Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
In Gaza, Israeli forces killed at least 89 Palestinians, including 70 people seeking food aid in the city of Khan Younis on Wednesday.
The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli-designated aid zones has risen to 397, with over 3,031 others injured, since 27 May, according to a 17 June report from the Gaza Ministry of Health.
More than 680,000 Palestinians have been again forcibly displaced across the Gaza Strip in the last three months, as Israeli attacks continue to expand, according to a UN statement on Wednesday.
‘Growing number’ of Britons view Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide: Poll
IRAN-ISRAEL-US NEWS SNAPSHOTS:
Iranian death toll: The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said at least 639 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Iran as the conflict enters its seventh day. The group identified 263 civilians and 154 security force personnel among the total number of those killed so far in Israel’s attacks. Iran has not given regular death toll figures during the ongoing intense attacks by Israel. Its last update put the death toll at 240 people killed and 1,277 others wounded in Israeli strikes.
Israel says 24 people have been killed in Iranian strikes.
In his first televised address since Israel began its attacks on Friday, Khamenei said on Wednesday that Iran “will not surrender to anyone” and “will stand firm against an imposed war, just as it will stand firm against an imposed peace”.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Khamenei adheres to “an ideology of destroying Israel and is using his country’s resources to pursue that horrific goal. A man like that must not be allowed to remain.” He added, “Khamenei is the modern-day Hitler. A man who has led a major power for decades, yet openly calls for the destruction of Israel and uses all resources at the expense of his own people.”
President Trump, in comments made on Wednesday on the White House lawn at a flag-raising ceremony, said: “I may do it. I may not do it,” when asked if the US was moving closer to striking Iran. “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” he added. “The next week is going to be very big, maybe less than a week,” Trump said without elaborating.
President Trump told senior aides late Tuesday that he approved attack plans for Iran but has withheld a final order to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing three people familiar with the deliberations.
President Trump said on Wednesday that he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call a day earlier to “keep going” with his attacks on Iran. The president told reporters that Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for his role in war crimes in Gaza, is a “good man” who has been treated “very unfairly” by his own country. “He’s a wartime president. Going through this nonsense — ridiculous,” Trump said.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Al Jazeera earlier this week: “We did not find, in Iran, elements to indicate that there’s a systematic plan to build a nuclear weapon. We have not seen elements to allow us inspectors to affirm that there was a nuclear weapon being manufactured or produced somewhere in Iran.”
Iran’s Tasnim news agency reports that a pregnant woman, weeks away from giving birth, has been killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Najafabad. Her husband was also killed, as well as four others – two of them children.
Jewish presence in Iran: According to estimates, between 17,000 and 25,000 Iranian Jews are living mostly in larger cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Hamedan and Tabriz. Next to Israel, Iran has the largest number of people of the Jewish faith in the Middle East. Iran’s parliament, the Majlis, has one reserved seat for the Jewish community (more here).
The Israeli military censor chief, General Kobi Mandelblit, ordered on Wednesday to take legal action against citizens and media outlets that publish or distribute material related to Iranian missile strikes or impact sites. The order requires “any person who prints or publishes printed matter or a publication regarding the location of a strike or hit by enemy war materiel, including missiles of any kind and UAVs, in the media or online (including social media, blogs and chats, etc.)” to submit it to the military censor for approval before it is published.
Important to understand how Trump got America into war with Iran despite saying he wanted peace.
The original sin is that Trump walked into Israel’s trap halfway through the negotiations when he moved the goalpost and adopted zero-enrichment fantasy, i.e. that his red line was… pic.twitter.com/NFXnlTrRTr
— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) June 18, 2025
MORE ON IRAN-ISRAEL-US:
Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi summarizes Iran’s position in a post on X:
By now, the whole world should know that:
(1) Iran solely acts in self-defense. Even in the face of the most outrageous aggression against our people, Iran has so far only retaliated against the Israeli regime and not those who are aiding and abetting it. Just like Netanyahu manufactured this war to destroy diplomacy, the world should be highly alarmed about increasing attempts by the failing Israeli regime to get others to bail it out and to expand the flames to the region and beyond.
(2) Iran has proven in action what it has always publicly committed itself to: we have never sought and will never seek nuclear weapons. If otherwise, what better pretext could we possibly need for developing those inhuman weapons than the current aggression by the region’s only nuclear-armed regime?
(3) Iran will continue to exercise its right to self-defense, with pride and bravery, and we will make the aggressor regret and pay for its grave error.
(4) With the exception of the illegitimate, genocidal and occupying Israeli regime, we remain committed to diplomacy. As before, we are serious and forward-looking in our outlook.
The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that Trump told senior aides that he “approved of attack plans for Iran, but was holding off on giving the final order to see if Tehran will abandon its nuclear program.”
“While Trump weighed his decision, the U.S. military continued to move forces to Europe and toward the Middle East, including tanker planes to refuel aircraft in flight, warships capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, an aircraft carrier battle group, and advanced F-22 air-to-air fighters, which flew Wednesday to a base in Britain,” the Journal observed.
CBS News also reported that Trump “approved attack plans on Iran Tuesday night.”
Trump’s belligerent rhetoric and demand for “unconditional surrender” ahead of a possible U.S. attack have drawn sharp rebukes from Iranian officials, who said Wednesday that the country “does NOT negotiate under duress, shall NOT accept peace under duress, and certainly NOT with a has-been warmonger clinging to relevance.”
The U.S. possesses 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs within striking distance of Iran, and Israel claims it needs such explosives to hit Iran’s heavily entrenched Fordow nuclear site.
“We are the only ones who have the capability to do it, but that doesn’t mean I am going to do it,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.
Politico reported Wednesday that “Trump, who criticized his predecessor for allowing new wars to break out on his watch, is increasingly listening to a small group of Iran hawks who have been pushing to go tougher on Tehran.”
Congress Has One Way to Stop Trump From Going to War With Iran
As President Trump draws the United States perilously close to war with Iran, some members of Congress are working across the aisle in an attempt to rein him in.
On Tuesday, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced a War Powers Resolution, which would prohibit the “United States Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., introduced similar legislation in the Senate on Monday.
“U.S. involvement in Israel’s war with Iran is a red line. We need Congress to speak out about that and pass a resolution prohibiting that,” Khanna told The Intercept. “And we need the United States to try to bring this war between Israel and Iran to an end.”
The War Powers Resolution, enacted in 1973, requires an act of Congress to declare a war. Over the decades, however, presidents have repeatedly ignored the federal law to deploy U.S. troops overseas without congressional approval, ensnaring the U.S. in numerous foreign wars. Massie noted in his press release that War Powers Resolutions are privileged in the House and “can be called up for debate and a floor vote after 15 calendar days without action in committee” (continue reading here).