Palestine Red Crescent Society says operating field hospital in Khan Younis

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says that it has started operating a field hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The PRCS says that the facility includes 60 beds, two operating rooms, an emergency department, a laboratory, and an x-ray department, with hopes to expand inpatient capacity with four intensive care beds.

“On its first day, the hospital witnessed a large turnout of residents, receiving dozens of cases that received immediate medical care and performing three successful surgeries, reflecting the urgent need for such interventions in the region,” the group said in a social media post.

Throughout the war in Gaza, rights groups say Israeli forces have systematically targeted medical workers and facilities.

Main events on June 18th

Iran foreign minister says ‘committed to diplomacy’, only acting in self-defence

Rebuffing Israeli and US claims that Iran is close to having a nuclear weapon, Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi has reiterated that the country has “never sought and will never seek” such arms.

“If otherwise, what better pretext could we possibly need for developing those inhuman weapons than the current aggression by the region’s only nuclear-armed regime?” he wrote on X.

Stressing that Tehran is acting “solely… in self-defense” in the face of “the most outrageous aggression” against the country, Araghchi said the world should be “highly alarmed” by Israel’s attempts to broaden the conflict.

“With the exception of the illegitimate, genocidal and occupying Israeli regime, we remain committed to diplomacy. As before, we are serious and forward-looking in our outlook.”

By now, the whole world should know that:

(1) Iran solely acts in self-defense. Even in the face of the most outrageous aggression against our people, Iran has so far only retaliated against the Israeli regime and not those who are aiding and abetting it. Just like Netanyahu… pic.twitter.com/cEUCaLHpAL

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) June 18, 2025

Similarities with false claims ahead of US invasion of Iraq ‘mind-boggling’

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, has drawn parallels between Trump’s unproven claims that Iran is close to having a nuclear weapon, and the lies that were made in the lead-up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Then-US President George W Bush’s administration had justified the invasion on the false claim that Iraq was developing so-called weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

Similarly, Bishara said Trump appears to be disregarding an assessment from US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard, who certified in March that Washington “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon”.

“That was only two and a half months ago. So what is the American president basing his information on? From the Israelis, and the Israelis are lying,” Bishara said.

He added that – as we’ve been reporting – the UN nuclear agency also has said it found no evidence to indicate that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon.

“Again, the parallels between the war on Iran and the war on Iraq, and the deception before and during both wars, is mind-boggling. The fact that it could be repeated within two decades is mesmerising,” Bishara said.

Israeli military attacks Palestinian aid seekers in central Gaza

The Israeli military has attacked Palestinians waiting to receive aid near the Wadi Gaza Bridge, north of Nuseirat in central Gaza, killing and injuring several people, our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues report.

At least 11 people have been killed in the attack, according to the Quds News Network.

At least 51 Killed After Israeli Tanks Fire At Crowd In Khan Younis, Medics Say



At least 51 Gazans have been killed after Israel allegedly fired tank shells at people waiting for aid trucks. Israeli authorities are reviewing the incident.

Israeli forces raid West Bank town and arrest people with footage of rocket strikes on Israel

“As soon as they enter the house, they ask for your phone and search it. If there’s a photo of a rocket or anything related to Gaza, they’ll humiliate you and beat you. They’ll wreck the house and take you with them.”

Israeli forces have reportedly raided “80 to 90 percent” of homes in the occupied West Bank town of Azzoun.

According to local reports, Israeli soldiers were searching the phones of Palestinians for any footage of rocket strikes on Israel or celebrations of such attacks. If they found any, they would beat and detain the phone’s owner.

Concerns over nuclear ‘contamination’ amid rising civilian casualties from Israeli strikes

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Iran’s capital, Tehran, said civilian casualties from Israeli attacks are mounting alongside concerns over radiological leaks from the bombing of nuclear sites.

“We’ve got reports about casualties, civilian casualties from day one, and we are now in day six of this escalated situation,” Asadi said.

“Civilian casualties – women and children – are being killed as a result of this round of strikes by the Israelis. We have seen footage and reports coming from across the country. Here in Tehran, we’ve seen lots of civilian casualties,” he said.

