“As I’ve been saying, I think a deal will be signed, or something will happen, but a deal will be signed, and I think Iran is foolish not to sign,” Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit on Monday.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards has said Iran will attack Israel throughout the night, according to Iranian state news outlets.

“Moments ago, the ninth wave of the combined drone and missile attack began and will continue continuously until the morning,” the Islamic Republic News Agency reported Brigadier General Ali Mohammad Naeini as saying.

Iranian state media announced a fresh barrage of missiles targeting Israel on Monday night, as the two countries exchanged major strikes for a fourth day.

“A new salvo of missiles against the occupied territories [Israel] is beginning,” the Iranian state TV reported.

Israel’s military said it bombed Iranian F-14 fighter jets on the ground at Tehran airport on Monday.

“These jets were intended to intercept Israeli aircraft,” the Israel Defence Forces claimed on X. The American-made jets were bought in the 1970s, before the Iranian revolution.

The IDF also said it destroyed one third of Iran’s surface-to-surface missile launchers in a wave of strikes earlier in the day.

The military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin, said: “We have now achieved full air superiority over Tehran.”

Iran may be behind fake warning messages being sent to Israeli citizens urging them to avoid going into bomb shelters due to alleged terrorist attacks, according to media reports.

The Israel National Cyber Directorate warned that text messages appearing on some mobile phones were an attempt to “sow panic” among the public, purporting to come from “OrefAlert”, an apparent reference to the Hebrew word for the home front command.

A source in the Israel Defence Forces told the GLZ radio station: “It appears to be an attempted Iranian cyber attack.”

Iran has issued evacuation warnings for Israeli news channels after Israel attacked the building of Iran’s state broadcaster, according to Iranian state TV.

“Iran has issued an evacuation warning for the N12 and N14 channels of Israel. This order comes in response to the hostile attack of Zionist enemy against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s broadcasting service,” the Iranian state TV said.

By William Hague

In 1998 I sat with Bibi Netanyahu in a London hotel as he explained the alarming details of the missiles being produced by Iran. He left no doubt, even 27 years ago, that he thought the twin nuclear and missile programmes of Israel’s sworn enemy could be dealt with only by force.

Last week a combination of circumstances — Iranian vulnerability and duplicity, Israeli military dominance, faltering negotiations — finally allowed him to launch the attack he had long planned.

The analysis that a theocratic regime in Tehran that promotes terrorism and threatens the destruction of other nations can never be allowed to possess nuclear weapons is absolutely sound.

But Netanyahu’s insistence that diplomacy could never work with the ayatollahs severely undermined the efforts of the US and others to control the problem through peaceful means — negotiated agreements backed by economic pressure.

• Read in full: Bibi’s big gamble throws Israel into a long fight

The British Embassy in Israel asks its citizens in Israel and the Palestinian territories to register their presence with the Foreign Office.

The British government now advises against all travel to Israel.

Iran condemned Israel’s attack on a state TV building in Tehran on Monday as a “war crime”, and called on the UN Security Council (UNSC) to take action.

The strike on the offices of IRIB during a live broadcast was a “wicked act” and a “war crime”, said the foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei. “The UNSC must act now to stop the genocidal aggressor from committing further atrocities against our people,” he added.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also condemned the attack, calling it “inhuman, criminal and a terrorist act.”

By Michael Evans

There is only one weapon system, apart from nuclear warheads, that could destroy Iran’s underground stock of highly enriched uranium and nuclear bomb components.

The United States has it, and Israel does not.

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), which is 6m long, weighs 30,000lb and has never been fired in anger, was developed to destroy bunkers that other weapons could not reach.

Technically identified as the GBU-57F/B, it is approved as an operational payload to be launched only by the strategic B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, although tests have also been carried out with B-52s.

• Read the article in full here

Israel’s prime minister has suggested that that targeting Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would end, not escalate, the ongoing fight between Israel and Iran that erupted late last week.

In an interview with ABC News, Netanyahu was asked about reports that President Trump rejected an Israeli plan to assassinate Khamenei, over concerns that it would further inflame the conflict.

Netanyahu said, “It’s not going to escalate the conflict, it’s going to end the conflict.”

