Main events on June 17th

IRGC claims ‘complete control’ over Israel’s skies

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has issued a statement on its latest attacks against Israel, saying that its “powerful and manoeuvrable” Fattah missiles broke through Israel’s missile defence shield, “sending a message of Iran’s authority” to the rival country.

In the statement, carried by Iranian news agencies, it said the attack “showed we have gained complete control over the skies of the occupied territories and that its residents are completely defenceless” against Iranian attacks.

There were no further details.

According to Israeli media, the latest barrage set off explosions over Tel Aviv and ignited a fire at a parking lot. It is not clear if there were other hits as Israel censors information about impacts at strategic sites.

The IRGC statement comes after Trump claimed complete control over Iran’s skies and demanded the country’s unconditional surrender.

US shuts embassy in Israel until Friday

The United States Embassy in Jerusalem and consular section in Tel Aviv will be shut from today through Friday due to the conflict between Israel and Iran and to comply with instructions from Israel’s Home Front Command, the US State Department said.

“The US Embassy has directed that all US government employees and their family members continue to shelter in place in and near their residence until further notice,” the embassy said in a statement.

The embassy also said that it had “no announcement about assisting private US citizens to depart” Israel at this time.

“We will alert the US citizen community if there is additional information to share regarding departure options,” it said.

“Ben Gurion Airport remains closed, and there are no commercial or charter flights operating from there. Seaports in Israel are also closed,” it added.

“Land crossings to Jordan are currently operating and are scheduled to be open on Wednesday.”

Benjamin Netanyahu’s 33 years of Iran nuclear warnings

Israel’s first attack five days ago was under the premise of dismantling Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons. The UN watchdog has never said there is evidence of Tehran having a nuclear arms programme.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been saying that Iran is “very close” to developing a nuclear weapon for more than 30 years.

Iran unlikely to comply with Trump’s ‘surrender’ demand, entire region now at risk

We’ve been speaking with Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, who said a little earlier that Iran was unlikely to “surrender to American terms” and that there is a risk the war on Iran could “bring the entire region down”.

Vaez said that US President Trump “provided the green light for Israel to attack Iran just two days before the president’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, was supposed to meet with the Iranians in Muscat”.

Imagine viewing, from the Iranian perspective, Trump giving the go-ahead for the attack while also saying that diplomacy with Tehran was still ongoing, Vaez said.

Now Trump “is asking for Iranian surrender”, he said.

“I think the only thing that is more dangerous than suffering from Israeli and American bombs is actually surrendering to American terms. Because if Iran surrenders on the nuclear issue and on the demands of President Trump, there is no end to the slippery slope, which would eventually result in regime collapse and capitulation anyway.

“So the risk is that with the Islamic Republic going down, it would try to bring the entire region down with it, and so the risk of a regional conflagration now is higher than ever before.”

Iranian media reports on arrests of Israeli spy agency suspects

Local Iranian media have reported on the arrests of several people accused of spying for the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, as well as planning attacks.

The Tasnim News Agency reports that a foreign national was arrested in the southern port city of Bushehr while recording images of a “sensitive nuclear area” and accused of working for Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

The news site also reported that a “terrorist team” affiliated with Mossad was discovered during a vehicle check-in Baharestan county, on the outskirts of Tehran, where micro-drones, explosives, communications equipment and targeting systems were discovered.

Morad Moradi, the region’s acting governor, was quoted as saying the suspects had “intended to use this equipment to carry out widespread suicide operations in densely populated areas and, by creating fear and panic, undermine internal security”.

Iranian news website Eghtesadonline also reported that four people were arrested on suspicion of working as “mercenaries” for Israel after material used in the manufacture of “drones and micro-aircraft” was discovered in a workshop in Isfahan City, located near the country’s Isfahan nuclear facilities.

‘Not for you’: Israeli shelters exclude Palestinians as bombs rain down

Samar al-Rashed, a 29-year-old single mother and Palestinian citizen of Israel, lives in a mostly Jewish apartment complex near Acre. She was at home with her five-year-old daughter, Jihan, on Friday as air raid sirens pierced the air, warning of incoming missiles.

She grabbed her daughter and rushed for the building’s shelter.

