US envoy Steve Witkoff to visit aid distribution sites in Gaza to assess ‘dire situation on the ground’: White House
United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will travel to Gaza to inspect aid distribution as pressure mounts on Israel over its starvation policy in the war-torn Palestinian territory.
Witkoff will travel to Gaza on Friday with US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to inspect aid distribution as condemnation of Israel grows over famine in Gaza and reports that more than 1,000 desperately hungry Palestinians have been killed since May at food distribution sites operated by the notorious US- and Israeli-backed GHF.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that Witkoff would visit “distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground”.
“The special envoy and the ambassador will brief the president immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region,” Leavitt said.
The visit by the top US envoy comes a day after more than 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the territory and health officials reported the deaths of two more children from starvation, adding to the Gaza Health Ministry’s confirmed death toll of 154 people who have died from “famine and malnutrition” – including 89 children – in recent weeks.
Witkoff met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after his arrival in the country on Thursday, the Israeli leader’s office said.
Earlier this week, President Trump contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that reports of hunger in Gaza were untrue, with the US leader saying the enclave was experiencing “real starvation”.
The United Nations and independent experts had warned for months that starvation was taking hold in Gaza due to the Israeli military blockade on humanitarian relief, and this week, they said that “famine is now unfolding”.
Angered by Israel’s denial of aid and ongoing attacks on Gaza’s population, the United Kingdom, Canada and Portugal this week became the latest Western governments to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state.
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said that France will recognise Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September, following Spain, Norway and Ireland’s lead.
Some 142 countries out of the 193 members of the UN currently recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state.
Following a meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said “the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is beyond imagination”.
“Here, the Israeli government must act quickly, safely and effectively to provide humanitarian and medical aid to prevent mass starvation from becoming a reality,” he said.
“I have the impression that this has been understood today.”
Once a vibrant centre of Palestinian life, much of Gaza has been pulverised by Israeli bombardments and more than 60,000 Palestinians killed, and almost 150,000 wounded, since October 2023, after the Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed an estimated 1,139 people.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US nonprofit backed by the US and Israel, was set up earlier this year to provide humanitarian aid in Gaza. Its aid distribution got under way in May, following a prolonged halt in supply deliveries to the enclave. But according to the UN, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed trying to access food at the GHF aid hubs.
Starving and beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza have no choice but to walk several miles to collect much-needed food packages from the four heavily militarised hubs. Palestinian medics and civilians told Al Jazeera that GHF and Israeli troops have routinely opened fire on the aid seekers, killing dozens at a time.
Harrowing accounts have been corroborated by video evidence, whistleblowers and Israeli soldiers, and the killings have fuelled international outcry – including condemnations from heads of state, UN agencies and human rights groups.
Who is responsible for the killings?
Mainly Israeli troops, but mercenaries working for the GHF are also implicated, according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which documents atrocities against Palestinians.
Euro-Med also alleges that Israeli forces have enabled Palestinian gangs to loot aid convoys and terrorise civilians.
A retired United States special forces officer, Anthony Aguilar, who was formerly employed by the GHF, recently disclosed some of the brutal treatment Palestinians face at aid sites.
“Without question, I witnessed war crimes by the [Israeli military],” Aguilar told the BBC in an exclusive interview.
Palestinians mourn over the body of Ahmed Abu Hilal, who was killed while on his way to an aid hub in Gaza, during his funeral at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday, June 8, 2025 [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP]
How are the Palestinians being killed?
Doctors and survivors in Gaza say that Israel often uses snipers to aim directly at Palestinian aid seekers.
Dr Fadel Naeem said he frequently treats survivors in the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City and that most of the gunshot wounds he sees are to the “head, chest and abdomen”.
He noted that Israel also appears to fire indiscriminately at starving Palestinians, sometimes firing tear gas, explosives or artillery shells at large crowds. These attacks often cause serious burns, as well as flesh and shrapnel wounds.
“There is often severe tissue tearing … and many [of the injured] end up with amputated limbs,” said Dr Naeem.
Other Palestinians sustain fractures and broken bones, typically by being trampled in the mad rush to flee Israeli gunfire or obtain a bag of food aid.
Dr Hassan al-Shaer, who works in al-Shifa Hospital, also says many of the injuries are serious.
“Many of the [injured] victims that come to us also have life-threatening wounds, and they are taken to the operating room immediately,” he told Al Jazeera.
What excuse does Israel give for these killings?
Israel officially denies firing at Palestinians and frequently claims that its troops only fire “warning shots” outside GHF distribution hubs to prevent overcrowding.
The Israeli army also says “chaos” at the sites poses an “immediate threat” to army soldiers.
Yet, according to a news report published by the Israeli daily Haaretz on June 27, Israeli troops pose the real threat.
Many soldiers who served in Gaza admitted that they were “ordered to shoot” directly at Palestinian aid seekers by their superiors.
“Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars,” one soldier told Haaretz.
“It’s a killing field,” he added.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Katz both deny the allegations and claim that they amount to “blood libel” against Israel, meaning they equate it to a false and anti-Semitic accusation that Jewish people murder Christian children to use their blood in religious rituals.
Does medical evidence on the ground support Israel’s official narrative?
No, accounts from doctors in Gaza hospitals and clinics do not support Israel’s claim.
Dr Shaer, from al-Shifa, noted that many of the injured people started coming into the hospital when the GHF began aid distribution in late May.
Injuries are often compounded with illnesses and weak immune systems, effects brought on by starvation in Gaza.
Hakeem Yahiya Mansour, a 30-year-old Palestinian emergency medic in Gaza, added “death always happens” at GHF sites.
“Most of the calls we get are from the surroundings [of the distribution zones],” he told Al Jazeera.
What do the GHF sites look like?
Footage of the sites shows thousands of starving Palestinians crowded onto a strip of land roughly the size of a football field, according to Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF.
Aid seekers are surrounded by guard towers and are often forced to fight for food parcels that are tossed to hungry crowds at poorly arranged and chaotic distribution points.