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been the supreme leader of Iran since 1989

IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER’S OFFICE/ZUMA PRESS WIRE/SHUTTERSTOCK

He added: “We’ve had half a century of conflict spread by this regime that terrorises everyone in the Middle East; has bombed the Aramco oil fields in Saudi Arabia; is spreading terrorism and subversion and sabotage everywhere.

“The ‘forever war’ is what Iran wants, and they’re bringing us to the brink of nuclear war. In fact, what Israel is doing is preventing this, bringing an end to this aggression, and we can only do so by standing up to the forces of evil.”

Israel was targeted again by Iranian ballistic missiles again this evening but there were no reports of impacts or casualties, according to emergency services.

Sirens sounded in the Haifa area and across northern Israel warning residents to take shelter after a further incoming salvo was reported.

According to initial Israel Defence Forces assessments, a small number of missiles were launched in the attack and the military said it was working to shoot down the projectiles.

Escalation of the conflict between Israel and Iran “poses real risks for the global economy”, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has said, as he urged both sides to “show restraint”.

He told the Commons: “Further escalation in the Middle East is not in Britain’s interests, nor the interests of Israel, Iran or the region. There are hundreds of thousands of British nationals living in the region, and with Iran a major oil producer and one fifth of the total world’s oil consumption flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, escalating conflict poses real risks for the global economy.

“As missiles rain down, Israel has a right to defend itself and its citizens, but our priority now is de-escalation. Our message to both Israel and Iran is clear: step back, show restraint, don’t get pulled ever deeper into a catastrophic conflict whose consequences nobody can control.”

By Marc Bennetts in Tel Aviv

Iran has warned residents of Tel Aviv to evacuate in a fiery statement that came shortly after Israel issued similar advice to people in the Iranian capital.

Iranian state television said that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was planning to carry out “the largest and most intense missile attack in history on Israeli soil” and had urged people in Tel Aviv to flee the city.

On a popular beach in Tel Aviv, about 45 miles from the Gaza Strip, people said they were ignoring the Iranian warning, even after missile strikes that have killed 24 people across the country, according to officials.

An off-duty solider said: “I won’t evacuate. I’m originally from the north of our country and so I’ve been under rocket fire since the 2006 Lebanon war. And here, in Tel Aviv, you have the luxury of at least a minute and a half to get to the bomb shelter, as opposed to ten seconds.”

“Why would they want us to evacuate? They don’t like us,” asked Levi, who strolling past the beach. His companion, Goldie, said that the Iranian statement was more likely to be a desperate attempt to sow panic.

Germany will start evacuating its citizens from Israel via Jordan’s capital, Amman, with a charter flight planned for Wednesday, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

“Germans in Israel who are registered on the Elefand crisis preparedness list have been informed about this option and the details,” he said.

President Trump said the US had heard from Iran that it wants to talk and urged them to do so “immediately” because it was “not winning this war.”

US-Iran nuclear talks due in Oman on Sunday were called off by Tehran.

“They’d like to talk but they should have done that before,” Trump said during an appearance at the G7 in Canada with Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, when asked if he received any messages from Iran wanting to de-escalate the conflict.

Referring to the US-Iran nuclear talks, he added: “They had 60 days and on the 61st day I said ‘We don’t have a deal, they have to make a deal’. It is painful for both parties but I would say Iran is not winning this war and they should talk and they should talk immediately before it’s too late.”

He declined to talk about what it would take for the US to get involved militarily.

By Samer Al-Atrush

Tehran’s bitter winter had penetrated the dungeon and left the frail inmate shivering with cold. Houshang Asadi, a communist dissident, took pity on his cellmate and gave him his sweater. The man refused it at first before tearfully accepting the gift. “Houshang,” the man said, “when Islam will come to power, not a single tear will be shed.”

That memory of Ali Khamenei in 1975 as an idealist who suffered for his opposition to the Shah stayed with Asadi for decades to come. Years later, in 2003, Khamenei, now the undisputed dictator of Iran who threw young men and women into those same dungeons, repaid Asadi’s kindness by forcing him into exile.

“He changed from a man who fought for freedom into a dictator,” Asadi told an interviewer. “Now Mr Khamenei is more of a dictator than a shah.” If he met him again, he said, he would ask: “Who are you, Mr Khamenei?”

• Read in full: Who is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?

Iranian state TV has resumed live coverage after Israel’s attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) building in Tehran.