“I didn’t have time to pack anything,” she recalled. “Just water, our phones, and my daughter’s hand in mine.”

The panicking mother tried to ease her daughter’s fear, while hiding her own, gently encouraging her in soft-spoken Arabic to keep up with her rushed steps towards the shelter, as other neighbours climbed down the stairs, too.

But at the shelter door, she said, an Israeli resident, having heard her speak Arabic, blocked their entry – and shut it in their faces.

“I was stunned,” she said. “I speak Hebrew fluently. I tried to explain. But he looked at me with contempt and just said, ‘Not for you.'”

In that moment, Samar said, the deep fault lines of Israeli society were laid bare. Climbing back to her flat and looking at the distant missiles lighting up the skies, and occasionally colliding with the ground, she was terrified by both the sight, and by her neighbours.

A history of exclusion

Palestinian citizens of Israel have long faced systemic discrimination – in housing, education, employment, and state services. Despite holding Israeli citizenship, they are often treated as second-class citizens, and their loyalty is routinely questioned in public discourse.

According to Adalah-The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, more than 65 laws directly or indirectly discriminate against Palestinian citizens. The nation-state law passed in 2018 cemented this disparity by defining Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people”, a move critics say institutionalised apartheid.

In times of war, that discrimination often intensifies.

Palestinian citizens of Israel are frequently subjected to discriminatory policing and restrictions during periods of conflict, including arrest for social media posts, denial of access to shelters, and verbal abuse in mixed cities.

Many have already reported experiencing such discrimination.

In Haifa, 33-year-old Mohammed Dabdoob was working at his mobile repair shop Saturday evening when phones simultaneously all rang with the sound of alerts, triggering his anxiety. He tried to finish fixing a broken phone, which delayed him. He then rushed to close the shop and ran towards the nearest public shelter, beneath a building behind his shop. Approaching the shelter, he found its sturdy door locked.

“I tried the code. It didn’t work. I banged on the door, called on those inside to open – in Hebrew – and waited. No one opened,” he said. Moments later, a missile exploded nearby, shattering glass across the street. “I thought I was going to die.”

“There was smoke and screaming, and after a quarter of an hour, all we could hear were the sounds of the police and the ambulance. The scene was terrifying, as if I were living a nightmare similar to what happened at the Port of Beirut,” he added, referring to the 2020 Beirut port explosion.

Frozen by sheer fear and shock, Mohammed watched from his hiding place in a nearby parking lot as the chaos unfolded, and soon enough, the shelter’s door opened. As those who were inside the shelter began trickling out, he looked at them silently.

“There’s no real safety for us,” he said. “Not from the missiles, and not from the people who are supposed to be our neighbours.”

Discrimination in shelter access

In theory, all citizens of Israel should have equal access to public safety measures – including bomb shelters. In practice, the picture is very different.

Palestinian towns and villages in Israel have significantly fewer protected spaces than Jewish localities. According to a 2022 report by Israel’s State Comptroller quoted by the newspaper Haaretz, more than 70 percent of homes in Palestinian communities in Israel lack a safe room or space that is up to code, compared to 25 percent of Jewish homes. Municipalities often receive less funding for civil defence, and older buildings go without the required reinforcements.

Even in mixed cities like Lydd (Lod), where Jewish and Palestinian residents live side by side, inequality is pronounced.

Yara Srour, a 22-year-old nursing student at Hebrew University, lives in the neglected neighbourhood of al-Mahatta in Lydd. Her family’s three-storey building, which is around four decades old, lacks official permits and a shelter. Following the heavy Iranian bombardment they witnessed on Saturday evening, which shocked the world around them, the family tried early on Sunday to flee to a safer part of the city.

“We went to the new part of Lydd where there are proper shelters,” Yara said, adding that her 48-year-old mother, who suffers from weak knees, was struggling to move. “Yet, they wouldn’t let us in. Jews from poorer areas were also turned away. It was only for the ‘new residents’ — those in the modern buildings, mostly middle-class Jewish families.”

Yara recalls the horror vividly.

“My mother has joint problems and couldn’t run like the rest of us,” she said. “We were begging, knocking on doors. But people just looked at us through peepholes and ignored us, while we saw the sky light up with fires of intercepted rockets.”

