bombing

Israel has bombed Syria, saying it is acting to ‘protect’ Syria’s Druze minority after fighting broke out between Syrian government forces and Druze fighters. But who are the Druze and what do they have to do with Israel? Osama Bin Javaid explains from Damascus.

Israeli forces have bombarded multiple areas across the besieged Gaza Strip, killing at least 85 Palestinians, including aid seekers and families sheltering in schools, and wounding many more in attacks that have also targeted a crowded hospital.

In the relentless attacks on Monday, 62 of the victims were in Gaza City and the north of the territory. The Israeli navy struck a port in Gaza City, where the military has stepped up its heavy strikes, killing at least 21 and wounding 30, many of them women and children.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said the attack was in the heart of a displacement centre near the Gaza seaport.

“This area serves as a refuge for many traumatised and displaced people, offering some relief from the oppressive heat of the tents,” he said.

Also on Monday, Israeli forces targeted the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, where thousands of families had sought shelter.

Videos circulating online and verified by Al Jazeera showed chaos at the hospital, with people fleeing for safety as tents sheltering displaced families appeared damaged by the attack.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from the scene of the hospital attack, said the army did not issue “any warnings” before the “huge explosion”.

“The site of the attack is about 10 metres [33ft] from our broadcast point. This is not the first time the hospital’s courtyard has been attacked. At least 10 times, this facility has been squarely targeted by Israeli forces,” Abu Azzoum said. “It’s a staggering concentration of attacks on medical facilities, adding further burden on barely functioning hospitals.”

In a statement, Gaza’s Government Media Office decried the attack by Israel, calling it a “systematic crime” against the Palestinian enclave’s health system.

“Its warplanes bombed a tent for the displaced inside the walls of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, resulting in injuries at the site of the bombing, material damage, and directly threatening the lives of dozens of patients,” it said.

Israel has repeatedly targeted dozens of hospitals during its 22-month war on Gaza. Human rights groups and United Nations-backed experts have accused Israel of systematically destroying the enclave’s healthcare system.

‘It felt like earthquakes’

Also in the south, at least 15 aid seekers looking for food at aid distribution hubs run by the controversial United States- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) were killed by an Israeli air strike in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, according to sources at Nasser Medical Complex. Fifty people were also wounded in the attack.

They are the latest victims in a wave of daily carnage at these sites that have killed nearly 600 Palestinians since GHF took over limited aid deliveries in Gaza in late May amid a crippling Israeli blockade.

The Israeli military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians were harmed at the aid distribution centres, saying that instructions had been issued to forces following “lessons learned” and firing incidents were under review.

This follows the Israeli news outlet, Haaretz, reporting that soldiers operating near the aid sites in Gaza have been deliberately firing upon Palestinians. According to the Haaretz report, which quoted unnamed Israeli soldiers, troops were told to fire at the crowds of Palestinians and use unnecessary lethal force against people who appeared to pose no threat.

Israeli forces are also carrying out home demolitions in Khan Younis, raising fears of a new ground invasion.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, has issued more forced evacuation threats to Palestinians in large districts in the northern Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces had operated before and left behind wide-scale destruction, forcing a new wave of displacement.

“Explosions never stopped; they bombed schools and homes. It felt like earthquakes,” said Salah, 60, a father of five children, from Gaza City. “In the news, we hear a ceasefire is near. On the ground, we see death and we hear explosions.”

Israeli tanks pushed into the eastern areas of Zeitoun suburb in Gaza City and shelled several areas in the north, while aircraft bombed at least four schools after ordering hundreds of families sheltering inside to leave, residents said.

Gaza’s health authorities said at least 10 people were killed in attacks on Zeitoun and at least 13 were killed southwest of Gaza City.

More than 80 percent of Gaza is now an Israeli-militarised zone or under forced displacement orders, according to the United Nations.

The attacks come as Israeli officials, including Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, were due in Washington, DC for a new ceasefire push by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

Key mediator Qatar has confirmed that there are serious US intentions to push for a return to negotiations, but there are complications, according to a Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman.

The spokesman said that it has become difficult to accept the continued human losses in the Gaza Strip, warning that the continued link between the humanitarian and military aspects in Gaza cannot be accepted.

The talks in the White House are also expected to cover Iran, and possible wider regional diplomatic deals.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was expected to convene to discuss the next steps in Gaza.

On Friday, Israel’s military chief said the present ground operation was close to having achieved its goals, and on Sunday, Netanyahu claimed new opportunities had opened up for recovering the captives, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.

Palestinian and Egyptian sources with knowledge of the latest ceasefire efforts also said that mediators Qatar and Egypt have stepped up their contacts with the two sides, but that no date has been set yet for a new round of truce talks.

A suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into an army convoy in Khbyer Pakhtunkhwa province, officials say.

More than a dozen soldiers have been killed and dozens of people were wounded in a suicide attack in northwestern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said.

