation.

“In the first Iraq war, the second Iraq war and the war in Afghanistan, Congress first got the briefings. Congress met and debated. It should have been declarations of war, but at least they did an authorization of use of military force,” Massie added. “We haven’t had that.”

The Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement Sunday that the Israeli Air Force used 30 fighter jets to attack dozens of military targets across Iran.

“As part of the wave of attacks, fighter jets first attacked the ‘Imam Hussein‘ strategic missile headquarters in the Yazd region, where long-range Khoramshahr missiles were stored,” the IDF said. “From this headquarters, approximately 60 missiles were launched towards the State of Israel.”

The IDF added that it also hit missile launchers and military sites for the production of air defense batteries, and a drone warehouse in Isfahan, Bushehr and Ahvaz.

Air raid sirens sounded across most of Israel on Sunday as Israeli Police acknowledged impacts from Iranian missiles on Sunday, including a strike in Tel Aviv that left at least six people with minor injuries, while videos shared on social media purportedly showed damage in Haifa.

Meanwhile, Iranian state media reported Sunday that the Houthis — formally known as Ansarullah — expressed support for Iran after the U.S. strikes and would “stand by any Arab or Islamic country against U.S. aggression.”

WASHINGTON — President Trump, with his decision to order U.S. military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, is gambling that direct U.S. involvement can deliver a decisive blow to a weakened Tehran while managing to avoid bringing the U.S. into an expansive regional conflict.

Trump announced the strikes on three Iranian enrichment facilities — Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan — and said that a “full payload of BOMBS was dropped” on Fordo.

“All planes are safely on their way home,” Trump added in his post. “Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!”

It remained to be seen whether the attacks mark the totality of direct American involvement in strikes against Iran or the opening salvo of a larger campaign.

Trump, who said he would address the nation about the strikes at 10 p.m. Eastern time, called it a “very successful military operation.” The president also celebrated the strikes in a call with the news site Axios in which he said, “We had great success tonight” and that “Israel is much safer now.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday had said that Trump would decide whether to move forward with U.S. strikes on Iran within two weeks.

But on Saturday afternoon, commercial flight trackers identified multiple U.S. aerial refueling tankers on a path suggesting that they were accompanying aircraft from the Midwest to the Pacific, raising speculation that something could be afoot.

Still, the flight pattern left many in Washington speculating that an attack might happen soon but would not happen immediately because of the time it would take for the aircraft to make it to the region. But that aircraft may have been a decoy — it was not part of the mission that was carried out early Sunday morning in Iran.

Trump returned from his New Jersey golf club just after 6 p.m. and was to head to a previously scheduled meeting with his national security team. Less than two hours later, the president announced the strikes had been completed.

The decision to directly involve the U.S. comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities.

The strikes are a perilous decision for the U.S., as Iran has pledged to retaliate if it joined the Israeli assault. The stakes are also high for Trump personally — he won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism.

U.S. and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs offered the best chance of destroying heavily fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground, including at Fordo.

It was not immediately clear whether the U.S. bombers did in fact drop the bunker busters on the Iranian facilities.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States in advance that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic would “result in irreparable damage for them.” And Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared “any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the damage inflicted by the bombings.

Trump has vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and said he had initially hoped that the threat of force would motivate the country’s leaders to give up their nuclear program peacefully.

But Trump appears to have made the calculation — at the prodding of Israeli officials and many Republican lawmakers — that Israel’s operation had softened the ground and presented a perhaps unparalleled opportunity to set back Iran’s nuclear program, perhaps permanently.

The Israelis have said their offensive has already crippled Iran’s air defenses, allowing them to already significantly degrade multiple Iranian nuclear sites.

But to destroy the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant, Israel had appealed to Trump for the U.S. bunker-busting bombs, the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which uses its immense weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets and then explode. The penetrator is currently delivered only by the B-2 stealth bomber, which is found only in the American arsenal.

The bomb carries a conventional warhead and is believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet below the surface before exploding, and the bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran is producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, raising the possibility that nuclear material could be released into the area if the GBU-57 A/B were used to hit the facility.

Trump’s decision for direct U.S. military intervention comes after his administration made an unsuccessful two-month push — including with high-level, direct negotiations with the Iranians — aimed at persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

For months, Trump said he was dedicated to a diplomatic push to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. And he twice — in April and again in late May — persuaded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on military action against Iran and give diplomacy more time.

The U.S. in recent days has been shifting military aircraft and warships into and around the Middle East to protect Israel and U.S. bases from Iranian attacks.

