Middle East crisis: Third Iranian nuclear enrichment site ready as IAEA says country not complying with its obligations – live | Israel
Third Iranian enrichment site built and ready to operate, nuclear chief tells state media
A third enrichment site that Iran announced as a countermeasure to a UN nuclear watchdog resolution has already been built and is ready to operate when equipped with machinery, the head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation Mohammad Eslami has told state media, according to Reuters.
Key events
Israel’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and its targeting of aid distribution points is causing civilians to starve and constitutes a war crime, Sweden’s foreign minister said, AFP reports.
“To use starvation of civilians as a method of war is a war crime. Life-saving humanitarian help must never be politicised or militarised,” Maria Malmer Stenergard said at a press conference.
“There are strong indications right now that Israel is not living up to its commitments under international humanitarian law,” she said.
“It is crucial that food, water and medicine swiftly reach the civilian population, many of whom are women and children living under wholly inhumane conditions,” she said.
Sweden announced in December 2024 it was halting funding to the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA after Israel banned the organisation, accusing it of providing cover for Hamas militants.
Third Iranian enrichment site built and ready to operate, nuclear chief tells state media
A third enrichment site that Iran announced as a countermeasure to a UN nuclear watchdog resolution has already been built and is ready to operate when equipped with machinery, the head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation Mohammad Eslami has told state media, according to Reuters.
Britain is monitoring the situation in the Middle East but has no update on staffing in the region, a spokesperson for the prime minister, Keir Starmer, said on Thursday after the United States announced it was moving some personnel due to security concerns.
“The safety of our staff is clearly our top priority so we are monitoring the situation closely but I don’t have an update … in terms of any partial evacuation or otherwise of our own embassies,” the spokesperson told reporters.
Iran warns Israel its retaliation to any attack will be unprecedented
Iran’s retaliation to any Israeli aggression will be “more forceful and destructive” than in past offensives, Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami told state media on Thursday, according to Reuters, after Tehran said it had been alerted of a potential attack.
Israel and Iran have exchanged fire twice last year, the first such direct attacks between the region’s most entrenched enemies.
The UK government has admitted that it is currently training IDF service members on British soil.
In a written question addressed to the defence secretary tabled on 3 June, Labour MP Rachel Maskell wrote to ask when the last time was that a member of the Israel Defense Forces was trained by the UK armed forces.
In a response yesterday, Luke Pollard, the armed forces minister, said: “As part of routine Defence engagement with Israel, the UK is currently training a limited number of Israel Defense Forces personnel on UK-based training courses.”
The US embassy in Jerusalem has announced it is restricting staff movements, AFP reports.
“Due to the increased regional tensions, US government employees and their family members are restricted from travel outside the greater Tel Aviv (area) … Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva areas until further notice,” the embassy said in a statement.
Traveling between those locations, to Tel Aviv’s airport, or down the highway through the occupied West Bank to the Jordanian border would be permitted.
The statement came a day after US president Donald Trump said US personnel were being moved out of the Middle East. Last night the US state department said that it had ordered the departure of all nonessential personnel from the US embassy in Baghdad.
Six activists who were on Gaza aid boat are en route to airport for deportation, says Israeli NGO
An Israeli NGO representing activists detained aboard a boat attempting to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza said that six were en route to the airport for deportation.
Eleven activists were onboard the Madleen alongside Greta Thunberg.
“After more than 72 hours in Israeli custody following the unlawful interception of the Madleen Freedom Flotilla in international waters … six volunteers are now being transferred to Ben Gurion Airport for deportation,” the Adalah rights group said in a statement, AFP reports.
It added that the six – two French citizens and nationals of Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands and Turkey – were expected to be deported late Thursday or early Friday.
The US embassy in Bahrain said that reports claiming it had changed its posture in any way are false, adding that staffing and operations remain unchanged and activities continue as normal.
The statement came a day after US president Donald Trump said US personnel were being moved out of the Middle East. Last night the US state department said that it had ordered the departure of all nonessential personnel from the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. Reports also said the state department was authorising the departure of nonessential personnel and family members from Bahrain and Kuwait.
A group of 17 Palestinian children, including an 11-year-old boy who lost nine siblings in an Israel strike in Gaza last month, arrived in Italy yesterday for hospital treatment, accompanied by more than 50 family members, Reuters reports.
Adam Al-Najjar, who has multiple fractures, arrived with his mother at Milan’s Linate airport where he was welcomed by Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani, before being transferred to hospital.
The plane carried five other injured Palestinian minors, while 11 more arrived on flights to other Italian airports. A total of 70 Palestinians were set to arrive in Italy on three military aircraft that set off from Israel’s Eilat airport, the Italian foreign ministry said.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire has killed 22 people across the Palestinian territory today, including 16 who were waiting to collect aid.
Civil defence official Mohammed al-Mughayyir told AFP that the Al-Awda Hospital received 10 dead and around 200 wounded, including women and children, “after Israeli drones dropped multiple bombs on gatherings of civilians near an aid distribution point around the Netzarim checkpoint in central Gaza”.
He said that Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital received six dead following Israeli attacks on aid queues near Netzarim and in the Al-Sudaniya area in northwestern Gaza.