Saturday’s attack was carried out in Khadi Market, Mir Ali, North Waziristan, according to a local media outlet, Khyber Chronicles, which quoted security sources.

Security officials said the attacker detonated explosives near a bomb disposal unit vehicle, killing 13 people.

At least 24 personnel, including 14 civilians, were also injured in the attack, the report said.

“A suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a military convoy,” a local government official in North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province told the AFP news agency separately.

Children among the injured

“The explosion also caused the roofs of two houses to collapse, injuring six children,” a police officer posted in the district told AFP.

It was one of the deadliest single-day attacks on security forces in recent months in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

There was no immediate comment from the Pakistani military.

The attack was claimed by the Hafiz Gul Bahadur armed group, a faction of the Pakistan Taliban, or TPP.

Pakistan has witnessed a sharp rise in violence in its regions bordering Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021, with Islamabad accusing its western neighbour of allowing its soil to be used for attacks against Pakistan – a claim the Taliban denies.

About 290 people, mostly security officials, have been killed in attacks since the start of the year by armed groups fighting the government in both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, according to an AFP tally.

After a short and successful war with Iraq, President George H.W. Bush claimed in 1991 that “the ghosts of Vietnam have been laid to rest beneath the sands of the Arabian desert.” Bush was referring to what was commonly called the “Vietnam syndrome.” The idea was that the Vietnam War had so scarred the American psyche that we forever lost confidence in American power.

The elder President Bush was partially right. The first Iraq war was certainly popular. And his successor, President Clinton, used American power — in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere — with the general approval of the media and the public.

But when the younger Bush, Clinton’s successor, launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Vietnam syndrome came back with a vengeance. Barely three weeks after the U.S. attacked Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2002, famed New York Times correspondent R.W. Apple penned a piece headlined “A Military Quagmire Remembered: Afghanistan as Vietnam.”

“Like an unwelcome specter from an unhappy past,” Apple wrote, “the ominous word ‘quagmire’ has begun to haunt conversations among government officials and students of foreign policy, both here and abroad.”

“Could Afghanistan become another Vietnam?” he rhetorically asked. “Echoes of Vietnam are unavoidable,” he asserted.

Over the next 12 months, the newspaper ran nearly 300 articles with the words “Vietnam” and “Afghanistan” in them. The New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times ran articles mentioning Iraq and Vietnam at an average rate of more than twice a day (I looked it up 20 years ago).

The tragic irony is that President George W. Bush did what his father couldn’t: He exorcised the specter of “another Vietnam” — but he also replaced it with the specter of “another Iraq.”

That’s what’s echoing in the reaction to President Trump’s decision to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. We’re all familiar with cliches about generals fighting the last war, but journalists and politicians have the same habit of cramming the square peg of current events into the round hole of previous conflicts.

Trump’s decision to bomb Iran — which I broadly support, with caveats — is fair game for criticism and concern. But the Iraq syndrome cosplay misleads more than instructs. For starters, no one is proposing “boots on the ground,” never mind “occupation” or “nation-building.”

The debate over whether George W. Bush lied us into war over the issue of weapons of mass destruction is more tendentious than the conventional wisdom on the left and right would have you believe. But it’s also irrelevant. No serious observer disputes that Iran has been pursuing a nuclear weapon for decades. The only live question is, or was: How close is Iran to having one?

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, told Congress in March — preposterously in my opinion — that “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.” On Sunday, “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker asked Vice President JD Vance, “So, why launch this strike now? Has the intelligence changed, Mr. Vice President?”

It’s a good question. But it’s not a sound basis for insinuating that another Republican president is again using faulty intelligence to get us into a war — just like Iraq.

The squabbling over whether this was a “preemptive” rather than “preventative” attack misses the point. America would be justified in attacking Iran even if Gabbard was right. Why? Because Iran has been committing acts of war against America, and Israel, for decades, mostly through terrorist proxies it created, trained, funded and directed for that purpose. In 1983, Hezbollah militants blew up the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon, killing 63. Later that year, it blew up the U.S. Marine barracks, also in Beirut, killing 241 Americans. In the decades since, Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies have orchestrated or attempted the murder of Americans repeatedly, including during the Iraq war. It even authorized the assassination of President Trump, according to Joe Biden’s Justice Department.

These are acts of war that would justify a response even if Iran had no interest in a nuclear weapon. But the fanatical regime — whose supporters routinely chant “Death to America!” — is pursuing a nuclear weapon.

For years, the argument for not taking out that program has rested largely on the fact that it would be too difficult. The facilities are too hardened, Iran’s proxies are too powerful.

That is the intelligence that has changed. Israel crushed Hezbollah and Hamas militants and eliminated much of Iran’s air defense system. What once seemed like a daunting assault on a Death Star turned into a layup by comparison.

None of this means that things cannot get worse or that Trump’s decision won’t end up being regrettable. But whatever that scenario looks like, it won’t look much like what happened in Iraq, except for those unwilling to see it any other way.

