A man watches an oil refinery near Tehran, Iran burn after an Israeli strike, June 15, 2025 (Vahid Salemi/AP)

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

Israel’s Strikes Decimate Iran’s Military Command

UPDATE 1951 GMT:

Iran’s latest missile barrage has struck several sites in Israel, with rescuers at a building on the Mediterrean coast that suffered a “direct hit”.

Seven people were injured.

The Israeli military have told the public they can leave protected shelters.

UPDATE 1841 GMT:

Iran has launched another wave of missiles at Israel, with explosions heard over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

In a video statement, the Iranian armed forces warned Israelis to leave the vicinity of “vital areas”.

UPDATE 1733 GMT:

Iran State TV says an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in downtown Tehran killed 5 people.

The outlet said the death toll may rise because of the densely-populated area near the Communications Ministry.

UPDATE 1655 GMT:

The Washington-based Human Rights Activists says Israeli strikes across Iran have killed at least 406 people and wounded 654.

HRA crosschecks local reports in Iran against its network of sources in the country.

UPDATE 1646 GMT:

Israel claims it killed the Revolutionary Guard intelligence chief, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Kazemi, and his deputy, Gen. Hassan Mohaqiq.

“Moments ago, I can tell you we got their chief intelligence officer and his deputy in Tehran,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox TV.

The Israeli Air Force carried out its most distant strike, bombing an Iranian refueling plane at Mashhad Airport in northeast Iran, around 2,300 km (1,429 miles) from Israel.

A video on social media showed dense smoke from a fire, with the one of the holiest sites in Islam, the shrine of Imam Reza, in the foreground.

UPDATE 1641 GMT:

“Two US officials” say Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader.

“Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership,” said a “senior US administration official”.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against the American officials, “There are so many false reports about conversations that never happened — I’m not going to get into it.”

National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi said the report is “fake news of the highest order”.

Netanyahu told the US outlet Fox TV that the fall of the Supreme Leader “could be the result of the war because the Iranian regime is weak”.

In contrast, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told the US outlet CNN, “The goal is not regime change. That’s for the Iranian people to decide. We, Israel, do not see the Iranian people as our enemies.”

UPDATE 1420 GMT:

“Two Gulf sources” say at least 14 Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed by Israel’s attacks, including car bombs.

UPDATE 1407 GMT:

In defiance of reality, or perhaps not recognizing it, Donald Trump has posted:

Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal….

We will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place.

I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that’s OK. The PEOPLE understand.

UPDATE 1345 GMT:

Iranian media say Israel struck the Tehran police headquarters. The attack caused “minor damage” and injured “a number” of police personnel.

UPDATE 1338 GMT:

Iran has launched another wave of ballistic missiles towards Israel.

Israeli emergency services say there were no reports of successful strikes or casualties, as people throughout the country leave shelters.

The attacks came just after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian threatened a “more decisive and severe” response if Israel continued its “hostile actions”.

UPDATE 1140 GMT:

Israel has tried to assassinate the head of the Iran-linked Ansar Allah (Houthis), who control most of Yemen.

IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin confirmed a strike by the Israel Air Force on Yemen on Saturday night, targeting Muhammad al-Ghamari.

”While strikes in Iran were ongoing, air force fighter jets flew over 2,000 kilometers from Israel and struck in Sana’a in Yemen. We will update later on the results of the strike,” Defrin said.

UPDATE 1119 GMT:

Iranian officials say Israel attacked a Defense Ministry facility in Isfahan in central Iran.

“Possible damages are under investigation,” the officials said.

Israel’s military said the strike was on a nuclear facility.

Israel also targeted the Shiraz Electronics Industries facility, which makes electrical components for drones.

UPDATE 0751 GMT:

Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi says the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors will convene on Monday over Israel’s attack on the Natanz uranium enrichment facility.

Last week the IAEA, for the first time in 20 years, passed a resolution criticizing Iran’s failure to cooperate over its nuclear program.

IAEA Finds Iran in Breach of Nuclear Obligations

Speaking to foreign ambassadors, Araqchi challenged the Trump Administration’s denial of involvement in the Israeli attacks:

We don’t believe them. If the US is sincere, they should publicly condemn the attack on nuclear facilities and clearly disassociate themselves from the conflict. Private messages aren’t enough.

He also chided “some European states claiming to be civilized and advocating adherence to international law” for condemning “Iran for being aggressed, rather than Israel that committed the aggression”.

The Foreign Minister said Israel’s overnight attacks on Iranian oil facilities were a “strategic mistake…which could engage the region and the world”.

UPDATE 0735 GMT:

The Israel Defense Forces have warned all Iranians living near nuclear reactors to evacuate immediately.