“The Zionist regime, the enemy of the Iranian nation, minutes ago conducted a military operation against the Islamic Republic of Iran news network”, part of IRIB, said Hassan Abedini, a senior official at the broadcasting service. “The regime [Israel] was unaware of the fact that the voice of the Islamic revolution and the great Iran will not be silenced with a military operation.”

President Trump has said that Iran is “not winning this war” as he arrived for the G7 summit in Canada. He also said that Tehran should talk “before it’s too late”.

Dramatic footage has emerged of the moment Iranian state TV came under attack.

Video showed a female newsreader speaking to the camera when a loud explosion is heard, smoke seen, and what looks like part of the newsroom’s ceiling falling. The shouts of the newsreader’s colleagues can also be heard. The blast occurred as the presenter was live on television lambasting Israel before she was seen leaving the live broadcast.

The US military has moved a large number of refuelling aircraft to Europe to provide options to President Trump as Middle East tensions soar, Reuters news agency is reporting.

The aircraft carrier the USS Nimitz in the South China Sea

FRANKLYN GUAGE/USS NIMITZ

Earlier it was reported that the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier was heading to the Middle East from Asia.

Iran’s state TV has just said it is being attacked by Israel.

In the past hour, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz warned that Iran’s state television and radio were “about to disappear”.

Sir Keir Starmer said he believed the Group of Seven leaders meeting in Canada were united in wanting de-escalation in the conflict between Israel and Iran.

Sir Keir Starmer

KIN CHEUNG/PA

“I do think there’s a consensus for de-escalation,” Starmer told reporters at the summit in the Canadian Rockies.

Israel’s order to evacuate “immediately” was specifically aimed at residents of an affluent northern neighbourhood of Tehran known as “District 3”. The area houses government ministries, foreign embassies and museums.

“In the coming hours, the [Israeli miliary] will operate in the area, as it has in recent days throughout Tehran, to strike military infrastructure of the Iranian regime,” the military said in a post on X in Persian, indicating a part of Tehran’s District 3 on a map and telling citizens to “evacuate the marked area” for safety.

Some 300,000 people live in the district, according to official figures.

Loud blasts are being heard in west Tehran, according to the AFP news agency.

The explosions are being reported not long after Israeli warnings to residents in the capital to leave and amid reports there were huge queues of traffic heading out of the city.

The Israeli defence minister Israel Katz has warned that Iran’s state television and radio were “about to disappear” after an evacuation warning was issued for the district in Tehran where the broadcaster is based.

“The Iranian propaganda and incitement megaphone is about to disappear,” he said in a statement. “Evacuation of nearby residents has begun.”

Iran has asked Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman to press Donald Trump to use his influence on Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire with Iran in return for Tehran’s flexibility in nuclear negotiations, two Iranian and three regional sources told Reuters.

The claim comes as others suggest that Iran is willing to negotiate an end to the conflict.

France’s prime minister François Bayrou has defended the decision to seal off Israeli weapon stands at the Paris Air Show, which began earlier on Monday.

“The French government’s position was very simple: no offensive weapons at the arms exposition,” he said. “Defensive weapons were perfectly acceptable,” he added.

François Bayrou, the French prime minister, with President Macron

GEORGES GOBET/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Bayrou cited the conflict in Gaza as the rationale behind the ban.

“Given the situation in Gaza… which is extremely serious from a humanitarian and security point of view, France was keen to make it clear that offensive weapons should not be present at this exposition,” Bayrou said.

Israel’s defence ministry had earlier denounced the decision as “scandalous”.

The response to operation Rising Lion has shown the limitations of the regime’s missile programme — but has also proved it can inflict serious damage on its enemy.
Many of Iran’s missile sites were destroyed before it even fired a shot in response.

Iran is willing to negotiate if Israel ends its attacks, an Iranian official said (Samer Al-Atrush writes).

The official told the Reuters news agency that “they will only pursue serious negotiations once Iran has completed its response to the Israeli pre-emptive strikes”. He said reports that Iran had reached out to the US to broker a deal and restart nuclear talks were inaccurate, but Iran’s foreign minister accused Israel of trying to derail the talks with its attack.

The Wall Street Journal had reported that Iran informed the US through mediators that it would be willing to resume the nuclear talks if the US stays out of the conflict. Israel, which lacks some of the bombs needed to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, has lobbied the US to join its attacks.