Tanks are often stationed nearby, and aid seekers can hear the terrifying buzzing of drones above them.
According to satellite imagery obtained by Al Jazeera’s verification unit, Sanad, Palestinians have little space to manoeuvre or receive aid.
Despite the dangers, Palestinians face an impossible choice: die from gunfire or starvation. Many chose to accept the risk and go for aid in the hope of obtaining food for their families and small children.
Mohanad Shaaban said he did not eat for three days, pushing him to head to the GHF site on July 30. He remembers seeing two tanks at the site – one on the right and a second on the left.
“The [Israelis] then opened fire on us,” he recalled solemnly.
“Please tell the world to end this famine,” Shaaban said.
How is the world responding?
Harrowing scenes and images of Palestinians dying of hunger and being killed at GHF aid sites have compelled some of Israel’s allies to issue stern condemnations and ultimatums.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom recently issued a statement urging Israel to scale up life-saving aid.
What’s more, France has taken the symbolic step of recognising a Palestinian state, which the UK also threatened to do, unless Israel ends the “appalling situation” in Gaza and commits to the “two-state” solution. Canada has also said it will recognise a Palestinian state in September.
A former security guard who worked at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation ‘aid distribution sites’ described to Israeli media abuses he witnessed firsthand, including the potentially lethal use of pepper spray and tear gas.
A Gazan child receives a food ration in Gaza City on Saturday after 32 Gazans reportedly were shot and killed near humanitarian aid stations in southern Gaza. Photo by Haitham Imad/EPA
July 19 (UPI) — The Israeli military killed an estimated 32 Gazans near two aid distribution sites on Saturday morning, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Israeli soldiers fired on Gazans near aid distribution sites that are located near Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, the BBC reported.
Israel Defense Forces told the BBC its troops fired warning shots to deter “suspects” from approaching them hours before the opening of the aid sites, which are operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The IDF in a statement said it positioned its troops about 1,000 yards from an aid distribution site before it opened in Rafah, The New York Times reported.
The IDF troops fired warning shots after people approached them and did not stop when told to do so, the statement said.
Officials with the GHF said there were “no incidents at or near any of our aid distribution sites today,” the Times reported. GHF officials said Israeli military activity occurred several miles away from its aid distribution sites and “hours before our sites opened.”
The United States and Israel created the GHF and use private contractors to protect its operations to stop Hamas from stealing the aid and depriving Gazans from accessing it, according to Israeli and U.S. officials, the BBC reported.
The GHF told the BBC the Gaza Health Ministry commonly reports “false and misleading” casualty numbers.
According to the Times, the IDF has shot at crowds of Gazans at or near aid sites during recent months, however the GHF said that Hamas has attacked civilians seeking aid and encourages civil unrest to disrupt aid distribution.
The reported killings occurred as cease-fire talks continue between Hamas and Israel.
Palestinians inspect what is left of their tents after it was struck by an Israeli drone. The wounded were transported to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Sunday. Photo by Anas Deeb/UPI | License Photo
Washington, DC – New media reports in the United States, citing intelligence assessments, have cast doubt over President Donald Trump’s assertion that Washington’s military strikes last month “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme.
The Washington Post and NBC News reported that US officials were saying that only one of the three Iranian nuclear sites – the Fordow facility – targeted by the US has been destroyed.
The Post’s report, released on Friday, also raised questions on whether the centrifuges used to enrich uranium at the deepest level of Fordow were destroyed or moved before the attack.
“We definitely can’t say it was obliterated,” an unidentified official told the newspaper, referring to Iran’s nuclear programme.
Trump has insisted that the US strikes were a “spectacular” success, lashing out at any reports questioning the level of damage they inflicted on Iran’s nuclear programme.
An initial US intelligence assessment, leaked to several media outlets after the attack last month, said the strikes failed to destroy key components of Iran’s nuclear programme and only delayed its work by months.
But the Pentagon said earlier in July that the attacks degraded the Iranian programme by one to two years.
While the strikes on Fordow – initially thought to be the most guarded facility, buried inside a mountain – initially took centre stage, the NBC News and Washington Post reports suggested that the facilities in Natanz and Isfahan also had deep tunnels.
‘Impenetrable’
The US military did not use enormous bunker-busting bombs against the Isfahan site and targeted surface infrastructure instead.
A congressional aide familiar with intelligence briefings told the Post that the Pentagon had assessed that the underground facilities at Isfahan were “pretty much impenetrable”.
The Pentagon responded to both reports by reiterating that all three sites were “completely and totally obliterated”.
Israel, which started the war by attacking Iran without direct provocation last month, has backed the US administration’s assessment, while threatening further strikes against Tehran if it resumes its nuclear programme.
For its part, Tehran has not provided details about the state of its nuclear sites.
Some Iranian officials have said that the facilities sustained significant damage from US and Israeli attacks. But Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said after the war that Trump had “exaggerated” the impact of the strikes.
The location and state of Iran’s highly enriched uranium also remain unknown.
Iran’s nuclear agency and regulators in neighbouring states have said they did not detect a spike in radioactivity after the bombings, suggesting the strikes did not result in uranium contamination.
But Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, did not rule out that the uranium containers may have been damaged in the attacks.
“We don’t know where this material could be or if part of it could have been under the attack during those 12 days,” Grossi told CBS News last month.
According to Grossi, Iran could resume uranium enrichment in a “matter of months”.
The war
Israel launched a massive attack against Iran on June 13, killing several top military officials, as well as nuclear scientists.
The bombing campaign targeted military sites, civilian infrastructure and residential buildings across the country, killing hundreds of civilians.
Iran responded with barrages of missiles against Israel that left widespread destruction and claimed the lives of at least 29 people.
The US joined the Israeli campaign on June 22, striking the three nuclear sites. Iran retaliated with a missile attack against an air base housing US troops in Qatar.
