Trump pushes for Israel-Iran deal as 34 killed at Gaza aid sites

US President Donald Trump on Monday urged residents of Tehran to leave, backing warnings from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has launched a massive attack on Iran.

"Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social account during a Group of Seven summit in Canada, without providing further details.

A US official said on Monday that President Donald Trump would not sign a draft statement from Group of Seven leaders calling for de-escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict.

The draft statement, seen by Reuters, also commits to safeguarding market stability, including energy markets, says Iran must never have a nuclear weapon, and that Israel has "the right to defend itself".

Canadian and European diplomats said G7 attendees are continuing discussions on the conflict at the summit in Canada, which ends on Tuesday.

The Israeli army issued a brief air raid warning for Tel Aviv and Beersheva in the south early on Tuesday due to incoming Iranian missiles before dropping the alert.

Sirens "sounded in several areas of Israel" at around 12:30am local time (2130 GMT), the army said, adding that the Israeli air force was "operating to intercept and strike where necessary to eliminate the threat."

In a second message shortly afterwards, it said it was "now permitted to leave protected spaces in all areas across the country."

The air raid warnings were the first overnight Monday-Tuesday following statements from the Iranian military that a new wave of drone and missile attacks had begun.

Iran will strike Israel "without interruption until dawn", its Revolutionary Guards said earlier.

Iranian state media had also announced a new barrage of missiles targeting Israel.

Israel's sophisticated air defence systems have been largely successful in intercepting Iranian missiles and drones, although some have penetrated its so-called "Iron Dome".

Iranian attacks overnight on Sunday-Monday hit Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak, Petah Tikva and Haifa.

The death toll in Israel rose by 11 on Monday, the prime minister's office said, bringing the total since Friday to 24.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Monday that the United States could stop Israel's attacks on the Islamic republic with "one phone call".

"If President (Donald) Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential. Israel must halt its aggression, and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue," Araghchi said in a post on X.

"It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu. That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy," he added.

 Israel's Haifa-based Bazan Group said all refinery facilities have been shut down after a power station used to produce steam and electricity were significantly damaged in an attack by Iran, according to a regulatory filing on Monday.

The group said the Iranian attack resulted in the death of three company employees.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday Iran should have signed a deal with the United States on its nuclear program before Israeli strikes began and that he believes they now want to make an agreement.

"As I've been saying, I think a deal will be signed, or something will happen, but a deal will be signed, and I think Iran is foolish not to sign," Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit.

The Iranian Red Crescent said Monday that three of its rescuers were killed by an Israeli air strike in northwest Tehran.

"This incident is not only a crime against international humanitarian law but also a blatant attack on humanity and morality," the organisation said in a statement, adding that the three workers were aiding the wounded in the capital's Shahid Bagheri district.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday did not rule out plans to assassinate Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying it would "end the conflict" between the two arch-foes.

In a 20-minute interview with US network ABC News, the Israeli leader insisted his country's deadly aggression to "defang" Iran was justified, and equated Khamenei to a "modern Hitler."

But when asked about reports that US President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan to kill the supreme leader out of concern it would escalate the Iran-Israel showdown, Netanyahu was dismissive.

"It's not going to escalate the conflict, it's going to end the conflict," he said.

"The 'forever war' is what Iran wants, and they're bringing us to the brink of nuclear war," Netanyahu said.

"In fact, what Israel is doing is preventing this, bringing an end to this aggression, and we can only do so by standing up to the forces of evil."

Netanyahu did not reveal whether or not Israel was targeting the ayatollah, saying only: "We're doing what we need to do."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Monday that Israel was "changing the face of the Middle East" with its military campaign against Iran which could lead to "radical changes" in the country.

"We are changing the face of the Middle East and that can lead to radical changes inside Iran itself," he told a press conference in which he outlined Israel's strikes against Iranian nuclear and military targets.

After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war, Israel on Friday launched a surprise aerial campaign against targets across Iran.

Iran has launched several waves of missiles in retaliation at Israel, sparking fears of a wider regional conflict.