All the while, Trump has gone from publicly expressing hope that the moment could be a “second chance” for Iran to make a deal to delivering explicit threats on Khamenei and making calls for Tehran’s unconditional surrender.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump said in a social media posting. “He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”

The military showdown with Iran comes seven years after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama administration-brokered agreement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”

The 2015 deal, signed by Iran, the U.S. and other world powers, created a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Trump decried the Obama-era deal for giving Iran too much in return for too little, because the agreement did not cover Iran’s non-nuclear malign behavior.

Trump has bristled at criticism from some of his MAGA faithful, including conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who have suggested that further U.S. involvement would be a betrayal to supporters who were drawn to his promise to end U.S. involvement in expensive and endless wars.

The action by Trump immediately raised some concerns among U.S. lawmakers that the president had exceeded his authority.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) quickly posted on the social media site X: “This is not Constitutional.” California Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) said on social media that Trump hit Iran without congressional authorization and that lawmakers should pass a resolution he’s sponsoring with Massie “to prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war.”

Vice President JD Vance in a lengthy posting on X earlier this week defended his boss, while acknowledging that “people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy.”

“But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue,” Vance wrote. He added, “I can assure you that he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people’s goals.”

Madhani and Boak write for the Associated Press. Madhani reported from Morristown, N.J.

Reuters

How did this start?

What has the US bombed, and what weapons did it use?

What is the impact on the ground in Iran?

How might Iran retaliate?

Does Trump need approval from Congress to send the US to war?

June 21 (UPI) — Israel’s military on Saturday killed two more top Iranian military officials during overnight strikes as fighting between the two nations entered a second week.

Iran warned it would be “very dangerous for everyone” if the U.S. intervened in the conflict. U.S. President Donald Trump said he has a maximum two-week timeline given Thursday on whether the United States will strike.

Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestine Corps of al-Quds, which is the foreign branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp, was killed in a strike at a home in the city of Qom in central Iran, Israel Defense Forces said. He played a key role in the financing and arming Hamas‘ attack of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to IDF.

Behnam Shahriyari, another senior official, also died in a strike. He was responsible for al-Quds helping finance the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

An Iranian nuclear scientist, Isar Tabatabai-Qamsheh, and his wife, additionally died in an Israeli strike in Tehran, the Mehr News Agency reports.

At the start of the conflict, several leaders died, including Hossein Salami, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces. Also killed were Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the IRGC’s aerospace forces, and Ali Shadmani, who was recently appointed as head of the central command.

Early Saturday morning, Iran launched missiles at Israel with at least one building in central Israel catching fire from shrapnel of an intercepted Iranian missile. Later Saturday morning, a drone strike damaged a residential building in north Israel. No casualties were reported from the strikes.

Israel said it deployed 50 aircraft over Iran overnight, hitting Iran’s Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant for the second time in Qom. Nearby, a strike on a residential building killed two people and injured four others Saturday, according to Iran’s state media.

More than 400 people have been killed in Iran since the conflict began eight days ago, Iran state broadcaster IRIB reported Saturday in citing Iran’s health ministry.

“As of this morning, the Israeli regime’s hands are stained with the blood of 400 defenseless Iranians, and it has injured 3,056 people with its missiles and drones,” the health ministry said.

“Most of the casualties and fatalities were civilians.”

Iranian strikes have killed at least 25 and injured hundreds, according to Israel. Israel has intercepted 99% of the 470 Iranian drones launched since the war began.

Diplomatic efforts

Talks between Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and European counterparts in Geneva, Switzerland, ended Friday night with no breakthrough. Britain, France, Germany and the European Union are involved in the negotiations.

“It is obvious I cannot go to the negotiations with the United States when our people are under bombardment, under the support of the United States,” Araghchi told reporters Saturday in Istanbul, Turkey.

Foreign ministers with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation met there.

Araghchi urged for the “aggression” to end “for us to come back to diplomacy.”

The meetings in Geneva were focused on a nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran as part of a cease-fire. The European nations’ proposal includes Iran moving to zero uranium enrichment, restricting its missile program and ending Tehran’s financing of proxy groups.

Trump has wanted Iran to end all uranium enrichment, claiming they are building a nuclear bomb. Iran has said it is for peaceful purposes, including energy plants.

“Israel is doing well, in terms of war, and Iran … is doing less well,” Trump said Friday. “It’s a little bit hard to get somebody to stop.”

Trump said U.S. officials have been speaking to Iran.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday he spoke on the phone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, noting that France will “accelerate” negotiations between European nations and Iran.

