Iran warns of 'devastating' response as Israel kills IRGC intel chief, officers

The death toll from Iranian strikes on the Israeli city of Beit Yam, near Tel Aviv, has risen to 9, Yedioth Ahranoth reported.

The Israeli military said early Monday that it was striking surface-to-surface missile sites in Iran.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he hopes Israel and Iran can broker a deal but said sometimes countries have to fight it out first.

Talking to reporters as he left for the G7 summit in Canada, Trump said the US will continue to support Israel but declined to say if he asked the US ally to pause strikes on Iran.

"I hope there’s going to be a deal. I think it's time for a deal and we’ll see what happens. Sometimes they have to fight it out, but we’re gonna see what happens," Trump said.

 The Swiss embassy in Iran said on Sunday it will remain temporarily closed until further notice due to the ongoing conflict in the region.

It made the announcement on the X social media site.

Switzerland's embassy in Tehran represents U.S. interests in Iran. Switzerland has held that mandate since the fallout from Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

At least 224 people have been killed since Israel's attack began Friday, Iran's health ministry has said.

Mediators Qatar, Oman told by Iran it won't negotiate 'while under attack': official

A senior Iranian military official on Sunday warned of a "devastating response" to Israel's attacks on the Islamic republic, adding that Israel would not be habitable as a result.

"The scale of the devastating response by Iran's brave fighters will certainly encompass all parts of the occupied territories (Israel)," said Colonel Reza Sayyad, a spokesman for the armed forces.

"Leave the occupied territories because they will certainly no longer be habitable in the future," and shelters will "not guarantee security", he added in an address broadcast on state television.

An Israeli strike on Sunday killed the intelligence chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohammed Kazemi, along with two other officers, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Three intelligence generals, Mohammad Kazemi, Hassan Mohaghegh and Mohsen Bagheri were assassinated and fell as martyrs," the agency said, citing a Revolutionary Guards statement.

The Israeli army has said that missiles fired from Iran hit several sites in the country.

Authorities in the city of Ray, Tehran province, announced clearing and detonating and explosive device that had been placed to explode on one of the city's streets.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he ordered negotiators to "advance" talks on releasing captives held in Gaza, after sensing an opportunity amid Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran.

"I gave instructions the day before yesterday to advance negotiations, because I sense an opening... We will complete... both missions: the destruction of Hamas and the release of the hostages," he said of talks with Palestinian movement Hamas for the release of captives held in Gaza.

The Israeli prime minister has so far shunned talks in favour of military action on Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday strongly suggested that Israel has killed Iran's intelligence chief Mohammad Kazemi in an aerial attack, as the arch-foes ramp up their conflict.

"Moments ago, we also got the chief intelligence officer and his deputy in Tehran," Netanyahu told Fox News in an interview from an undisclosed location in Israel, adding "our brave pilots are over the skies of Tehran, and we're targeting military sites, nuclear sites."

Israel's army has extended a ban on public gatherings, and school and workplace closures until Tuesday evening, when it will conduct another assessment.

At least five people were killed Sunday when an Israeli strike hit a residential building in downtown Tehran, state television in Iran reported.

"A residential building was targeted in the centre of Tehran, killing five people," the broadcaster said.

It added the death toll may rise as the strike hit a densely populated area in central Tehran.

Iranian state media has said that Mashhad airport and its runway were not damaged by Israeli strikes.

President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan in recent days to kill Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, two US officials told Reuters on Sunday.

"Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we're not even talking about going after the political leadership," said one of the sources, a senior US administration official.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said top US officials have been in constant communications with Israeli officials in the days since Israel launched a massive attack on Iran in a bid to halt its nuclear programme.

They said the Israelis reported that they had an opportunity to kill the top Iranian leader, but Trump waved them off of the plan.

The officials would not say whether Trump himself delivered the message. But Trump has been in frequent communications with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

When asked about Reuters report, Netanyahu, in an interview on Sunday with Fox News Channel's "Special Report With Bret Baier," said: "There's so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I'm not going to get into that."

"But I can tell you, I think that we do what we need to do, we'll do what we need to do. And I think the United States knows what is good for the United States," Netanyahu said.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan told US President Donald Trump in a phone call on Sunday that Ankara was ready to play a facilitator role to resolve the nuclear dispute that led to the conflict between Israel and Iran, Erdogan's office said.

Erdogan welcomed Trump's latest statement on a possible peace between Iran and Israel, his office said, and urged his US counterpart to take action immediately to prevent a disaster "that could set the region on fire". 

