Israel-Iran conflict LIVE updates: Trump goes to ground after National Security Council meeting, weighs US involvement; Iranian nuclear, weapons facilities attacked in Israeli strikes

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 Donald Trump has demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and warned Tehran residents to evacuate.
• At the G7 summit in Canada, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after Trump’s early departure. Albanese criticised US tariffs, saying they harmed US consumers more than Australian exporters. He also announced that Australia would begin negotiations with the European Union on a security and defence partnership.
• Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 585 people and wounded 1326 others, a human rights group says. 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.
• In response to the escalating conflict, about1000 Australians in Israel and 870 in Iran are seeking help to leave, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.
• 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 that it could strike a neighbourhood south of Mehrabad International Airport, which includes residential areas, 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.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations says Israel’s attacks on Iranian nuclear sites represent an act of “war against humanity”, exposing people to the risk of hazardous leaks.

“The deliberate targeting of Iran’s nuclear facilities not only constitutes a grave violation of international law and UN charter, but also risks exposition of all people in our neighbourhood to possible hazardous leak,” ambassador Ali Bahreini said at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“This is not an act of war against our country, it is war against humanity,”

The ambassador criticised the failure of states to condemn Israel’s attacks. “We are hearing almost nothing from those self-proclaimed champions of human rights,” he said.

Bahreini said Iran had conveyed to Washington that it would respond firmly to the US if it became directly involved in Israel’s military campaign.

He told reporters that he saw the US as “complicit in what Israel is doing”.

The US has so far only taken indirect actions in the current conflict with Iran, including helping to shoot down missiles fired toward Israel.

It is deploying more fighter aircraft to the Middle East and extending the deployment of other warplanes, three US officials told Reuters.

Bahreini said Iran would also respond strongly to Israeli strikes.

“We will not show any reluctance in defending our people, security and land – we will respond seriously and strongly, without restraint,” he told reporters.

Reuters

As we reported earlier, an advanced Israeli Hermes drone was allegedly shot down over Iran today.

Local media showed the purported wreck in a broadcast, as the large drone lay in sand with parts of it smashed off.

Israel has reportedly confirmed one of its drones was shot down.

“During operational activity, a surface-to-air missile was launched at an air force unmanned aerial vehicle,” the Israel Defence Forces said, according to the Times of Israel.

The outlet said the military confirmed the drone crashed in Iran, but said there was “no fear of information leaking”.

Hacker group Predatory Sparrow claims it has levied another attack at Iran’s financial infrastructure, this time targeting cryptocurrency exchange Nobitex.

Nobitex is one of Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, and the hacking group – also known by its Persian name, Gonjeshke Darande – has threatened to release the company’s internal data and source code within 24 hours, Iranian media reported.

Nobitex has reportedly acknowledged the breach, saying its technical team detected unauthorised access to its communication infrastructure and part of its “hot wallet” system.

The apparent breach comes after the hacking group yesterday claimed it had destroyed Iranian Bank Sepah’s data.

Iran and Israel continue to exchange missiles six days after Israel first struck Iran, with speculation growing that the United States will join Israel’s war after President Donald Trump left the G7 summit early to meet his National Security Council in Washington.

Bronte Gossling and Jamie Brown have mapped out the conflict, pinpointing key nuclear sites, targets and US military bases.

In addition to targeting vital Iranian oil, gas and nuclear facilities, Israel has also hit residential areas. A building used by the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, part of Iran’s state television broadcaster, was also struck by a missile on Monday, with at least two employees reportedly killed in the attack.

By Wednesday morning, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps released a statement claiming they had “gained complete control over the skies of the occupied territories” after launching two missile barrages at Israel overnight. According to live broadcasts, however, Israel’s Iron Dome was still intercepting missiles.

Click here to read the full story.

The first repatriation flights bringing Israelis home have landed at Tel Aviv, but the passengers on board are among 50,000 wanting to return.

The first flight, operated by national carrier El Al, touched down at Ben Gurion Airport early on Wednesday morning, local time, bringing home passengers from Larnaca, Cyprus.

Flight cancellations at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport in the wake of hostilities between Israel and Iran, on June 13.Credit: Getty Images

It has just turned 11am in Tel Aviv.