@JonahDispatch

June 23 (UPI) — More than 22 people were killed and another nearly 60 were injured when an Islamic State suicide bomber attacked a church in the Syrian capital of Damascus, officials said.

The attack occurred Sunday at the St. Elias Church in the Al-Douweila neighborhood of the capital city.

The Syrian ministry of interior said in a statement on X that the suicide bomber entered the church, opened fire and then detonated their explosive vest.

Security forces reportedly rushed to the scene and cordoned off the entire area permitting specialized teams to begin their investigation, it said.

“These terrorist acts will not deter the Syrian state’s efforts to achieve civil peace, nor will they deter Syrians from their choice to unite in the face of all those who seek to undermine their stability and security,” Interior Minister Anas Khattab said in a statement on X

The casualty toll was initially reported by the ministry of health as nine dead and 13 injured, but the count has steadily climbed in the hours following the attack to 22 killed and 59 injured.

Photos published to the health ministry’s social media accounts show officials, including Assistant Minister of Health Hussein Al-Khatib, meeting with injured victims of the attack.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch posted graphic photos of the aftermath of the attack, showing blood-strewn floors and what appear to be the remains of bodies.

“The arrow of lawlessness was unleashed and struck our souls in the night,” it said in a statement.

“We pray for the repose of the souls of the martyrs, for the healing of the wounded and for the comfort of the faithful of the Church.”

United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir O. Pedersen condemned the attack in a statement, expressing his outrage at “this heinous crime.”

U.S. Ambassador to Syria Tom Barrack also offered his condolences.

“These terrible acts of cowardice have no place in the new tapestry of integrated tolerance and inclusion that Syrians are weaving,” he said on X.

“We continue to support the Syrian government as it fights against those who are seeking to create instability and fear in their country and the broader region.”

The blast in Dweil’a on the outskirts of Syria’s capital was carried out as people were praying inside the Mar Elias Church.

A suicide bomber in Syria has carried out an attack inside a church filled with people, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens more, according to the Syria’s Ministry of Health and security officials.

The explosion in Dweil’a on the outskirts of Damascus took place as people were praying during mass inside the Mar Elias Church on Sunday.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the Syrian Interior Ministry said a fighter from the ISIL (ISIS) group entered the church and fired at the people there before detonating himself with an explosives vest, echoing some witness testimonies.

The death toll reported was a preliminary one. “Rescue teams from the Syria Civil Defence continue to recover bodies from the scene,” a statement on Telegram said on Sunday.

Official state agency SANA, citing the Health Ministry, said that at least 50 others were wounded.

Some local media reported that children were among the casualties.

The attack was the first of its kind in Syria in years, and comes as the fledgling interim government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa is trying to win the support of minorities.

As al-Sharaa struggles to exert authority across Syria, there have been concerns about the presence of sleeper cells of groups like ISIL (ISIS) in the country recovering from nearly 14 years of devastating civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

Syria has made significant inroads back into the international fold since al-Sharaa became president in January 2025, with both the United States and the European Union lifting sanctions from the era of ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

‘He was shooting at the church’

A witness who identified himself as Rawad told The Associated Press that he saw the attacker, who was accompanied by two others who fled as he was driving near the church.

“He was shooting at the church … he then went inside the church and blew himself up,” he said.

Security forces and first responders rushed to the scene.

Panicked survivors wailed, as one woman fell to her knees and burst into tears.

Syrian Information Minister Hamza al-Mostafa condemned the blast, calling it a “terrorist” attack.

“This cowardly act goes against the civic values that bring us together,” he said in a post on X.

“We will not back down from our commitment to equal citizenship … and we also affirm the state’s pledge to exert all its efforts to combat criminal organisations and to protect society from all attacks threatening its safety.”

The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir O. Pedersen condemned “in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack at St. Elias Church” and expressed “his outrage at this heinous crime.” His statement also noted “that the Syrian interim authorities have attributed this attack to ISIL and (he) calls for a full investigation and action by the authorities.”

Turkiye’s foreign ministry said the “treacherous” attack aimed to disrupt efforts to achieve stability and security in Syria.

France’s foreign ministry also condemned the “despicable” attack. France “expresses its full solidarity with the Syrian people, who hope that Syria will find its way back to peace,” the ministry said in a statement.

Photos circulated by the Syria Civil Defence showed the church’s interior area in ruins, with pews covered in debris and blood.

While military strategists scramble to learn the damage done by U.S. bombs and missiles in Iran, many scholars and Iranian Americans are wondering what this means for the people and architectural treasures of Isfahan.

The Isfahan area, which includes one of the three Iranian nuclear sites that the U.S. targeted Saturday, is also home to one of the country’s most historic cities, full of landmarks from Persia’s years as a regional power in the 17th century.

Isfahan “is thought of as a sort of treasure, like a vestige of a different Iran,” said Jasmin Darznik, who spent part of her childhood in Iran before becoming a novelist and chair of the MFA writing program at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. “I think people have a very special feeling about the place.”