"We have eliminated Iran's security leadership, including three chiefs of staff, the commander of their air force, two intelligence chiefs," Netanyahu added.

"We are eliminating them, one after the other."

He claimed 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 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.

Netanyahu asserted that Iranians perception of their government had changed.

"They understand that the regime is much weaker than they thought - they realise it, and that could lead to results," he said.

Israel's strikes have so far killed at least 224 people, including top military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians, according to Iranian authorities.

The Israeli prime minister's office says 24 people have been killed in Iranian attacks since Friday.

Israeli fire killed at least 50 people on Monday, nearly half of them near an aid distribution site run by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the territory's Health Ministry said, as UN officials denounced Israeli-backed aid delivery methods.

Medics said at least 23 of those people were killed and 200 others wounded near an aid distribution site in Rafah, the latest in daily mass shootings that have killed hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach food since Israel imposed a new distribution system after partly lifting a near three-month total blockade.

Israel has put responsibility for distributing much of the aid it allows into Gaza into the hands of a new U.S.-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates three sites in areas guarded by Israeli troops. The United Nations has rejected the plan, saying GHF distribution is inadequate, dangerous and violates humanitarian impartiality principles.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Palestinian refugees agency UNRWA, said in a post on X: "Scores of people have been killed & injured in the past days, including of starving people trying to get some food from a lethal distribution system."

Before the new system was set up, aid had been distributed to Gaza's 2.3 million residents mainly by UN agencies such as UNRWA, which employ thousands of staff inside Gaza and operate hundreds of sites across the enclave.

The GHF said in a statement late on Monday that it has distributed more than 3 million meals at its four distribution sites without incident.

Relatives arrived at Nasser Hospital to mourn the dead. Women and children wept beside bodies wrapped in white shrouds.

“We went there thinking we would get aid to feed our children, but it turned out to be a trap, a killing. I advise everyone: don’t go there," said Ahmed Fayad, one of those who tried to reach aid on Monday.

Iran's strikes on Israel are self-defence and are "proportionate defensive operations directed exclusively at military objectives and associated infrastructure," Iran's UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told the U.N. Nations Security Council on Monday.

He wrote in a letter that any cooperation by third countries with Israel's strikes on Iran "makes them complicit in the legal responsibility and consequences of this crisis."

Under Article 51 of the founding United Nations Charter, the 15-member Security Council must immediately be informed of any action that states take in self-defence against armed attack

Iran condemned Israel's attack on a state TV building in Tehran on Monday as a "war crime", and called on the UN Security Council to take action.

The strike on the offices of IRIB during a live broadcast was a "wicked act" and a "war crime", said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.

"The UNSC must act now to stop the genocidal aggressor from committing further atrocities against our people," he added.

An Israeli attack on Monday hit the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) building, cutting off live coverage immediately.

The blast occurred as the presenter was live on TV lambasting Israel before she was seen leaving the live broadcast, Iranian media reported, sharing a video of the incident.

Live coverage resumed shortly after.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also condemned the attack, calling it "inhuman, criminal and a terrorist act."

After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war, Israel on Friday launched a surprise attack, saying it was targeting Iran's nuclear and military facilities.

So far it has killed at least 224 people in Iran, including top military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.

Iran has retaliated with barrages of drone and missiles that have killed at least 24 people in Israel, according to the latest figures from the prime minister's office.

Iran does not recognise Israel and has long accused it of carrying out sabotage operations against its nuclear facilities, as well as assassinating its scientists.

Residents of Tehran have fled the Iranian capital in large numbers in the face of Israeli bombardments, creating immense traffic jams on the main road heading north, according to social media content posted on Monday.

Images shot by a social media user from an overpass, showed near immobile traffic on a Tehran highway heading north with almost no vehicles in the opposite lane.

The photos could not be independently verified by The New Arab.

Videos filmed inside Iran and posted by Persian-language TV channels based abroad, such as Iran International and Manoto, as well as widely followed bloggers including Vahid Online, showed long queues of cars barely moving as they tried to leave Tehran.

The congestion appears to be concentrated on Highway 49 which connects Tehran with Chalus on the Caspian Sea in the Mazandaran province.

