June 15, 2025 – Israel-Iran conflict news

• Fresh blasts: The deadly conflict between Israel and Iran has entered its fourth day, with both sides firing new waves of missiles overnight amid international pleas for diplomacy and de-escalation. Iran’s early Monday strikes have hit an Israeli oil refinery and damaged part of the power grid.

• Terrified civilians and rising death tolls: Casualties are mounting on both sides as Iran and Israel widen attacks. Tehran residents are attempting to flee the capital in search of safety, while explosions and fire were seen in Israel overnight with residential buildings hit.

• Trump rejects assassination plan: Two US officials told CNN that President Donald Trump rejected​ an Israeli plan to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied reports of such a plan.

• ‘Weeks’ to go: Israel’s operation against Iran is expected to take “weeks, not days” and is moving forward with implicit US approval, according to White House and Israeli officials. Trump acknowledged it was possible the US could get involved in the conflict, and that he wants to see a deal between both sides.

Our live coverage of the Israel-Iran conflict has moved here.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets have struck command centers belonging to the Quds Force, a clandestine wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

“In these command centers, Quds operatives advanced terrorist attacks against the State of Israel using the proxies of the Iranian Regime in the Middle East,” an IDF spokesperson said.

An IDF video showed 10 sites it said were Quds and military targets it struck in Tehran.

Some context: The Quds force is powerful unit within the IRGC that was formed during the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s as its special intelligence unit. It’s credited with taking the lead role in Iran’s relations with armed groups in the Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza strip, including Hezbollah and Hamas.

The IRGC’s commander, Hossein Salami, was killed in Israel’s initial attacks on Iran on Friday. He has since been replaced by General Ahmed Vahidi.

CNN’s Jerusalem Correspondent Jeremy Diamond saw Tel Aviv streets littered with debris as rescue and military personnel searched through rubble at a scene that appeared to have been struck by four ballistic missiles.

One woman said she “felt the impact” of the strikes from her basement, where she was hunkering down.

“We came out really slowly because we were scared,” she told Diamond, adding that “buildings were falling as we walked.”

“It smelled like smoke… I had to cover my nose with my T-shirt. We had to walk down the street to make sure we weren’t inhaling it,” she said.

One of the residential buildings near the scene had partially collapsed and debris could be seen from blocks away, Diamond said, adding at least 10 people have been taken to hospital.

People could be seen arriving to assess the damage and families and friends embracing one another, as the shock from the strikes adds to the anxiety of residents.

He said it couldhave been a “much deadlier scene” without the shelters that people were able to enter before the missile struck.

“Every single person who survived this attack, who we spoke to, was in some kind of bomb shelter or underground shelter at the moment of impact. That’s because a couple hours before this missile struck, there was an early warning about a potential ballistic missile attack coming from Iran.”

As the sun rose over Israel on Monday, residents in Tel Aviv were left assessing the damage and looking for loved ones after Iran’s overnight barrage of missiles.

At least five people died from the overnight attacks, raising the toll to 17 killed in Israel since hostilities began four days ago.

Iran’s continued missile strikes on Israel are showing Tehran forces can regroup even after Israel killed multiple military commanders in its initial attack, an analyst told CNN.

Parsi said Israel believed they had “disrupted Iranian command and control” but that idea was “quickly restructured.”

What we are seeing now is that “Iranian missiles are successful in penetrating all layers of Israel’s air defense systems,” Parsi said.

Parsi was speaking to CNN as new waves of Iranian missiles rained down in the early hours of Monday morning and struck multiple locations.

Casualties are mounting on both sides as Iran and Israel widen attacks. Tehran residents are attempting to flee the capital in search of safety, while explosions and fire were seen in Israel overnight with residential buildings hit.

Some context: Iran’s highest-ranking military officer, the head of its elite Revolutionary Guards Corps and its air force and a former national security chief were killed in Israel’s unprecedented Operation Rising Lion last week.

Five people were killed in central Israel in the latest round of Iranian missile strikes, according to Israel’s national emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA).

Four people were killed in the city of Petah Tikva and one person was killed in the city of Bnei Brak, the MDA said.

