Sirens sound in Beersheba as Iranian missiles strike: Reports

A short while ago, the Israeli military has said it detected a new wave of missiles launched from Iran, with defence systems working to intercept the incoming projectiles.

Now, The Times of Israel reports that sirens have been sounded in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba and surrounding towns. A missile has reportedly struck a building in the city, according to the Quds News Network.

اشتعال النيران جراء سقوط صاروخ إيراني على هدف في بئر السبع المحتلة pic.twitter.com/F4Ix3BCEEI

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) June 20, 2025

Translation: Fire breaks out after Iranian missile hits target in occupied Beersheba.

At the moment, what we know is that the early warnings of the Israeli military to citizens were followed very shortly by rocket fire and interceptions – loud explosions were heard.

Witnesses are now posting on social media pictures of fires and smoke billowing in Beersheba in the Negev. We don’t know exactly what was hit, but it seems there is at least one incident of direct impact.

Israeli media confirms ‘direct hit’ in southern Beersheba

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth news outlet reports that the Beersheba municipality has confirmed that the Iranian missile attack a short while ago was a “direct hit and not fragments” from an intercepted missile crashing to the ground.

The Channel 12 news site also said the Israeli military has confirmed that the Iranian missile was not intercepted by air defences. Paramedics from the Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service are treating five people “lightly injured” by Iran’s missile strike in the city of Beersheba, Israel’s Channel 12 reports.

MDA paramedic Dvir Ben-Zeev told the outlet that he “saw thick smoke and cars on fire” at the scene of the attack. “One of the buildings was visibly destroyed, and there is damage to other apartments. We have set up two points to treat the injured, and we are conducting medical examinations for residents who are leaving the buildings,” he said.

_{A crater at the missile strike site}

Iran missile strikes near Beersheba tech park, Microsoft office, Israeli military branch

The central rail station has been temporarily shut down because it also sustained damage. And there was damage visible to the Microsoft office in the Gav-Yam Negev advanced technologies park. This tech park has a lot of research and development activities in robotics and data sciences, and so on.

It is adjacent to Ben Gurion University and, according to their website, it is also adjacent to the Israeli army’s C4i branch campus, its telecommunications branch.

So this is what we know of that location. Seven people are reported to have been lightly injured in that attack.

The south of Israel is more sparsely populated, and the one missile that we could see landed before the beginning of business hours, so there were no people in the offices, presumably.

Israeli army says it attacked dozens of targets across Tehran overnight

The Israeli military has claimed that more than 60 fighter jets took part in the attacks on the Iranian capital, which it said used approximately 120 munitions. The army also said it struck “several industrial sites for missile production” in the Tehran area.

As we’ve been reporting, Israel’s attacks across Iran over the past several days have killed hundreds of people.

Israeli military says it bombed Iranian missile launch platform, kills commander

The Israeli military says it attacked a short while ago “three missile platforms ready to be launched from Iran into Israel”. It said it also struck the “military commander who was preparing to launch them”, without providing more details.

IAEA: Khondab reactor damaged, but no ‘radiological consequence’ expected

The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has assessed that Israel’s Thursday strikes on the Khondab heavy water research reactor damaged key buildings at the facility, including the distillation unit.

However, it said, because the Khondab reactor was still under construction and not operational, it contained no nuclear material. Therefore, no “radiological consequence” was expected, IAEA head Rafael Grossi said in a statement.

The statement said damage to the facility, which was previously named Arak, had initially not been visible, but that the agency had later assessed that key buildings in the complex had been damaged.

The Israeli military said it had specifically targeted “the structure of the reactor’s core seal, which is a key component in plutonium production”.

Russian specialists still working at Bushehr nuclear plant, says official

The head of Russia’s nuclear energy corporation says that Russian specialists are continuing to work at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, and that the situation there remains normal.

Alexey Likhachev said that he hoped that Moscow’s warnings to Israel not to attack the site had been received by the Israeli leadership.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that more than 200 Russians were continuing to work at Iran’s Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant, and that an agreement had been reached with Israel over their safety.