The region, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Tehran and typically a three-hour drive even in normal times due to the mountain roads, has so far been largely spared.

It is popular with Tehranis for its mild climate, with many maintaining holiday homes there.

Persian-language outlets meanwhile also posted images of hundreds of cars lining roads outside petrol stations in Tehran and its satellite city of Karaj, saying they were filling up ahead of long journeys outside of the city.

While air travel is impossible, Iranians can still in theory cross borders by land to go abroad.

Footage posted on social media, which has not been verified by TNA, showed hundreds queueing at the Bazargan crossing point in western Iran with Turkey close to the eastern Turkish city of Dogubayazit.

Massive traffic jams leaving Tehran continue tonight.

pic.twitter.com/KL3r707z2V

— Manoj Tiwari (@ManojTiwariIND) June 16, 2025

An Iranian missile struck an oil refinery in Israel's coast city of Haifa on Sunday, killing three people, an Israeli official said after a gag order was lifted.

The confirmation on Monday removed reporting restrictions imposed by Israel's military censorship on the attack, part of the most intense confrontation in history between longtime foes Iran and Israel.

Thick black smoke could be seen rising from the the sprawling complex early Monday, according to news agency AFP.

Iran state TV resumed live coverage after Israel's attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) building on Monday.

"The Zionist regime the enemy of the Iranian nation minutes ago conducted a military operation against the Islamic Republic of Iran news network", part of IRIB, said a senior official at the broadcasting service Hassan Abedini.

"The regime (Israel) was unaware of the fact that the voice of the Islamic revolution and the great Iran will not be silenced with a military operation."

Lebanon’s president and prime minister said Monday that their country must stay out of the conflict between Israel and Iran because any engagement would be detrimental to the small nation engulfed in an economic crisis and struggling to recover from the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.

Their remarks amounted to a message to the Lebanese Hezbollah group — an ally of both Iran and the Palestinian Hamas group in Gaza — to stay out of the fray.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam spoke during a Cabinet meeting Monday that also discussed the Iran-Israel conflict and the spike in regional tensions over the past four days.

Information Minister Paul Morkos later told reporters that Aoun urged all sides in Lebanon to maintain calm and preserve the country's stability. For his part, Salam said Lebanon should not be involved in “any form in the war," Morkos added.

Iran’s state television has reported that its news network is currently under attack by Israel.

Details remain unclear, and the situation is developing. More updates are expected shortly.

Leading Iranian activists and filmmakers on Monday called for an end to hostilities between Iran and Israel, urging Tehran to stop the conflict by halting its enrichment of uranium.

"We demand the immediate halt of uranium enrichment by the Islamic Republic, the cessation of military hostilities, an end to attacks on vital infrastructure in both Iran and Israel, and the stopping of massacres of civilians in both countries," said the activists in an op-ed in French newspaper Le Monde.

The signatories included Nobel peace prize winners Shirin Ebadi and Narges Mohammadi, as well as the winner of the top prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival Jafar Panahi and his fellow director Mohammad Rassoulof.

The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz was leaving Southeast Asia on Monday after cancelling plans to dock in Vietnam, amid reports it is headed to the Middle East to boost the US presence as Israel and Iran do battle.

At 13:45 GMT, the carrier was traveling through the Malacca Strait toward the Indian Ocean, according to Marine Traffic, a ship-tracking site.

A Vietnamese government official confirmed to news agency AFP that a planned reception aboard the USS Nimitz on June 20, as part of the ship's expected June 19-23 visit to Danang, had been cancelled.

The official shared a letter from the US embassy announcing that the Defense Department was cancelling the event due to "an emergent operational requirement."

The US Embassy in Hanoi declined to comment to AFP, as did a spokesman for the Nimitz.

The movement of one of the world's largest warships came on day four of the escalating air war between Israel and Iran, with no end in sight despite international calls for de-escalation.

Israel's military urged residents of a northern district of Tehran to evacuate "immediately" on Monday, saying it intended to carry out air strikes there.