The city’s architecture includes intricately tiled mosques, several stately bridges and a sprawling square that has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. American and Israeli military leaders focus on the nuclear complex 14 miles east of Isfahan and the 2.2 million people in the city, but the list of cultural assets there is also long.

A UNESCO report recently noted that the region’s 17th-century leaders “established colourful tiling as the most salient characteristic of Iranian architecture, and this decorative style reached its zenith in Isfahan.”

Among the landmarks:

Naqsh-e Jahan Square is the second-largest public square in the world, surpassed only by Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

(Kaveh Kazemi / Getty Images)

Naqsh-e Jahan Square, also known as Shah Square and Imam Square, was laid out between 1598 and 1629, its broad central area surrounded by mosques, palaces and the Isfahan Bazaar. The open space is about 1,800 feet long and about 520 feet wide, which appears to make it the second-largest public square in the world, surpassed only by Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

The Masjed-e Jāmé, also known as the Jāmé Mosque or Great Mosque of Isfahan, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012. It goes back to the year 841, its grounds showing how Islamic architecture has evolved over 12 centuries. It is the oldest Friday (congregational) mosque in Iran.

The Si-o-Se Pol Bridge, also known as the Bridge of 33 Arches, was begun in 1599 and completed in 1602. Illuminated by night, it harbors tea houses on its lower deck and has served as a gathering spot for generations. At 977 feet long, it is the largest of 11 historic bridges spanning the Zayandeh River.

Khaju Bridge is often billed as the most beautiful bridge in Isfahan.

(Rasoul Shojaei / IRNA / AFP via Getty Images)

Khaju Bridge is younger and shorter than the Si-o-Se Pol Bridge but is often billed as the most beautiful bridge in Isfahan. It was built around 1650 and made of stone and bricks with tile work above its arches. It is about 449 feet long.

As the U.S. stepped into the war between Israel and Iran, U.S. military authorities told the New York Times they targeted Iranian sites in Fordo and Natanz with “bunker-buster” bombs and Isfahan with missiles from a submarine. As of noon Sunday, CNN reported 18 destroyed or damaged structures at the Isfahan nuclear complex outside the city, which was built in 1984 and is thought to employ 3,000 scientists, making it Iran’s largest nuclear research complex.

This satellite image shows the Isfahan nuclear facility in Iran after U.S. strikes.

(Maxar Technologies / Associated Press)

There were no reports of damage or casualties in central Isfahan.

Much of the city goes back to the Safavid dynasty, which lasted unbroken from 1501 to 1722. During the dynasty’s peak years, the Safavids held power over what is now Iran, Azerbaijan, Bahrain and Armenia, along with parts of Georgia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Türkiye and other countries.

The leader during many of those peak years was King Abbas I, also known as Abbas the Great, who assumed power at age 16, ruled from 1587 to 1629, chose Isfahan as his empire’s capital and effectively rerouted the Silk Road to include the city. While Shakespeare was writing plays in England and Caravaggio was painting in Italy, Isfahan’s landmarks were taking shape and, thanks to the Silk Road trade, Persian rugs began showing up in the homes of wealthy Europeans.

Toward the end of his tenure, nervous about succession, Abbas I had one of his sons killed and two blinded. Still, the family dynasty continued for another century. Once the dynasty fell, Isfahan lost its status as Persia’s capital but retained its reputation for beauty.

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.”

At least 20 people have been killed and 52 others wounded in a suicide bombing at a church on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria’s health ministry has said.

The attacker entered Mar Elias Church in Dweila during a service and opened fire with a weapon before detonating an explosive vest, according to the interior ministry.

It added that he was affiliated with the jihadist group Islamic State (IS). There was no immediate claim from the group itself.

The Syrian Civil Defence – whose emergency teams are widely known as the White Helmets – posted photos and video from inside the church showing a heavily damaged altar, pews covered in broken glass and a bloodied floor.

One person told AFP news agency outside Mar Elias that “someone entered carrying a weapon” and began shooting. “[People] tried to stop him before he blew himself up,” he added.

A worker at a nearby shop said: “We saw fire in the church and the remains of wooden benches thrown all the way to the entrance.”

Security forces have cordoned off the area around the church and are investigating the attack, according to the interior ministry.

It was the first such attack in Damascus since Bashar al-Assad was overthrown by rebel forces in December.

Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa – whose Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is a former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria – has repeatedly promised to protect religious and ethnic minorities.

However, the country has been rocked by two waves of deadly sectarian violence in recent months.

It seems like just yesterday that United States President Donald Trump was pushing a “diplomatic resolution” to the Iranian nuclear issue.

Now, the US has joined Israel’s illegal assault on Iran, striking three Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday in what Trump has boasted was a “very successful attack”.

As CNN dramatically put it, “a midsummer night in June 2025 could come to be remembered as the moment the Middle East changed forever; when the fear of nuclear annihilation was lifted from Israel; when Iran’s power was neutered and America’s soared”.

