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Israel and Iran traded deadly fire for a fourth day on Monday 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 -In a major campaign launched early Friday, Israeli fighter jets and drones have struck nuclear and military sites in Iran, also hitting residential areas and fuel depots.Iran’s health ministry says 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 has also killed many top military commanders and atomic scientists in Iran as part of an offensive that officials say seeks to end nuclear and missile threats from the Islamic republic.Israel’s military reported a new wave of incoming missiles targeting the country’s north on Monday evening.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, did not rule out killing Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”It’s not going to escalate the conflict, it’s going to end the conflict,” he told ABC News when asked about reports that US President Donald Trump vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Khamenei.- Iran state TV hit -AFP journalists in Tehran heard massive blasts across the city after Israel issued an evacuation order for the northern District 3, home to state broadcaster IRIB, which was hit in an Israeli strike.IRIB later resumed its live broadcast after it was cut due to the attack.Defence Minister Israel Katz said his country’s forces had targeted “the propaganda and incitement broadcasting authority of the Iranian regime”.Iran foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei called the strike a “war crime”, and demanded the UN Security Council take action.Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iranian forces would “pummel” Israel until it stopped its attacks, and suggested Trump could halt the strikes with “one phone call”. “That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy,” he added. – Israel claims ‘air superiority’ -The Israeli military said that after a wave of strikes on Monday, 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 on Sunday 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.Trump told reporters at the G7 summit that “Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk… before it’s too late”.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 (IAEA), 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.burs-ami/smw/ysm

US President Donald Trump on Monday warned Iran, which Israel is pounding, to re-enter negotiations “before it’s too late” as Group of Seven leaders considered a joint call for de-escalation.Host Canada had designed the summit in the Rockies resort of Kananaskis to paper over differences within the bloc of major industrial democracies, as Trump returns to the global stage in his norm-shattering second term.But two days before the summit, Israel launched a surprise, massive military attack on Iran, which had been in negotiations with the Trump administration over the cleric-run state’s contested nuclear program.Trump, who has praised Israel’s strikes despite his stated preference for diplomacy, said he believed a negotiated settlement remained “achievable.””It’s painful for both parties, but I’d say Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk, and they should talk immediately, before it’s too late,” Trump told reporters as he met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.Israel has struck major nuclear and military sites and killed leading commanders and nuclear scientists in Iran, which has responded with its own volley of drones and missiles on Israel.Canada and European leaders have looked to draft a statement on the crisis, although it looks set to stop short of demanding a ceasefire.Leaders will discuss the statement Monday evening, a diplomat said.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that G7 leaders share concern about Iran’s nuclear program but there is “absolutely a focus on how we de-escalate this and that will be a central focus as we go into the talks.””I do think there’s a consensus for de-escalation,” Starmer told reporters.- Pressure on Iran -German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that a text being put forward by the Europeans would put the onus on Iran.”We’ll highlight again that Iran must never possess material that would allow it to produce nuclear weapons,” Merz said.”We’ll highlight the legitimate right of the state of Israel to defend itself and we will also discuss potential additional measures to reach a diplomatic solution,” he said.Unusually, Japan — which has historic relations with Iran and limited domestic pressure on the Middle East — has broken with its Western allies and is the only G7 nation that has criticized Israel.Israel’s strikes while diplomacy was ongoing were “completely unacceptable and deeply regrettable,” Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said.Iran, since Trump pulled out of an earlier nuclear deal in 2018, has ramped up uranium enrichment but not at levels to create a number bomb. Israel is widely known to have nuclear weapons but does not acknowledge them publicly.- ‘I’m a tariff person’ -The summit at a wooded resort under still snow-topped mountains comes after months of tumult on the global stage since Trump’s return.Trump, seeking to shatter a decades-old US-led global economic order, has vowed sweeping tariffs on friends and foes alike although he has postponed implementation until July 9.Trump has also mocked host Canada, imposing economic pressure and repeatedly stating that the vast but less populated neighbor should become the 51st US state.Trump said he was optimistic about reaching a solution on trade as he met Carney, a staid former central banker who has appeared to win more respect from the US leader since succeeding the flashier Justin Trudeau in March.”I’m a tariff person,” Trump told Carney. “It’s simple, it’s easy, it’s precise, and it just goes very quickly.””I think Mark has a more complex idea, but also very good.”Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to join the G7 talks on Tuesday and to speak to Trump, who had initially tried to force him into a deal with Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022.Trump has since voiced frustration that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not accepted a US proposal for a ceasefire. The US president has previously mused about readmitting Russia to the G8, from which it was expelled in 2014 after invading and annexing Ukraine’s region of Crimea, triggering a war which accelerated in 2022 with a full-scale Russian invasion.Trump said Monday that Putin was “very insulted” by the G8 expulsion and that if Russia were still a member, “you wouldn’t have a war right now.”