Russia, which has a strategic cooperation agreement with Iran, has strongly urged the US not to join in Israel’s strikes on Israel, warning it would destabilise the region and risk triggering a nuclear catastrophe.

Israeli drone strike hits Tehran: Report

Iranian news outlet Asriran says that a drone attacked an apartment in a residential building in the Iranian capital’s central Gisha district. Hostilities between Iran and Israel are now in their eighth day, with both sides trading constant attacks.

Hospital attacked in Tehran, says Iran’s Health Ministry

Another hospital in Tehran was targeted by Israeli bombs today, according to the head of Iran’s Health Ministry.

“This is the third hospital in Iran to be attacked. Six ambulances and a comprehensive health service center have also been brutally attacked by the Zionist enemy,” the ministry’s PR head said in a statement carried by IRNA.

“In seven days of cowardly aggression, there were more than six cases of violation of international conventions by [Israel].”

Iran launches missile salvo at Israel

The Israeli military says on X that its defence systems are working to intercept the missiles, advising Israelis to enter protected areas. Local media report that air raid sirens are sounding across the country.

Iranian missiles fall in Israel: Report

Local media in Israel are reporting that missiles have hit targets across the country. Impacts have been reported in the Haifa area in the north and Beersheba, which has been a frequent target of Iranian missile fire, in the south. At least one missile fall was reported in Jerusalem as well.

Israel’s Channel 12 reports that about 39 missiles were identified in this barrage.

Israeli rescuers say two injured in Iran missile barrage

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service reported two people injured by shrapnel, including a 16-year-old, in serious condition, after the latest barrage of missiles fired from Iran.

“MDA medics and paramedics are providing medical treatment and are taking a 16-year-old boy to the hospital in serious condition, with shrapnel in his upper body, and a 54-year-old man in moderate condition with a shrapnel injury to his lower limbs,” the MDA said in a statement, without specifying their location.


_{Emergency staff work at an impact site in Israel’s Haifa after an Iranian missile attack}

Casualties from Iranian attacks on Israel grow

Magen David Adom, Israel’s ambulance service, says its teams are providing treatment to 17 people, three in serious condition.

Video posted on social media shows the aftermath of an Iranian missile attack on the city in northern Israel moments ago:

Israel begins new round of attacks on Iran

Air defence systems have been activated in Bushehr in southern Iran, according to the Young Journalists Club, run by state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military says it has struck military infrastructure in southwestern Iran.

Pro-Palestinian activists say they broke into UK military base, damaged planes

Pro-Palestinian activists say they have broken into a military base and damaged two aircraft in a protest in the UK. The Palestine Action group says two activists broke into the Royal Air Force Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire, before damaging two Voyager aircraft used for refuelling and transport.

In a statement, the group said its activists had ridden electric scooters to swiftly reach the aircraft, then used repurposed fire extinguishers to spray red paint, symbolising blood, over the aircraft and runway. Further damage was caused to the aircraft with crowbars, the statement said.

“Despite publicly condemning the Israeli government, Britain continues to send military cargo, fly spy planes over Gaza and refuel US/Israeli fighter jets,” a spokesperson for the group said in a statement.

Both activists avoided being detained by security at the base, the statement said. There has been no immediate response from the UK’s Defence Ministry or police.

The group shared a video on social media of the activists carrying out their protest.

Supporting genocide is orders of magnitude more disgraceful. 

UK police arrest 6 on suspicion of assault near Iran’s London embassy

British police have arrested six men following reports of an altercation at a location close to the Iranian embassy in London, Reuters reported. “Six men have been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm – they remain in police custody,” Reuters quoted police as saying in a statement.

British media reported that the arrests took place at a protest against the Iranian leadership.

Gaza convoy activists receive heroes' welcome in Tunis after being blocked from entering Egypt

https://www.newarab.com/news/gaza-activists-welcomed-tunis-after-being-banned-egypt


_{The Global March to Gaza received a great deal of popular support in Tunisia}

Activists taking part in the Global March to Gaza received a hero’s welcome in the Tunisian capital on Thursday evening, after they were forced to turn back from the Libyan city of Sirte, by forces loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar.

