Iran fired a new wave of missile attacks on Israel early on 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 a conflict between the regional foes that showed no sign of slowing.
Powerful explosions, likely from Israel’s defense systems intercepting Iranian missiles, rocked Tel Aviv shortly before dawn. Plumes of black smoke rose into the sky over the major coastal city.
The latest salvo comes after a weekend of escalating tit-for-tat attacks between Israel and Iran that raised fears of a wider, more dangerous regional war.
Iran on Sunday said Israel struck oil refineries, killed the intelligence chief of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and hit population centers in intensive aerial attacks.
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Here's the latest:
Moscow still not announcing plans to evacuate Russians from Israel and Iran
The Kremlin says Russia is ready to do “everything necessary” to resolve the “root causes” of the “dangerous escalation of tensions” between Iran and Israel.
Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters he was unaware if a decision had been made by Moscow to organize a full evacuation of its citizens from Israel and Iran.
“All agencies are monitoring the situation with the utmost care,” Peskov said.
Poland will evacuate around 200 of its citizens stranded in Israel
The evacuations will be overland to neighboring Jordan and will take place within the next two days, according to a deputy foreign minister, Henryka Mościcka-Dendys.
She says there will be a bus convoy to Amman, the Jordanian capital, where evacuees — tourists and short-term visitors — will board a government plane to return home.
“Poland will be the first country to organize such an evacuation,” Mościcka-Dendys said, emphasizing the move is precautionary and aims to avoid escalating tensions. No military escort is planned.
Putin and Erdogan condemn Israeli attacks on Iran
The Russian and Turkish presidents called for an immediate end to hostilities and the use of diplomatic means to settle contentious issues.
Both Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Israeli attacks on Iran. They spoke in a phone call on Monday, the Kremlin said.
Russians urged to leave Israel
Speaking with Russian state media Monday, Russia’s Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov reiterated Moscow’s advice to Russian citizens to leave Israel if possible.
Viktorov said that Russian citizens could independently cross Israel’s border with Egypt in order to catch commercial flights home. He also said that a wider, state-organized evacuation of citizens from Israel could be carried out “if necessary.”
“The threat that is being posed to the lives and health of both diplomats and Russian citizens in Israel is quite real,” he said.
Iran is on its own, analyst says
“Iran is battling it out alone,” said Lina Khatib, a Middle East expert at the Chatham House think tank in London.
Russia will not come to Iran’s aid, Khatib told AP, pointing out that Russia did not help Iran last year when Israel destroyed Russian-supplied air defenses or when Iran’s ally, former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was ousted.
Russia is likely to limit its support for Iran to “strongly worded statements” and will use the conflict to present itself as a mediator, Khatib said.
Turkey's Erdogan offers mediation
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a telephone call Monday that Turkey was ready to act as a “facilitator” for the resolution of the Israel-Iran conflict and resumption of the nuclear negotiations.
A statement from Erdogan office said Erdogan emphasized Turkey’s commitment to peace and stability in the region.
The Turkish leader has been engaged in telephone diplomacy since Saturday in an effort to reduce tensions. It was Erdogan’s second call with Pezeshkian since the outbreak of the conflict.
Azerbaijan helps evacuate foreign citizens from neighboring Iran
Azerbaijani media reports said that following the evacuation of citizens of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, citizens of Portugal, the Philippines, Finland and some other countries have crossed the Astara border checkpoint and headed to the airport in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku.
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizade said that 41 of its citizens, including family members of its diplomats in Iran, also have returned to Azerbaijan, said. He added that Azerbaijan’s diplomatic missions in Iran have continued to operate as usual.
UN warns of ‘unprecedented’ food crisis in Gaza
A new U.N. food crisis report released on Monday said the resumption of military operations in Gaza was escalating the food crisis in Gaza “to unprecedented levels."
The Hunger Hotspots report by the World Food Program and Food and Agricultural Organization said that no adequate humanitarian aid or commercial supplies have reached the Gaza Strip since the end of the eight-week cease-fire, the longest interruption since the start of the conflict.
