Israeli army captures Rafah crossing as tanks roll in after heavy bombardment

Vienna, June 14: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed internal radiological and chemical contamination at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility following Israeli airstrikes. However, radiation levels outside the site remain within safe limits, posing no immediate threat to the public or environment.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi briefed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Friday, stating that the Israeli strikes had significantly damaged the above-ground sections of the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz, where uranium was being enriched to 60% U-235.

“Due to the impacts, there is radiological and chemical contamination inside the facilities. The primary radiation type detected is alpha particles, which are manageable with proper protection,” Grossi said.

Grossi noted that the electrical infrastructure, including both main and emergency power systems, had been destroyed. While no visible damage was observed in the underground cascade hall, the loss of power could have compromised the centrifuges stored there.

“There is no indication of a direct physical strike on the underground hall, but the power outage may have affected the centrifuges' operation,” he added.

According to the IAEA, Iran has confirmed that only the Natanz site was hit in the strikes. However, Iranian authorities also reported attacks near other nuclear facilities, including the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant and the Esfahan complex — which houses a uranium conversion facility, fuel plate and manufacturing plants, and a uranium dioxide (UO₂) powder facility. The agency has yet to assess the full extent of damage at those sites.

“These developments are deeply concerning,” Grossi told the UNSC. “Nuclear facilities must never be targeted — regardless of context — due to the grave risks to people, the environment, and international security. Such attacks undermine nuclear safety, security, and non-proliferation efforts.”

The IAEA’s Incident and Emergency Centre has been in constant contact with Iranian officials since the attacks. A special task force has also been established to monitor the situation and report to the UNSC as needed.

Grossi emphasized the need for de-escalation and said the IAEA is prepared to send nuclear safety and security experts to Iran, in addition to its current inspectors on the ground. He also informed the IAEA Board of Governors of his readiness to travel to the region to personally assess the situation and ensure the safety of agency personnel.

Dubai: Iran fired a new wave of missile attacks on Israel early Monday, triggering air raid sirens across the country as emergency services reported at least five killed and dozens more wounded in the fourth day of open warfare between the regional foes that showed no sign of slowing.

Iran announced it had launched some 100 missiles and vowed further retaliation for Israel’s sweeping attacks on its military and nuclear infrastructure, which have killed at least 224 people in the country since last Friday.

The attacks raised Israel’s total death toll to at least 18, and in response the Israeli military said fighter jets had struck 10 command centers in Tehran belonging to Iran’s Quds Force, an elite arm of its Revolutionary Guard that conducts military and intelligence operations outside Iran.

Powerful explosions, likely from Israel’s defense systems intercepting Iranian missiles, rocked Tel Aviv shortly before dawn on Monday, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky over the coastal city.

Authorities in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva said Iranian missiles had hit a residential building there, charring concrete walls, shattering windows and ripping the walls off multiple apartments.

The Israeli Magen David Adom emergency service reported that two women and two men — all in their 70s — were killed in the wave of missile attacks that struck four sites in central Israel.

“We clearly see that our civilians are being targeted,” said Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne outside the bombed-out building in Petah Tikva. “And this is just one scene, we have other sites like this near the coast, in the south.”

The MDA added that paramedics had evacuated another 87 wounded people to hospitals, including a 30-year-old woman in serious condition, while rescuers were still searching for residents trapped beneath the rubble of their homes.

No negotiation while under Israeli attack

Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on Sunday, killing and wounding civilians and raising concerns of a broader regional conflict, with both militaries urging civilians on the opposing side to take precautions against further strikes. 

Israel warned that the worse is to come. It targeted Iran's Defense Ministry headquarters in Tehran and sites it alleged were associated with Iran's nuclear program, while Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses and slammed into buildings deep inside Israel.

An Iranian health ministry spokesperson, Hossein Kermanpour, said the toll since the start of Israeli strikes had risen to 224 dead and more than 1,200 injured, 90 percent of whom he said were civilians. Those killed included 60 on Saturday, half of them children, in a 14-story apartment block flattened in the Iranian capital.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he hoped a meeting of the Group of Seven leaders in Canada on Sunday would reach an agreement to help resolve the conflict and keep it from escalating.

Iran has told mediators Qatar and Oman that it is not open to negotiating a ceasefire with the US while it is under Israeli attack, an official briefed on the communications told Reuters on Sunday. The Israeli military, which launched the attacks on Friday with the stated aim of wiping out Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, warned Iranians living near weapons facilities to evacuate.

Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday, June 15, stoking fears of a wider conflict after Israel expanded its bestial aggression against its main rival with a strike on the world’s biggest gas field.

Tehran called off nuclear talks that Washington had said were the only way to halt Israel’s bombing, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks were nothing compared with what Iran would see in the coming days.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the discussions in Oman could not take place while Iran was being subjected to Israel’s “barbarous” attacks.

The latest wave of Iranian attacks began shortly after 11:00 p.m. on Saturday (2000 GMT), when air raid sirens blared in Jerusalem and Haifa, sending around a million people into bomb shelters.

Around 2:30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT Saturday), the Israeli military warned of another incoming missile barrage and urged residents to seek shelter.

Explosions echoed through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as missiles streaked across the skies as interceptor rockets were launched in response. The military lifted its shelter-in-place advisory nearly an hour after issuing the warning.

The ambulance service said at least seven people were killed overnight, including a 10-year-old boy and a woman in her 20s, and more than 140 injured in multiple attacks.

