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“Donald Trump expressed frustration with Israel and Iran for violating a ceasefire he brokered, stating they need to “calm down”. Despite Iran violating the ceasefire with missile attacks, Israel refrained from further strikes after a conversation between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. The EU and UK leaders called for the ceasefire to continue, emphasizing the need for regional stability.
US president says Israel must ‘calm down now’ as he leaves White House for Nato summit
Donald Trump: Iran and Israel 'don't know what the fuck they're doing' – video
“I gotta get Israel to calm down now,” Trump said as he left the White House, Reuters reports.
“Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen.
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.”
Gaza rescuers say Israeli forces killed 25 more people waiting for aid
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed 25 people waiting for aid in the south of the Palestinian territory in the second such incident on Tuesday, bringing the number of aid seekers killed to 46.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 25 people were killed and dozens wounded when “Israeli forces targeted civilian gatherings near Al-Alam and Al-Shakoush areas with bullets and tank shells as they attempted to reach an aid centre in northwest Rafah, about two kilometres from a US-backed aid distribution point.”
The Israeli army did not respond to an AFP request for comment.
The following statement from the office of the Israeli prime minister was released today (Tuesday, 24 June 2025) [translated from Hebrew]:
The ceasefire was set for 07.00 this morning. At 03.00, Israel forcefully attacked in the heart of Tehran, struck regime targets and eliminated hundreds of Basij and Iranian security forces personnel.
Shortly before the ceasefire was due to take effect, Iran launched a barrage of missiles, one of which took the lives of four of our citizens in Be’er Sheva. The ceasefire took effect at 07.00.
At 07.06, Iran launched one missile at Israeli territory, and two additional missiles at 10.25. These missiles were either intercepted or fell in open areas, and caused neither casualties nor damage.
In response to Iran’s violations, the Air Force destroyed a radar installation near Tehran.
Pursuant to the conversation between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel has refrained from additional attacks.
In the conversation, President Trump expressed his great appreciation for Israel, which achieved all of its objectives for the war, as well as his confidence in the stability of the ceasefire.
'Fragile' Israel-Iran ceasefire should get parties back at the table, EU's Kallas says
The ‘fragile’ reprieve in fighting between Israel and Iran is good news and should make all parties return to the negotiating table, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday.
In a post on X she said:
The announced reprieve in fighting between Israel and Iran is good news but remains fragile. All sides should stand by this and refrain from further violence. All further escalation must be avoided.
The EU stands in solidarity with all those affected, including Qatar last night. This is the moment to return to the negotiating table. Let this be a turning point for the whole region. I will continue to work towards this end with all sides.
European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, speaks to the press during the European Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, Belgium on 23 June 2025. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/EPA
Red Cross says fifth ICRC colleague killed in Gaza
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced on Tuesday that one of its workers had been killed in the Gaza Strip – the fifth since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
“Mahmoud Barakeh, who worked supporting logistics at the Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah, was killed on Sunday,” the ICRC said in a statement, adding: “This heartbreaking loss is yet another stark reminder of the immense challenges our colleagues, and the people of Gaza, face each day.”
Iranian media reported on Tuesday that an Israeli strike the day before had killed a senior commander of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force, linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to AFP.
“The commander of Basij counterintelligence protection forces was martyred in a Zionist regime attack,” the Fars news agency said, citing a statement from the IRGC.
Israel destroyed a radar installation near Tehran on Tuesday in response to Iran violating the ceasefire, but refrained from further strikes after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Donald Trump, Reuters reports citing Netanyahu’s office.
We have more details coming to us from AFP regarding explosions heard in Iran.
The Etemad and Ham Mihan newspapers said explosions were heard and air defences were activated in Babol and Babolsar, two towns about 200 kilometres (124 miles) northeast of Tehran on the Caspian Sea.
The source of the explosions was not immediately clear.
Trump says he does not want 'regime change' in Iran
Donald Trump said on Tuesday he does not want to see “regime change” in Iran, which he said would lead to chaos.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to a Nato summit, Trump said Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon and that Russian president Vladimir Putin had called him and offered to help with Iran, Reuters reports.
Two explosions were heard in the Iranian capital on Tuesday, the judiciary news outlet Mizan and the Shargh newspaper reported, after Donald Trump called on Israel not to bomb Iran after a ceasefire was reached early on Tuesday.
Both outlets reported that the northern city of Babolsar is being “attacked by Israel”, according to Reuters.
Israeli army radio said Israel had struck an Iranian radar site near Tehran.