“Here again, my position is clear: Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons, and it is up to Iran to provide full guarantees that its intentions are peaceful,” Macron wrote in a post on X. “I am convinced that a path exists to end war and avoid even greater dangers. To achieve this, we will accelerate the negotiations led by France and its European partners with Iran.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report on May 31 that Iran had produced enriched uranium to a level of 60%, which was of “serious concern.”

The airstrikes have delayed efforts to build an operational nuclear weapon.

“According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told German newspaper Bild in an interview published and broadcast Saturday.

Also, more than 50% of Iran’s missile launchers were destroyed, an Israeli military official said.

A senior Iranian official told CNN that they are replacing quantity with quality and the nation has been using more advanced precision missiles.

Strikes hit residential areas

Though the attacks have been focused on military and nuclear targets, tens of thousands of city residents have been displaced, particularly those in Tehran.

Esmaeil Baghaei, who is Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Friday that three aid workers were killed, and six ambulances and four healthcare centers.

“The intentional attack on a Red Crescent ambulance in Tehran is a clear example of a war crime and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law,” Baghaei said.

Despite the bombings, residents in Tehran told CNN they are trying to return to normal life.

“The initial shock had passed,” one resident said. “People are trying to go about their lives as best and as normally as they can.”

The resident also said: “Things are fine. Roads are getting busier back into Tehran from other areas because the government has said work begins on Sunday.”

In Israel, a two-story residential building in northern Israel was hit by a drone, the Magen David Adom said in a statement Saturday, Al Jazeera reported. No casualties were reported.

On Friday, an Iranian missile hit Israel’s northern city of Haifa, wounding at least 31 people.

June 16 (UPI) — Israel and Iran intensified their deadly airstrikes Monday on the fifth day after Israel launched its first attack to dismantle Iran’s nuclear capability.

Hundreds of people have been killed, including 224 in Iran and 24 in Israel, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strikes a significant setback to Iran’s nuclear program.

“I estimate we are sending them back a very, very long time,” Netanyahu told reporters.

Iranian missiles struck Tel Aviv late Monday, the central Israeli city of Bat Yam and the Palestinian-Israeli town of Tamra as Israel Defense Forces told residents to rush to bomb shelters.

“Israel’s defense systems are currently working to intercept the threat,” the IDF said in a statement, before allowing Northern Israel residents to leave.

Iran said its ninth wave of attacks will continue through Tuesday morning, according to Iranian media.

Israel said three workers at the country’s Bazan Group oil company were killed earlier in the day. The power plant, which was significantly damaged, is responsible for steam and electricity production.

Iran also warned Israel to evacuate two Israeli television headquarters after an Iranian state television station in Tehran was struck and one of its workers was killed.

President Donald Trump announced Monday he would leave the Group of Seven summit in Canada to monitor the situation in the Middle East, as he warned Iranians to “immediately evacuate Tehran.”

“Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social before leaving the summit. “Simply stated, Iran can not have a nuclear weapon. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”

As Trump returned to Washington, D.C., U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered “the deployment of additional capabilities.”

“Protecting U.S. forces is our top priority and these deployments are intended to enhance our defensive posture in the region,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X.

The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier group was moving toward the Middle East to join the USS Carl Vinson. The Defense Department also announced it would move aircraft to the European and Central Command theaters to support U.S. bases in the region, according to the Navy Times.

While attending the G7 summit, Trump had been in contact throughout the day with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. Trump and Rubio returned to Washington, D.C., on Monday night, according to a State Department spokesperson.

Over the weekend, Israel’s strikes killed top Iranian military commanders and scientists and targeted nuclear infrastructure. While Trump has rejected any plan to kill Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Netanyahu was not ruling it out Monday, according to ABC News.

Thousands of Israel’s residents have evacuated in response to Iran’s strikes, according to Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.

“Our teams have handled, as of Saturday, 14,583 claims for direct damage from the attacks from Iran,” Smotrich said Monday.

“We are assisting 2,775 residents who were evacuated from their homes, most of whom were accommodated in hotels through local authorities in a model we determined in advance,” he added.

So far, we have identified 24 structures, buildings that are designated for demolition.”

June 13 (UPI) — Amid Israel’s massive airstrikes on Iran and the Islamic nation’s missile response in two barrages Friday aimed at the Jewish state, residents in both nations are on high alert.

Both nations were deserted as shops were closed, public gatherings canceled and flights not taking off and landing one day. Hospitals were relocating patients and preparing to receive wounded, as well.

