Iran Israel attack highlights: Trump approved Iran attack plans behind closed doors, report claims

Israel Iran attack news live updates: Israel Iran attack news live updates: Donald Trump met his top military advisers to discuss the Israel-Iran conflict, just hours after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer claimed the US President wanted to ease tensions. The meeting took place in the White House Situation Room, shortly after Trump posted a series of aggressive messages online and made an abrupt exit from the G7 summit in Canada.

Israel Iran attack news live updates: Iran and Israel continued exchanging fire for a sixth consecutive day, as former US President Donald Trump met with his national security team to assess the escalating conflict—stirring fresh speculation that Washington may be preparing to enter the fray.

Israel armed forces say that during IDF activity in al-Walaja in West Bank, a terrorist armed with a knife attempted to stab IDF soldiers who were operating in the area and steal their weapons. 

The soldiers responded with fire and neutralized the terrorist and no IDF injuries were reported.

Israel air force intercepted three drones launched by Iran overnight, the military confirms, reported the Times of Israel.

While two of the drones were shot down over the Dead Sea area, the other one was intercepted over northern Israel. 

Israel Iran attack news live updates: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a warning against Israel on Wednesday, which reads, “battle begins”. The translated version of the post, shared on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), reads, “In the name of the renowned Haydar, the battle begins”. 

“In the name of the renowned #Haydar, the battle begins

Ali, with his Zulfiqar, to #Khaybar returns,” read the full post.

The post contains religious symbols of Islamic history and Shia iconology. Haydar is a name often used for Imam Ali, who is considered the first Imam in Shia Islam. Zulfiqar is the name of the famous double-edged sword of Imam Ali.

The conflict between Israel and Iran is spilling over into the digital world, inflaming a decades-long campaign of hacks and espionage between two nations renowned for their cyber prowess.

On Tuesday, a pro-Israel hacking group claimed responsibility for a disruptive cyberattack against a major Iranian bank, and Iran’s state-run IRIB News reported that Israel had launched a full-scale cyberattack on the country’s critical infrastructure.

Iran’s Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that the country has endured more than 6,700 distributed denial-of-service attacks over the past three days. It said temporary internet restrictions were implemented as a measure to blunt the impact of large-scale cyberattacks. DDoS attacks overwhelm servers with artificial traffic, disrupting access to websites and online services. (Bloomberg) 

Israel Iran attack news live updates: An Arab town in northern Israel paid a heavy price for the ongoing air war between Iran and Israel when a ballistic missile slammed into a home there, killing four people and upending life in the small community.

Hundreds of sobbing residents crowded the narrow streets of Tamra on Tuesday to watch as the wooden coffins adorned with colourful wreaths were carried to the town's cemetery.

To some, the Iranian strike highlighted the unequal protections afforded Israel's Arab minority, while to others, it merely underscored the cruel indifference of war.

Raja Khatib has been left to pick up the pieces from an attack that killed his wife, two of his daughters and a sister in law.

"I wish to myself, if only the missile would have hit me as well. And I would be with them, and I wouldn't be suffering anymore," Khatib told AFP. (AFP)

Israel Iran attack news live updates: According to IDF, over the past few hours, more than 50 IAF fighter jets completed a series of intelligence-based strikes on military targets in the area of Tehran.

“As part of the broad effort to operate against Iran’s nuclear weapons development project, the IAF struck a facility used to manufacture centrifuges in Tehran that was designed to enable the Iranian regime to expand the scale and speed of its uranium enrichment to develop nuclear weapons,” said IDF. 

It added that the Israeli Air Force also struck several weapons manufacturing sites overnight, including a facility used to produce raw materials and components for the assembly of surface-to-surface missiles, which the Iranian regime has fired and continues to fire toward the State of Israel. In addition, a facility for manufacturing components of surface-to-air missiles designed to attack aircraft was also struck.

Israel Iran attack news live updates: Israeli warplanes targeted the Iranian capital before dawn Wednesday after the military issued a warning on social media for civilians in an area known as District 18 to evacuate.

Iranian state media reported explosions ricocheting in the Piroozi, Sabalan and Sayyad areas of Tehran.

In retaliation, Iran told residents of Tel Aviv to prepare for an attack, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claiming its hypersonic Fattah-1 missiles were "repeatedly shaking the shelters" in the commercial hub.

"The 11th wave of the proud Operation Honest Promise 3 using Fattah-1 missiles" was carried out, the Guards said in a statement broadcast on state television. (AFP)

Israel Iran attack news live updates: Israeli military says it attacked a centrifuge production site and several weapons production sites of the Iranian regime last night, reported Reuters.

Intense Israeli airstrikes targeted Iran's capital early Wednesday in a conflict that a human rights group said had killed at least 585 people across Iran and wounded 1,326 others.

The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said it had identified 239 of those killed in Israeli strikes as civilians and 126 as security personnel.