“Also, there was this concern about contamination as the Israelis continue to say and conduct strikes on the nuclear facilities of the country. Today we heard about two points being targeted: one in the eastern parts of Tehran and the other near Karaj city,” he said.

“We see an already escalated situation,” he added.


_{This combination of handout satellite images provided by Maxar Technologies shows, left and right, an Iranian nuclear facility at Piranshahr in northwestern Iran on May 22, 2025, and again on June 13, 2025, after it was hit by Israeli strikes [Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies/AFP]}

Iran intercepts Israeli drones over Tehran: Report

Iran’s SNN news agency is reporting that Iranian forces have activated air defences over Tehran and shot down several drones over Tehran’s outskirts.

Iran Has More Missiles Than Israel Has Interceptors. Now What?

Iran has more offensive missiles than Israel has interceptors, according to a U.S. official and an analyst familiar with the numbers. The Arrow 3, used to counter long-range ballistic missiles, has been critical in countering attacks from Iran and Yemen in Israel’s airspace and is now in short supply.

WSJ’s Shelby Holliday reports on how the calculus around offensive and defensive missiles is shaping the conflict between Iran and Israel.

WAR WITH lRAN WILL END AMERICA | The Kyle Kulinski Show

Iran’s Supreme leader issues defiance to US threats amidst Trump’s confession

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday kept himself busy talking about Iran-Israel war and whether he the US would formally join Israel to target Iranian nuclear facilities. Rifat Jawaid detected how several lies of Trump went unchallenged by media personnel even when the US president made a spectacular confession of sorts on his country’s involvement in the ongoing war.

Netanyahu Wanted War with Iran—Now He’s Begging for a Way Out

Starting a war with Iran has become the biggest nightmare of Benjamin Netanyahu's life and they're still getting warmed up!

Right, so Benjamin Netanyahu’s empire is crumbling, as Iran’s latest strikes on Israel in retaliation for yet more Israeli overnight strikes, hit at the heart not just of Israel’s war machine, targeting airbases, and military headquarters and installations, but also vital infrastructure.

The sheer scale of the latest Iranian salvos have also flagged up an even greater problem for Netanyahu in the immediate term, having started a fight with Iran he clearly thought he’d either win fast or the US would come quickly to his side, as Israel’s air defences may very soon be no more, burning through interceptor missiles he can’t replace and despite orders to lock down the Israeli population and a blackout of state media to keep people in Israel and in the dark, social media continues to report the scenes of absolute carnage from Israel, whilst hundreds are now fleeing the country in small boats to Cyprus.

Israeli evacuation threat targets area around Iran’s Arak heavy-water nuclear reactor

The Associated Press (AP) news agency reports that the target of Israel’s recent evacuation threat in the vicinity of Arak and Khondab cities is Iran’s Arak heavy-water nuclear reactor.

According to AP, Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the Arak facility to relieve proliferation concerns. Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons.

Iran has said its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes, and Britain had previously been helping the Iranian government to redesign the Arak reactor to limit the amount of plutonium it produces, AP reports.

As part of negotiations around the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to sell off its heavy water to Western countries. Even the US purchased some 32 tonnes of heavy water for more than $8m in one deal, according to AP.

Israel’s air strikes have already targeted Iran’s nuclear site at Natanz, centrifuge workshops around Tehran and a nuclear site in Isfahan.

The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has urged Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear sites.

IAEA inspectors reportedly last visited Arak on May 14.


_{A view of the Arak heavy-water reactor in 2006}

There are 44 operating heavy water reactors (PHWRs) in the world, with the majority being CANDU reactors. These reactors are primarily located in Canada, India, Argentina, South Korea, Romania, and Pakistan.

More than 80 percent of Jewish Israelis support war on Iran

Eighty-three percent of Jewish Israelis support the government’s war on Iran.

Before Benjamin Netanyahu launched those missiles towards Iran on Friday, his government was under enormous pressure over the war in Gaza – internationally, because of the number of Palestinians the Israelis were killing in Gaza, and domestically, because the Israeli government wasn’t getting the Israeli captives out of Gaza.