The activists were hoping to reach Egypt, but Haftar’s forces cut off phone, internet and logistical services while blocking the convoy’s advance, reportedly under Egyptian government pressure.

The activists retreated to Misrata in western Libya. All their attempts and negotiations to secure passage through eastern Libya, which is controlled by Haftar’s forces, failed after this and they decided to return to Tunisia on Wednesday.

Around 1,500 activists, mostly from North African countries, were on the convoy. They were hoping to make it through Libya and Egypt to the Rafah border crossing in order to break the siege of Gaza and draw attention to Israel’s genocidal war on the territory, which has killed over 55,000 people.

US Jewish group calls on Trump to stop arming Israel

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a US-based advocacy group, has called for “an immediate halt” to Israel’s attacks on Iran, which the group said threatened a “full blown regional war”.

“Decades of internationally-backed impunity for the Israeli government’s war crimes against Palestinians and unconditional military funding from the US have brought us to this point,” the group said in a statement shared on social media.

The US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military assistance annually, and it has sent billions more since the country began its deadly bombardment of Gaza in October 2023.

“Amid its escalation with Iran, the Israeli government continues to escalate its brutal slaughter and starvation of Palestinians with the funding and backing of the US,” the group added.

“Israel is committing genocide and instigating regional war. The US must stop arming Israel NOW.”

Israeli military ‘named and shamed’ for second year on UN report into child violations

This is the 24th year that the United Nations has released this report on grave violations against children.

The report, released annually, looks at the number of children globally who have been killed, maimed or recruited into armed conflict, among other things. The report only documents cases that the UN has been able to independently verify.

Now, despite ample evidence that Israel should have been included on this list for many years, it wasn’t – as the UN bowed to Israeli pressure not to be named in the report. But that all changed last year when Israel was included for the first time. And now this year, marking two years in a row that Israel is named and shamed.

In the annexe of the report looking at 2024, it says Israeli forces remained on the list because they fulfilled the criteria of a “party that kills and maims children” and “a party that engages in attacks on schools and/or hospitals”.

Globally, the UN was able to verify 41,370 grave violations against children in 2024. Roughly 20 percent of the total – more than 8,000 – were committed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory.

I guess that doesn't take into account deliberately starving nearly a million children in Gaza...

‘Children will begin to die of thirst’: Gaza facing man-made drought

The besieged Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli attacks since October 2023, is facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapse, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has warned.

“Children will begin to die of thirst,” spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva. “Just 40 percent of drinking water production facilities remain functional,” he said.

Rights groups, unions call on EU to scrap trade agreement with Israel over abuses

More than 100 organisations, including human rights groups and trade unions, have called on the European Union to immediately suspend its trade agreement with Israel over its abuses towards Palestinians.

EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss their trade cooperation deal with Israel, the EU-Israel Association Agreement, on Monday, when they are due to get an assessment of Israel’s compliance with Article 2 of the agreement.

The article states that “respect for human rights and democratic principles” in “internal and international policy” is an essential element of the deal. EU foreign ministers voted to initiate a review of the deal last month.

“As parties to the Genocide Convention, all EU states are bound to ‘employ all reasonable means’ to stop Israeli atrocities, but instead, many EU states have stood by, quiet and at risk of complicity,” said Claudio Francavilla, acting EU director at Human Rights Watch.

The human rights group is one of 114 organisations that signed the joint statement, along with Amnesty International and Oxfam Ireland.

“EU foreign ministers shouldn’t let the escalating hostilities between Israel and Iran take focus away from the ongoing extermination and apartheid against the Palestinians,” he said, adding that the EU “should suspend the trade pillar of the EU-Israel Association Agreement without further delay”.

Most Palestinians in Gaza forced out of their homes since October 2023

That’s according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which drew parallels between forced displacement in Gaza today and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948 when the State of Israel was founded.

Known as the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic), Zionist military forces pushed more than 700,000 Palestinians out of their homes at that time. “77 years later, Palestinians continue to be forcibly displaced,” UNRWA said in a post on X to mark World Refugee Day.