A special Australian Defence Force flight has left Tel Aviv with 119 Australians and their family members on board after they became stranded by the suspension of flights out of Israel amid its conflict with Iran.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said late on Tuesday night (AUS time) that Australian defence personnel and diplomats “have supported an Australian Defence Force assisted departure flight” out of the Israeli city.
Commercial flights out of Israel have in the meantime resumed with some restrictions after a ceasefire was agreed between Israel and Iran.
Photographs posted on social media by the foreign minister, Penny Wong, showed people being taken by bus to the airport.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer has called for the Israel-Iran ceasefire to continue, warning that the region cannot afford further escalation.
Speaking in Amsterdam ahead of talks with the Dutch prime minister, Starmer said:
I want the ceasefire to continue, and therefore, obviously, the sooner we get back to that, the better.
Starmer said he would press the message of de-escalation with fellow leaders during the Nato summit, stressing that maintaining the ceasefire aligned with his long-standing calls for restraint.
He also revealed that he had exchanged messages with the Emir of Qatar following Sunday’s attack – an unusual disclosure pointing to the UK’s quiet diplomatic efforts to stabilise the region.
The UK is walking a delicate line amid fears of wider conflict, with Starmer seeking to position himself as a steady hand on the global stage just days after committing 5% of GDP to national security.
Donald Trump called Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and asked him not to attack Iran, an Axios reporter said in a X post on Tuesday, citing an Israeli official, Reuters reports.
Netanyahu told Trump that he was unable to cancel the attack and that it was needed because Iran violated the ceasefire, the Axios reporter said.
The attack would be significantly scaled back and would not hit a large number of targets but only strike one target, according to the report.“
Live Updates: Iran Fires Missiles at U.S. Base in Qatar
"Al Udeid Air Base, the largest American military installation in the Middle East, was the target of the strike. Qatar said its air defense systems intercepted the missiles. There were no reports of injuries.
Iran on Monday launched a missile attack on an American base in Qatar, the largest American military installation in the Middle East, in retaliation for U.S. strikes on three critical Iranian nuclear sites.
But there were signs that Iran might have been looking for an off-ramp to the conflict, even as it targeted the base despite warnings from the Trump administration not to retaliate for the American bombing over the weekend.
Three Iranian officials said their government had given advance notice that missile strike was coming, as a way to minimize potential casualties —and the Defense Department said were no reports of U.S. casualties at the base, Al Udeid. Qatar and the United States said that air defenses had been able to intercept the missiles.
At the same time, the strike stoked fears that the conflict with Iran might intensify, drawing in the United States further and expanding across the region.
In discussing the attack on the air base, the Iranian officials said their country needed to be seen striking back at the United States for its attack on the nuclear installations, but in a calibrated way. A similar approach was used in 2020, when Iran gave a heads-up before firing ballistic missiles at an American base in Iraq in reprisal for the assassination of its top general.
Earlier in the day, as United States and Britain braced for an attack, they warned their citizens in Qatar to shelter in place. Qatar later announced that it had closed its airspace, and the United Arab Emirates did the same after the attack. The airspace closures disrupted flights into and out of Doha and Dubai, two major hubs of international air travel.
The Iranian assault came as Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Tehran on Monday and promised more “in the coming days,” pressing on with its bombing campaign two days after the United States attacked three Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran’s attack on Al Udeid came after its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, met with a key ally, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. While the Russian leader called the U.S. strikes “absolutely unprovoked aggression,” he stopped short of offering concrete support for Iran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, in a televised address on Sunday night, said that his country was “very, very close” to realizing its objectives in the conflict but did not say when its bombing campaign would end.
Though Mr. Trump declared that Iran’s nuclear program had been “totally obliterated” by the U.S. bombings, the actual state of the program was far murkier, with senior officials conceding they did not know the fate of Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium.
Here’s what else to know:
Possible response: Mr. Trump’s decision to attack Iran, and Iran’s retaliatory attack on Monday, dimmed hopes for a negotiated solution to end the fighting. While U.S. officials say that Iran has depleted its stockpile of medium-range missiles, the country still has an ample supply of other weapons, including rockets and drones, some of which would — if employed — give U.S. forces in the region only minutes of warning.
Economic impact: Oil prices fell and stocks climbed after Iran fired missiles at an American military base in Qatar. Before the attack, investors appeared cautiously optimistic about the potential economic fallout from the U.S. strikes over the weekend, and of any moves Iran might make that would disrupt oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical transit point for global oil supplies. Read more ›
Calls for peace: After European foreign ministers met to discuss Iran, the European Union’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said that “the concerns of retaliation and this war escalating are huge.” The International Atomic Energy Agency held an emergency meeting in Vienna, where the head of the agency, Rafael Grossi, warned that “violence and destruction could reach unimaginable levels” if Iran, Israel and the United States do not find a path to diplomacy.