Initially, Trump said the Iranian attack was thwarted, but after satellite images showed damage at the base, the Pentagon acknowledged that one of the missiles was not intercepted.
“One Iranian ballistic missile impacted Al Udeid Air Base June 23 while the remainder of the missiles were intercepted by US and Qatari air defence systems,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told Al Jazeera in an email last week.
“The impact did minimal damage to equipment and structures on the base. There were no injuries.”
After a ceasefire was reached to end the 12-day war, both the US and Iran expressed willingness to engage in diplomacy to resolve the nuclear file. But talks have not materialised.
Iran and the US were periodically holding nuclear talks before Israel launched its war in June.
EU-Iran talks
During his first term in 2018, Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The agreement saw Iran scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting international sanctions against its economy.
In recent days, European officials have suggested that they could impose “snap-back” sanctions against Iran as part of the deal that has long been violated by the US.
Tehran, which started enriching uranium beyond the limits set by the JCPOA after the US withdrawal, insists that Washington was the party that nixed the agreement, stressing that the deal acknowledges Iran’s enrichment rights.
I had a joint teleconference with E3 FMs & EU HR last night, in which I made the following points clear:
It was the US that withdrew from a two-year negotiated deal -coordinated by EU in 2015- not Iran; and it was US that left the negotiation table in June this year and chose a… pic.twitter.com/NFQdK2HZD4
On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he held talks with the top diplomats of France, the United Kingdom and Germany – known as the E3 – as well as the European Union’s high representative.
Araghchi said Europeans should put aside “worn-out policies of threat and pressure”.
“It was the US that withdrew from a two-year negotiated deal – coordinated by EU in 2015 – not Iran; and it was US that left the negotiation table in June this year and chose a military option instead, not Iran,” the Iranian foreign minister said in a social media post.
“Any new round of talks is only possible when the other side is ready for a fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial nuclear deal.”
Tehran denies seeking a nuclear bomb. Israel, meanwhile, is widely believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal.
Added to the World Heritage list are two prisons: Tuol Sleng and M-13, as well as the execution site Choeung Ek.
Three notorious locations used by Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime as torture and execution sites to perpetrate the genocide of Year Zero five decades ago have been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
Two prisons and an execution site were inscribed on the list by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris.
It coincided with the 50th anniversary of the rise to power by the communist Khmer Rouge, which caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture and mass executions during a four-year reign of violence from 1975 to 1979 before it was brought to an end by an invasion from neighbouring Vietnam.
UNESCO’s World Heritage list lists sites considered important to humanity and includes the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodia’s Angkor archaeological complex.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a message on Friday directing people to beat drums simultaneously across the country on Sunday morning to mark the UNESCO listing.
🔴 BREAKING!
New inscription on the @UNESCO#WorldHeritage List: Cambodian Memorial Sites: From centres of repression to places of peace and reflection, #Cambodia 🇰🇭.
— UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 (@UNESCO) July 11, 2025
“May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended,” Hun Manet said in a video message aired by state-run television TVK. “From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity.”
Two sites added to the list are in the capital, Phnom Penh – the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Choeung Ek Genocide Centre.
Tuol Sleng is a former high school that was converted into a notorious prison known as S-21, where an estimated 15,000 people were imprisoned and tortured.
Today, the site is a space for commemoration and education, housing the black-and-white mugshots of its many victims and the preserved equipment used by Khmer Rouge tormentors.
The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia’s first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site and is among the first in the world to be submitted as a site associated with recent conflict, Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said in a statement on Friday.
‘The Killing Fields’
Choeung Ek – a former Chinese cemetery – was a notorious “killing field” where S-21 prisoners were executed nightly. The story of the atrocities committed there is the focus of the 1984 film “The Killing Fields”, based on the experiences of New York Times photojournalist Dith Pran and correspondent Sydney Schanberg.
More than 6,000 bodies were exhumed from at least 100 mass graves at the ground in the early 1980s, according to Cambodian government documents filed with UNESCO.
Every year, hundreds hold remembrance prayers in front of the site’s memorial displaying victims’ skulls, and watch students stage dramatic re-enactments of the Khmer Rouge’s bloody crimes.
Another prison site, known as M-13 and located in a rural area in central Kampong Chhnang province, was one of the most important prisons of the early Khmer Rouge, where its cadres “invented and tested various methods of interrogation, torture and killing” but is today only a patch of derelict land.
A special tribunal sponsored by the UN, costing $337m and working over 16 years, only convicted three key Khmer Rouge figures, including S-21 chief torturer Kaing Guek Eav, before ceasing operations in 2022.
Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge regime, died in 1998 before he could be brought to trial.
Buddhist monks line up to receive food and alms during the annual ‘Day of Remembrance’ for the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime at the Choeung Ek memorial in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on May 20, 2025 [Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP]
UN cultural organisation this week announces its choice of sites to be granted World Heritage status.
The United Nations cultural organisation has added a remote Aboriginal site featuring one million carvings that potentially date back 50,000 years to its World Heritage list.
Located on the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia, Murujuga is home to the Mardudunera people, who declared themselves “overjoyed” when UNESCO gave the ancient site a coveted place on its list on Friday.
“These carvings are what our ancestors left here for us to learn and keep their knowledge and keep our culture thriving through these sacred sites,” said Mark Clifton, a member of the Aboriginal delegation meeting with UNESCO representatives in Paris.
Environmental and Indigenous organisations argue that the presence of mining groups emitting industrial emissions has already caused damage to the ancient site.
Benjamin Smith, a rock art specialist at the University of Western Australia, said Murujuga was “possibly the most important rock art site in the world”, but that mining activity was causing the rock art to “break down”.
“We should be looking after it,” he said.
Australian company Woodside Energy, which operates an industrial complex in the area, told news agency AFP that it recognised Murujuga as “one of Australia’s most culturally significant landscapes” and that it was taking “proactive steps … to ensure we manage our impacts responsibly”.