In Israel, sirens sounded amid a major Iranian ballistic missile attack. Overnight, an estimated 100 missiles were launched from Iran at Israel, according to an Israeli military source. Israel Defense Forces worked to “intercept the threats” and most of the drones were deterred.

Later Friday, a second barrage of missiles were aimed at Israel. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Iran crossed red lines” by firing missiles at civilian population centers.

In Iran, Tehran’s air defense system has been activated after a number of strikes were carried out across the nation, its state-run Mehr News reported. Iran has 90.6 million residents, including 9.6 million in Tehran.

In the capital, demonstrators called for retaliation after the Israeli strikes.

Residents in Israel, a nation of 9.7 million, were urged to be prepared to take shelter.

“The Home Front Command has now instructed residents across the country to remain close to protected spaces,” the Israel Defense Forces said. ” Movement in public areas should be minimized, and public gatherings must be avoided. Upon receiving an alert, enter a protected space and remain there until an official update is issued.”

IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin urged residents to prepare for “many days of war.”

“We are aware of the enemy’s intentions to harm us, and there will be more attempts of this kind. We still have challenges ahead,” Defrin said.

Life in Israel, Iran

Much of Israel was deserted, except for people stocking up in essentials, with businesses and events canceled.

A Pride Parade scheduled for Friday was called off. Municipal workers dismantled unused stages set up along the parade’s path.

A few people in the area sunbathed, smoked and played soccer on the sand.

Commerce at the open-air Carmel market nearby in Tel Avis was much less than usual traffic on a Friday, the day before the sabbath, when many businesses are closed. Jerusalem is a non-secular, holy city that closes on Saturday.

Some flocked to the few eateries and flower shops that decided to open for business. Most shops, especially for clothing, jewelry and books, appeared shuttered.

“There are no people,” says Victor, who owns a flower shop at the entrance to the open-air Carmel market, told The Times of Israel, which did not publish his full name.

Victor, who has access to a safe room at his business, opted not to close. “Not for a minute. I’m self-employed, I have no choice,” he said.

Supermarkets, however, were crowded as Israelis prepared to be homebound for days.

The Carrefour supermarket chain opened at 6 a.m., an hour earlier than usual.

In Iran, residents in Tehran were awakened to airstrikes.

“Both my husband and I were thrown from our bed,” a resident of the northern Tehran neighbourhood of Kamranieh, told Middle East Eye. “The explosions didn’t stop. We had no idea what was happening.”

The woman discovered an apartment across the street had been bombed. It was the residence of Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, who was among the senior Iranian officials reportedly killed.

Nuclear enrichment plants and launch sites were targeted as opposed to civilian populations.

Government response

Israel has closed its embassies around the world. Officials advised all Israelis abroad to fill out a survey to update the ministry on their location and situation.

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has directed all of its staff and their family members to shelter in place until further notice.

There are approximately 40,000 troops in the Middle East, along with Navy ships in the Mediterranean Sea

The U.S. Navy has directed the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, which is capable of defending against ballistic missiles, to begin sailing from the western Mediterranean Sea toward the eastern Mediterranean. A second destroyer was directed to begin moving forward so it can be available.

Israel has approximately 169,500 active personnel and has called up reservists as they are stationed through Israel, including fighting Hamas on the Gaza Strip.

Hospitals

Magen David Adom, which is Israel’s national emergency service agency, began evacuating patients and premature infants to protected areas amid a special state of emergency.

MDA treats and transports more than 1 million people to hospitals every year.

Rambam Medical Center in Haifa is urging people not to come there unless cases are medically necessary. Also in Haifa, Bnei Zion Medical Center has begun transferring departments to a protected building and designated areas.

A spokesperson for Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv said: “Piece by piece, phase by phase, the hospital is being moved underground. The general intensive care unit is already protected, as is the operating room, and the hospital continues to operate as usual.”

Flights

Airspace was closed over Israel, Jordan, Iran and Iraq on Friday.

That included Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, which is the 117th largest airport in the world.

“The airspace of the State of Israel is closed to takeoffs and landings until further notice,” the Ministry of Transport announced. “The purpose of the closure is to prevent and minimize risks to passengers and aircraft. Passengers scheduled to depart from Ben Gurion Airport today are requested to remain at home and not arrive at the airport.”

Passengers whose flights were in the air after the airspace was closed landed at alternative airports.

Airlines worldwide canceled flights. Airlines offered travel vouchers and waived change fees.

Delta Air Lines on Friday said it was suspending service to Tel Aviv until at least September, a few weeks after resuming flights there.

The city of Tabriz reportedly severely damaged the city’s international airport, according to Ynet News.