The missiles struck several sites in central and coastal Israel, including residential buildings.

MDA said it responded to four scenes and that dozens of people were taken to hospitals in the central region.

The additional deaths take the total number of people killed in Israel to 18, since the two countries started trading barrages of missiles on Friday.

At least 224 were killed and 1,277 hospitalized in Iran since hostilities began, the country’s health ministry said on Sunday, as cited by Iran’s official media.

This post has been updated.

Oil prices continued to soar on Sunday, adding to the 7% surgefrom last week, as conflict between Israel and Iran deepens and threatens global oil supply.

US oil last surged 1.2% to $73.85 per barrel Brent, the global benchmark, gained 1%, at $75 per barrel. They had been even higher a few hours earlier.

On Monday morning local time, explosions were seen in the coastal Israeli city of Haifa, damaging buildings and setting infrastructure on fire after Israel said Iran launched a new round of missiles.

The missiles were seen hitting the area around an oil refinery in Haifa, video from the strikes showed.

The conflict has stoked fears about oil export disruption from the region. Analysts have also raised concerns of a broadening conflict that could impact the flow of oil from the Strait of Hormuz, the most critical chokepoint for oil supplies on the planet.

Iranian strikes have damaged the local electricity grid in central Israel, according to the Israel Electric Corporation.

“Teams are working on the ground to neutralize safety hazards, in particular the risk of electrocution due to torn electrical wires,” the Israel Electric Corporation said.

Long lines of cars appeared outside gas stations across Tehran on Sunday as terrified residents tried to leave Iran’s capital city after days of Israeli strikes that authorities said have killed more than 200 people.

Other residents described the grueling process of queuing several times to get enough fuel, given limited supplies at gas stations.

Many are heading towards the north, near the Caspian Sea, which is more rural and isolated. But residents told CNN that the roads are so gridlocked it is difficult to move.

On Sunday, Israel told Iranians living near weapons production facilities to evacuate, saying being nearby would endanger their lives. Iran issued a similar warning for Israelis living near important military and scientific sites.

Israel’s strikes targeted several locations across western and central Iran on Sunday.

Photos on the ground from Reuters show bloodied and panicked crowds in Tehran, including some people lying on the ground or running away carrying children.

The vast majority of the 224 killed have been civilians,according to Iranian authorities, although some top Iranian military commanders were also killed.

Ongoing strikes from Iran were seen and heard in the Israeli city of Bat Yam early Monday, according to CNN’s International Diplomatic editor Nic Robertson, who is on the ground.

Multiple strikes were heard around in an area close to the Tel Aviv area as the sun was about to rise in the city.

A “large barrage of intercept missiles fired loud explosions,” Robertson said, including one “big detonation” not far from where he was standing.

Sirens were heard going off in the center of Israel.

“It’s been quite an intense night,” Robertson said, adding that people across the country will have been woken up and told to go to their shelters.

Explosions were seen in the coastal Israeli city of Haifa, damaging buildings and setting infrastructure on fire after Israel said Iran launched a new round of missiles early Monday.

The missiles were seen hitting the area around an oil refinery in Haifa, video from the strikes showed.

The skies above the refinery can be seen lit up by the incoming missiles, with several hitting various targets near the refinery. Buildings and infrastructure can be seen bursting into flames as the missiles hit.

Missiles fired from Israel can be seen intercepting some of the incoming Iranian missiles, video shows.

Loud explosions can be heard during the ongoing strikes.

Emergency responders are treating the wounded and rescuing trapped residents after Iranian missiles struck several residential areas in central and coastal Israel, according to Israeli authorities.

Two high-rise residential buildings in central Israel were hit in the attack, trapping people in elevators, Israel Fire and Rescue said.

Video from Reuters in central Israel showed an apartment block with a large hole in the side and dozens of emergency responders on scene, some holding stretchers. Debris was strewn on the ground, the video showed, and search teams could be seen inside the damaged buildings using torches to check the scene.

Israel’s national emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA) said it is treating several people in central Israel with minor injuries from missile strikes. So far, MDA teams have taken a dozen wounded people to hospitals. A 10-year-old boy is in serious condition, MDA said.