Of course, a “fear of nuclear annihilation” has nothing to do with Israel’s current strikes on Iran, which have been dutifully portrayed in the US media as targeting military and nuclear facilities but have somehow managed to slaughter hundreds of civilians. The victims include 23-year-old poet Parnia Abbasi, killed along with her family as they slept in their Tehran apartment building.

As is clear as day to anyone not in the business of defending Israeli depredations, the attacks on Iran are simply a war of convenience for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is killing all sorts of birds with one stone in his campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities.

In addition to distracting the world from Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, where starving Palestinians continue to be massacred on a daily basis as they seek food and other aid, Netanyahu has also managed to divert attention from his own embroilment in numerous corruption charges at home.

Plus, the war on Iran is wildly popular among Israelis, which translates into big points for a prime minister who has faced significant domestic opposition.

Trump’s initial insistence on diplomacy with Iran naturally got Netanyahu’s panties into a giant bunch – but the situation has now been rectified by the midsummer night’s bombing, which, according to the president, has “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites.

To be sure, Iran has long occupied US crosshairs, with many an establishment figure salivating at the prospect of bombing the country to smithereens. Some have salivated more openly than others, as in the case of John Bolton – a former US ambassador to the United Nations and briefly the national security adviser in the first Trump administration – who in 2015 took to the opinion pages of The New York Times with the following advice: “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.”

That the editors of the US newspaper of record did not bat an eye in publishing such a blatant call for the violation of international law is indicative of the extent to which Iran has been thoroughly demonised in US society and media. Recall that in 2002, then-US President George W Bush appointed the nation to his infamous “axis of evil” along with Iraq and North Korea.

And yet, aside from being a persistent thorn in the side of US imperialism, Iran’s behaviour has been rather less apparently, um, “evil” than certain other international actors – like the US itself. For instance, Iran is not the one currently funding a straight-up genocide to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.

Nor is Iran the one that has spent the past several decades bombing and otherwise antagonising folks in every corner of the world – from backing right-wing state terror in Latin America to conducting mass slaughter in Vietnam.

Furthermore, the sole clandestine nuclear weapons power in the Middle East is not Iran but Israel, which has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has never allowed UN safeguards on its facilities.

Those who applaud the strikes on Iran citing the “oppressive” nature of the Iranian government would, meanwhile, do well to revisit the US track record of fuelling oppression in the country. In 1953, the CIA orchestrated a coup d’etat against Iran’s democratically elected leader, Mohammad Mossadegh, which paved the way for the extended reign of the torture-happy shah.

Historian Ervand Abrahamian notes in his book A History of Modern Iran: “Arms dealers joked that the shah devoured their manuals in much the same way as other men read Playboy.” Indeed, the shah’s obsessive acquisition of US weaponry did much to enable his rule by terror, which was put to an end by the Iranian Revolution of 1979. And the Iranian nuclear programme that Trump has now bombed? It was started by that very same shah.

Now, arms dealers are presumably not too upset over the midsummer night’s events and the general escalation of the crisis in the Middle East. For his part, Netanyahu has gone out of his way to thank Trump for his “bold decision” to go after Iran “with the awesome and righteous might of the United States”.

In Netanyahu’s words, Trump’s action will “change history” – as though making the world safe for more war is anything new. And as the US media scramble to justify illegal attacks on a sovereign nation, the sinister hypocrisy of two heavily nuclear-armed nations undertaking to police nuclear “threats” cannot be overstated.

It is anyone’s guess what Trump, who prides himself on spontaneous and manic behaviour, will do next. But rest assured that, whatever happens, the arms industry won’t be going hungry any time soon.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Iran and Israel have exchanged a barrage of missiles after the United States bombed key Iranian nuclear sites, dramatically escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Iran on Sunday launched two volleys of 27 missiles, targeting Israel’s main Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, research facilities, and command centres, an Iranian state news agency reported.

Air raid sirens were sounded across most of Israel, sending millions of people to safe rooms and bomb shelters as explosions and missile interceptions were seen above the commercial hub of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the port city of Haifa, and other parts of the country.

At least 20 people were wounded, according to Israeli emergency workers.

“This is certainly the first time that we have seen two volleys coming in such close succession. Usually, there are hours between each volley of missiles. This time, it was less than half an hour,” said Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Amman, Jordan.

The targeted areas spanned the occupied Golan Heights in Syria to the Upper Galilee to northern and central Israel, affecting 10 separate sites either directly by missiles or by large shrapnel, Odeh said.

“There is extensive damage in those sites, especially in the Tel Aviv area and Haifa,” Odeh said.

Videos from Tel Aviv and Haifa towards the north showed rescue teams combing through debris, apartments reduced to rubble, mangled cars along a street filled with debris, and medics evacuating injured people from a row of blown-out houses.

In a statement, the Israeli army said it was investigating why no air raid warnings were sounded in Haifa.