Question now is how far Trump willing to increase military support for Israel

The question is to what extent he wants to bolster US support for Israel. The US has continually armed Israel for decades, and in this particular conflict, there is no doubt that US missile defence systems are being used and have been added to the Israeli systems.

There is also a US fleet in the region – two aircraft carriers. In all, there are some 40,000 to 50,000 troops in the region at any given time. These numbers fluctuate and flow. So it’s very difficult to attribute any increased troop presence on the ground.

But the question is to what extent President Trump is going to ramp up the tangible visibility of the military in this ongoing conflict.

Is WhatsApp safe?

WhatsApp’s safety and security have been subjects of ongoing debate. While the platform employs end-to-end encryption for messages, ensuring only intended recipients can read them, concerns persist about data collection and sharing practices.

Potential Vulnerabilities

Despite robust security measures, WhatsApp isn’t impervious to threats:

1. Metadata collection
2. Group chat vulnerabilities
3. Social engineering attacks

WhatsApp can track your social networks, Meta has shown its bias many times in multiple genocides and Israel has the spyware tools to infiltrate your phone and surely can track WhatsApp.  

Meta and WhatsApp are also on the BDS movement list, should be avoided regardless.

https://www.bdsmovement.net/Global-Day-Action-Against-Spyware

A US court  has ruled against the Israeli NSO Group for illegally spying on WhatsApp users, forcing NSO Group to pay a sum of 612 million dollars in damages - unfortunately not to the wronged users but to Meta. 

WhatsApp is not the victim here, question is how many people has Lavender AI targeted tracking WhatsApp...

Hezbollah watches on as Iran and Israel battle, for now

When Israel bombed Iran and assassinated several IRGC commanders on Friday, Hezbollah released a statement condemning the attacks and offering condolences for the slain officers.

Analysts say the statement was a clear sign that Hezbollah would not be entering the battle in support of Iran.

“Currently, there is no need for Hezbollah to intervene, as Iranian missiles are capable of confronting the Israeli occupation,” said Qassem Kassir, a Lebanese political analyst supportive of the group. “However, if the situation escalates into a full-scale war, nothing prevents the situation from changing.”

Others say Hezbollah’s lack of action may indicate it does not have the means to intervene militarily.

That’s because the Israeli campaign on Lebanon has left Hezbollah’s political leadership battered. Many of the group’s most senior military figures, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, were assassinated. The group’s political hegemony is now being challenged by the Lebanese state, with pressure from the US and Israel, as it moves to disarm Hezbollah and bring the use of force under the state’s exclusive authority.


_{Mourners stand near the bodies of people, wrapped in Hezbollah and Amal flags, who were killed in an Israeli strike on the town of Deir Qanoun Ras al-Ain in Tyre, southern Lebanon, on November 11, 2024}

The danger is, they're likely standing by until Israel is weakened enough, just like the US is standing by until Iran is weakened enough...

Iran-Israel conflict raises alarm in Pakistan amid fears over own security

Pakistan and Iran fired missiles into each other’s territory during a brief military escalation between the neighbours in January 2024.

Now, 17 months later, after Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities and assassinated multiple Iranian generals and nuclear scientists, Pakistan has been quick to condemn the Israeli military action.

Islamabad described the Israeli strikes as violations of Iran’s territorial sovereignty and labelled them “blatant provocations”.

Analysts now say the deepening conflict is sparking fears due to Islamabad’s complex ties with Tehran and the prospect of the Israeli military extending its aerial influence close to the Pakistani border.

_{A man looks at flames rising from an oil storage facility after it appeared to have been struck by an Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, early on June 15}

Israel attacks Iran where thousands of Jewish people call home

Lost in coverage of the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel is the Iranian Jewish community that has called the country home for centuries.

Israeli air base reported as target of overnight Iran missile attack

Iranian missiles in the early hours of Wednesday caused fires in an area of central Israel. Iran’s Fars News Agency says one of the targets was the Meron airbase, which is in northern Israel.

There is no indication whether that was hit. There is military censorship in wartime in Israel, and if sensitive targets are hit, the media is not allowed to report that.