The Israeli army said it was looking into the reports when asked for comment by AFP. The figures could not be independently verified.
Israel has urged the international community to “respond decisively” and prevent its long-time foe Iran from developing nuclear weapons after the UN nuclear watchdog found Tehran in “non-compliance” with its obligations in a vote earlier today.
“Iran has consistently obstructed IAEA’s verification and monitoring, it removed inspectors, and it sanitised and concealed suspected undeclared locations in Iran,” Israel’s foreign ministry said on X.
“These actions undermine the global non-proliferation regime and pose an imminent threat to regional and international security and stability.”
The Israeli military says it detained Hamas members during an operation in southern Syria.
A local TV station in Syria reported that a force of about 100 Israeli troops stormed the southern Syrian village of Beit Jin near the border with Lebanon early Thursday, shooting one person dead and detaining several others.
Since the fall of president Bashar Assad’s government in early December, Israeli forces have moved into several areas in southern Syria and conducted hundreds of airstrikes throughout the country destroying much of the assets of the Syrian army. There was no immediate comment from Hamas or Syrian authorities.
Egyptian authorities have detained more than 200 pro-Palestinian activists in Cairo ahead of a planned international march with the stated aim of breaking Israel’s blockade on Gaza.
“Over 200 participants were detained at Cairo airport or questioned at hotels across Cairo,” the march’s spokesperson Saif Abukeshek told AFP, adding that those detained included nationals from the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Morocco and Algeria.
Two convoys are reportedly en route to Gaza, hoping to break Israel’s blockade on the territory. Israel has used violence, including the killing of activists, on those who have previously attempted to reach Gaza.
Julian Borger
Israeli forces killed at least 60 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, most of them as they were seeking food from a US-Israeli distribution scheme, according to local health authorities.
Medical officials said at least 25 people were killed and dozens wounded as they approached a food distribution centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), near Netzarim in central Gaza.
Later in the day, at least 14 people were killed by Israeli gunfire as they were moving towards another GHF distribution site, in Rafah, at Gaza’s southern border. On Tuesday Israeli troops killed 17 Palestinians around GHF sites.
You can read the Guardian’s full report on Israeli forces killing at least 60 Palestinians yesterday, many seeking food at aid distribution points, at the link below.
Internet and phone lines down across Gaza, reports AP
Internet and phone lines are down across Gaza, AP reports, citing telecom provider Paltel and the Palestinian telecoms authority. They said a key line was severed during an Israeli operation and that the military would not allow technicians into the area to repair it.
Connectivity watchdog NetBlocks confirmed there had been a major disruption. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. Previous blackouts have made it difficult for people to call first responders.
Two activist convoys travelling through north Africa are attempting to reach the Gaza border, AFP reports. It comes after a boat carrying Greta Thunberg and 11 other activists was stopped from entering Gaza to deliver a symbolic shipment of aid on Monday.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said he expected Egyptian authorities “to prevent the arrival of jihadist protesters at the Egypt-Israel border”.
Egypt said while it backs efforts to put “pressure on Israel” to lift its Gaza blockade, any foreign delegations seeking to visit the border area must obtain prior approval.
AP provides more detail on one of the convoys, which arrived in Libya after driving from Algeria and crossing to Tunisia on its way to the Gaza to challenge Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid in the territory.
The convoy is made up of at least 1,500 people, including activists and supporters from Algeria and Tunisia, with more expected to join from Libya. It plans to reach Gaza via Egypt’s Rafah Crossing, traveling by cars and buses, and aims to break Israel’s blockade of the territory.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has said in a statement that Hamas attacked a bus carrying more than two dozen “local Palestinians working side-by-side with the US GHF team to deliver critical aid” last night near the southern city of Khan Younis.
“We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,” it said. “These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons, and friends, who were risking their lives everyday to help others.”
Hamas earlier said it killed members of an Israeli-backed militia, but the GHF says those killed were aid workers.
Rev Johnnie Moore, recently appointed head of GHF, called the killings “absolute evil” and lashed out at the UN and western countries over what he said was their failure to condemn them. “The principle of impartiality does not mean neutrality. There is good and evil in this world. What we are doing is good and what Hamas did to these Gazans is absolute evil,” he wrote on X.
Iran says it will establish a new enrichment facility after a vote at the International Atomic Energy Agency found that Iran isn’t complying with its nuclear obligations.
The announcement said the facility will be “in a secure location.”
Earlier this morning, the UN nuclear watchdog’s board of governors formally found that Iran isn’t complying with its nuclear obligations for the first time in 20 years, a move that could lead to further tensions and set in motion an effort to restore UN sanctions on Tehran.
As tensions in the Middle East escalate, US broadcaster CBS reported last night that US officials have been informed that Israel is “fully ready” to launch an attack on Iran and that Washington “anticipates Iran could retaliate on certain American sites in neighbouring Iraq”.
Last night the US state department said that it had ordered the departure of all nonessential personnel from the US embassy in Baghdad. The department is also authorising the departure of nonessential personnel and family members from Bahrain and Kuwait.
Iran’s defence minister Aziz Nasirzadeh told reporters yesteday that if nuclear talks fail and “a conflict is imposed on us,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “will target all US bases in the host countries.”