All individuals currently present or expected to be present in or around military weapons manufacturing facilities and their supporting institutions must immediately evacuate these areas and not return until further notice.

Being near these facilities puts your life at risk.

UPDATE 0626 GMT:

“Two Israeli officials” say Israel has asked the Trump Administration, over the past 48 hours, to join attacks to eliminate Tehran’s nuclear program.

Israel does not have the large bomber aircraft and “bunker buster” bombs needed to strike Iran’s Fordow uranium enrichment site, deep underground in the side of a mountain.

One Israeli official claimed that Donald Trump, in a recent conversation with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, suggested he might commit US forces.

A White House official denied the claim on Friday. A second US official said on Saturday that Israel made its request, but the Administration is not currently considering it.

UPDATE 0617 GMT:

The toll has risen to 10 killed from Iran’s overnight missile strikes on Israel, with the confirmation of two more civilians slain in Beit Yam, south of Tel Aviv.

Six residents, including a child, were killed and almost 200 injured by a strike just after 2 a.m. Seven are still missing.

At least 43 people have been wounded in Rehovot.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz has pledged that “Tehran will burn” as the Israelis continued airstrikes and claimed control of Iran’s skies on Saturday.

But Iran’s retaliatory missiles killed eight Israelis and wounded more than 200 overnight.

Meanwhile, as Donald Trump gave Israel a blank check for its attacks, the sixth round of US-Iran talks in Oman over Tehran’s nuclear program were cancelled.

In its third day of strikes, Israel targeted Iranian air defenses, hoping to remove any barriers to its assault on nuclear sites, military installations, and targeted assassinations of nuclear scientists, commanders, and high-ranking officials.

An Israel Defense Forces official declared, “The aerial road to Tehran is effectively open.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu followed up: “In the very near future, you will see Israeli air force jets over the skies of Tehran.” He said warplanes would strike “any site and any target of the Ayatollah regime” after dealing a “real blow” to Iran’s nuclear program.

On Saturday, the IDF said two more Iranian commanders had been killed: the head of intelligence for the armed forces, Gholam-Reza Marhabi, and the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ ballistic missile arm, Mohammad Hossein Bagheri.

A senior aide to the Supreme Leader, Ali Shamkhani, died from wounds suffered in Friday’s Israeli strikes. An admiral in the Israeli Navy, Shamkhani was a former Secretary of the National Security Council.

The toll of slain nuclear scientists rose to nine with the confirmation of three more killings.

And Iran State TV said about 60 people, including 20 children, were killed in an attack on a housing complex in Tehran.

Iranian media reported a “massive explosion” from a drone attack on an oil refinery, in the port city of Kangan in southern Iran, The installation is linked to the South Pars gas field, the largest in the world.

The Shahran oil depot in Tehran was targeted, and a fire set at an oil refinery near the capital. Iran acknowledged a hit on the Defense Ministry building, claiming “minor damage”.

A fighter jet hangar at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, the main site for domestic flights in the capital, was also targeted. There wa was no confirmed report of the damage.

“Tehran Will Pay A Heavy Price”

But Israeli Defense Minister Katz tipped off the Netanyahu Government’s concern over Iran’s response:

The Iranian dictator is taking the citizens of Iran hostage, bringing about a reality in which they, and especially Tehran’s residents, will pay a heavy price for the flagrant harm inflicted upon Israel’s citizens.

If Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn.

Among those slain by Iran’s overnight attacks, which began shortly after 11 p.m., were four people in Tamra, a predominantly Palestinian city in northern Israel, and three in the central town of Bat Yam.

Another 35 people were missing in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, after a strike in an Iranian second wave launched after 2 a.m. An eight-story building was levelled.

President Masoud Pezeshkian pledged that the Israeli attacks would produce a “more severe and powerful response”. The new commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Ahmad Vahdi, having replaced the slain Gen. Hossein Salami, asserted that his forces would “open the gates of hell”. Iranian officials added that the military bases and ships of the US, UK, and France would be targeted if they helped downed Iran’s missiles and drones aimed at Israel.

The Iran-linked Houthi insurgency, whose missile attack wounded five Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, proclaimed that they had targeted central Israel’s Jaffa with several ballistic missiles: “Triumphing for the oppressed Palestinian and Iranian peoples…This operation was coordinated with the operations carried out by the Iranian army against the criminal Israeli enemy.”

The Israel Defense Forces said they were unaware of any missiles fired from Yemen in the past 24 hours.

American diplomat McCoy Pitt responded at the UN Security Council: “No government proxy or independent actor should target American citizens, American bases or other American infrastructure in the region. The consequences for Iran would be dire.”

Donald Trump added on social media:

The US had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight. If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before. However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!