Israeli missiles have struck a military base in western Tehran, causing the air defence system to activate, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.

At the same time, Iranian media is reporting that eastern parts of the capital, Tehran, have been hit.
The Israeli military has issued an “urgent warning” for people to leave a significant area of Tehran “immediately”, warning of imminent action.

“In the coming hours, the IDF will operate in the area, as it has in recent days throughout Tehran, to strike military infrastructure of the Iranian regime,” the Israel Defence Forces spokesman Avichay Adraee warned on X.

Russia believes Iran is exercising its right to defend itself against attack by Israel, the deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

Russian news agencies also quoted Ryabkov as saying that Russia was discussing the crisis with the United States as well as maintaining contacts with Israel and Iran.

Thousands of residents of the Iranian capital Tehran are fleeing their homes.

The Israeli military has warned Iranian civilians in a series of messages to leave some areas for their own safety.

Iranian authorities have rejected the messages as “psychological warfare” and urged the population not to panic, although state television has aired video of traffic jams on roads leading out of the capital.

“We have nowhere to go. Where should we go? How long should we stay away from our homes?” Shahriyar, 38, said by phone from Tehran, a city of more than ten million people.

Arshia, 29, an art teacher, told Reuters that his family was leaving for the town of Damavand, about 50 km (30 miles) east of Tehran.

“My parents are scared. Every night there are attacks, no air raid sirens, and no shelters to go to. Why are we paying the price for the Islamic Republic’s hostile policies?” said Arshia.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has taken to social media to reveal that his son’s home has been damaged in the Iranian missile attacks. Video showed him in a flat talking about glass falling on the place where his granddaughter usually slept.

“Glass fell on the spot where her head usually is,” he said.

“I am telling everyone, be careful and listen to the instructions of the Home Front Command. Be in your protected spaces. Don’t take any risks.”

Lapid is the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party.

Former deputy foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell has told Times Radio that Britain needs to make it clear to Iran that attacking British interests “would be treated as an act of war”.

Andrew Mitchell MP

IMAGEPLOTTER/ALAMY

“Britain and America should make very clear that they are not involved in the attack on Iran, but that any attack by Iran on British interests or British assets in the region would be treated as an act of war. That’s what America has said and that seems to me to be a very good front for Britain and America and the countries in the region to adopt.

Mitchell told Jo Coburn that a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Israel and Iran remains achievable with the regime “weaker than it has ever been”.

Downing Street would not be drawn on whether the UK was aware of an Israeli plan to kill Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which Donald Trump is said to have vetoed.

Asked if the UK was aware, a No 10 spokesman said: “We wouldn’t comment on private conversations or intelligence matters.

“We are concerned by further escalation, which is in no one’s interest, and we’re working closely with our allies to press for a return to diplomacy.”

Binyamin Netanyahu has claimed that Israel is on the “path to victory” after the launch of its airstrikes on Iran.

Binyamin Netanyahu

RONEN ZVULUN/AP

The Israeli prime minister added that Israel was “on our way to achieve our two main objectives, eliminating the nuclear threat and eliminating the missile”.

Echoing comments made by the military, Netanyahu added that Israel “controls the skies over Tehran”.

He was speaking as he toured an airbase in central Israel.

Pakistan has closed its border with Iran.

Locals fear the closure is likely to cause food and oil shortages in several districts of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, which borders Iran and relies on food supplies and smuggled oil from the Islamic republic.

The countries share a border of 909km (565 miles). There are several land routes connecting Pakistan with Iran, with the most prominent being the Taftan border crossing in Chaghi district.

Shahid Rind, a regional government spokesman, told the Anadolu news agency that Pakistan shut the borders following a similar move by Iran.

“All border crossings between the two countries have been closed for trade and pedestrian movement after Iran initiated the closure,” Rind said. However, he added, the crossings will remain open, and Pakistani citizens stranded in Iran would be allowed to return.

But no new entries into Iran will be allowed until further notice, he maintained.

Avigdor Lieberman, a former Israeli foreign minister and deputy prime minister, has said the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran is “a total war”.

He said that “all Iranian power plants, every oil well, gas field, fuel storage facility, and seaports and airports” must be hit.