Israel also carried out another wave of bombings on “military targets” in western Iran. The Israeli military earlier said its strikes destroyed Iranian missile launchers and targeted soldiers.

The latest exchange of missiles between the Middle Eastern enemies followed the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites at Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow, with President Donald Trump saying the attacks had “obliterated” the three facilities.

Trump said Iran’s future held “either peace or tragedy” and that there were many other Iranian targets that could be hit. “If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill,” he said.

Iran responded by saying it “reserved all options” to defend itself and warned of “everlasting consequences” if the US joined the war.

In a statement, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the US attacks on its nuclear facilities as a “gross and unprecedented violation” of international law.

“The world must not forget that it was the United States that, in the midst of a diplomatic process, betrayed diplomacy” by supporting Israel’s “aggressive action”, and is now waging “a dangerous war against Iran,” the ministry said.

It has become clear that the US “adheres to no rules or ethics, and in order to advance the aims of a genocidal and occupying regime, spares no lawlessness or crime”, it added.

Meanwhile, Israel said it will temporarily reopen its airspace for flights from 11:00 GMT on Sunday as it repatriates thousands of citizens left stranded overseas by its war with Iran, the country’s airport authority said.

Ben Gurion Airport “will open for landings from 02:00pm-8:00pm as part of Operation Safe Return”, the authority said in a statement, referring to the government’s efforts to bring home citizens.

Most airlines continue to avoid large parts of the Middle East after the US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, according to the flight tracking website, FlightRadar24.

Iran has fired its first retaliatory missile strikes against Israel after an unprecedented US attack on three Iranian nuclear sites, including the Fordow facility. At least 11 people have been injured in central Israel, while air raid sirens have sounded in occupied East Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Israeli raids across Gaza have killed at least 75 Palestinians, with rescuers scrambling to find dozens of bodies under the rubble after the bombing of a residential building in Gaza City described by the enclave’s civil defence as a “full-fledged massacre”.

Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basel told Al Jazeera that the military gave “no warning, no alert” before Saturday’s strike on the house in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City that left at least 16 people dead, including women and children.

“This is truly a full-fledged massacre … a building full of civilians,” said Basel, who added that approximately 85 people were believed to be trapped under the rubble.

“We woke up to the strikes, destruction, yelling, rocks hitting us,” said Hamed Keheel, a displaced Palestinian at the site, noting that the attack had taken place on the second day of the Eid al-Adha festival.

“This is the occupation,” he said. “Instead of waking up to cheer our children and dress them up to enjoy Eid, we wake up to carry women and children’s bodies from under rubble.”

Local resident Hassan Alkhor told Al Jazeera that the building belonged to the Abu Sharia family. “May God hold the Israeli forces and [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu accountable,” he said.

The Israeli military said afterwards that it had killed Asaad Abu Sharia, the leader of the Mujahideen Brigades, who it claimed had participated in the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023, according to a report in the Times of Israel published Saturday.

Hamas confirmed the killing in a statement shared on Telegram, saying that Abu Sharia’s brother, Ahmed Abu Sharia, had also been assassinated in the attack, which it said was “part of a series of brutal massacres against civilians”.

‘A handful of rice for our starving children’

Also on Saturday, Israeli forces killed at least eight Palestinians waiting near an aid distribution site run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in southern Gaza’s Rafah, the latest in a series of deadly incidents around the group’s operations that have killed 118 people and left others missing in less than two weeks.

Gaza resident Samir Abu Hadid told the AFP news agency that thousands of people had gathered at the al-Alam roundabout near the aid site.

“As soon as some people tried to advance towards the aid centre, the Israeli [forces] opened fire from armoured vehicles stationed near the centre, firing into the air and then at civilians,” Abu Hadid said.

One woman told Al Jazeera her husband had been killed in the attack after going to the aid point to get “a handful of rice for our starving children”.

“He said he felt he was walking towards death, I begged him not to leave. He insisted to find anything to feed our children,” she said.

The GHF, a shadowy United States-backed private group engaged by Israel to distribute aid under the protection of its troops and security contractors, began operations in late May, replacing existing networks run by the United Nations and charities that have worked for decades.

Critics say the group does not abide by humanitarian principles of neutrality, claiming that its operations weaponise aid, serving Israel’s stated aims of ethnically cleansing large swaths of Gaza and controlling the entire enclave.

GHF said on Saturday that it was unable to distribute any humanitarian relief because Hamas issued “direct threats” against its operations. “These threats made it impossible to proceed today without putting innocent lives at risk,” it said in a statement. Hamas told the Reuters news agency that it had no knowledge of these “alleged threats”.

The United Nations, which has refused to cooperate with the GHF, has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.

‘Lost future generation’

As Israel continued its attacks amid the looming famine, it emerged that health authorities had recorded more than 300 miscarriages over an 80-day period in the enclave.

Expectant mothers face an increased risk of miscarriage and premature births, with basic medical supplies such as iron supplements and prenatal vitamins impossible to obtain.