The group, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country. (AP)

The UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency for the first time said Israeli strikes on Iran’s main uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz had also damaged its main underground centrifuge facility, not just an above-ground facility, as previously acknowledged. Israel asserts its sweeping assault is necessary to prevent Iran from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon (AP) 

As Israel pounds Iran with airstrikes targeting military facilities and its nuclear sites, officials in Tehran have proposed a variety of steps the Islamic Republic could take outside of launching retaliatory missile barrages.

Those proposals mirror those previously floated by Iran in confrontations with either Israel or the United States in the last few decades. They include disrupting maritime shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, potentially leaving the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and attacks by allied militants. (AP)

Iran Israel war news live updates: One nuclear site in Iran which Israel still has not been able to target but aims to do so is in Fordo. Buried deep under a mountain in Fordo is a nuclear site where Iran is enriching uranium to 60%, which is just a step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%, reported Associated Press. The site is around 100 kilometers southwest of Iranian capital Tehran.

According to the United Nations nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran’s largest number of its most powerful centrifuges are at Fordo, the report added. Fordo is a highly secretive and heavily guarded facility first made public in 2009. Read more.

Iran Israel war news live updates: Nine countries across the world either officially possess nuclear weapons or are widely believed to maintain them, with the United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom being the first to develop and declare such capability. These five powers are recognised as nuclear-weapon states under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which seeks to prevent the spread of nuclear arms while promoting disarmament. 

India and Pakistan, neither of which has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), have gradually built up their nuclear arsenals.

Israel, which has also not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), has never officially confirmed possessing nuclear weapons, though it is widely believed to have developed them.

North Korea became a party to the NPT in 1985 but declared its withdrawal in 2003, citing alleged US aggression. Read more.

Iran Israel war news live updates: Without United States' help, Israel cannot maintain its missile defence against Iran for over 10 to 12 more days of the latter continues to keep attacking, according to some assessments, reported the Washington Post, citing an individual briefed on US and Israeli intelligence assessments.

The individual, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Washington Post that by later this week, Israel's defence systems may only be able to intercept only a smaller proportion of missiles launched by Iran and may have to choose what they want to intercept.

Sirens are sounding in northern Israel due to a hostile aircraft infiltration, said Israel Defence Forces.

IDF said that a suspicious air target that crossed from the east was intercepted by their Air Force and that sirens were sounded in accordance with the protocol.  

A foreign national was arrested in Iran on Tuesday for filming "sensitive" areas near the country's Bushehr nuclear power plant for Israel, reported Iranian media, according to Reuters.

The Iranian website eghtesadonline said the unnamed foreigner, whose nationality was not disclosed, resided illegally and filmed the power plant for Israel's spy agency Mossad.

According to US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Iran has the largest number of ballistic missiles in the Middle East, to which, Iran has said that its ballistic missiles are an important deterrent and retaliatory force against the US, Israel and other potential regional targets.

Today, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said they used hypersonic missiles to strike Israel.

Israel is preparing to bring back its citizens stranded abroad since its attack on Iran last week triggered the closure of its airspace, the transport minister said Tuesday.

Transport Minister Miri Regev said between 100,000 and 150,000 Israelis were stuck abroad for the time being, as Israel and Iran were locked in their most intense confrontation in history.

The ministry said all of Israel's commercial aircraft had been sent outside of the country to prevent the planes from being damaged during the air war.

"That step is now complete," Regev added.

"The next step is to gradually bring Israelis back," she said during a visit to the site of an Iranian strike in the centre of the country. (Reuters) 

As Israel pounds Iran with airstrikes targeting military facilities and its nuclear sites, officials in Tehran have proposed a variety of steps the Islamic Republic could take outside of launching retaliatory missile barrages.

Those proposals mirror those previously floated by Iran in confrontations with either Israel or the United States in the last few decades. They include disrupting maritime shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, potentially leaving the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and attacks by allied militants. (AP)

A report revealed that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is hiding close to Tehran with his family amid the Iran-Israel conflict. Iran International News cited two sources to report that Khamenei has moved to an underground bunker in Lavizan, located northeast of Tehran. The report further adds that all members of the Supreme Leader's family are with him. Read more.

Iran has prepared missiles and other equipment to strike US bases in the Middle East should the United States join Israel's war against Tehran, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing officials who have reviewed intelligence reports. This comes after President Donald Trump called for Iran's ‘complete surrender’, citing the possibility of killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Read more.

Israel targets Imam Hossein University linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards in eastern Tehran, Iranian news websites report, according to Reuters. 

Israel stunned and hobbled Iran last week when it pulled off an intelligence and military operation years in the making that struck high-level targets with precision.

Guided by spies and artificial intelligence, the Israeli military unleashed a nighttime fusillade of warplanes and armed drones smuggled into Iran to quickly incapacitate many of its air defenses and missile systems. With greater freedom to fly over Iran, Israel bombarded key nuclear sites and killed top generals and scientists. By the time Iran mustered a response hours later, its ability to retaliate — already weakened by past Israeli strikes — was greatly diminished. (AP)