But now the focus has moved for Netanyahu to Iran, taking the pressure off him.

People like Avigdor Lieberman, hawkish on the right, who quit his cabinet post in 2018, is now saying Netanyahu is doing the right thing.

Benny Gantz, who quit the cabinet last summer over the war in Gaza, now says on Iran there is no right or left – only right or wrong, and “we are right”.


_{Thirteen years ago, in 2012, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he drew on a cartoonish graphic of a bomb used to represent where he claimed Iran’s nuclear programme was at in terms of producing a nuclear weapon, as he addressed the 67th United Nations General Assembly at in New York, on September 27, 2012}

Explosions reported in Iranian cities Tehran, Karaj

As we reported a short while ago, the Israeli military has announced that it is carrying out a new wave of attacks on Iran.

Strikes have been reported in the capital, Tehran, while explosions have also been heard near the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, according to a reporter on the ground with Lebanese news outlet Al Mayadeen.

The correspondent added that Iranian air defences are currently intercepting Israeli targets in the skies over Karaj and its outskirts.

Israeli attacks on Iran kill at least 639, injure more than 1,320: Rights group

The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said at least 639 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Iran as the conflict enters its seventh day.

The group, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 antigovernment protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amin, said it had identified 263 civilians and 154 security force personnel among the total number of those killed so far in Israel’s attacks.

Casualty figures were crosschecked with local reports in Iran against a network of sources developed in the country, the group said.

Iran has not given regular death toll figures during the ongoing intense attacks by Israel. Its last update put the death toll at 224 people killed and 1,277 others wounded in Israeli strikes.

Death toll rises again following Israeli attack on Gaza aid seekers

At least 16 Palestinians are now confirmed dead, while dozens have been injured, following an Israeli military attack on aid seekers near the Wadi Gaza Bridge, north of Nuseirat in central Gaza, the Quds News Network and the Palestinian Information Center report.

More than 100 injured in aid seeker attack, casualties reported in north Gaza strike

We have been reporting on the Israeli military’s attack tonight on aid seekers near the Netzarim Junction in central Gaza, which has killed at least 16 people.

Citing medical sources at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and al-Awda Hospital, our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues now report that more than 100 Palestinians have also been injured in the attack.

In Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood in northern Gaza, an unspecified number of Palestinians have also been killed and injured after Israeli forces bombed a home, according to Al Jazeera correspondents.

Why is Israel killing so many Palestinians seeking food in Gaza?

As Israel attacks Iran, its genocide in Gaza has shown no signs of easing. At least 70 Palestinians were killed in a single day at a food distribution site run by a controversial US- and Israeli-backed group in Khan Younis, this week. All other aid channels are blocked - including medical supplies. So, what's the impact of this latest Israeli strategy?

Meanwhile targeted assassinations continue as well

Israeli military says it killed Hezbollah commander in Lebanon

Israeli forces have killed Yassin Abdel Moneim Ezzedine, an artillery commander in Hezbollah’s Litani sector, according to the Israeli military’s Arabic language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee.

Adraee said Ezzedine had “advanced numerous shooting plots towards Israel and has been involved in attempts to rebuild Hezbollah’s artillery forces”.

Hezbollah is yet to comment on Ezzedine’s alleged killing.

Israeli army demolishes West Bank home of shooting attack suspect

The Israeli military has demolished the home of a Palestinian man, Samer Hussein, in the occupied West Bank village of Einabus, south of Nablus.

In a post on X, the Israeli military said Hussein was a Hamas member who “carried out a shooting attack at the Gitti Avissar intersection on November 29, 2024”.

Hussein injured five Israeli civilians and four soldiers when he “fired at a bus and the bus stop where several soldiers were standing”, according to the Israeli military. Hussein was killed at the scene.

“The security establishment, with the backing of legal authorities, decided to demolish the terrorist’s home as part of the deterrence policy, according to which anyone who carries out an unusual terrorist attack, even if no one is killed, will have his home demolished,” the post said.

