Israel-Iran conflict LIVE updates: US bases in Middle East set to be targeted if Trump joins war; Ali Khamenei’s location known, US president says

Thank you for following our ongoing live coverage of the rapidly developing conflict between Israel and Iran.

Here’s a quick overview of the latest developments from today:

• The Israel-Iran conflict has intensified, with both nations exchanging missile strikes. Iran has reportedly launched missiles targeting Israeli cities, while Israel claims to have killed a senior Iranian general.
• CBS News has reported the US is considering military involvement, including potential strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. President Trump has demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and warned Tehran residents to evacuate.
• At the G7 summit in Canada, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with USTreasury Secretary Scott Bessent after President Trump’s early departure. Albanese criticised US tariffs, stating they harm US consumers more than Australian exporters. He also announced that Australia will begin negotiations with the European Union on a security and defence partnership.
• In response to the escalating conflict, approximately 1000 Australians in Israel and 870 in Iran are seeking assistance to depart, according to Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
• The New York Times is reporting that Iran is preparing missiles to strike US bases in the Middle East, should Trump join the conflict.

US President Donald Trump on Air Force One on Monday.Credit: AP

• Trump posted on Truth Social that the US knew where Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was hiding. “He is an easy target, but is safe there. We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump wrote about 2.30am. Trump also posted on social media: “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
• Iranian news websites are reporting Israeli strikes have targeted Imam Hossein University in eastern Tehran. Israel warned earlier today they could strike a neighbourhood south of Mehrabad International Airport, which includes residential neighbourhoods, military installations, pharmaceutical companies and industrial firms.
• Meanwhile, in Gaza, more than 50 people were reportedly killed by Israeli tank shellfire after they tried to get aid from trucks in Khan Younis.

You can catch up with everything we know about the Israel and Iran conflict on our regularly updated “what we know so far” page.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sought to rally the G7 leaders to support a ceasefire in Gaza, renewing the push amid an escalation of hostilities between Iran and Israel.

“This is a moment in which we can agree to a ceasefire in Gaza,” she told reporters on Tuesday at the G7 summit in Canada.

“I have shared this sentiment with everyone I’ve spoken to these days and I have found agreement – so much so that this common position is in the ‘allied nations’ Middle East statement.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Canada on Tuesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Israel has been engaged in a war against Gaza since October 2023, when Hamas launched a multipronged onslaught on Israel from the strip, killing 1200. Gaza authorities say the death toll there has topped 57,000 casualties, while the UN has warned of catastrophic humanitarian conditions.

Some of Israel’s closest European allies, including Germany, the UK and France, have grown increasingly critical of its prosecution of the war, which has destroyed much of the coastal strip and sparked what international aid agencies say is a hunger crisis.

“We must push for this result,” Meloni said.

“I have always backed the reconstruction plan put forward by Arab countries. I think the Gulf countries’ role in this phase in the region is fundamental, and we have to support their role as much as possible in trying to find a solution.”

She said the possibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin negotiating peace between Iran and Israel – an option put forward by Trump earlier this week – was “not on the table.”

“Giving a mediating role in another war to a nation already at war doesn’t seem like one of the best options to me,” she said.

Bloomberg

The Israeli Air Force has issued an update just now where it says it intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” launched from the east of Israel.

In a post to X, The IAF said sirens rang out in the northern part of the country after the target entered its airspace between 5.55am and 5.57am local time.

Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 585 people and wounded 1326 others, a human rights group says.

On Wednesday, the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said it had identified 239 of the dead as civilians and 126 as security personnel.

Iranians cross into Turkey on Monday at the Gurbulak Bazargan border post between the two countries.Credit: AP

The group, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country.

Iran has not been publishing regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimised casualties in the past. Its last update, issued on Monday, put the death toll at 224 people killed and 1277 wounded.

AP

Thank you for following our ongoing live coverage of the rapidly developing conflict between Israel and Iran.