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli troops killed 20 people waiting to collect food on Monday, in the latest deadly incident near a US-backed aid centre in the Palestinian territory’s south.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that “the (Israeli) occupation forces opened fire” near the Al-Alam roundabout in the southern city of Rafah, where many were waiting to reach an aid distribution site.Bassal said that “20 martyrs and more than 200 wounded by occupation gunfire” were taken to nearby hospitals.Ahmed al-Farra, head of the paediatric department at Nasser Hospital in the nearby city of Khan Yunis, told AFP that people “are hungry, they didn’t get any food since nearly four months ago”.In early March, Israel imposed a total aid blockade on the Gaza Strip amid an impasse in truce negotiations, only partially easing restrictions in late May.”All the borders are closed and this is the only way to get aid,” Farra said of US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites.”And when they get there they are killed by snipers, as you can see.”Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had received 200 people at its field hospital in the Al-Mawasi area near Rafah, without elaborating on the circumstances.In a statement on X, it said it was “the highest number received by the Red Cross Field Hospital in one mass casualty incident”.Red Cross teams also treated 170 patients at the hospital on Sunday, “many of whom were wounded by gunshots, and who reported that they were trying to access a food distribution site”, the statement said.Israel has faced mounting international pressure over humanitarian conditions in Gaza, which the United Nations described in May as “the hungriest place on Earth”.The GHF began distributing aid in late May, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and dozens of deaths.The UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the organisation citing neutrality issues they say violate humanitarian principles.- ‘Intense hostilities’ -Following previous incidents around GHF sites, the Israeli military has said its troops fired warning shots and were reacting to people approaching them in a way they considered threatening.Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and other difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.The ICRC said in its statement that “civilians continue to be killed and injured as intense hostilities continue. Due to the ongoing restrictions of humanitarian assistance, people are also struggling to access basic goods, including fuel”.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 55,432 people have been killed in the territory since the start of the war, which is now in its 21st month.Of those, 5,139 have been killed since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18 following a truce.The war was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to official Israeli figures.bur-az-acc-adp/ds

The UN refugee agency said Monday it will cut 3,500 staff jobs — slashing nearly a third of its workforce costs — due to a funding shortfall, and reduce the scale of its help worldwide.UNHCR carried out a review of its activities, expenditure, staffing and structures following a plunge in humanitarian funding.The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been among a host of UN and private aid agencies badly hit by funding cuts by the United States.The United States — which was by far UNHCR’s biggest donor — has slashed its foreign aid under a radical spending review ordered by US President Donald Trump. Other countries have also cut humanitarian spending.Washington previously made up more than 40 percent of UNHCR contributions received — $2 billion per year, the agency’s chief Filippo Grandi told the UN Security Council in April.”In light of difficult financial realities, UNHCR is compelled to reduce the overall scale of its operations,” Grandi said in Monday’s statement.He added that UNHCR would focus “on activities that have the greatest impact for refugees” while streamlining its Geneva headquarters and regional offices.The agency said it had had to close or downsize offices worldwide and implement a nearly 50-percent cut in senior positions in Geneva and at the regional HQs.”In total, approximately 3,500 staff positions will be discontinued,” the statement said.Additionally, hundreds of temporary workers have had to leave the organisation due to the funding shortfall.”Overall, UNHCR estimates a global reduction in staffing costs of around 30 percent,” the agency said.It said that programmes ranging from financial aid to vulnerable families, health, education, and water and sanitation had already been affected by cuts.UNHCR said it was working with other organisations and refugee-hosting countries to try to mitigate the impact on refugees.