Israeli forces shoot Palestinian man during West Bank raid

The Israeli military has shot a Palestinian man during a raid on the occupied West Bank town of Yabad near Jenin, our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues report.

According to local sources, the man was injured by shrapnel caused by an Israeli live bullet, wounding him in the hand and waist during a raid on the town.

Protesters in New York rally against Israel’s attacks on Iran

We’ve been reporting on a protest outside the White House where demonstrators rallied against Israel’s attacks on Iran and urged the US not to get involved in the conflict. We are now getting reports of a similar protest in New York City.

According to videos posted online by activists, hundreds of people marched in Manhattan, holding signs condemning US threats to strike Iran as well as its support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

The placards read, “Hands off Iran now” and “Stop funding genocide”.

🚨HAPPENING NOW: Protesters gather in New York City to say no to War on Iran! Donald Trump has thrown his full weight behind Israel’s violent strikes, helping push the world to the edge of catastrophic war with Iran. People everywhere are rising up to say: no more endless wars! pic.twitter.com/jG0XCjwDHx

— The People's Forum (@PeoplesForumNYC) June 18, 2025

Japan readies military planes for Israel, Iran evacuation of citizens

Japan’s top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said the military has been ordered to prepare planes for the possible evacuation of Japanese nationals from Israel and Iran.

“In view of the increasingly tense situation in the Middle East, we have decided to move Self-Defence Forces aircraft to Djibouti,” Hayashi told reporters on Thursday. The Japanese embassies in Iran and Israel are preparing to use buses to evacuate citizens to neighbouring countries, Hayashi said, as the war entered its seventh day.

C-2 transport planes will “be on standby in order to respond promptly, should transport of Japanese nationals become necessary”, Hayashi said.

About 1,000 Japanese citizens are believed to live in Israel, and approximately 280 in Iran, the country’s Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said, citing the Foreign Ministry.

IAEA chief says information shows Iran has no ‘active plan to build nuclear weapons’

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi says the nuclear watchdog does not have information showing Iran is actively trying to build nuclear weapons.

“We did not find in Iran elements to indicate that there is an active, systematic plan to build a nuclear weapon,” Grossi told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview. “We have not seen elements to allow us, as inspectors, to affirm that there was a nuclear weapon that was being manufactured or produced somewhere in Iran.”

Grossi made the comments a week after the agency’s Board of Governors declared Iran noncompliant with its commitment to international nuclear safeguards.

It based this assessment on what it called Iran’s “many failures” to provide “full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities”. It singled out Iran’s failure to credibly explain uranium traces detected at its undeclared sites.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry blames IAEA for creating ‘pretext’ for Israeli attack

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman has accused IAEA chief Rafael Grossi and his organisation of being complicit in the ongoing conflict, saying their “biased” reporting on Iran’s nuclear activities was used as a “pretext” for Israel to attack.

Responding to Grossi’s recent comment that the agency has no hard evidence Iran is actively developing nuclear weapons, Esmaeil Baghaei said: “This is too late.”

“You obscured this truth in your absolutely biased report that was [instrumentalised] by E3/US [France, Germany, the UK and the US] to craft a resolution with baseless allegation of ‘non-compliance’,” Baghaei wrote on X. “The same resolution was then utilised, as a final pretext, by a genocidal warmongering regime to wage a war of aggression on Iran and to launch an unlawful attack on our peaceful nuclear facilities.”

“Do you know how many innocent Iranians have been killed/maimed as a result of this criminal war?” he said. “Misleading narratives have dire consequences, Mr. Grossi, and demand accountability.”

“You betrayed the non-proliferation regime; You’ve made IAEA a partner to this unjust war of aggression.”

DG @rafaelmgrossi:“We did not have any evidence of a systematic effort [by Iran] to move into a nuclear weapon.”
This is too late, Mr. Grossi: you obscured this truth in your absolutely biased report that was instrumentalize by E3/U.S. to craft a resolution with baseless… pic.twitter.com/A2cQcyqiFy

— Esmaeil Baqaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) June 19, 2025