Iran's retaliatory attacks on Israel over its massive air strikes killed five Ukrainian nationals, including three children, in the Israeli city of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, Kyiv said on Sunday.

The five were killed Saturday in the "massive" Iranian strikes when a missile hit a residential building in the city, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.

Israeli authorities have arrested two citizens suspected of working for Iran's intelligence services, police and the country's internal security agency said in a joint statement Sunday.

"In the midst of a war with Iran... operatives have arrested two Jewish Israeli citizens on suspicion of having carried out missions for the Iranians in recent days," the statement said, adding that the case was one of 22 involving thwarted Iranian efforts recorded since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

Ayman Odeh, an Israeli member of parliament of Palestinian descent, accused the government on Sunday of failing to provide Arab-Israeli communities with enough shelters after an Iranian missile killed four people in the city of Tamra.

"The state, unfortunately, still distinguishes between blood and blood," Odeh lamented on X, after touring the city of 37,000 predominantly Arab residents.

A house there was destroyed by a missile launched by Iran overnight in response to Israel's unprecedented attacks on the Islamic republic's military and nuclear sites.

"Four civilians were killed yesterday: Manar al-Qassem Abu al-Hija Khatib (39), her two daughters Hala (13) and Shada (20), and their relative Manar Diab Khatib (41)," Odeh said, adding that "dozens more" were wounded.

"Tamra is not a village. It is a city without public shelters," Odeh said, adding that this was the case for 60 percent of "local authorities" -- the Israeli term for communities not officially registered as cities, many of which are Arab-Israeli.

Iranian media on Sunday reported explosions in the northeastern city of Mashhad as Israel kept up its attacks on Iran for the third day.

"Two locations in Mashhad suffered explosions and fires," Fars news agency reported, adding that "air defences were activated in the area". Other media carried similar reports, blaming the explosion on Israeli strikes.

Mashhad is home to the Imam Reza shrine, the holiest site in Iran for Shia Muslims.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday he hoped for a return to calm "in the coming hours" in the Iran-Israel conflict and called for a resumption of nuclear talks with Iran.

Israel bombed military sites and fuel depots in Iran on Sunday on the third day of a conflict between the two countries, with Tehran retaliating with missile strikes.

"I hope that the coming hours will bring calm and a road forward for discussion, to avoid any escalation of nuclear capabilities, acquisition of nuclear capacities in Iran, and to prevent any unrest in the region," Macron said while on a visit to Greenland.

The French president reiterated his call for negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme, despite the ongoing conflict.

"Yesterday (Saturday), I was able to speak with the president of Iran, and I called for a discussion among us as soon as possible. This is also what I conveyed in my conversation with (US) President (Donald) Trump, who shares this vision," Macron said.

"We will have the opportunity, in a few hours, to revisit this matter with G7 leaders" who are meeting from Sunday to Tuesday in Canada, he added.

President Donald Trump told a news network Sunday it remains possible the United States will become involved in the Iran-Israel conflict and that he would be "open" to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin being a mediator.

"It's possible we could get involved" in the ongoing battle between the Middle East arch-foes, Trump said in an interview, according to ABC News which said the Republican president stressed that the United States is "not at this moment" involved in the military action.

As for Putin being a potential mediator in the conflict, "he is ready. He called me about it. We had a long talk about it," Trump told an ABC News reporter.

Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah warned on Sunday it would resume attacks on U.S. troops in the region if the United States intervenes in the conflict between Israel and Iran.

“We are closely monitoring the movements of the American enemy's army in the region," Kataib Hezbollah Secretary-General Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi said in a statement. "If America intervenes in the war, we will act directly against its interests and bases spread across the region without hesitation.”

Founded in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah is one of the elite Iraqi armed factions closest to Iran. The group, a key pillar of Iran's network of regional proxy forces, has claimed responsibility for dozens of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and US forces in both Iraq and Syria.

Early last year, Kataib Hezbollah announced the suspension of all its military operations against U.S. troops in the region in response to efforts by the Iraqi government.

Kataib Hezbollah is part of a coalition of Iran-aligned groups known collectively as the "Axis of Resistance" — an umbrella of hardline Shi'ite armed factions that have claimed more than 150 attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since the onset of the Gaza war about 20 months ago.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday urged Iran and Israel to "make a deal" and bring their deadly exchange of strikes to an end.

"Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal," Trump said on his Truth Social media platform, adding that there are "many calls and meetings now taking place" on the issue and that peace could be achieved "soon" between the longtime adversaries.

At least 14 Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in Israeli attacks since Friday, including in car bombs, two sources in the Gulf said on Sunday. 