- ‘Resources are scarcer’ -UNHCR estimates that it will end 2025 with available funding at about the same level as a decade ago — despite the number of people forced to flee their homes having nearly doubled over the same period to more than 122 million.”Even as we face painful cuts and lose so many dedicated colleagues, our commitment to refugees remains unshakeable,” said Grandi.”Although resources are scarcer and our capacity to deliver is reduced, we will continue to work hard to respond to emergencies, protect the rights of refugees, and pursue solutions — including returning home, as nearly two million Syrians have done since December.”Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011, and ruler Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December 2024.Sudan is now the world’s largest forced displacement situation, with its 14.3 million refugees and internally displaced people overtaking Syria (13.5 million), followed by Afghanistan (10.3 million) and Ukraine (8.8 million).At the end of 2024, one in 67 people worldwide were forcibly displaced, UNHCR said Thursday.

A German court on Monday handed a life sentence to a Syrian doctor who tortured opponents of former ruler Bashar al-Assad during the country’s brutal civil war. The higher regional court in Frankfurt found Alaa Mousa, 40, guilty of crimes against humanity, committed while working as a doctor at military hospitals in Homs and Damascus between 2011 and 2012. Mousa’s actions were “part of a brutal reaction by Assad’s dictatorial, unjust regime”, presiding judge Christoph Koller said as he read out the verdict.Germany has tried several Assad supporters under the legal principle of “universal jurisdiction”, which allows for serious crimes to be prosecuted even if they were committed in a different country.Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011 after Assad’s repression of anti-government protests, sparking a spiralling conflict that drew in regional actors and cost hundreds of thousands of lives.Mousa had “wanted to punish actual or suspected opponents of the regime, while at the same time taking pleasure in torturing them”, the court said in a statement.Among the accusations made against him were that he had mutilated patients’ genitals, beaten them with medical equipment and delivered a lethal injection to one.Mousa covered his head with a hood as he entered the court on Monday and looked at the table in front of him as the sentence was read out.He denied the accusations made against him in the trial. Mousa’s lawyer Ulrich Enders said he intended to appeal the decision.- ‘Slaughterhouse’ -According to federal prosecutors, Mousa worked at military hospitals in Homs and Damascus, where political opponents detained by the government were brought for treatment.Instead of receiving medical assistance, the patients were tortured and “not infrequently killed”.On two occasions, Mousa was accused of pouring a flammable liquid on a prisoner’s genitals before setting them on fire. In one case, the victim was a teenager “aged 14 or 15 years old”.He was also said to have performed surgery on a detainee without anaesthesia and “intentionally killed a resisting prisoner by means of a lethal injection”, according to the court.Another patient with epilepsy was administered a lethal pill by the defendant and died.During the trial, the court heard testimony from some 50 witnesses, including former colleagues of Mousa and detainees at the military hospitals, the court said. One former inmate said he had been forced to carry the bodies of patients who died after being injected by Mousa, German weekly Der Spiegel reported.Another witness said the military hospital where he was held in Damascus had been known as a “slaughterhouse”, Der Spiegel said.At the opening of the trial in 2022, Mousa told the court he had witnessed beatings but had been scared to speak out.”I felt sorry for them, but I couldn’t say anything, or it would have been me instead of the patient,” he said.- ‘Witnesses threatened’ -Mousa arrived in Germany in 2015 on a visa for highly skilled workers at the same time as hundreds of thousands of Syrians were fleeing the civil war at home.He continued to practise medicine in Germany, working as an orthopaedic doctor until he was arrested in June 2020.The verdict in the trial came just a few months after Assad was ousted in December 2024 at the culmination of a lightning offensive by a rebel coalition led by Islamists.Up to that point, the Assad government had “attempted to influence” the proceedings in Frankfurt, judge Koller said.Confidential information was passed to Syria “so that relatives of witnesses were threatened” and “probably even abducted”, he said.The first global trial over state-sponsored torture in Syria under the Assad government opened in 2020 at a court in the western German city of Koblenz.The accused in the trial, a former army colonel, was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in jail in 2022.