Delegation leader Raelene Cooper said the UNESCO listing sent “a clear signal to the Australian Government and Woodside that things need to change”.
Making the UNESCO’s heritage list does not in itself trigger protection for a site, but can help pressure national governments into taking action.
African heritage boosted
Cameroon’s Mandara Mountains and Malawi’s Mount Mulanje were also added to the latest edition of the UNESCO World Heritage list.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay has presented Africa as a priority during her two terms in office, although the continent remains underrepresented.
The Diy-Gid-Biy landscape of the Mandara Mountains, in the far north of Cameroon, consists of archaeological sites, probably created between the 12th and 17th centuries.
Malawi’s Mount Mulanje, in the south of the country, is considered a sacred place inhabited by gods, spirits and ancestors.
UNESCO is also considering applications from two other African countries, namely the Gola Tiwai forests in Sierra Leone and the biosphere reserve of the Bijagos Archipelago in Guinea-Bissau.
On Friday, UNESCO also listed three notorious Cambodian torture and execution sites used by the Khmer Rouge regime to perpetrate genocide 50 years ago.
The United Nations human rights office has said it recorded at least 613 killings of Palestinians both at controversial aid points run by the Israeli- and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and near humanitarian convoys.
“This is a figure as of June 27. Since then … there have been further incidents,” Ravina Shamdasani, the spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva on Friday.
The OHCHR said 509 of the 613 people were killed near GHF distribution points. The Gaza Health Ministry has put the number of deaths at more than 650 and those wounded as exceeding 4,000.
The GHF began distributing limited food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of deliveries which the UN says is neither impartial nor neutral, as killings continue around the organisation’s sites, which rights groups have slammed as “human slaughterhouses”.
Mahmoud Basal, a civil defence spokesperson in Gaza, said they “recorded evidence of civilians being deliberately killed by the Israeli military”.
“More than 600 Palestinian civilians were killed at these centres,” he said. “Some were shot by Israeli snipers, others were killed by drone attacks, air strikes or shootings targeting families seeking aid.”
‘I lost everything’
A mother, whose son was killed while trying to get food, told Al Jazeera that she “lost everything” after his death.
“My son was a provider, I depended totally on him,” she said, adding: “He was the pillar and foundation of our life.”
The woman called the GHF’s aid distribution centres “death traps”.
“We are forced to go there out of desperation for food; we go there out of hunger,” she said.
“Instead of coming back carrying a bag of flour, people themselves are being carried back as bodies,” she added.
The World Health Organization said on Friday that Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis is operating as “one massive trauma ward” due to an influx of patients injured around GHF sites.
Referring to medical staff at the hospital, Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, told reporters in Geneva: “They’ve seen already for weeks, daily injuries … (the) majority coming from the so-called safe non-UN food distribution sites.”
Peeperkorn said health workers at Nasser Hospital and testimonies from family members and friends of those wounded confirmed that the victims had been trying to access aid at sites run by the GHF.
He recounted the harrowing cases of a 13-year-old boy shot in the head, as well as a 21-year-old with a bullet lodged in his neck which rendered him paraplegic.
According to the UN, only 16 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, their collective capacity merely above 1,800 beds – entirely insufficient for the overwhelming medical needs.
The Israeli army has targeted the health institutions and medical workers in the besieged enclave since the beginning of its war on Gaza in October 2023.
“The health sector is being systematically dismantled,” Peeperkorn said on Thursday in a separate statement, citing shortages of medical supplies, equipment, and personnel.
GHF condemned
The UN, humanitarian organisations and other NGOs have repeatedly slammed the GHF for its handling of aid distribution and the attacks around its distribution sites.
More than 130 humanitarian organisations, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty International, on Tuesday demanded the immediate closure of the GHF, accusing it of facilitating attacks on starving Palestinians.
The NGOs said Israeli forces and armed groups “routinely” open fire on civilians attempting to access food.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which was carrying out aid distribution for decades before the GHF, has called for investigations into the killings and wounding of Palestinians trying to access food through GHF.
UNRWA noted that while it operated about 400 sites across the territory, GHF has set up only four “mega-sites”, three in the south and one in central Gaza – none in the north, where conditions are most severe.
The GHF has denied that incidents surrounding people killed or wounded at its sites have occurred involving its contractors, without providing any evidence, rejecting an Associated Press investigation that said some of its United States staff fired indiscriminately at Palestinians.
A recent report from Israeli outlet Haaretz detailed Israeli troops, in their words, confirming that Israeli soldiers have deliberately shot at unarmed Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza after being “ordered” to do so by their commanders.
Medical sources have told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces killed 27 Palestinians in Gaza since dawn on Friday.
In Khan Younis, the Israeli military killed at least 15 Palestinians following a series of deadly attacks on makeshift tents in the al-Mawasi coastal area, which was once classified as a so-called humanitarian safe zone by Israel. Attacks there have been relentless.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry, while displacing most of the population of more than two million multiple times, triggering widespread hunger and leaving much of the territory in ruins.
The war began after Hamas-led fighters crossed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 captives back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
June 27 (UPI) — Iran officially acknowledged its nuclear sites had sustained “serious and significant damage” from U.S. air and missile strikes last weekend.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that while the extent of the damage was still being assessed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, it was undeniable that the losses were substantial and that the country’s nuclear facilities “have been seriously damaged.”
The admission by Araghchi in an interview with Iranian state television on Thursday came amid conflicting reports on the efficacy of the unprecedented military action launched by the United States against three nuclear sites on June 21.
Earlier Thursday, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khanamei claimed the opposite of his foreign minister, saying damage to the sites had been minimal and instead hailing the “damage inflicted” by Tehran’s “victorious” retaliatory strike on the United States’ Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar on Monday.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has said the strikes using 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs and long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles “completely and fully obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program — although public briefings have focused on the “primary site,” a key underground uranium enrichment plant at Fordow, with few details forthcoming on the facilities at Natanz and Esfahan.