Iranian media said an Israeli strike hit the Tehran police headquarters in the city centre on Sunday, as the two foes exchanged fire for a third day.

"The Greater Tehran Police Command was hit by one of the enemy's drones," ISNA news agency reported, citing a police statement. It added that the attack caused "minor damage" and injured "a number" of police personnel.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday he hoped agreement could be reached on four points at an upcoming Group of Seven (G7) summit in pursuit of a resolution to the conflict between Israel and Iran.

Speaking as he prepared to fly to Canada for the meeting, Merz said he expected the Middle East conflict to be high on the agenda and that he hoped the G7 could demonstrate unity.

The four points were: that Iran cannot develop or posses nuclear weapons; that Israel has the right to defend itself against existential threats, which he said Iran's nuclear programme represented; thirdly, the conflict should not escalate; and fourthly that scope for diplomacy must be created.

"I would like to add that in Germany we are also getting ready in case Iran should target Israeli or Jewish targets in Germany," Merz told reporters, without going into more detail.

Iran on Sunday launched a new wave of attacks on Israel, state television reported, as an intense exchange of fire raged between the two sides for a third day.

The official IRNA news agency also announced the beginning of "a new wave of missiles" launched towards Israel.

Iranian media said on Sunday that the death toll from Israeli attacks on Friday and Saturday was at least 128, including women and children, reporting hundreds more wounded.

At least "128 people were martyred in these military attacks, and around 900 injured individuals were admitted to" hospitals, said Etemad daily, citing the health ministry.

The report said the deaths include at least "40 women", adding that the "number of martyred children is significant".

Iran did not send any message to Israel via a third country, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said on Sunday, after Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said earlier Tehran had asked Nicosia to convey "some messages" to Israel. 

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday that Iran must "never have nuclear weapons", his government spokesman said, as Israel continued a campaign of massive strikes targeting Tehran's nuclear programme.

The comment came in a conversation with the sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tarik al Said, in which both leaders agreed on the need to "prevent the conflict from spreading", German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said in a statement.

Tens of thousands of people dressed in red marched through the streets of The Hague Sunday to demand more action from the Dutch government against what they termed a "genocide" in Gaza.

Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organised the demonstration through the city to the International Court of Justice, creating a so-called "red line".

Many waving Palestinian flags and some chanting "Stop the Genocide", the demonstrators turned a central park in the city into a sea of red on a sunny afternoon.

Protesters brandished banners reading "Don't look away, do something", "Stop Dutch complicity", and "Be silent when kids sleep, not when they die".

Organisers urged the Dutch government -- which collapsed on June 3 after a far-right party pulled out of a fragile coalition - to do more to rein in Israel.

"People in Gaza cannot wait and the Netherlands has a duty to do everything it can to stop the genocide," they said in their call to action.

Two missile-like projectiles hit two locations in central Tehran, leading to explosions, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday.

Israel's military said Sunday that its air force had targeted "more than 80" positions in Iran's capital Tehran in the third day of the most intense confrontation yet between the two arch-foes.

The strikes were conducted "throughout the night", the military said in a statement, and "targeted more than 80 objectives, including the headquarters of the Iranian Ministry of Defense, the headquarters of the nuclear project (SPND), and additional targets where the Iranian regime hid the nuclear archive".

Britain's Foreign Office on Sunday issued updated guidance to citizens advising "against all travel to Israel" following the outbreak of conflict with Iran.

"This is a fast-moving situation that poses significant risks. The situation has the potential to deteriorate further, quickly and without warning," the Foreign Office guidance added.

The foreign ministers of Turkey and Russia have discussed the conflict between Israel and Iran in a phone call, a Turkish foreign ministry source said on Sunday.

Hakan Fidan told Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that the only way to resolve the "worrying" conflict and nuclear dispute is diplomacy, the source added.

Fresh blasts were heard on Sunday in the Iranian capital, an AFP journalist said, as Israeli attacks continued for the third day.

Iranian news outlets Khabar Online and Ham Mihan reported that air defence systems over west and northwest Tehran were activated "to counter new attacks", while Shargh daily shared a video of columns of smoke in the city's east.

Britain could potentially support Israel in its conflict with Iran, but the decision to send additional military jets to the Middle East was made mainly to protect British bases and personnel, British finance minister Rachel Reeves said on Sunday.

Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other overnight into Sunday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks by Israel so far were nothing compared with what Iran would see in the coming days.

Speaking to Sky News, Reeves called for a de-escalation in the conflict and said the decision to send additional jets to the region was a "precautionary move".