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 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 strikes have so far killed at least 224 people, including top military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians, according to Iranian authorities.In retaliation, Iran said it had struck Israel with a salvo of missiles and warned of “effective, targeted and more devastating operations” to come.US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Monday said that Iran’s missile barrage had lightly damaged a building used by the American embassy in Tel Aviv.

Geopolitical tensions roiled the opening of the Paris Air Show on Monday as French authorities sealed off Israeli weapons industry booths amid the conflicts in Iran and Gaza, a move that Israel condemned as “outrageous”.The decision added drama to the major aerospace industry event, which was already under the shadow of last week’s deadly crash of Air India’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner.Black walls were installed around the stands of five Israeli defence firms at the trade fair in Le Bourget, an airfield on the outskirts of Paris.The booths displayed “offensive weapons” that could be used in Gaza — in violation of agreements with Israeli authorities, a French government source told AFP.The companies — Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael, Uvision, Elbit and Aeronautics — make drones and guided bombs and missiles.An Israeli exhibitor wrote a message in yellow chalk on one of the walls, saying the hidden defence systems “are protecting the state of Israel these days. The French government, in the name of discrimination is trying to hide them from you!”French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou defended the decision during a Monday press conference at the air show. “The French government’s position was very simple: no offensive weapons at the arms exposition,” he said.”Defensive weapons were perfectly acceptable,” he added.- Conflicts loom large -Bayrou cited the ongoing conflict in Gaza as the rationale behind the ban.”Given the situation in Gaza… which is extremely serious from a humanitarian and security point of view, France was keen to make it clear that offensive weapons should not be present at this exposition,” Bayrou said.Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he was shocked by the “outrageous” closure of the pavilions and said the situation should be “immediately corrected”.”Israeli companies have signed contracts with the organisers… it’s like creating an Israeli ghetto,” he said on French television channel LCI.The Israeli defence ministry said in a statement that the “outrageous and unprecedented decision reeks of policy-driven and commercial considerations”.”The French are hiding behind supposedly political considerations to exclude Israeli offensive weapons from an international exhibition — weapons that compete with French industries,” it said.”This is particularly striking given Israeli technologies’ impressive and precise performance in Iran.”Israel launched surprise strikes on Iranian military and nuclear sites on Friday, killing top commanders and scientists, prompting Tehran to hit back with a barrage of missiles.The presence of Israeli firms at Le Bourget, though smaller than in the past, was already a source of tension before the start of the Paris Air Show, because of the conflict in Gaza.A French court last week rejected a bid by NGOs to ban Israeli companies from Le Bourget over concerns about “international crimes”.Local lawmakers from the Seine-Saint-Denis department hosting the event were absent during Bayrou’s visit to the opening of the air show in protest over the Israeli presence.”Never has the world been so disrupted and destabilised,” Bayrou said earlier at a roundtable event, urging nations to tackle challenges “together, not against each other”.- Boeing ‘focus on supporting customers’ -The row over Israel cast a shadow over a trade fair that is usually dominated by displays of the aerospace industry’s latest flying wonders, and big orders for plane makers Airbus and Boeing.Airbus announced an order of 30 single-aisle A320neo jets and 10 A350F freighters by Saudi aircraft leasing firm AviLease.The European manufacturer also said Riyadh Air was buying 25 long-range, wide-body A350-1000 jets.But Boeing chief executive Kelly Ortberg last week cancelled plans to attend the biennial event, to focus on the investigation of the Air India crash.”Our focus is on supporting our customers, rather than announcing orders at this air show,” a Boeing spokeswoman told AFP on Monday.The London-bound Dreamliner crashed shortly after take-off in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, killing 241 passengers and crew and another 38 on the ground. One passenger survived.