U.S. officials have pushed back on a leaked preliminary report by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency that assessed the strikes had only set back Iran’s nuclear development by a few months at most, with the White House calling its findings “flat-out wrong.”
Araghchi said inspectors from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, might never be allowed back into Iran.
Iranian lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday, effectively banning any future cooperation with the IAEA, which Tehran has accused of carrying out reconnaissance on behalf of Israel and the United States.
The legislation has been waived through by the Guardian Council and will go forward to President Masoud Pezeshkian’s desk for him to sign into law, or veto.
“Without a doubt, we are obliged to enforce this law. Iran’s relationship with the agency will take a different shape,” Araghchi warned.
The independent London-based Iran International said Tehran was considering quitting the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
However, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Thursday, reasserted Iran’s right to pursue peaceful nuclear development afforded to it by the treaty, according to state-run Press TV.
Citing Article IV of the 1968 agreement, he said Iran was determined to keep its nuclear program going “under any circumstances.”
The statement came a day after Trump, announcing fresh Iran-U.S. talks, said he wasn’t interested in existing or new agreements because the only thing the U.S. would be asking for was “no nuclear.”
Araghchi took to social media to claim Iran had conducted itself honorably and abided by international diplomatic norms, contrasting its record against that of European countries and the United States in particular, accusing Washington of treachery for attacking when Iran-U.S. talks were still in play.
“Our diplomatic legitimacy was undeniable. In every conversation I had with foreign ministers, they either approved Iran’s rightful position or were forced into silence. We stood firm, and even adversaries acknowledged our position,” he said in a post on X.
“We have had a very difficult experience with the Americans. In the middle of negotiations, they betrayed the negotiation itself. This experience will certainly influence our future decisions.”
Araghchi confirmed no resumption of talks was planned despite Trump saying Wednesday that the two countries would meet “next week.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at her regular briefing Thursday that nothing was “scheduled as of now,” but that communication channels between the United States and Iran remained active.
WASHINGTON — Democratic efforts in the Senate to prevent President Trump from escalating his military confrontation with Iran fell short Friday, with Republicans blocking a resolution that marked Congress’ first attempt to reassert its war powers after U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
The resolution, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, aimed to affirm that Trump should seek authorization from Congress before launching more military action against Iran. Asked Friday whether he would bomb Iranian nuclear sites again if he deemed necessary, Trump said, “Sure, without question.”
The measure was defeated in a 53-47 vote in the Republican-held Senate. One Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, joined Republicans in opposition, while Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote in favor.
Most Republicans have said Iran posed an imminent threat that required decisive action from Trump, and they backed his decision to bomb three Iranian nuclear sites last weekend without seeking congressional approval.
“Of course, we can debate the scope and strategy of our military engagements,” said Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.). “But we must not shackle our president in the middle of a crisis when lives are on the line.”
Democrats cast doubt on that justification, arguing that the president should have come to Congress first. They also said the president did not update them adequately, with Congress’ first briefings taking place Thursday.
“The idea is this: We shouldn’t send our sons and daughters into war unless there’s a political consensus that this is a good idea, this is a national interest,” Kaine said in a Thursday interview with the Associated Press. The resolution, Kaine said, wasn’t aimed at restricting the president’s ability to defend against a threat, but that “if it’s offense, let’s really make sure we’re making the right decision.”
In a statement after Friday’s vote, Kaine said he was “disappointed that many of my colleagues are not willing to stand up and say Congress” should be a part of a decision to go to war.
Democrats’ argument for backing the resolution centered on the War Powers Resolution, passed in the early 1970s, which requires the president “in every possible instance” to “consult with Congress before introducing United States Armed Forces.”
Speaking on the Senate floor ahead of Friday’s vote, Paul said he would back the resolution, saying that “despite the tactical success of our strikes, they may end up proving to be a strategic failure.”
“It is unclear if this intervention will fully curtail Iran’s nuclear aspirations,” said Paul.
Trump is just the latest in a line of presidents to test the limits of the resolution — though he’s done so at a time when he’s often bristling at the nation’s checks and balances.
Trump on Monday sent a letter to Congress — as required by the War Powers Resolution — that said strikes on Iran over the weekend were “limited in scope and purpose” and “designed to minimize casualties, deter future attacks and limit the risk of escalation.”
But after classified briefings with top White House officials this week, some lawmakers remain skeptical about how imminent the threat was.
“There was no imminent threat to the United States,” said Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, after Friday’s classified briefing.
“There’s always an Iranian threat to the world. But, I have not seen anything to suggest that the threat from the Iranians was radically different last Saturday than it was two Saturdays ago,” Himes said.
Meanwhile, nearly all Republicans applauded Trump’s decision to strike Iran. And for GOP senators, supporting the resolution would have meant rebuking the president at the same time they’re working to pass his major legislative package.
Kaine proposed a similar resolution in 2020 aimed at limiting Trump’s authority to launch military operations against Iran. Among the eight Republicans who joined Democrats in approving that resolution was Indiana Sen. Todd Young.
After Thursday’s classified briefing for the Senate, Young said he was “confident that Iran was prepared to pose a significant threat” and that, given Trump’s stated goal of no further escalation, “I do not believe this resolution is necessary at this time.”
“Should the Administration’s posture change or events dictate the consideration of additional American military action, Congress should be consulted so we can best support those efforts and weigh in on behalf of our constituents,” Young said in a statement.
Trump has said that a ceasefire between Israel and Iran is now in place. But he and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have verbally sparred in recent days, with the Iranian leader warning the U.S. not to launch future strikes on Iran.
White House officials have said they expect to restart talks soon with Iran, though nothing has been scheduled.
Cappelletti writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Leah Askarinam contributed to this report.
The US bombed Iran’s nuclear sites Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan on June 22.
United States President Donald Trump has insisted that the strikes on several of Iran’s nuclear sites last week “completely destroyed” the facilities, rejecting US media reports citing a Pentagon assessment that the attacks only set Tehran’s nuclear programme back by a few months.