“We are paying a very heavy price,” he told the Times of Israel. “The Iranians are attacking population centres and civilian infrastructure. This is a total war,” adding that Israel “must not stop halfway”.

The USS Nimitz and its support vessels have cancelled engagements in east Asia

ELLIOT SCHAUDT/US NAVY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

A US aircraft carrier left the South China Sea on Monday morning, heading west in the direction of the Middle East.

The USS Nimitz had been due to make a port call in central Vietnam and was scheduled to visit the city of Danang later this week.

One source told Reuters that the US embassy in Hanoi had informed him about the cancellation, due to “an emergent operational requirement”.

Two sources, including one diplomat, said a formal reception slated for June 20 had been called off.

The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group conducted maritime security operations in the South China Sea last week, as “part of the US navy’s routine presence in the Indo-Pacific,” according to the website of the commander of the US Pacific Fleet.

Brussels says Russia has “zero credibility” as a potential mediator between Iran and Israel, after President Trump suggested Vladimir Putin could play a role.

“There has been a recent Russia-Iran partnership agreement, which signals deepening co-operation across multiple areas, including foreign policy and defence. In light of such, Russia cannot be an objective mediator,” Anouar El Anouni, an EU spokesman, said.

Iran has accused Israel of committing a “war crime” after claims that a hospital was struck during an Israeli attack.

“Farabi hospital in the city of Kermanshah in western Iran was targeted by the Israeli regime’s aggressive attacks,” said Esmaeil Baqaei, a foreign ministry spokesman, adding that “attacking hospitals alongside attacks on residential areas is a gross violation of international law and a war crime”.

Reports earlier said a workshop near the hospital was the target of the Israeli attack.

Russia says it is still ready to act as a mediator in the conflict between Israel and Iran, and Moscow’s proposal to store Iranian uranium in Russia remains on the table.

Donald Trump expressed optimism on Sunday that peace would come soon and cited the possibility that President Putin could help.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said Moscow remained ready to mediate if needed, but said military strikes were escalating the entire crisis.

“Russia remains ready to do everything necessary to eliminate the root causes of this crisis,” Peskov said. “But the situation is escalating more than seriously, and, of course, this is not affecting the situation for the better.”

Peskov said the Kremlin had seen Binyamin Netanyahu’s remarks that regime change in Iran could be a result of Israel’s military attacks.

“You know that we condemn those actions that have led to such a dangerous escalation of tension in the region,” Peskov said. “And secondly, we also note a significant consolidation of society in Iran against the background of the bombing that is currently being carried out by the Israeli side.”

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog says there is “no indication of a physical attack” on an underground section of Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment site, following Israeli strikes that destroyed the plant’s above-ground part.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that a key above-ground component of the Natanz site where Iran was producing uranium enriched to up to 60 per cent — short of the 90 per cent required to produce weapons-grade material — had been destroyed in the attacks.

Damage to Natanz seen through satellite imagery

MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/AP

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former Iranian president, at the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in 2008

REUTERS

Addressing an extraordinary board meeting on Monday, Rafael Grossi, director general of the IAEA, said there had been “no additional damage” at the Natanz site since Friday.

Radioactivity levels outside the Natanz plant “remained unchanged and at normal levels, indicating no external radiological impact”, Grossi added.

Furthermore, there has been “no indication of a physical attack on the underground cascade hall containing part of the pilot fuel enrichment plant and the main fuel enrichment plant”, he said.

“However, the loss of power to the cascade hall may have damaged the centrifuges there,” he added.

Reza Najafi, Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, called on board members to “condemn Israeli aggression in its strongest terms and hold it accountable”.

Gaza’s civil defence agency claimed that Israeli gunfire killed 20 people waiting for food aid this morning in the south of the Palestinian territory.

Israel has been accused of shooting Gazans who were waiting for aid on numerous occasions

ABED RAHIM KHATIB/ANADOLU/GETTY IMAGES

Mahmud Bassal, a Gaza civil defence agency spokesman, told the AFP news agency that “20 martyrs and more than 200 wounded by occupation gunfire … were transferred to the Red Cross field hospital in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, then to Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis”.

He said people had been waiting to reach an aid centre in Rafah near the Al-Alam roundabout, when the gunfire started. The Israeli military said it was checking reports.

Iran’s parliament is working on legislation to exit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Tehran’s foreign ministry has claimed.