Britain is deploying extra fighter jets and other assets to the Middle East amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said.Below, AFP takes a look at the UK’s military presence in the region.- ‘Contingency support’ -Starmer told reporters travelling with him on his plane to Canada for G7 talks on Saturday that Britain was “moving assets to the region, including jets… for contingency support”.The jets are Eurofighter Typhoon planes, according to Britain’s defence ministry.Additional refuelling aircraft have also been deployed from UK bases, according to Downing Street.Royal Air Force fighter planes are already in the region as part of Operation Shader, the codename given to Britain’s contribution to the international campaign against the Islamic State group.RAF Typhoon jets aided Israel in April 2024 when they shot down an unspecified number of drones fired by Iran, as confirmed by the UK’s then-prime minister, Rishi Sunak. Starmer, Sunak’s successor, refused to speculate whether the UK would become directly involved this time in the conflict between the arch foes, which entered their fourth day on Monday.Iran threatened to target American, British and French bases if Western countries intervened to stop Iranian strikes on Israel.Tehran also urged London, Paris and Berlin to pressure Israel to stop its deadly attacks on Iran. – Air bases – The UK Ministry of Defence did not confirm where the fighter jets were heading to but the BBC reported they would be operating from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, Britain’s largest air force base in the region.The permanent joint operating base is where RAF jets fly from for Operation Shader.Transport, air-to-air refuelling and reconnaissance aircraft operate from there and Britain’s other base on Cyprus at Dhekelia.The RAF’s operational headquarters in the Middle East is housed at Al Udeid air base in Qatar, a site that is also used by the US Air Force.Britain’s air force also operates from Al Minhad air base in the United Arab Emirates and Al Musannah air base in Oman, according to information provided by the UK parliament.- Navy and army -The British Royal Navy’s main operations site in the Middle East is the UK Naval Support Facility in Bahrain in the Gulf.A type-23 frigate is permanently based there, as are four mine-counter vessels and a Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel, according to research complied by the House of Commons library.The navy has also operated a logistics base at Duqm port in Oman, by the Arabian Sea, since 2018.The British Army permanently deploys two infantry battalions to the bases on Cyprus.Some 2,220 British soldiers were stationed there as of April last year, according to Ministry of Defence (MoD) statistics.UK troops are also involved in training Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in combatting IS. Two hundred personnel were deployed on operations in Iraq as of January 2024, according to the MoD.

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.Iran’s enrichment of uranium has for decades been a cause of tension with the West and Israel, which fear the drive is aimed at making an atomic bomb, a charge denied by Tehran.”We believe that continuing uranium enrichment and the devastating war between the Islamic Republic and the Israeli regime neither serves the Iranian people nor humanity at large,” said the signatories who also included the rights activists Sedigheh Vasmaghi, Shahnaz Akmali and Abdolfattah Soltani.”Uranium enrichment is in no way in the interest of the Iranian people. They must not be sacrificed for the nuclear or geopolitical ambitions of an authoritarian regime,” they said.Calling on the Iranian leadership under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to step down, they said: “The current leaders of the Islamic Republic lack the capacity to resolve Iran’s domestic crises or its external tensions.” “The only credible path to preserve this country and its people is for current authorities to step down.”Panahi returned to Iran last month after winning the Palme d’Or for his latest movie, “It Was Just an Accident”, but has been presenting his work this month at a film festival in Australia. Rassoulof, whose latest film was shown at the 2024 festival, now lives in exile after escaping clandestinely that year.Ebadi, who won the 2023 Nobel peace prize, also now lives abroad. Mohammadi, the 2023 laureate, remains in Iran and his currently on leave for health reasons from a prison term.