Asked if Britain would come to Israel's aid if asked, Reeves said: "We have, in the past, supported Israel when there have been missiles coming in."

She added: "We're sending in assets to both protect ourselves and also potentially to support our allies."

Israel still has a large list of targets it plans to hit in Iran, an Israeli military official on Sunday, as both nations continued to exchange missile attacks that started on Friday.

He declined to say how long strikes against Iran would continue, adding the military had attacked around 80 targets in Tehran on Saturday evening.

The targets included two "dual-use" Iranian fuel sites that supported military and nuclear operations, he said.

He said they also targeted the chief of staff of Yemen's Houthis group overnight.

Israel's El Al Airlines has cancelled flights to and from many European cities as well as Tokyo and Moscow until 23 June owning to the conflict between Israel and Iran, it said on Sunday.

Iranians can seek shelter in mosques and schools during Israeli attacks, as well as subway systems, which will be open at all times from tonight, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told state TV on Sunday.

"There is no problem with the provision of food, medicine, fuel," she added.

 The Israeli military has struck a nuclear facility in Iran's Isfahan, a military spokesperson said in a post on X on Sunday.

The spokesperson did not provide a time frame for the attack. 

 Iran has asked Cyprus to convey "some messages" to Israel, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Sunday, saying he expected to speak to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later in the day.

Christodoulides also said he was not happy with what he said was a slow reaction by the European Union to the unfolding crisis in the Middle East.

Cyprus, the closest EU member state in the region, had asked for an extraordinary meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, he said. 

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday Tehran had evidence to show US forces supported the intense bombardment campaign Israel launched against the Islamis 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.

Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 25 Palestinians on Sunday across the enclave, local health authorities said, at least five of them near two aid sites operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Medics at Al-Awda Hospital in the central Gaza Strip said at least three people were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire as they tried to approach a GHF site near the Netzarim corridor. Two others were killed en route to another aid site in Rafah in the south.

An airstrike killed seven other people in Beit Lahiya town north of the enclave, medics said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May after Israel partially lifted a near three-month total blockade. Scores of Palestinians have been killed in near-daily mass shootings trying to reach the food.

Iran said it had arrested two individuals it accused of being members of Israel's intelligence agency Mossad in Alborz province while they were preparing explosives and electronic devices, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday.

Jordan announced the reopening of its airspace Sunday morning after a night of attacks by arch-foes Israel and Iran.

The civil aviation authority in Jordan, which borders Israel, said in a statement that the country's airspace had been reopened "for civilian flights following a careful risk assessment".

The kingdom had closed the airspace late Saturday, its second closure since the start of the most intense direct confrontation between Israel and Iran.

Yemen's Hothi rebels said Sunday they had launched several missiles at Israel as it came under Iranian fire, following a massive Israeli bombardment campaign on the Islamic republic.

The Houthis said in a statement they had "carried out a military operation targeting sensitive targets of the Israeli enemy" in central Israel.

The group, which holds vast swathes of territory in Yemen including the capital Sanaa, said it had targeted the area "at different times over the past 24 hours" with "a number of Palestine 2 hypersonic ballistic missiles".

The Houthis said their attacks were "coordinated with the operations carried out by the Iranian military".

Germany, France and Britain are ready to hold immediate talks with Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme in a bid to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said.

Wadephul, who is on a visit to the Middle East, said he was trying to contribute towards a de-escalation of the conflict between Israel and Iran, and noted Tehran had previously failed to take the opportunity to enter into constructive talks.

"I hope that's still possible," Wadephul told German public broadcaster ARD late on Saturday. "Germany, together with France and Britain are ready. We're offering Iran immediate negotiations about the nuclear programme, I hope (the offer) is accepted."

"This is also a key prerequisite for reaching a pacification of this conflict, that Iran presents no danger to the region, for the state of Israel or to Europe." 

Israel police said Sunday that two additional bodies had been pulled from the rubble of a building in central Israel hit by a missile fired overnight from Iran.

"Six people were killed and 180 injured," regional police commander Daniel Hadad told journalists at the site of one missile strike in Bat Yam. Hadad said at least 7 more people were missing, likely under the rubble. An additional four people were killed at a separate site in northern Israel, according to authorities.

Israel on Sunday issued an evacuation warning to Iranians residing near reactors in Iran, an Israeli military spokesperson said in a post on X.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that Israel had "crossed a new red line" by targeting Iran's nuclear sites in strikes that began on Friday.

"The Zionist regime crossed a new red line in international law, and it was attacking nuclear facilites," said Araghchi during a meeting with foreign diplomats broadcast on state TV.