Israel’s air force has confirmed that a new wave of air force beam attacks has been launched against Iran, since the conflict between the two countries arrives its second week.
The Air Force says that the fighter jets were deployed on Saturday to focus on “military infrastructure” in southwestern Iran.
Israel also says that it killed a veteran Iranian commander during attacks by both parties in the more than a week of air conflict, while Tehran said it would not negotiate his nuclear program while it was threatened.
Saeed Izadi, who led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, the overseas arm of the Iranian revolutionary guards, was killed in a strike in an apartment in the Iranian city of Qom, said Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz.
Calling his murder of a “great achievement for Israeli intelligence and the air force,” Mr Katz said in a statement that Izadi Hamas had financed prior to his 7 October 2023, attack on Israel, which caused the war in Gaza.
The revolutionary guards said that five of its members died in attacks on Khorrhababad, according to Iranian media. They did not mention Izadi, who stood on us and British sanction lists.
Iranian media said earlier on Saturday that Israel had attacked a building in Qom, with first reports of a 16-year-old killed and two injured.
Thousands of people in Tehran were injured as a result of the conflict. ((West -Asia News Agency: Majid Asgaripour Via Reuters))
At least 430 people were killed and 3,500 injured in Iran since Israel started his attacks on 13 June, Iranian said Nour news run by the state, referred to the Ministry of Health.
In Israel, 24 civilians were killed by Iranian rocket attacks, according to the local authorities, in the worst conflict between the old enemies.
Israel says that Iran was about to develop nuclear weapons, while Iran says that the atomic program is only for peaceful purposes.
Israeli air defense system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP: Leo Correa)
Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons, which it neither confirms nor denies.
No talks during attacks: Iran
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Israel’s aggression, which he said had indications of US involvement, should stop so Iran can “come back to diplomacy”.
“It is obvious that I can’t go to negotiations with the US when our people are under bombardments under the support of the US,” he told reporters in Istanbul where he was attending a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
On Friday in Geneva, Mr Araqchi met European foreign ministers who were seeking a path back to diplomacy.
US President Donald Trump said he would take up to two weeks to decide whether the United States should enter the conflict on Israel’s side, enough time “to see whether or not people come to their senses”, he said.
He said on Friday he thought Iran would be able to have a nuclear weapon “within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months”, adding: “We can’t let that happen.”
On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian about the Iranian nuclear program.
Iran’s Fars news agency said Israel had targeted the Isfahan nuclear facility, one of the nation’s biggest, but there was no leakage of hazardous materials. Israel said it had launched a wave of attacks against missile storage and launch infrastructure sites.
The International Atomic Energy Agency )IAEA) later confirmed the strike at Isfahan, saying it hit a centrifuge manufacturing workshop.
“We know this facility well. There was no nuclear material at this site and therefore the attack on it will have no radiological consequences,” IAEA Director-General Grossi said in a statement.
Ali Shamkhani, a close ally of Iran’s supreme leader, also said he had survived an Israeli attack.
“It was my fate to stay with a wounded body, so I stay to continue to be the reason for the enemy’s hostility,” he said in a message carried by state media.
Interceptions over Tel Aviv
Early on Saturday, the Israeli military warned of an incoming barrage from Iran, triggering air raid sirens across parts of central Israel and in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Interceptions were visible in the sky over Tel Aviv, with explosions echoing as Israel’s air defence systems responded. There were no reports of casualties.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a US-based rights organisation that tracks Iran, gave a higher death toll than Tehran, saying Israeli attacks have killed 639 people there.
Those killed in Iran include the military’s top echelon and nuclear scientists. Israel said it also killed a second commander of the Guards’ overseas arm, whom it identified as Benham Shariyari, during an overnight strike.
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Nour News on Saturday named 15 air defence officers and soldiers it said had been killed in the conflict with Israel.
Iran’s health minister, Mohammadreza Zafarqandi, said Israel has attacked three hospitals during the conflict, killing two health workers and a child, and has targeted six ambulances, according to Fars.
When asked about the reports, an Israeli military official said that only military targets were being struck, though there may have been collateral damage in some incidents.
An Iranian missile hit a hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on Thursday.
At the OIC meeting, where the Israel-Iran conflict topped the agenda, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Israel’s attacks on Iran right before a planned new round of nuclear talks with the US aimed to sabotage negotiations and showed Israel did not want to resolve issues through diplomacy.
Turkey, Russia and China have demanded immediate de-escalation
The Geneva talks produced little signs of progress, and Mr Trump said he doubted negotiators would be able to secure a ceasefire because “Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us.”
Mr Trump said he was unlikely to press Israel, its close ally, to scale back its air strikes to allow negotiations to continue in part because it was “winning”.
“But we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens,” he said.
Israel has said it will not stop attacks until it dismantles Iran’s nuclear programme and ballistic missile capabilities, which it views as an existential threat.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran was ready to discuss limitations on uranium enrichment but that it would reject any proposal that barred it from enriching uranium completely, “especially now under Israel’s strikes”.
Reuters
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