An initial intelligence evaluation suggested that the US bombardment failed to destroy Iran’s underground nuclear facilities, The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN reported on Tuesday, citing officials familiar with the military intelligence report from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
Two people familiar with the assessment had told CNN that Iran’s “enriched uranium was not destroyed” and the centrifuges were “largely intact”.
Another source told the US broadcaster that, according to the assessment, enriched uranium had been moved before the US strikes on Sunday.
Trump has maintained that the US strikes destroyed nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
“Fake news CNN, together with the failing New York Times, have teamed up in an attempt to demean one of the most successful military strikes in history,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“The nuclear sites in Iran are completely destroyed!” he wrote.
When reporters asked him about Iran rebuilding its nuclear programme on Tuesday, Trump said: “That place is under rock. That place is demolished.”
The White House said the intelligence assessment was “flat-out wrong”.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN in a statement: “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”
Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, also dismissed the intelligence report.
“All three of those had most, if not all, the centrifuges damaged or destroyed in a way that it will be almost impossible for them to resurrect that programme,” Witkoff told Fox News on Monday night.
“In my view, and in many other experts’ views who have seen the raw data, it will take a period of years.”
Witkoff also called the leaking of the report “treasonous”.
“It ought to be investigated. And whoever did it, whoever is responsible for it, should be held accountable,” he added.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi said an information war is under way.
“There are clearly figures in Washington who are very keen to leak a very preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency bombing assessment,” he said.
He noted that White House reporters received a press statement, saying the “leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear programme”.
“This is the first moment we are seeing, post-bombing, of the information landscape and how this information will be used and what effect it might have on Donald Trump going forward,” Rattansi said.
Investors reacted to US strikes on Iran over the weekend as Iran and Israel continued to trade missile fire on Monday morning.
The price of Brent crude oil rose around 1.53% to $78.19 a barrel as of around 7.15 CEST, while WTI rose 1.48% to $74.93 a barrel.
On Sunday, US forces attacked three Iranian nuclear and military sites, stating that Tehran must not be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon.
President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian said that the country “will never surrender to bullying and oppression”, while Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Futures for the S&P 500 slipped 0.13% to 6,010.25 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dropped 0.2% to 42,431.00. Nasdaq futures fell 0.18% to 21,804.50 on Monday morning.
In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.19% to 38,331.12, the Kospi in Seoul dropped 0.3% to 3.012,88, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.37% to 8,474.40.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite Index were in positive territory, with respective gains of 0.35% to 23,611.68 and 0.13% to 3,364.29.
The conflict, which flared up after an Israeli attack against Iran on 13 June, has sent oil prices higher linked to Iran’s status as a major oil producer.
The nation is also located on the narrow Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world’s crude oil passes.
Investors are concerned that Tehran might decide to bomb oil infrastructure in neighbouring countries or block tankers from travelling through the Strait of Hormuz.
Shipping company Maersk said on Sunday that it was continuing to operate through the strait, adding: “We will continuously monitor the security risk to our specific vessels in the region and are ready to take operational actions as needed.”
According to vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, two supertankers Coswisdom Lake and South Loyalty U-turned in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday.
The situation now hinges on whether Tehran decides to opt for aggression or a more diplomatic response to US and Israeli strikes.
Iran could attempt to close the waterway by setting mines across the Strait or striking and seizing vessels. Even so, this would likely be met by a forceful response from the US navy, meaning the oil price spike may not be sustained.
Some analysts also think Iran is unlikely to close down the waterway because the country uses it to transport its own crude, mostly to China, and oil is a major revenue source for the regime.
If Tehran did successfully close the Strait, this would cause a wider price spike for transported goods and complicate the deflationary process in the US, potentially keeping interest rates higher for longer.
On Monday morning, Trump also floated the possibility of regime change in Iran.
“If the current Iranian regime is unable to make Iran great again, why wouldn’t there be regime change?” said the US president on Truth Social.
Vice-president J.D. Vance had commented earlier that the administration did not seek regime change in Iran.
Gilan, Iran – Iranians inside and outside the country have been closely monitoring and reacting to rapidly unfolding events after United States President Donald Trump ordered the bombing of Iran’s top nuclear sites amid the ongoing conflict with Israel.
US bunker-buster bombs dropped from B-2 Spirit strategic bombers and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from naval platforms hit Iran’s three main nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan early on Sunday. Trump claimed the nuclear facilities were “totally obliterated”, though there has been no evidence shown as of yet to confirm that.
Iranian authorities confirmed the strikes after several hours, but said there was no radioactive leak. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also confirmed there was no off-site contamination.
Iranian state media appeared to downplay the impact, with the government-run IRNA reporting from an area near Fordow, the most significant and hard-to-reach nuclear site, that there was only limited smoke rising from the place where air defences were believed to be stationed and no major activity from emergency responders.
Satellite images circulating on Sunday appeared to show possible impact sites at Fordow, where the massive GBU-57 bombs are believed to have burrowed deep underground before detonating in an attempt to destroy the Iranian nuclear facilities dug beneath the mountains.
The head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society, Pir Hossein Kolivand, said there had been no deaths in the US strikes.
Images also showed substantial movement of trucks and bulldozers around Fordow in the days preceding the strikes, in what appeared to be an attempt by Iran to move out equipment and nuclear materials stored at the protected site in anticipation of US strikes.
Heavy machinery also appeared to have been deployed to fill the entrance tunnels of the facility with earth, in a move aimed at limiting damage at the site from the incoming bombs.
Speaking in Turkiye’s Istanbul, where he was attending a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi indicated a military response by Tehran is inevitable.
“My country has been invaded, and we must respond,” he told reporters. “We must remain patient and show a proportionate response to these aggressions. Only if these measures are stopped, then will we make decisions about diplomatic pathways and the possibility of restarting negotiations.”
In a televised message issued last week from an unknown location, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had warned that it would be to the detriment of Washington if it chooses to directly enter the war.