Here’s a quick overview of the latest developments from today:

• The Israel-Iran conflict has intensified, with both nations exchanging missile strikes. Iran has reportedly launched missiles targeting Israeli cities, while Israel claims to have killed a senior Iranian general.
• CBS News has reported the US is considering military involvement, including potential strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. President Trump has demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and warned Tehran residents to evacuate.
• At the G7 summit in Canada, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with USTreasury Secretary Scott Bessent after President Trump’s early departure. Albanese criticised US tariffs, stating they harm US consumers more than Australian exporters. He also announced that Australia will begin negotiations with the European Union on a security and defence partnership.
• In response to the escalating conflict, approximately 1000 Australians in Israel and 870 in Iran are seeking assistance to depart, according to Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
• The New York Times is reporting that Iran is preparing missiles to strike US bases in the Middle East, should Trump join the conflict.

US President Donald Trump on Air Force One on Monday.Credit: AP

• Trump posted on Truth Social that the US knew where Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was hiding. “He is an easy target, but is safe there. We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump wrote about 2.30am. Trump also posted on social media: “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
• Iranian news websites are reporting Israeli strikes have targeted Imam Hossein University in eastern Tehran. Israel warned earlier today they could strike a neighbourhood south of Mehrabad International Airport, which includes residential neighbourhoods, military installations, pharmaceutical companies and industrial firms.
• Meanwhile, in Gaza, more than 50 people were reportedly killed by Israeli tank shellfire after they tried to get aid from trucks in Khan Younis.

You can catch up with everything we know about the Israel and Iran conflict on our regularly updated “what we know so far” page.

Suddenly, Donald Trump’s presidency is on the line.

Will there be war or Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER”, as Trump has demanded on his platform Truth Social?

US President Donald Trump may need to contend with MAGA Republicans if he wants to join Israel in its war against Iran.Credit: NYT

At home, will Americans revel in Trump’s “Golden Age” of economic miracles or be mired in recession?

If Trump stumbles in Iran, and if his “one big, beautiful” domestic policy legislation fails in Congress, Trump will be a lame duck for the balance of his term as president.

Read more here.

As mentioned earlier in this blog, Donald Trump is coming closer to deciding whether the United States will get directly involved in an escalating conflict in the Middle East.

CBS News reported earlier this morning that the US president is considering joining Israel’s effort to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

One possible target is the Fordow site, the most fortified nuclear facility in Iran that is buried under a mountain that only heavy US bombs can penetrate.

However, there is reportedly not full agreement among Trump’s closest advisers on what to do.

CNN also reported that Trump was “growing increasingly warm” to using US military assets to strike Iran.

Israel’s attack on Iran has struck a devastating blow to the country’s senior military and nuclear powerbrokers.

A string of generals have been killed in the drone and airstrikes that began last Friday, including the chiefs of the armed forces and the elite Revolutionary Guard, and the top scientists running Iran’s secretive nuclear program.

There are also reports that covert Israeli intelligence units orchestrated the assassinations from within Iran itself.

Find out more about who Israel has targeted so far here.

A major explosion could be heard around in Tehran as the sun rose in the last hour, following other explosions that boomed earlier in the predawn darkness.

Authorities in Iran offered no acknowledgement of the attacks, which have become increasingly common as the Israeli airstrike campaign has intensified since they began on Friday.

The Israelis earlier warned they could strike a neighbourhood south of Mehrabad International Airport, which includes residential neighbourhoods, military installations, pharmaceutical companies and industrial firms.

Iranian news websites are also reporting strikes have targeted Imam Hossein University in eastern Tehran. Earlier, local media also reported that the Khojir missile production facility was targeted overnight.

As the ABC’s former Middle East correspondent Ben Knight is explaining on ABC News now, internet outages are reportedly hindering news getting out of the Islamic Republic.

Almost 2000 Australians have registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs as being stuck in the Middle East and requiring assistance.

If you are one of those people, or know someone who is, please get in touch below:

New pictures have filtered through from the Middle East after more airstrikes hit Iran and Israel.

Here’s a look at a few recent images:

Suleiman Gaboa holds metal from a projectile that fell in his Bedouin community in southern Israel, where residents do not have bomb shelters to protect them from incoming Iranian fireCredit: AP

The Gaboa family, Bedouins living in Al-Furaa village in southern Israel, gather around the makeshift bomb shelter they made from two gravel trucks buried in dirt.Credit: AP

A man takes a cellphone photo as missiles fired from Iran toward Israel fly over Syrian territory in Damascus today.Credit: AP

Israeli air defense system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over Tel Aviv early on Wednesday.Credit: AP