Brenda Kelly, a consultant obstetrician at Oxford University Hospital, told Al Jazeera that Gaza was “losing a future generation of children”, alluding to a “staggering rise” in stillbirths, miscarriages and pre-term births.

“What we’re seeing now is the direct fallout of Israel’s weaponising of hunger in Gaza – impacting babies’ growth and growth restriction is one of the leading causes of miscarriages and stillbirth,” she said.

Severe malnutrition among pregnant women is compounded by severe stress and psychological trauma, as well as repeated displacement and a lack of safe shelter, she said.

Those babies that do survive face heightened health risks. “We know that famine experienced in-utero has lifelong consequences for children who then go into adulthood with much higher risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, as well as mental health disorders,” she said.

June 4 (UPI) — Federal officials have arrested a Washington man they said provided “significant quantities” of explosive materials to the man who attacked a California fertility clinic in a suicide bombing.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California charged Daniel Jongyon Park of Kent, Wash., with providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.

Officials arrested him Tuesday night shortly after he arrived on a flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Park had been deported from Poland where he traveled to in the days after the May 17 attack.

Police said Edward Bartkus of Twentynine Palms, Calif., attacked the American Reproductive Centers location in Palm Springs, Calif., using a vehicle-borne bomb. He was allegedly motivated by his anti-natalist views that people shouldn’t be brought into the world without their consent.

The Justice Department said Park shared Bartkus’ views and bought and shipped more than 200 pounds of ammonium nitrate to Bartkus’ home. Park also joined Bartkus in Twentynine Palms, where the two allegedly conducted experiments on how to build explosives using the chemicals.

Attorney General Pam Bondi thanked the Polish government for assisting in returning Park to the United States to face charges.

“Bringing chaos and violence to a facility that exists to help women and mothers is a particularly cruel, disgusting crime that strikes at the very heart of our shared humanity,” she said.

May 18 (UPI) — A 25-year-old man on Sunday has been tentatively identified as the suspect in an explosion outside a Southern California fertility clinic that injured four and and killed one.

The FBI believes Edward Bartkus, a resident of Twentynine Palms, home to a large U.S. Marine Corps base, about 58 miles northwest of Palm Springs, used a vehicle-borne improvised bomb. The explosion occurred at 11 a.m. PDT Saturday and damaged several buildings.

“We are working through some other technical means to positively identify the decedent here, but we believe at this moment, based on the evidence that we’ve gathered, that that is Mr. Bartkus as the decedent here,” Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said at a Sunday morning news conference.

None of those injured are believed to be staff members of the clinic, city officials said.

American Reproductive Centers wrote on Facebook that a “vehicle exploded in the parking lot near our building.”

“Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is,” the center posted. “In the face of this tragedy, we remain committed to creating hope — because we believe that healing begins with community, compassion, and care,” they wrote in the post.

“Out of every tragedy, there is an opportunity to come together with deeper purpose. While today’s events have shaken us all, they also shine a light on the strength of our community, the bravery of our first responders, and the resilience of the families we serve.

“At ARC, we believe in creating life – not just in the biological sense, but in the emotional and spiritual sense, too,” the post said.

The clinic expects to reopen Monday.

The Center for Reproductive Services and the American Coalition for Telemedicine told CBS News that they had not heard of any threats to their facilities or the organizations they work with across the country.

“We were able to save all of the embryos at this facility,” Davis said. “Good guys, 1, bad guys, 0.”

The blast could be felt more than a mile away from the blast zone and pieces of vehicles were thrown hundreds of feet in the air and then several blocks away.

“You can use your imagination for how big that bomb device was,” Davis said.

People at The Skylark Hotel, about 500 yards from the clinic, said they felt the explosion.

Palm Springs city officials said in a Facebook post that the blast occurred near several healthcare facilities.

“We believe he was the subject found by the vehicle,” Davis said.

The vehicle was a 2010 silver Ford Fusion sedan.

Davis said this is the largest bombing ever investigated in Southern California.

“It does require some planning and some skill to build a bomb of this kind, although we have seen similar devices with even more significant damage before including the horror of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the blast that rocked the World Trade Center during the first attack in February 1993,” Law Enforcement analyst Richard Esposito told CBS News.

Barkus has not been in the FBI’s radar, according to Davis.

In writing or recordings, the suspect was against bringing people into the world against their will, according to CBS law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.

“The subject had nihilistic ideations and this was a targeted attack,” Davis said. “We believe he was attempting to livestream it and yes, that is also part of our investigation.”

On Saturday, Davis said: “Make no mistake, this is an intentional act of terrorism.”

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also sent agents to help with the investigation.

“Yesterday, a man intent on harming others in our city failed. Palm Springs survived and we are stronger and more resilient as a result,” Palm Springs Police Chief Andrew Mills said during Sunday’s news conference. “Our determination to continue life as we know it here in Palm Springs continues unabated and you’ll see this city dynamically grow as a result of this.

