Here’s where things stand on Monday, June 16:
Fighting
- Multiple blasts were reported in Tehran as Israel issued new evacuation threats to the capital’s residents and attacked a military base in the west of the city.
- The Israeli military intensified its bombing of civilian targets, striking the building of Iran’s state broadcaster in Tehran as well as the Farabi Hospital in Kermanshah in central Iran, damaging parts of it.
- In response, Iran later issued warnings for Israeli news channels N12 and N14.
- The Israeli army claimed it destroyed one-third of Iran’s surface-to-surface missile launchers without providing evidence.
- Iran launched a new wave of attacks on Israel, hitting the Tel Aviv area and Haifa in the north.
- Israeli Army Radio reported that eight people were killed – five in central Israel and three in the port city of Haifa.
Casualties and disruptions
- More than 220 Iranians have been killed. Iranian authorities said 54 women and children were killed in recent attacks and 75 women and children were injured.
- The Israeli military’s Home Front Command said more than 20 people have been killed since it attacked Iran and Tehran retaliated.
- Electronic interference with commercial ship navigation systems has surged in recent days around the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Gulf, impacting vessels sailing through the region.
- The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, said there was a possibility of both radiological and chemical contamination within Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz after Israeli air strikes.
- Pakistan shut all its border crossings with neighbouring Iran for an indefinite period, according to provincial officials. Airspace in the Middle East has also been affected.
Diplomacy
- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian addressed parliament, saying the country is “not seeking nuclear weapons” and it “must stand strong against this genocidal criminal aggression”.
- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a war criminal” and said he was deliberately provoking war to block a diplomatic breakthrough between Iran and the United States.
- Netanyahu refused to rule out the possibility of targeting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, saying, “It’s not going to escalate the conflict. It’s going to end the conflict.”
- US President Donald Trump, speaking on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, said Iran should talk about de-escalating hostilities with Israel “before it’s too late”.