Israeli military bombs home in central Gaza, killing at least 8

The Israeli military’s attacks across Gaza are continuing overnight.

Citing a source at the Al-Aqsa Hospital, our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues report that Israeli fighter jets have bombed a house west of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, killing at least eight people and injuring more.

Israeli forces open fire in central Gaza, killing at least 22

The Israeli military has carried out another mass casualty attack in Gaza.

Our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues, citing a source at al-Awda Hospital in Deir el-Balah, report that Israeli forces have opened fire on aid seekers near the Netzarim axis in central Gaza, killing at least 22 people and injuring more.

In total, at least 31 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the four and a half hours since midnight.

Death toll rises for Israeli strike on home in Deir el-Balah

Earlier, we reported that Israeli forces had bombed a home in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, killing at least eight people. The Quds News Network and the Palestinian Information Center now report that at least 11 people have been confirmed killed in that strike, which hit the Ayyash family home in the al-Ma’askar area.

Death toll rises for Israeli attack on aid seekers in Netzarim

As we reported earlier, Israeli forces opened fire on aid seekers near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, killing at least 22 people and injuring more. Our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues, citing a source at al-Awda Hospital in Deir el-Balah, now report that 23 people have been killed in that attack.

Al Jazeera sources in Gaza now report that a total of 34 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across the besieged enclave in the hours since midnight local time (21:00 GMT).

Israeli forces raid several Palestinian towns in occupied West Bank

The Israeli military has raided the town of Tubas, northeast of Nablus in the north of the West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting.

Israeli soldiers raided several homes in the town, Wafa said. Separately, the Israeli military also carried out raids in several towns south of Jenin, also in the northern West Bank, including Arrabeh and Qabatiya.

At least two Palestinians were arrested during the raid in Qabatiya, Wafa reported.

Palestinians in the West Bank have experienced an intensified campaign of Israeli military and settler violence amid Israel’s war in Gaza. Thousands of people have been forcibly displaced from their homes.

Israeli forces turn Palestinian buildings in West Bank into military barracks

The Israeli military has stormed the occupied West Bank towns of Arura and Abwein, as well as the Nubani farms in Ramallah, the Palestinian Information Center reports.

Israeli forces have carried out an arrest campaign in the towns, while they’ve also raided Palestinian buildings, evicted the owners, and turned them into military barracks, according to the news outlet.

Radioactivity level outside Natanz site unchanged, normal after Israeli attacks: IAEA chief

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has spoken at a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York.

Attack at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant would have most ‘serious’ consequences: IAEA

Here are some of Grossi’s concluding remarks at the Security Council, which we have been reporting on:

Israel has shown ‘blatant disregard’ for a diplomatic solution: Russia’s UN ambassador

Here is a translation of some of the Russian UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya’s statements at the Security Council.

US envoy to UN says Iran ‘must abandon nuclear ambitions’

Dorothy Camille Shea, the US ambassador to the UN, has again blamed Iran for the unfolding conflict, saying the country should have agreed to a deal “that would have prevented them from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon”.

Iran has repeatedly denied seeking nuclear arms. The IAEA – the UN’s nuclear agency – and the US intelligence community have said they found no evidence that the Iranian government was building one.

“While the United States was not involved in Israel’s strikes, let there be no doubt that the United States continues to stand with Israel and supports its actions against Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” Shea told the Security Council.

“The Iranian government must abandon its nuclear ambitions so that there is no more destruction.”

Iran’s UN ambassador urges Security Council to stop Israel

Amir-Saeid Iravani has stressed the civilian toll of Israel’s attacks on the country during the UN Security Council meeting in New York, at one point holding up photos of Iranian children killed in the bombings.

“At least two pregnant women and their unborn children were killed on the same day Israel struck the national broadcaster IRIB during a live broadcast,” Iravani told the council.

The Iranian ambassador said Israel’s attacks constitute “gross violations of international law”, and he urged the UN to take action. “Israeli strikes are an assault on the global non-proliferation regime,” he added.

“If the council fails to act now, it will send a message that international law and resolutions apply selectively. If the non-proliferation regime collapses, this council will share responsibility with the Israeli regime.”