Tit-for-tat strikes between Israel and Iran continued, with fighting now entering a seventh day. This morning, there have been explosions reported over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as missiles were fired from Iran. Meanwhile, Israel demanded Iranians around a water plant leave their homes.
Thursday 19 June 2025 05:42, UK
Israel has attacked an Iranian heavy water reactor, linked to a nuclear site, after demanding that people nearby evacuate, state media says.
Iranian officials said the facility was not properly evacuated by the time of the attack, ISNA agency reports.
State television also confirmed the attack.
Iranian missiles have reportedly struck at least four areas, in its latest wave of attacks on Israel.
Fighting continued overnight, with state media in Tehran saying a new wave of missiles was launched towards Israel.
The Israel Defence Forces also identified the attack, adding: "Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat."
However, despite this, Israeli media is reporting at least four impact sites.
It isn't clear where the attacks have taken place.
Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Overnight, back-and-forth strikes between the two nations continued as fighting has now entered its seventh day.
The Israel Defence Forces conducted a series of strikes on the capital Tehran, and beyond.
Israel also issued evacuation orders for people living near Iran's Arak heavy water reactor.
It comes after Iran's supreme leader rejected US calls to surrender and warned that any Washington involvement would cause "irreparable damage to them."
Meanwhile, in Washington, Donald Trump discussed striking Iran, saying: "I may do it. I may not do it."
He also claimed Tehran was weeks away from a nuclear weapon before holding a meeting on the conflict in the Situation Room.
Iran itself continued to launch a wave of attacks on Israel, with explosions reported over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Israeli media reported at least four impact sites after the strikes.
Iran's state media also reported that missiles were launched towards Israel.
In the UK, Sir Keir Starmer chaired a COBRA emergency meeting on the situation in the Middle East.
And while the world's focus has switched to the fighting with Iran, Palestinians continued to be killed in Gaza, with at least 140 people being killed by Israel yesterday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Thank you for following the latest updates on the aerial war between Israel and Iran.
Before you go, here's a summary of today's key updates:
Watch: Trump demands Iran's surrender
Watch: Supreme leader's warning to US
Watch: Can Iran's leadership be toppled?
A hacking group with possible ties to Israel says it has attacked one of Iran's largest cryptocurrency exchanges and destroyed nearly $90m (拢67m) in crypto.
Gonjeshke Darande, or "Predatory Sparrow," claimed the attack on Nobitex, which it claimed helps the Iranian government avoid sanctions and finance illicit operations around the world.
In a post on X Nobitex said it had pulled its website and app offline as it reviewed "unauthorised access" to its systems.
The funds were moved to hacker-controlled wallets denouncing Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs, which said the total theft amounted to $90m across multiple types of cryptocurrencies.
The way the hacker-controlled wallets were created suggests the hackers would to be able to access the stolen money, meaning they "effectively burned the funds in order to send Nobitex a political message," blockchain analysis firm Elliptic said in a blog post.
Elliptic's post shared evidence suggesting Nobitex had sent and received funds from cryptocurrency wallets controlled by groups in Gaza such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as the Houthis in Yemen.
It was Gonjeshke Darande's second operation in two days, with the group claiming to have destroyed data at Iran's state-owned Bank Sepah yesterday.
Israel's air strikes on Iran have likely set the country's nuclear programme back by a few months, Sky News's US partner NBC News reports.
Over the last week Israel has hit centrifuge plants used to enrich uranium and labs used to convert uranium gas into a metal, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency and Israeli officials.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany plan to hold nuclear talks with their Iranian counterpart in Geneva on Friday, Reuters reports.
A German source told the news agency the ministers will first meet with the European Union's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, before holding a joint meeting with the Iranian foreign minister.
The aim of the talks is to persuade the Iranian side to firmly guarantee it will use its nuclear programme solely for civilian purposes, the source said.
Iran has summoned the Swiss envoy to Tehran as a representative of the United States in the country to protest Donald Trump's "provocative" remarks, Iranian media has reported.
There is no official US embassy in Iran, after diplomatic ties were severed following the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, when a group of Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took 66 American diplomats and citizens hostage.
It came after Trump demanded Iran's "unconditional surrender" earlier today (see 06.42 post).
Tehran also summoned the German ambassador in Iran to protest Chancellor Friedrich Merz's "offensive remarks," Iranian media reported.
Yesterday the German chancellor said the complete destruction of Iran's nuclear weapons programme could be on the agenda if Tehran does not back down and return to the negotiating table.
Benjamin Netanyahu has called Donald Trump "a great friend of Israel" and thanked him for "defending the skies of Israel".
In a video address to the nation, the Israeli prime minister said he and the US president "speak constantly, including last night".
"We had a very warm conversation," he said.
Netanyahu added: "We control the skies over Tehran. We are striking the Ayatollahs' regime with tremendous force.
"We are striking the nuclear weapons, the missiles, the headquarters, the symbols of power."
Israel launched three waves of aerial attacks on Iran in the last 24 hours, military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin has said.
Israel deployed dozens of warplanes to strike over 60 targets in Tehran and western Iran, including missile launchers and missile-production sites, he said.
"The aim of the operation is to eliminate the existential threat to the State of Israel, significantly damage Iran鈥檚 nuclear program in all its components, and severely impact its missile array," he explained.
