First responders at the site of Iranian strikes on Haifa, Israel, June 15, 2025 (Shir Toren/Reuters)

EA on Australia’s ABC: Israel’s War on Iran

Israel — “Tehran Will Burn”; Iran Kills 10, Wounds 200+ in Israel

UPDATE: Iranians Stunned by Israel’s Strikes — “The Sky is Red and We Fear More Attacks”

UPDATE 1900 GMT:

An Israeli Air Force drone destroyed two Iranian F-14 fighter jets at an airport in Tehran, says the Israel Defense Forces.

The US-made F-14 Tomcats were supplied to Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. They are believed to be the last ones still in operation.

UPDATE 1800 GMT:

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is open to a targeted assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader.

Speaking with the US outlet ABC News, Netanyahu commented on Donald Trump’s reported veto of an Israeli plan to kill Ayatollah Khamenei.

Assassinating Khamenei would not “escalate the conflict” but “end it”, said Netanyahu: “We’ve had half a century of conflict spread by this regime. The forever war is what Iran wants.”

He continued by justifying Israel’s assassination of nine nuclear scientists since Friday:

Look, we’re doing what we need to do.

I’m not going to get into the details, but we’ve targeted their top nuclear scientists. It’s basically Hitler’s nuclear team.

UPDATE 1619 GMT:

Israel has struck the main building of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, located in the north of Tehran.

The on-air moment of the blast, with the presenter fleeing the IRIB studio:

UPDATE 1605 GMT:

Leaders of six of the G7 countries — Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and the UK — have drafted a joint statement seeking de-escalation of the Israel-Iran war.

The draft calls on both sides to protect civilians and to make commitments to peace.

But Donald Trump does not intend to sign the statement at the summit in Alberta, Canada.

UPDATE 1601 GMT:

Iran has asked Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Oman to press Donald Trump to use his influence on Israel for agreement to an immediate ceasefire, say two Iranian and three regional sources.

In return, Tehran will show flexibility in negotiations over its nuclear program.

In a lengthy post on social media, Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi called Israeli Prime Mnister Benjamin Netanyahu a “wanted war criminal”. But he then signalled to Donald Trump

If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential. Israel must halt its aggression, and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue. It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu. That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.

Conversely, getting the US mired in the Mother of Forever Wars will destroy any prospect for a negotiated solution, with dangerous, unpredictable and likely UNFATHOMABLE consequences for regional security and the global economy.

At the G7 summit in Canada, Trump showed no sign of a balanced appproach between Israel and Iran:

They have to make a deal, and it’s painful for both parties, but I’d say Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk, and they should talk immediately, before it’s too late.

UPDATE 1210 GMT:

An Israeli strike has seriously damaged a hospital in the Kermanshah region in western Iran.

Video has been posted on social media of the destruction.

UPDATE 1120 GMT:

Iran State media reports that the Jewish community in Isfahan has condemned Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The Zionists’ brutality, which is far from any human morality and has caused the martyrdom of a number of our beloved compatriots, including innocent children, has hurt all of our hearts.

We are confident that the Islamic Republic of Iran, proud and honorable, will give a crushing and regretful response to the Zionist regime and will make it regret its shameful actions.

UPDATE 1113 GMT:

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has stepped back from his remarks (see Original Entry) that civilians in Tehran would “pay the price” for Iranian retaliation against Israel’s strikes.

He said later on Monday:

I wish to clarify the obvious: there is no intention to physically harm the residents of Tehran as the murderous dictator does to the residents of Israel.

The residents of Tehran will have to pay the price of dictatorship and evacuate their homes from areas where it will be necessary to attack regime targets and security infrastructures in Tehran.

UPDATE 1026 GMT:

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Difrin claims, “More than 50 fighter jets and aircraft carried out strikes and destroyed over 120 surface-to-surface missile launchers. This amounts to 1/3 of the surface-to-surface missile launchers possessed by the Iranian regime.”

The IDF asserted that it has “achieved aerial superiority over Iran”.

UPDATE 1017 GMT:

Internationial Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi says there is “no indication of a physical attack” on the underground section of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment site.

Grossi said, in contrast to above-ground damage to Natanz, “the underground cascade hall containing part of the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant and the main Fuel Enrichment Plant” are unaffected.

He added, “However, the loss of power to the cascade hall may have damaged the centrifuges there.”

The Director General also described damage to four buildings at Iran’s Isfahan site. The Israeli attacks aimed at degrading uranium conversion capabilities and destroying stocks of 20% uranium.