Another area that was hit earlier on Tuesday was Herzliya. Buses were set on fire in that area. The Iranian media is again saying that it was a military site.

Israelis take shelter from Iranian missiles

_{People take shelter in an underground metro station in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, June 17}

_{People take cover inside a cable car tunnel following a missile attack from Iran in Haifa, June 17}

Iranian official says all border crossings remain open: Report

All land border crossings in Iran have remained open, according to an Iranian official, as foreign nationals living there seek the nearest departure point amid escalating hostilities with Israel.

Javad Hedayati, director general of Iran’s transit bureau, told Tasnim news agency that all borders of the country are open to passengers and freight, and that the border crossings are “being operated normally”.

In recent days, foreigners, including Pakistani, Chinese and South Korean nationals, have started evacuating from the country using land routes, as all aviation activities have been halted.

Meanwhile, Hedayati said, due to the ongoing attacks by Israel and the need for “security precautions”, the entry of people and goods into Iran has slowed down.

_{Pakistani students, studying at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, return to Pakistan through the Taftan border, in Quetta, Pakistan on Tuesday}

Video shows Iranian air defences intercepting Israeli missiles

The footage, posted by the Mehr news agency, shows explosions in the sky over Tehran as air defence systems shoot down incoming missiles. Mehr said the video shows Tehran’s air defences “successfully repelling Israeli aggression”.

War monitors record 5 times as many strikes on Iran compared with attacks on Israel

US-based defence think tanks the Critical Threats Project and the Institute for the Study of War (CTP-ISW) report that Israel’s military has carried out five times as many air attacks on sites in Iran compared with Iran’s attacks on targets in Israel.

Since Israel launched its attack on Iran on June 13, the CTP-ISW said it recorded 197 reported or confirmed air strikes on Iran by Israeli forces. In contrast, the think tanks recorded 39 reported or confirmed Iranian ballistic missile strikes or interceptor impacts in Israel since the outbreak of fighting.

The CTP-ISW also noted a “sharp decline” in the size of recent Iranian missile barrages, which they attribute to Israel’s destruction of missile launchers and storage facilities.

Israel running low on defensive interceptors: Report

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Israel is running low on defensive Arrow interceptors and says this could affect the country’s ability to shoot down the long-range ballistic missiles from Iran.

An anonymous US official told the newspaper that Washington has been aware of the capacity problem for months and has been augmenting Israel’s defences with systems on the ground, at sea, and in the air.

The report said the Israeli military declined to comment “on matters related to munitions”.

Israeli strikes have killed 585 people across Iran, rights group says

The Washington, DC-based group Human Rights Activists says Israeli attacks have killed at least 585 people across Iran and wounded 1,326 others. The group said it had identified 239 of the dead as civilians and 126 as security personnel.

Iran has not been publishing regular death tolls during the conflict. Its last update, issued Monday, put the death toll at 224 people killed and 1,277 others wounded.

Human Rights Activists, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, says it crosschecks local reports in Iran against a network of sources it has developed in the country.

Some business activities continue in Tehran despite exodus: Report

Despite reports of tens of thousands of people leaving the Iranian capital for safer areas amid threats of more Israeli attacks, some forms of commerce continue in parts of Tehran, according to Iran’s Press TV.

Images posted on X by the English-language news publication showed people lining up for bread, buying their groceries and doing their daily activities in Tehran.

Some residents of Tehran have told Al Jazeera that their families are unable to leave the city due to medical conditions or lack of transport. Others said they are refusing to leave despite the threat by Israel.

An estimated 10 million people live across Tehran’s 22 districts.

‘Escalation upon escalation’ as Israel ramps up attacks on Iran’s nuclear, military sites

Iran shoots down Israeli drone, F-35 jet: Reports

We have more on Israel’s overnight attacks on Iran. The state broadcaster IRIB is reporting that Iranian forces shot down an Israeli Hermes drone in Isfahan. It published footage of the downed unmanned aircraft used for surveillance.

Meanwhile, the official IRNA news agency reported that Iranian forces destroyed a hostile F-35 fighter in the Javadabad area of Varamin city.