According to the latest projections, released in May, the whole of Gaza's 2.1 million people are at risk of falling into acute food insecurity by September.
UN human rights chief decries ‘unconscionable suffering’ in Gaza
The U.N. human rights chief said Israel’s warfare in Gaza is inflicting “horrifying, unconscionable suffering” on Palestinians and urged government leaders to exert pressure on Israel’s government and the militant group Hamas to end it.
“Israel’s means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza,” Volker Türk told the 47-member Human Rights Council in an address that raised concerns about the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, the fallout from sweeping U.S. tariffs, and China’s human rights record among other topics.
Israeli authorities have regularly accused the council of anti-Israel bias, and the Trump administration has kept the United States out of the its proceedings.
Israel claims 'air superiority' over Tehran
Israel’s military claimed Monday to have achieved “aerial superiority” over Iran’s capital.
The military says it has degraded Iranian air defenses and missile systems to the point that its planes can now operate over Tehran without facing major threats.
It says Israel now controls the skies from western Iran to Tehran.
Egypt arrests 2 members of Global March to Gaza, group says
Egyptian authorities arrested two members of the international coordination committee of the Global March to Gaza, the group said Monday.
The group said in a statement it hasn't heard from French citizen Hicham El Ghaoui and Spanish national Manuel Tapial for around a day since their arrest and it has no details about their whereabouts.
Demonstrators from 80 countries planned to march to Egypt’s border with Gaza to spotlight the deepening humanitarian crises facing Palestinians since Israel began blocking aid trucks from entering the coastal enclave in March.
“Our commitment remains unchanged: We stand with Gaza, call for the opening of a humanitarian corridor, and demand an end to the genocide against the Palestinian people. Governments must act now,” the statement said.
Foreigners are being evacuated from Iran and Israel
Some 120 people, including diplomats and their families, were evacuated from Iran via Turkmenistan, the country’s Foreign Ministry said Monday. Many of those evacuated were from fellow Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, officials said.
Turkmenistan, a gas-rich nation that has remained largely isolated under its autocratic rulers since it became independent following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, shares a 1,148-kilometer (713-mile) border with Iran.
The Czech Republic is also sending a plane for Czechs who want to leave Israel amid the conflict with Iran, the Czech Foreign Ministry said. Other Czechs will use another plane sent by the government of Slovakia headed to Jordan to return home.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it helped 14 Taiwanese leave Israel by bus for Jordan on Sunday and will help them travel onward. The ministry is in touch with another nine Taiwanese currently in Iran and will assist them if they need help departing, the ministry said in a statement Monday.
Concussion of Iranian missile causes minor damage to US Consulate in Tel Aviv
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.
Iran’s health ministry says 224 killed since Israel’s attack began Friday
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.
EU foreign ministers to meet Tuesday by video link
The European Union’s top diplomat will convene an emergency meeting of the 27-nation bloc’s foreign ministers Tuesday to discuss the conflict between Israel and Iran.
The meeting, to be held via video link, “will provide an opportunity for an exchange of views, coordination on diplomatic outreach to Tel Aviv and Tehran, and possible next steps,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas’ office said Sunday.
“We will continue to contribute to all diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions and to find a lasting solution to the Iranian nuclear issue which can only be through a negotiated deal,” it said.
Trump vetoed Israeli plan to kill Iran’s supreme leader, US official says
President Donald Trump vetoed a plan presented by Israel to the U.S. to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.
The Israelis informed the Trump administration in recent days that they had developed a credible plan to kill Khamenei. After being briefed on the plan, the White House made clear to Israeli officials that Trump was opposed to the Israelis making the move, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the sensitive matter.
The Trump administration is desperate to keep Israel’s military operation aimed at decapitating Iran’s nuclear program from exploding into an even more expansive conflict and saw the plan to kill Khamenei as a move that would enflame the conflict and potentially destabilize the region.
The Associated Press