Israel’s transport ministry estimates that more than 50,000 stranded Israelis are trying to come home. It is estimated another 100,000 Israelis are abroad.

El Al has said repatriation flights are scheduled from Athens, Rome, Milan and Paris. Smaller airlines Arkia and Israir are also taking part in the operation.

“We are preparing for the airlift to bring all Israelis home,” Transport Minister Miri Regev told the captain of the arriving El Al flight before it landed, according to a statement released by the Israeli Aviation Authority.

“We are very emotional about receiving the first rescue flight as part of ‘safe return’. Land safely.”

Tel Aviv’s airport has been closed to passenger traffic since Israel launched its attack on Friday.

The rescue operation could take weeks as about 2500 people a day return by air and sea, Bloomberg reported.

In a message to Israelis overseas, Regev said, “there’s no reason to get stressed”.

“You’re abroad. Have a good time. I know this is no simple matter,” she said.

Private yacht owners have offered to take Israelis from Cyprus in a trip that normally costs about $1000, according to Bloomberg.

The media organisation reported that Israel dispatched much of its civilian airline fleet abroad after fighting began, but recalled some after aviation risks eased.

With Reuters

Iranian state media claims military forces shot down an advanced Hermes drone this morning, local time.

The drone was shot down about six hours ago, according to state media. A journalist at the scene of the apparent wreckage said the drone was destroyed before it could destroy any weapons, the BBC said.

Vision shared by local media showed the purported wreckage, which lay in sand with parts of it smashed off.

Airline travellers were confronted with dizzying sights of missile launches visible from the windows of passenger planes even before the start of the war between Israel and Iran on Friday.

The closure of airspace over the two countries has had a cascading effect through the region, grounding flights and leaving travellers stranded.

Israel had closed its primary international Ben Gurion Airport for days, while Iran on Friday suspended flights to and from the country’s main Khomeini International Airport on the outskirts of Tehran.

Flight radar data shows commercial aircraft fleeing Iranian and Israeli airspace as the two Middle Eastern foes fired salvos of missiles and drones at each other. Israel has launched airstrikes as well in its effort to destroy Iran’s nuclear program.

Click here to read more from Chris Zappone.

The first flights to bring Israelis home from overseas since the Israel-Iran conflict began have landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport.

Israel’s Transport Minister Miri Regev greeted the captain in the airport’s control tower.

“We are waiting for you here with great anticipation,” she told her in Hebrew. “Very excited, first rescue flight.”

Tens of thousands of Israelis are among people stranded in other countries because of the conflict, according to Israeli media.

Local news outlets are also reporting that the country’s military intercepted three drones launched from Iran on Wednesday morning, local time. It is just past 10am in Tel Aviv.

AP

Donald Trump’s temptation to join Israel’s strikes on Iran goes back to the US president’s inclination to “jump on the bandwagon” of what he thinks is successful, a former Israeli diplomat says.

However, the real question is to what scale the US will become involved – if it does.

US President Donald Trump.Credit: AP

That’s the verdict from Alon Pinkas, Israeli consul general in New York in the early 2000s, and an outspoken critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

“The real question is the scale and the scope of an American military involvement,” Pinkas told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

“That usually focuses [on] … the uranium enrichment facility in Fordow, which is south of the capital city of Tehran. That facility is dug 80 or 90 metres inside a mountain, is heavily fortified, and requires munitions and the delivery systems to get them there, that Israel does not possess.

“If you do not eliminate Fordow ... or inflict on it severe damage, then the idea of neutralising Iran’s nuclear program is not achievable. That is the extent of the American involvement in terms of what Israel would want the US to do.

“If the US does that, obviously it vindicates everyone in the region that thought that the US was complicit in this to begin with, so I am sure that Trump, however his tendency to oscillate and contradict himself, I am sure that he is actually weighing those options.”

Iranian newspaper Tehran Times is reporting explosions heard near Imam Hussein University, as well as on the outskirts of the Hakimiyah and Tehranpars neighborhoods in eastern Tehran.

The newspaper also said Mossad-linked agents set a fire near Tehran’s Milad Tower in an “attempt to incite chaos and instability”.