Late Saturday, the FBI and the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Office evacuated residents in the Twentynine Palms neighborhood where the suspect lived and more than 50 miles from the blast.

“I can confirm that we were executing a search warrant at that location in Twentynine Palms as a result of this explosion here,” Davis said. “Some residents were evacuated in the neighboring area as a practice of protocol and safety. We do not believe that there is an ongoing threat to the public in the Twentynine Palms area as a result of this investigation.”

In its latest assault on Gaza’s decimated healthcare system, Israel has once again targeted the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, this time with drones, as its forces are also carrying out a ground offensive in the north and south of the bombarded territory.

Health officials said late on Sunday that fighting around the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza and an Israeli military “siege” forced it to shut down.

It was the main medical facility in the north after Israeli air strikes last year also forced the Kamal Adwan and Beit Hanoon hospitals to stop providing health services.

“There is direct targeting on the hospital including the intensive care unit,” Indonesian Hospital director Dr Marwan al-Sultan said in a statement, adding that no one could reach the facility, which had about 30 patients and 15 medical staff inside.

Israel has repeatedly targeted hospitals during its 19-month war on Gaza. Human rights groups and United Nations-backed experts have accused Israel of systematically destroying Gaza’s healthcare system.

Earlier, Dr Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of al-Shifa Hospital in the besieged enclave’s north, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that the latest strikes – which have been ongoing since Saturday – indicate that Israeli attacks on Gaza’s hospitals are intensifying.

“The medical teams are really suffering, and we have a few numbers of medical teams and staff … and a lot of people are in need [of] more medical care,” Abu Salmiya said by phone from the hospital on Sunday.

Thousands of sick and wounded people could die, he warned. Blood donations are urgently needed.

This has been underscored by Gaza’s Health Ministry, which confirmed that Israeli forces besieged the facility in Beit Lahiya, adding that “a state of panic and confusion is prevailing”.

The ministry later said that Israel had cut off the arrival of patients and staff, “effectively forcing the hospital out of service”.

With “the shutdown of the Indonesian Hospital, all public hospitals in the North Gaza Governorate are now out of service”, it said.

Gaza’s healthcare facilities have been targeted repeatedly throughout Israel’s deadly assault that began 18 months ago.

Other facilities in the north that have been bombed, burned, and besieged by the Israeli military since the start of the war include Kamal Adwan Hospital, al-Shifa Hospital, al-Ahli Hospital, and al-Awda Hospital. Dozens of other medical clinics, stations, and vehicles have also come under attack.

The targeting of health facilities, medical personnel and patients is considered a war crime under the 1949 Geneva Convention.

Israel has also battered several hospitals in Gaza’s central and southern areas, including Deir el-Balah’s Al-Aqsa Hospital and the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.

Earlier this week, Israel struck two hospitals in Khan Younis. Nine missiles slammed into and around the courtyard of the European Gaza Hospital, killing at least 16 people, while an attack on the Nasser Medical Complex killed two people, including a wounded journalist.

Incessant attacks on Gaza’s healthcare sector have left it reeling, devastating its ability to function, while doctors say they are out of medicine to treat routine conditions.

Hospitals have also been on the verge of total collapse amid a brutal and ongoing blockade, where Israel continues to bar the entry of much-needed medical supplies, fuel, and other humanitarian aid including food and clean water.

The crisis in Gaza has reached one of its darkest periods, humanitarian officials warn, as famine also looms.

Israeli air strikes have killed hundreds of Palestinians in the last 72 hours.

Strikes over the weekend have also put the European Hospital, the only remaining facility providing cancer treatments in Gaza, out of service.

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said dozens of Palestinians have been wounded, and doctors say “they’re facing numerous challenges in treating injuries because of a lack of medical supplies”.

“Israeli air strikes in Gaza are still escalating as drones and fighter jets hover in the sky,” Khoudary said.

The death toll has reached the same level of intensity as the earliest days of the war, said Emily Tripp, executive director of Airwars, an independent group in London that tracks recent conflicts.

She says preliminary data indicate the number of incidents where at least one person was killed or injured by Israeli fire hovered around 700 in April. It’s a figure comparable only to October or December 2023 – one of the heaviest periods of bombardment.

In the last 10 days of March, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates, an average of 100 children were killed or maimed by Israeli air strikes every day.

Almost 3,000 of the estimated 53,000 killed by Israel since October 7, 2023, have lost their lives since Israel broke a fragile ceasefire on March 18, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

Among those killed in recent days include a volunteer pharmacist with the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, who was killed with her family in a strike on Gaza City on May 4.

A midwife from Al Awda Health and Community Association was also killed with her family in another strike on May 7.

A journalist working for Qatar-based television network Al Araby TV, along with 11 members of his family, was also killed.

An aide worker in Gaza who has witnessed Israel’s increased bombardment of the enclave calls it “shocking,” as Palestinians struggle with a lack of food and medical supplies. Afeef Nessouli with Gila International tells Al Jazeera Israel is also keeping medical workers from coming in or out.