“The damage it will suffer will be far greater than any harm that Iran may encounter. The harm the US will suffer will definitely be irreparable if it enters this conflict militarily,” he said.
Hardliners call for action
Iranian state media and many hardline politicians led a furious response after the US strikes.
State television’s Channel 3 showed a map of US military bases across the region, including in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Iraq, which are within range of Iranian missiles.
“It is now clearer than ever, not just for the Iranian nation but for the whole peoples of the region, that all US citizens and military personnel are legitimate targets. We were negotiating and progressing through a diplomatic path, but you chose to spill the blood of your soldiers. The US president in the Oval Office chose to take delivery of the coffins of up to 50,000 US soldiers in Washington,” the channel’s anchor Mehdi Khanalizadeh said.
Amirhossein Tahmasebi, another anchor who had released a defiant video from inside the state television IRIB buildings in northern Tehran after they were bombed by Israel last week, said he “spits” on Trump and anyone who claims he is a president of peace.
Hossein Shariatmadari, the Khamenei-appointed ultraconservative head of Keyhan daily newspaper, wrote: “It is now our turn to immediately rain missiles down on the US naval force in Bahrain as a first measure.”
He also renewed his longtime call for Iran to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz and said Tehran must deny access to ships from the US, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
Hamid Rasaei, one of the most hardline members of Iran’s parliament who is close to the Paydari (Steadfastness) faction led by security council member and failed presidential candidate Saeed Jalili, went one step further and said Iran must hit US bases in Saudi Arabia.
Relations between Tehran and Riyadh, however, have thawed considerably in recent years.
Threats against ‘treachery’
Most Iranians in the country are still unable to go online due to state-imposed internet restrictions, but those who have managed to find a working proxy connection are also reacting angrily to the war.
“Thirty years of Iranian oil money and thirty years of economic opportunities that could have turned tens of millions of people into citizens like the rest of the world have become three deep pits,” wrote one user on X, in reference to the nuclear sites.
“Trump says let me just drop the heaviest bomb in the world and then it will all be about peace,” another user sarcastically wrote.
“Stalwart like Damavand, to the last breath for Iran,” wrote two-time Oscar-winning film director Asghar Farhadi on Instagram with a picture of Mount Damavand, the highest peak in Iran at 5,609 metres (18,402 feet) and a symbol of national pride.
But some Iranians living overseas who are against the ruling theocratic establishment, along with some inside the country, were in favour of the US and Israeli attacks in the belief that they may help overthrow the governing body.
This has prompted denunciations, and even threats, by Iranian authorities and state media against any form of “treachery”.
Elias Hazrati, the head of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s communications council, said during a late-night state television interview on Saturday that the state views those who side with Israel and the US as “dishonourable opposition” who are selling out their own country.
In a statement on Friday, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said those who have willingly or unwillingly collaborated with Israel have until the end of Sunday to turn themselves in – or face “the harshest punishment as fifth column and colluders with a hostile country during wartime”.
Iran has executed several people since the start of the war, including one person on Sunday morning, after convicting them of “spying” for Israel.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has condemned the US military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, calling it an ‘outrageous, grave and unprecedented violation’ of international law. He accused the Trump administration of colluding with Israel to breach Iran’s sovereignty, and vowed Tehran would defend its territory ‘by all means necessary.’
United States President Donald Trump has announced the bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites, as Washington effectively joined Israel’s war against Iran.
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, using a different spelling for Isfahan.
In a televised address early on Sunday, he said “the strikes were a spectacular military success”.
The US decision to intervene militarily to aid the Israeli attacks on Iran has prompted fears of a serious escalation across the Middle East and brought back memories of the devastation in Iraq following the 2003 US invasion. Israel launched unprecedented attacks on Iran on June 13, targeting its nuclear sites and top military commanders.
More than 400 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Iran, while retaliatory strikes by Tehran have killed at least 24 people in Israel.
Here is what we know so far about the US attacks on Iran:
What areas has the US bombed in Iran?
The US used bunker-buster bombs to target three key nuclear facilities – Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan – using the B2 bomber jets, according to US media reports.
“The strikes were a spectacular military success,” Trump said in his televised address. “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,” he said, adding that “our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity”.
Al Jazeera could not immediately verify Trump’s claims independently.
Here’s what we know about the three nuclear sites:
Fordow, a highly fortified underground uranium enrichment facility, is reportedly buried hundreds of metres deep in the mountains near Qom, in northwestern Iran. This site is designed to hold up to 2,976 spinning centrifuges, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Natanz is Iran’s largest enrichment complex, containing vast halls of centrifuges, some underground. It has been a key hub of Iran’s nuclear programme and the site of multiple past sabotage attempts – and was hit by Israeli strikes on the first wave of attacks on June 13.
Isfahan is an important nuclear research and production centre that includes a uranium conversion facility and fuel fabrication plants. It plays a critical role in preparing raw materials for enrichment and reactor use.
For years, Israel and the US have accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons but Iran maintains its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has also rejected claims that Tehran was on the verge of making atomic bombs, though the United Nations nuclear watchdog has expressed concerns against Iran’s decision to enrich uranium at up to 60 percent purity.
Tehran stepped up enrichment after Trump walked out of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal – Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – in 2018 that had capped Iran’s nuclear activity.
What weapons did the US use in Iran?
Trump announced “massive precision strikes” but shared no specific details about the weapons used in the attack. However, US media reports suggested the US army dropped “bunker buster” bombs and navy submarines fired multiple cruise missiles.
The GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) is the most powerful bunker buster bomb in the US military arsenal, weighing nearly 13,000kg (30,000 pounds). Bunker buster bombs can penetrate about 18 metres (59 feet) of concrete or 61 metres (200 feet) of earth, which a conventional bomb cannot reach.
The B-2 Spirit, a US stealth bomber, is currently the only aircraft designed to deploy the GBU-57 and can carry two bunker buster bombs at a time, which the air force says can drop multiple bombs sequentially, allowing each strike to burrow deeper.
