Despite growing calls for the long-time foes to end hostilities, neither Israel nor Iran showed any signs of cutting short the missile blitz kicked off Friday, when Israel launched an unprecedented series of aerial raids targeting Iranian nuclear and military facilities.
After a new wave of Israeli strikes on Iran’s capital — including a dramatic attack on a state TV building — both countries activated their missile defence systems overnight into Tuesday, with Israel’s army briefly urging residents to seek shelter from incoming Iranian missiles.
The Chinese embassy in Tel Aviv warned its citizens to leave the country immediately, as the United States said it was deploying “additional capabilities” to the Middle East, according to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth.
The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz departed Southeast Asia on Monday after cancelling plans to dock in Vietnam, amid reports it was headed to the Middle East to boost the US presence there.
But a White House spokesman stressed that US forces in the Middle East remained in a defensive posture, despite the flurry of activity.
Trump has repeatedly declined to say if the United States would participate in Israeli military action, although he says it was not involved in the initial strikes.
After calling on the two sides to make a deal, the US leader issued an extraordinary warning on his Truth Social platform.
“Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” Trump wrote without offering further details, before cutting short his attendance at the G7 in Canada to head back to the White House.
‘One after the other’
After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war, Israel launched a surprise aerial campaign against Iran last week, with the stated aim of preventing Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons — an ambition it denies.
Iran has launched several waves of missiles in retaliation for Israel’s attacks, with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards boasting Monday evening that the attacks would continue “without interruption until dawn”.
The sudden flare-up has sparked fears of a wider conflict, with Trump urging Iran back to the negotiating table after Israel’s attacks derailed ongoing nuclear talks.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said a missile strike lightly damaged a building used by the American embassy in Tel Aviv, while the US State Department warned citizens on Monday not to travel to Israel due to security concerns.
At least 24 people have been killed in Israel so far and hundreds wounded, according to the prime minister’s office.
Israel’s strikes have killed at least 224 people, including top military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians, according to Iranian authorities.
Netanyahu told a press conference Monday evening that Israel was eliminating Iran’s security leadership “one after the other”.
“We are changing the face of the Middle East, and that can lead to radical changes inside Iran itself,” he said.
‘Stop’ civilian strikes
International calls for calm have mounted.
At the Group of Seven summit in the Canadian Rockies, leaders including Trump called Monday for “de-escalation” while stressing Israel had the right to defend itself.
“We urge that the resolution of the Iranian crisis leads to a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza”, G7 leaders said in a joint statement that also affirmed “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon”.
China called on Israel and Iran to both “immediately take measures to cool down the tensions” and avoid plunging the region into deeper turmoil.
The United States and Iran had engaged in several rounds of indirect talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme in recent weeks, but Iran said after the start of Israel’s campaign that it would not negotiate while under attack.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Monday that “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,” he wrote on X.
A senior US official told AFP Trump had intervened to prevent Israel from carrying out an assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But Netanyahu did not rule out the possibility when asked about the reports during an interview with ABC News.
“It’s not going to escalate the conflict, it’s going to end the conflict,” he said.
Latest developments
Israel and Iran traded deadly fire again Tuesday, a fifth day of strikes in their most intense confrontation in history, fuelling fears of a drawn-out conflict that could engulf the Middle East.
The longtime foes have fought a prolonged shadow war through proxies and covert operations, with Israel battling several Iran-backed groups in the region, including Hamas in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.
Here are the latest developments:
Mounting casualties
Israel struck an Iranian state TV building — forcing a presenter to flee mid-broadcast — in the latest dramatic escalation of a major aerial campaign launched Friday, which has seen nuclear and military sites in Iran hit, as well as residential areas and fuel depots.
Iran’s health ministry said at least 224 people have been killed and more than 1,200 wounded.
Tehran has responded with barrages of missiles and drones that hit Israeli cities and towns, killing at least 24 people and wounding 592 others, according to the prime minister’s office.
Israel says it has also killed many top military commanders and atomic scientists in Iran, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying late Monday that Israel was eliminating Iran’s security leadership “one after the other”.
Israel lays out objectives
Netanyahu said Israel was “changing the face of the Middle East” with its military campaign against Iran, which could lead to “radical changes” in the country.
He said that Israel was “pursuing three main objectives: the elimination of the nuclear programme, the elimination of ballistic missile production capability, and the elimination of the axis of terrorism”, referring to Iranian-backed militant groups in the Middle East.
“We will do what is necessary to achieve these goals, and we are well coordinated with the United States,” he said.
He also did not rule out killing Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Evacuate
US President Donald Trump urged residents of Iran’s capital to leave, posting on his social media that: “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” without giving further details.
China also called on its citizens to leave Israel “as soon as possible”.
Israel earlier issued an evacuation order for Tehran’s northern District 3, home to state broadcaster IRIB — which was later hit in an Israeli strike. AFP journalists in Tehran heard massive blasts across the city.
IRIB later resumed its live broadcast after the attack, and Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei called the strike a “war crime”, and demanded the UN Security Council take action.
Iran later issued evacuation warnings for Israeli news channels in response.
Israel claims ‘air superiority’
The Israeli military said that after a wave of strikes, its forces had destroyed one third of Iran’s surface-to-surface missile launchers.
According to military spokesman Effie Defrin, “we have now achieved full air superiority over Tehran”.
Reza Sayyad, spokesman for the Iranian armed forces, said their targets in Israel included “sensitive and important” security sites as well as “the residences of military commanders and scientists”.
Among the sites hit in Israel was a major oil refinery in the coastal city of Haifa, an Israeli official said after a military censorship gag order was lifted.
Residential areas in both countries have also suffered deadly strikes.
Diplomacy
The conflict has rapidly escalated despite calls from world leaders to halt the attacks.
China urged Iran and Israel to “immediately” take steps to reduce tensions and “prevent the region from falling into greater turmoil”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Iranian counterpart in a phone call on Monday that Ankara was ready to play a “facilitating role” to end the conflict.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he believed “there’s a consensus for de-escalation” among Group of Seven leaders, who are meeting in Canada.
French President Emmanuel Macron called for both sides to “end” strikes on civilians and warned that aiming to overthrow Tehran’s clerical state would be a “strategic error”.
Trump told reporters at the G7 summit that “Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk… before it’s too late”.
But after the US leader issued his warning for Tehran residents to evacuate, the White House said Trump would return to Washington, cutting short his stay at the G7 summit.
Nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington that were set to take place on Sunday had been called off.
Nuclear sites
Netanyahu has said the Israeli offensive aims to thwart the “existential” threats posed by Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes.
The fierce bombing campaign came after warnings from the UN nuclear watchdog over Iran’s atomic activities.
Rafael Grossi, head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Monday there was “no indication of a physical attack” on an underground section of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility, and that radiation levels outside the plant were “at normal levels”.
The IAEA previously said that a key, above-ground component of Iran’s Natanz nuclear site was destroyed.