U.S. strikes: Pentagon officials described their attack on three nuclear sites as a tightly choreographed operation that included B-2 bombers carrying 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs and submarine-fired Tomahawk cruise missiles hitting a trio of sites in less than a half-hour. A senior U.S. official acknowledged that the attack on Fordo had not destroyed the heavily fortified site, but it had been severely damaged.
President Trump said on Monday on his social media platform that “in addition to no Americans being killed or wounded, very importantly, there have also been no Qataris killed or wounded,” in the Iranian missile attack on a U.S. base in Qatar. “There have been 14 missiles fired — 13 were knocked down, and 1 was ‘set free,’ because it was headed in a nonthreatening direction,” he wrote in another post.
The Israeli military said in a statement late on Monday that it had carried out a series of airstrikes on targets in western Iran, including underground military infrastructure used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps for storing missiles and missile launchers. Earlier on Monday, the military said, Israeli warplanes also struck and destroyed a missile launcher “intended for use against” Israeli aircraft.
Iranian attack on a U.S. base in Qatar
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Al Udeid Air Base
Iran attacked the largest American military installation in the Middle East.
Satellite imagery of Al Udeid Air Base taken Monday morning shows it was nearly empty of aircraft ahead of the Iranian missile attack. The images, captured by Planet Labs, showed dozens of aircraft at the base throughout early June, before Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran on June 13.
Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, told reporters on Capitol Hill that he did not support efforts to require Congress to vote on authorizing the use of military force in Iran. “The commander in chief has Article II responsibilities. They’re very serious and important, especially in times like this. I think he used that authority judiciously,” he said. He dismissed efforts to limit that authority as “all politics.”
U.S. forces operating anti-missile batteries shot down the Iranian missiles fired at al Udeid, two Pentagon offiicials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters. Theydid not say if Qatari forces assisted in the effort.
Megan Mineiro
The White House has still not briefed the “Gang of Eight” congressional leaders and intelligence committee leaders on the Iran strikes, Mr. Jeffries said, adding that he has requested a briefing repeatedly since Saturday. “There’s zero evidence that I’ve seen that the nuclear program was completely and totally obliterated, as Donald Trump has claimed,” he said.
“The use of military force which is offensive in nature must be approved by the House and the Senate,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House leader, at a Capitol Hill news conference. “It’s not optional, Donald. It’s not,” he added. Mr. Jeffries has repeatedly asked what “the administration is hiding” about the strikes on Iran.
Loading humanitarian aid onto an aircraft at Al Udeid Air Base in March 2024.Credit...Hussein Malla/Associated Press
The American air base in Qatar targeted by Iranian missiles on Monday is the biggest U.S. base in the Middle East and serves as the regional headquarters for the U.S. Central Command. About 10,000 troops are stationed there.
The installation, Al Udeid Air Base, is heavily fortified by an array of air defenses. The U.S. military has been using Al Udeid since the days after the Sept. 11 attacks, when it positioned planes there to target the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Two years later, Al Udeid became the main U.S. air operations hub in the region.
U.S. commanders used the base to coordinate a wide variety of missions during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as strikes against the Islamic State in Syria. The Air Force has deployed a wide variety of aircraft there, from advanced fighters and long-range bombers to drones, transport planes and in-flight refueling tankers.
It also became the central evacuation point for tens of thousands of Afghans and Americans who fled Afghanistan in 2021 when the U.S. military withdrew.
The Combined Air Operations Center at the base helps project U.S. air power across a vast region encompassing 21 countries, from Northeast Africa to Central and South Asia, according to the Air Force.
Qatar, which saw the United States as its main protector in the Middle East, finished building the base in 1996, hoping to encourage the deployment of the U.S. military there. Over the years, Qatar has spent at least $8 billion to develop the base, which its military also uses alongside the British Royal Air Force, as part of its efforts to build up its partnership with the United States.
The modernization and expansion of the base has allowed a number of key U.S. military commands to operate out of it. Along with the U.S. Central Command, the base also hosts command facilities for American special forces.
The base’s location was carefully guarded until 2013, when Chuck Hagel, then the defense secretary, lifted the veil of secrecy.
President Trump visited Al Udeid last month while on a four-day tour of Gulf States. There, in a rally-like atmosphere, he spoke about Qatar’s purchases of American military supplies and told several of his favorite stories, including one about his trip to Iraq during his first term.
“I have nothing else to do,” Mr. Trump told U.S. troops from a stage at the base, “so let’s have a little fun.”