UPDATE 0833 GMT:

The toll has risen to nine killed from Iran’s missile attack overnight Saturday-Sunday on an apartment in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv.

Belina Ashkenazi, 94, was named as one of the victims. Her husband and son were hospitalized.

The missile also killed an 8-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy and an 18-year-old boy, all Ukrainian nationals. Nearly 200 people were wounded.

One person buried under the rubble remains missing.

UPDATE 0727 GMT:

Relaying accounts of family and friends, Ali posts on social media about the difficult situation for Tehran’s civilians.

Ali’s brother, who had resisted appeals to leave the capital for the Caspian Sea coast in northern Iran, finally agreed to do so on Sunday after missile strikes hundreds of meters from his office.

What is usually a 30-minute journey to his home took 4 1/2 hours. Without running waters, after an Israel attack knocked out the main pipe, he packed and planned to leave on Monday.

Ali interjects, “But how can you leave?”.

He explains, “You need petrol. But you are lucky if you have 30 liters [less than 8 gallons] of petrol in your car after queueing for 4 hours”.

Friends who tried to leave on Sunday after hours in a traffic jam, fearing they would run out of fuel.

The banking system is collapsing, possibly because of cyber=attacks. Ali’s parents had to ask a favor from a friend, who works at a bank, to get the equivalent of $50.

Meanwhile, there is “not a single shelter”, no air raid sirens, and “zero instructions on what to do, other than not take pictures”.

Ali summarizes:

Is this what Israelis trying to do?

I don’t know. But we have a powerless nation and a brutal regime and unfortunately Iranians are only witnessing the destruction of their lives, whether slowly under the regime, or fast under Israeli attacks.

Ali adds this morning:

My brother and all cousins are still stuck in Tehran. All routes outbound are locked in a terrible jam.

My brother also says logistics companies are “out of fuel and short of personnel” predicting hard times in northern provinces soon running out of all supplies.

UPDATE 0641 GMT:

The toll from Iran’s strikes on Israel ealry Monday has risen to eight killed and 92 wounded.

The fifth fatality was a man in his 80s in Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv. Earlier four elderly civilians were slain in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv.

Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav then confirmed that three people were killed. He said they were working at a facility “that’s very important to us in the area, which we would be happy if it closed and left”.

Rescuers attempted for hours to reach the trio, who were buried under rubble.

UPDATE 0636 GMT:

Iran has executed Esmaeil Fekri, found guilty of espionage for Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad.

The execution is the third in recent weeks of an alleged spy.

Iran Authorities Execute A Software Engineer

Fekri was detained in December 2023, charged under the “Law on Confronting Hostile Actions of the Zionist Regime Against Peace and Security”, convicted, and sentenced to death.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Israel’s Netanyahu Government maintained its pressure on Iran for a fourth day, killing both commanders and civilians as it struck targets from nuclear sites to military facilities to oil depots to residential buildings.

Trying to push back the assault, Iran’s leaders retaliated with strikes on Israeli towns and cities such as Tel Aviv and Haifa.

In the latest decimation of Iran’s military command, both the Revolultionary Guards, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Kazemi, and his deputy Gen. Hassan Mohaqiq were slain. Iran State media said two other officers were killed.

Having claimed the removal of Iran’s air defenses — “the aerial road to Tehran is effectively open” — the Israel Defense Forces targeted surface-to-surface missile sites overnight.

At least 224 people have been slain since early Friday, 90% of them civilians, said an Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson.

Late on Sunday the Israeli military said that it was striking surface-to-surface missile sites across Iran. Early Monday it claimed an attack on the headquarters of the Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guards branch operating outside Iran.

But Tehran launched several waves of missiles on Sunday. Ten civilians were killed: four in the mainly-Palestinian city of Tamra in northern Israel and six, including two children, in Beit Yam, south of Tel Aviv.

Early Sunday, Iranian strikes killed four more people — two women and two men, all around 70 years old — and injured 87 in central Israel. A residential building in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv was heavily damaged.

As a power plant burned in the port city of Haifa in the north, emergency services continued search operations. Around 30 people were wounded.

At least 18 people in Israel, including children, have been killed since Friday.

Iranian officials declared that they fired at least 100 missiles, defying reports that their stocks were dwindling. The Revolutionary Guards proclaimed they used a new method causing Israel’s multi-layered defence systems to target each other.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz promised a further escalation in the killings:

The boastful dictator from Tehran has turned into a cowardly murderer, deliberately firing at Israel’s civilian home front in an attempt to deter the (Israeli military) from continuing the offensive that is crippling his capabilities.

The residents of Tehran will pay the price – and soon.