A hospital in Tel Aviv said it is treating eight people, most classified as “mild-moderate condition,” who were wounded in the latest barrage of strikes.

The Israeli Police said it received reports of a missile impact in the country’s coastal district.

Police said “property and infrastructure were damaged” but there were no reports of casualties in the costal district.

Iranian state media channel IRNA said the latest barrage was the 8th wave of Iran’s operations in response to Israel’s repeated attacks.

Israel says it has identified more missiles launched from Iran and is currently working to intercept the threat, according to a statement from Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Red alert sirens began to sound in several areas of Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, with the IDF warning its defense was “not hermetic.”

Israel’s emergency services agency, Magen David Adom, said are its teams are heading to reported impact sites.

The IDF instructed people across the country to enter bomb shelters and remain there until further notice.

“Leaving the protected space is only permitted following an explicit directive,” the IDF said.

While President Donald Trump said Sunday that he wants to see a deal reached between Israel and Iran and that he believes “there’s a good chance” of that happening, he told reporters that “sometimes they have to fight it out.”

Asked how he plans to de-escalate the intensifying conflict between the two nations, Trump said, “I hope there’s going to be a deal. I think it’s time for deal and we’ll see what happens, but sometimes they have to fight it out.”

“I think there’s a good chance there will be a deal,” he added, while speaking outside the White House as he prepared to leave for the G7 summit in Canada.

Trump also said that “we get along really well” with Iran and that he thinks Israel and Iran “have great respect for each other.”

However, Trump declined to say whether he has asked Israel to pause airstrikes into Iran.

“I don’t want to say that,” he said.

The “fight it out” phrase is similar to how Trump has spoken about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, including comparing the war over Moscow’s invasion to a fight between children.

“Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy. They hate each other, and they’re fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart. They don’t want to be pulled, sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart,” Trump said earlier this month in the Oval Office.

More than an hour after Israel’s Home Front Command told residents across Israel to remain close to bomb shelters in anticipation of another Iranian barrage, air raid sirens had yet to be triggered as the Israeli military said it was striking missile launch sites in Iran.

The early warning is intended to give Israelis 15 to 30 minutes before air raid sirens are triggered.

But more than an hour later, no incoming missiles had been detected, suggesting Israeli air strikes in Iran may have disrupted Iranian missile launches.

Israel’s Home Front Command has not rescinded its early warning, indicating Iran may still manage to fire missiles.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Deadly strikes between Israel and Iran continued late into Sunday, with Israel vowing to intensify its operation against Iran to “strengthen our security for years to come,” said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of the General Staff Eyal Zamir.

Here’s what you need to know:

Israel is conducting strikes on surface-to-surface missile sites in central Iran, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Sunday night.

Israel conducted a “wide-scale” wave of strikes on Sunday targeting several weapons production sites in Iran, the Israeli military said.

The strikes destroyed infrastructure belonging to the Quds Force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Iranian military in Tehran, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“Numerous weapons production sites across Iran were targeted,” the IDF said.

These targets included a site for the production of navigation and missile systems, a site for producing fuels for various types of missiles, and a planetary mixer designed for the production of surface-to-surface missile engines.

The IDF also reported that the strikes hit a production site for components of aerial defense systems belonging to the IRGC.

Iran’s Ministry of Health on Sunday said at least 224 people had been killed in Iran since Israel launched a wave of attacks across the country on Friday, according to the semi-official Iranian media outlet Mehr News, citing health ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour.

Kermanpour said 1,277 people have been hospitalized, and the vast majority of casualties, “more than 90 percent,” were civilians.

This post has been updated with new information.

Several world leaders called for diplomatic talks to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Iran on Sunday.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, reiterated Europe’s “commitment to peace, stability, and diplomatic efforts leading to de-escalation” after speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Von der Leyen also expressed concern of Iran’s developing nuclear program.

“Europe has always been clear: Iran can never acquire a nuclear weapon. There is an urgent need for a negotiated solution,” she said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed US President Donald Trump’s call for Israel and Iran to make a deal, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported. He also addressed the “irreversible economic, civilian damage” for both sides and stressed a need for de-escalation, according to Anadolu.