Israeli attack targets missile production facility in Iran

Video shows plumes of smoke rising from the direction of the Khojir missile production complex in Tehran after a wave of Israeli air strikes across Iran. Israel said its latest attacks have targeted weapons facilities and nuclear centrifuge production plants.

IAEA says two centrifuge production facilities hit in Iran

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says on X that two centrifuge production facilities in Iran, a workshop in Karaj and the Tehran Nuclear Research Center, were hit in Israeli attacks.

At the Tehran site, one building was hit where advanced centrifuge rotors were manufactured and tested, and at Karaj, two buildings were destroyed where centrifuge components were manufactured, the IAEA said.

Video shows explosions near airport in Karaj

Social media video verified by Al Jazeera shows a bombing that hit near Payam airport in Karaj, near the Iranian capital to the west. Israel said moments ago that it was again carrying out attacks on Tehran.

Pregnant woman, children killed in Israeli attacks near Isfahan

Iran’s Tasnim news agency is reporting that a pregnant woman, who was weeks away from giving birth, has been killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Najafabad. The report said the Israeli army targeted two vehicles and the attack also killed the woman’s husband.

In total, six people were killed in the strikes, including two children aged 10 and 13.

‘Mr President give the order’: Israelis hope for US intervention

Overnight, there was a back-to-back commentary and discussion about an imminent decision from the American president. There was euphoria about the possibility the US would use the B-52 bombers that would, once and for all, finish the job.

This morning, just to give you an indication of how much support this has, the front page of Yedioth Ahronoth has a picture of Trump in Air Force One and the headline is “Mr President give the order”.

There is a lot of anticipation for such an involvement that is seen as something that would conclusively end the war to Israel’s advantage. Although there are some voices that say that even if Trump doesn’t give the order, Israel is going to push on – it would take more time – but it can also do what is necessary according to Israeli interests.

Iran trusts Arab neighbours will not allow US to launch attacks from their territories, official says

We’ve been speaking to Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, on the ongoing conflict. We asked him whether Iran would attack US forces in neighbouring countries if Washington enters the conflict.

Baghaei said Iran is “under an attack by a genocidal” regime and it will defend itself with “full force” against Israel’s “war of aggression”.

He says Iran is “for the time being” focused on targeting Israeli territory only and it trusts its neighbours would not allow the US to use their territory for attacks against it.

“Right now, we focus on defending ourselves from attacks from Israel, and that is why we have been very careful, very responsible, very calculated in our response to these attacks. We have targeted military bases, security bases inside the occupied lands, so for the time being, we are focused on that,” he said.

“We have very good relations with Arab countries, and they are very cognisant of the fact that Israel has been trying to drag others into the war. … We are sure our Arab countries hosting US bases would not allow their territory to be used against their Muslim neighbours,” he added.

Under international law, no country has a legal basis to allow a third party to use its territory against another country, and “I trust that the understanding between Iran and our neighbouring countries would not allow any third party to abuse their territory,” he said.

‘Diplomacy never ends’

We have more from Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry. When asked if Iran is willing to engage in dialogue with the US, he said, “Diplomacy never ends,” but added that Tehran no longer trusts Washington.

“This war was imposed in the midst of a diplomatic process. We were supposed to be in Muscat on Sunday, and they started this aggression early Friday. Iran has been all in for diplomacy and dialogue,” he said.

Iran does “not really” trust the US because “no one can imagine in our region, not only in Iran, that Israel started this war without prior green light by the United States,” Baghaei said.

“So I think what is at stake is the credibility of a country that is supposed to be a global power. What is at stake is the international law, international law that has been almost annihilated for the past two years because of all of these atrocities that have been committed in occupied Palestine, in Lebanon, in Syria and elsewhere,” he added. “So I think the whole international community, in particular those who are members of the Security Council, must shoulder their responsibility and act in order to stop this aggression.”

Iran won’t accept ‘imposed war or peace, won’t surrender’: Khamenei

Iran “will stand firm against an imposed war, just as it will stand firm against an imposed peace”, the supreme leader says in a televised address reported by the Tasnim news agency. “This nation will not surrender to anyone in the face of imposition.”

Khamenei also pointed to statements made by Trump, saying those who know Iran and its history “know that Iranians do not answer well to the language of threat”.

“And the Americans should know that any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable consequences.”