"In the coming hours, the (Israeli miliary) will operate in the area, as it has in recent days throughout Tehran, to strike military infrastructure of the Iranian regime", the military said in a post on X in Persian, indicating a part of Tehran's District 3 on a map and telling citizens to "evacuate the marked area" for safety.

Wall Street stocks climbed Monday on investors' hopes that a growing conflict between Israel and Iran can remain relatively contained, and as oil flows were spared so far despite strikes extending into a fourth day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6 percent to 42,455.47, while the broad-based S&P 500 Index advanced 0.7 percent to 6,019.60.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.9 percent to 19,584.52.

"This is just the market taking a big breath of relief," said Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments, noting that there has not been an "all-out meltdown in the Middle East."

The remaining three volunteers who were detained by Israeli forces have been released and were returning to their home countries via Jordan, the nonprofit Freedom flotilla coalition said on Monday.

Roughly 24 hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a blistering assault on Iran, Israel's opposition was scheming to bring down his government.

Now, just days into the ongoing operation against Iran, the opposition has closed ranks behind the effort, suspending months of bitter criticism against Netanyahu and his handling of the war in Gaza.

It's a sharp about-face for a constellation of parties that have criticized Netanyahu throughout the war for what they have charged is his politically motivated decision-making.

“It’s not the right moment to do politics,” opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid told news agency The Associated Press on Monday in his first international media interview since the start of the operation against Iran.

At least 68 bodies were brought to Gaza hospitals in the past 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry, including two recovered from rubble after earlier Israeli strikes.

Another 182 people were wounded in the same period.

Since the war began in October 2023, 55,432 Palestinians have been killed and at least 128,923 injured.

Following Israel’s breach of a ceasefire with Hamas in March, 5,139 Palestinians have been killed and 16,882 wounded.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of threatening security in the Middle East during a phone call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday, his office said.

"The spiral of violence that began with Israel's attacks on Iran has put the security of the entire region at risk," Erdogan was quoted as saying.

His office said he told Putin that the "lawless attitude" of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government "poses a clear threat to the international system", adding that the Middle East "cannot tolerate a new war".

The Kremlin said Putin and Erdogan used the conversation to call for an "immediate" end to fighting between Israel and Iran.

"The leaders called for an immediate end to hostilities and the settlement of contentious issues, including those related to Iran's nuclear programme, exclusively through political and diplomatic means," the Kremlin said in its readout of the call.

Iran on Monday accused Israel of targeting a hospital in the country's west, condemning it as a "war crime".

"Farabi Hospital in the city of Kermanshah in western Iran was targeted by the Israeli regime's aggressive attacks," said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, adding that "attacking hospitals alongside attacks on residential areas is a gross violation of international law and a war crime".

A previous media report said a workshop near the hospital was the target of the Israeli attack.

Pakistan has closed all its border crossings with neighbouring Iran for an indefinite period, provincial officials said on Monday, as Israel and Iran trade intense strikes and threaten further attacks.

"Border facilities in all five districts -- Chaghi, Washuk, Panjgur, Kech and Gwadar -- have been suspended," Qadir Bakhsh Pirkani, a senior official in Balochistan province, which borders Iran, told AFP.

 Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in a phone call on Monday that his country was ready to play a facilitator role to return to nuclear negotiations and end the conflict with Israel, the Turkish presidency said.

Gaza's civil defence agency said that 20 people waiting for aid in the south of the Palestinian territory were killed by Israeli troops on Monday.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that "20 martyrs and more than 200 wounded by occupation gunfire... were transferred to the Red Cross field hospital in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, then to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis".

He added that the people had been waiting to reach an aid centre in Rafah "when the occupation forces opened fire" near the Al-Alam roundabout.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution points since the US- and Israel-backed organisation began operating in late May, according to the civil defence agency.

The rescue agency reported more than 20 killed on Saturday.

#عاجل | وزارة الصحة في غزة: 20 شهيدًا وأكثر من 200 مصاب بنيران جيش الاحتلال قرب مركز توزيع المساعدات الأمريكي غربي رفح، منذ فجر اليوم.

— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) June 16, 2025

Israel has no intention of deliberately harming the residents of Tehran, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said, walking back earlier comments he had made on Monday.

"I wish to clarify the obvious: there is no intention to physically harm the residents of Tehran as the murderous dictator does to the residents of Israel," Katz said in a statement.

"The residents of Tehran will have to pay the price of dictatorship and evacuate their homes from areas where it will be necessary to attack regime targets and security infrastructures in Tehran." 

Israel's military on Monday said it had destroyed one third of Iran's surface-to-surface missile launchers, as strikes between the two arch foes entered a fourth day.

"More than 50 fighter jets and aircraft carried out strikes and destroyed over 120 surface-to-surface missile launchers. This amounts to one-third of the surface-to-surface missile launchers possessed by the Iranian regime," military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a televised statement.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei condemned Israel’s attacks on Iran as “crimes against humanity,” not acts of war.

Speaking in Tehran, he called the offensive a violation of international law by a “criminal group” and urged the global community to act.

Baghaei called on allies to push for a binding resolution against Israel and criticised the US for backing what he called unlawful aggression.

He said negotiations with the US are now irrelevant, blaming Washington for enabling Israel’s actions and undermining diplomacy.

Iranian missiles have killed at least 24 people in Israel since Friday, the Israeli prime minister's office said in an updated toll following the latest attacks.

The toll issued on Monday includes 11 deaths recorded since midnight, the office said, including four in Petakh Tikva near Tel Aviv, three in Haifa and one in the Bnei Brak suburb of Tel Aviv.

It also includes two bodies retrieved following a previous strike on Bat Yam and one more killed in an unspecified location.

Iran’s health ministry says 224 people have been killed since Israel’s attack began Friday.

Spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said on social media that 1,277 other people were hospitalized, and asserted that over 90% of the casualties were civilians.

Israel has said 14 people have been killed there since Friday and 390 others wounded.

The American Consulate in Tel Aviv suffered minor damage from the concussion of an Iranian missile landing nearby, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee said on Monday.

Huckabee said in a post on X there were no injuries to American personnel but that the consulate in Tel Aviv and Embassy in Jerusalem would remain closed through the day as a precaution.

The damage came amid a new wave of Iranian missile attacks on Israel in retaliation for Israel’s sweeping attacks on Iran’s military and nuclear infrastructure.

Israel's Army Radio reports that the death toll from the latest Iranian attacks has risen to eight, after three people previously reported missing in Haifa were confirmed dead.

Earlier, five others were killed in central Israel.

In total, more than 20 people have been killed in Israel since it launched attacks on Iran four days ago, with over 300 others wounded.

China urged Iran and Israel to "immediately" take steps to reduce tensions on Monday after Tehran unleashed a barrage of missile strikes on Israeli cities and Israel struck military targets deep inside Iran.

"We urge all parties to immediately take measures to cool down the tensions, prevent the region from falling into greater turmoil, and create conditions for returning to the right track of resolving issues through dialogue and negotiations," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.

China's top diplomat Wang Yi held phone calls with his Israeli and Iranian counterparts on Saturday, the foreign ministry said, in which he made clear to both Beijing's support for Tehran.

China enjoys close ties with Iran, being its largest commercial partner and the main buyer of its oil with Tehran still under crushing US sanctions.

Guo said on Monday "all relevant parties should immediately take steps to put the brakes on the escalation and to cool down the tensions".

"Force cannot bring lasting peace," he said.

"China will continue to maintain communication with the relevant parties, and promote peace and encourage dialogue, to prevent further turbulence in the region," he said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised in a telephone call Sunday to do more to bring aid into war-ravaged Gaza.

"I insisted and urged that humanitarian aid that is not reaching Gaza has to go into Gaza. He promised that this is the case and that this will be the case," she told reporters at a Group of Seven summit in Kananaskis, Canada.

Von der Leyen said she would follow up on the promise after the three-day summit.

She said she will seek to find out on humanitarian aid "how it reaches Gaza, whether it gets into Gaza, what we can do to make sure that humanitarian aid reaches its peak in Gaza."