Search and rescue worked combed through the rubble of residential buildings destroyed in multiple strikes, using flashlights and dogs to look for survivors.

Israeli media said at least 35 people were missing after a strike hit Bat Yam, a city south of Tel Aviv. A spokesperson for the emergency services said a missile hit an 8-story building there and while many people were rescued, there were fatalities.

It was unclear how many buildings were hit overnight.

So far, at least nine people in Israel have been killed and over 300 others injured since Iran launched its retaliatory attacks on Friday.

Iran has said 78 people were killed there on the first day of Israel’s campaign, and scores more on the second, including 60 when a missile brought down a 14-story apartment block in Tehran, where 29 of the dead were children.

The Shahran oil depot in Tehran was targeted in an Israeli attack, Iran said, but added the situation was under control. A fire had erupted after an Israeli attack on an oil refinery near the capital while Israeli strikes also targeted Iran’s defense ministry building, causing minor damage, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump had warned Iran of worse to come, but said it was not too late to halt the Israeli campaign if Tehran accepted a sharp downgrading of its nuclear program.

Israeli military issues evacuation warning to Iranians

Israel on Sunday issued an evacuation warning to Iranians residing near weapons facilities in Iran, an Israeli military spokesperson said in a post on X in Arabic and Farsi.

The spokesperson said the evacuation warning includes all weapons factories and supporting facilities.

US forces supported Israel in attacks

Araghchi said Sunday Tehran had evidence to show US forces supported the intense bombardment campaign Israel launched against the Islamic republic this week.

“We have solid proof of the support of the American forces and American bases in the region for the attacks of the Zionist regime military forces,” Araghchi told foreign diplomats in a meeting broadcast on state TV.

Araghchi also slammed the United Nations Security Council, accusing it of “indifference” over Israel’s deadly attacks on the Islamic republic.

Gas field attack

In the first apparent attack to hit Iran’s energy infrastructure, Tasnim news agency said Iran partially suspended production at South Pars, the world’s biggest gas field, after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on Saturday.

The South Pars field, offshore in Iran’s southern Bushehr province, is the source of most of the gas produced in Iran.

Fears about potential disruption to the region’s oil exports had already driven up oil prices 9 percent on Friday even though Israel spared Iran’s oil and gas on the first day of its attacks.

An Iranian general, Esmail Kosari, said on Saturday that Tehran was reviewing whether to close the Strait of Hormuz controlling access to the Gulf for tankers.

With Israel saying its operation could last weeks, and Netanyahu urging Iran’s people to rise up against their Islamic clerical rulers, fears have grown of a regional conflagration dragging in outside powers.

B’Tselem, a leading Israeli human rights organization, said on Saturday that instead of exhausting all possibilities for a diplomatic resolution, Israel’s government had chosen to start a war that puts the entire region in danger.

Tehran has warned Israel’s allies that their military bases in the region would come under fire too if they helped shoot down Iranian missiles.

However, 20 months of war in Gaza and a conflict in Lebanon last year have decimated Tehran’s strongest regional proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, reducing its options for retaliation.

Israel sees Iran’s nuclear program as a threat to its existence, and said the bombardment was designed to avert the last steps to production of a nuclear weapon.

Tehran insists the program is entirely civilian and that it does not seek an atomic bomb. The UN nuclear watchdog, however, reported Iran this week as violating obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.

Iran says scores killed

Iran said 78 people were killed on the first day of Israel’s campaign, and scores more on the second, including 60 when a missile brought down a 14-story apartment block in Tehran, where 29 of the dead were children.

Iran had launched its own retaliatory missile volley on Friday night, killing at least three people in Israel.

With Israel saying its operation could last weeks, and Netanyahu urging Iran’s people to rise up against their Islamic clerical rulers, fears have grown of a regional conflagration dragging in outside powers.

B’Tselem, a leading Israeli human rights organization, said on Saturday that instead of exhausting all possibilities for a diplomatic resolution, Israel’s government had chosen to start a war that puts the entire region in danger.

Tehran has warned Israel’s allies that their military bases in the region would come under fire too if they helped shoot down Iranian missiles.

However, 20 months of war in Gaza and a conflict in Lebanon last year have decimated Tehran’s strongest regional proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, reducing its options for retaliation.

Israel sees Iran’s nuclear program as a threat to its existence, and said the bombardment was designed to avert the last steps to production of a nuclear weapon.

Tehran insists the program is entirely civilian and that it does not seek an atomic bomb. However the UN nuclear watchdog reported it this week as violating obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.

‘We will hit every site’

Israel said three people were killed and 76 wounded by Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile barrage overnight, which lit up the skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu vowed to keep up Israel’s campaign.

“We will hit every site, every target of the ayatollah regime,” he said in a video statement, threatening greater action “in the coming days.”

He added that the Israeli campaign had dealt a “real blow” to Iran’s nuclear program and maintained it had the “clear support” of US President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu’s defense minister, Israel Katz, warned “Tehran will burn” if it kept targeting Israeli civilians.

Israel’s fire service reported residential buildings were hit following the latest launches.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian fired back that “the continuation of the Zionist aggression will be met with a more severe and powerful response from the Iranian armed forces.”

According to a statement from his office, Pezeshkian also condemned Washington’s “dishonesty” for supporting Israel while engaged in nuclear talks with Iran — which mediator Oman said would no longer take place on Sunday.

Western governments have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, which it denies.

Amid the continued conflict, planned negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program were canceled, throwing into question when and how an end to the fighting could come.