The US intervention is seen as critical at this point for the Israeli campaign against Iranian nuclear facilities, especially Fordow, due to its depth. Israeli attacks had failed to destroy the site.
While nearly half a dozen B-2 bombers reportedly dropped a dozen 13,000kg bunker buster bombs on the Fordow site, navy submarines are said to have coordinated strikes by cruise missiles at the Natanz and Isfahan sites, according to media reports.
This also marks the first time that the US used MOPs in combat.
What was the impact of US strikes?
Trump claimed “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated”.
Yet there is no independent verification yet of the extent of damage at the nuclear facilities.
Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to the chairman of the Iranian parliament, claimed that the US attack was not surprising and that Iranian authorities had evacuated the Fordow facility in advance.
“Iran has been expecting strikes on Fordow for several days. This nuclear facility was evacuated, no irreversible damage was sustained during today’s attack,” Mohammadi said in a statement posted on X.
Confirming the attacks on Sunday, Iran’s nuclear agency said the radiation system data and field surveys do not show signs of contamination or danger to residents near the sites.
“Following the illegal US attack on the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear sites, field surveys and radiation systems data showed: No contamination recorded,” the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said in a social media post. “There is no danger to residents around these sites. Safety is in a stable state.”
After the US bombing of its key nuclear facilities, the agency insisted that its work would not be stopped.
“The [agency] assures the great Iranian nation that despite the evil conspiracies of its enemies, with the efforts of thousands of its revolutionary and motivated scientists and experts, it will not allow the development of this national industry, which is the result of the blood of nuclear martyrs, to be stopped,” AEOI said in a statement.
The IAEA also did not find an increase in radiation levels near the targeted sites.
“Following attacks on three nuclear sites in Iran – including Fordow – the IAEA can confirm that no increase in off-site radiation levels has been reported as of this time,” the agency said in a social media post on Sunday.
“IAEA will provide further assessments on situation in Iran as more information becomes available.”
Grossi said the IAEA will hold an emergency meeting on Monday in the wake of the attacks.
A satellite image shows trucks and bulldozers near the entrance to the Fordow nuclear facility, near Qom, Iran [File: Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters]
What has Iran said?
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the US “has committed a grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the NPT by attacking Iran’s peaceful nuclear installations”.
Tehran has already threatened to walk away from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and promoting peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
“The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences. Each and every member of the UN must be alarmed over this extremely dangerous, lawless, and criminal behavior,” said Araghchi in a statement posted on X.
“In accordance with the UN Charter and its provisions allowing a legitimate response in self-defense, Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interests, and people,” he added.
Last week, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had warned the US against joining Israeli attacks on Iran. He said it would “result in irreparable consequences” for the US.
In his first televised address since Israel began its attacks on June 13, Khamenei said Iran “will not surrender to anyone” and “will stand firm against an imposed war, just as it will stand firm against an imposed peace”.
How will Iran retaliate against the US?
Condemning the US attacks, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday it had the right to resist such “aggression”.
“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 in a statement carried by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers it its right to stand with all its might against US military aggression and the crimes committed by this rogue regime, and to defend the security and national interests of Iran,” it added.
Antonio Guterres, the UN chief, said he was gravely alarmed by the US attacks on Iran.
“This is a dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge – and a direct threat to international peace and security. There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of control – with catastrophic consequences for civilians, the region, and the world,” Guterres said.
Speaking at a news conference on Sunday, the Iranian foreign minister said the time for diplomacy had passed and that his country had the right to defend itself.
“The warmongering, a lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and far reaching implications of its act of aggression,” he said.
Stephen Zunes, the director of Middle Eastern studies at the University of San Francisco, laid out several options available to Iran in response to the US attacks unfolding. “They can attack US forces directly. There are up to 40,000 Americans within the range, not just of Iranian missiles but of drones and other weaponry,” he said.
“You have the fleet in the Persian Gulf, just off the Iranian coast. They can be vulnerable as well if they attack,” Zunes said, using another name for the Gulf, which is also referred to as the Arabian Gulf. “It could impact global shipping, impacting oil prices and indeed the entire global economy.”
Zunes also pointed towards the “proxy militias in Iraq who could target American bases there”, adding that he would be “surprised if the Iranians don’t target at least some of these”.
On Sunday, Iran deployed one of its most advanced missiles, the Kheibar Shekan, as it carried out attacks on Israel.
Iran might also move towards withdrawing from the NPT. Abbas Golroo, the parliament foreign policy committee head, said Tehran has the legal right to withdraw from the NPT following the US attacks.
Article 10 states that an NPT member has “the right to withdraw from the Treaty if it decides that extraordinary events have jeopardized the supreme interests of its country”.
Adam Weinstein, the deputy director of the Middle East programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said the US is now at risk of getting dragged into a prolonged war in the Middle East.
He noted that Iran has already indicated that it intends to continue with its nuclear programme.
“They’ll do it more secretly. They might exit the NPT, and, of course, the Israelis will say, ‘Well, this is why we need even more strikes.’ And there’s likely to be some sort of retaliation by the Iranians, or else the very legitimacy of their regime would be in question,” Weinstein said.
“And so this is how the escalation cycle starts. And so I’m very sceptical that it will be a one-off strike by the US. I think the US is at risk of being pulled into a war of choice with Iran that, unfortunately, it started.”
Trump, meanwhile, also issued more threats against Iran.
“Any retaliation by Iran against the United States of America will be met with force far greater than what was witnessed tonight,” he said on social media, after the attacks against Iran.
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.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised US President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb three nuclear sites in Iran as ‘bold, righteous and historic.’ The UN Secretary General has condemned the US strikes as a ‘dangerous escalation’.
![Palestinians mourn over the body of Ahmed Abu Hilal, who was killed while on his way to an aid hub in Gaza, during his funeral at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday, June 8, 2025. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP]](https://www.occasionaldigest.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AP25159513055391-1749393552.jpg)