“In light of recent developments, we will take an appropriate decision. Government has to enforce parliament bills but such a proposal is just being prepared and we will co-ordinate in the later stages with parliament,” the ministry’s spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said.

The NPT, which Iran ratified in 1970, guarantees countries the right to pursue civilian nuclear power in return for requiring them to forego atomic weapons and co-operate with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.

Israel began bombing Iran last week, saying Tehran was on the verge of building a nuclear bomb. Iran has always said its nuclear programme is peaceful, although the IAEA declared last week that it was in violation of its NPT obligations.

Israel, which never joined the NPT, is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons, although it does not confirm or deny this.

Footage captured from a passenger plane flying over Dubai reportedly shows Iran’s ballistic missiles being launched toward Israel.

Israeli airspace is closed, so no flights are entering or leaving Israel. Airlines are still flying to the UAE, Jordan and Egypt.

Israel has no intention of deliberately harming the residents of Iran’s capital, its defence minister Israel Katz has stated. He said earlier that “the residents of Tehran will pay the price, and soon” for missile strikes.

Israel Katz had previously warned that “Tehran would burn” if Iran did not cease its attacks

MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

“I wish to clarify the obvious: there is no intention to physically harm the residents of Tehran as the murderous dictator does to the residents of Israel,” Katz said in a statement.

Iran said more than 220 people, including 70 women and children, have been killed by Israeli airstrikes.

A hospital in the west of Iran has suffered serious damage after an Israeli strike in the area, Iranian media said on Monday.

“Following the Zionist criminal regime’s attack on a nearby workshop in Kermanshah city, Farabi hospital also suffered serious damage,” the Tasnim news agency reported.

Fars news agency carried a video of the hospital showing shattered glass, collapsed ceilings and extensive damage in patient rooms.

Israel’s military claims it has “achieved full aerial control above Tehran” and that it has destroyed one third of Iran’s surface-to-surface missile launchers.

“More than 50 fighter jets and aircraft carried out strikes and destroyed over 120 surface-to-surface missile launchers. This amounts to one third of the surface-to-surface missile launchers possessed by the Iranian regime,” the military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a televised statement.

A Democratic senator has introduced legislation to prevent President Trump using military force against Iran without Congress’s approval.

Tim Kaine of Virginia has tried for years to wrest back Congress’s authority to declare war from the White House.

President Trump at a military parade on Saturday to commemorate the US army’s 250th anniversary

JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON/AP

Kaine introduced a similar resolution during Trump’s first term which passed both the Senate and House of Representatives, winning some Republican support, but did not survive the president’s veto.

Kaine said his latest war powers resolution underscored that the US constitution gives Congress, not the president, the sole power to declare war.

“It is not in our national security interest to get into a war with Iran unless that war is absolutely necessary to defend the United States. I am deeply concerned that the recent escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran could quickly pull the United States into another endless conflict,” Kaine said.

The Foreign Office advises against all travel to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, putting the areas on the level as Iran.

About 40,000 tourists are currently stranded in Israel and the UK is drawing up plans to evacuate citizens from Israel as flight routes and land borders are shut.

Destinations such as Dubai could be affected by tensions in the region

SIPA US/ALAMY LIVE NEWS

Meanwhile, the conflict has also affected other countries in the region, including tourist destinations such as the UAE, with the Foreign Office warning that hostilities in the wider region “could escalate quickly”.

Domestic and international flights have been affected by closed airspaces and diversions in the wake of the conflict.

If you are planning on visiting destinations including Israel, Jordan, Dubai, Lebanon or Morocco, here’s what you need to know.

Iran urged Britain, France and Germany to pressure Israel to stop its attacks on Monday.

Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz have worked closely on Ukraine

“Germany, France, and England should have very clearly condemned the Zionist regime’s crimes, especially against the Natanz nuclear facility,” said Esmaeil Baqaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman.

Baqaei added that European powers should focus on “stopping the aggression” and holding Israel “accountable”.

Israeli defence industry stands at the Paris Air Show have been barred from opening after they refused the organisers’ demand to remove missiles and other offensive weapons from their display.

The Paris Air Show is attended by defence companies from around the world

BENOIT TESSIER/REUTERS

Black screens were placed around the exhibits, a decision denounced as “scandalous” by the Israeli defence ministry. French officials said negotiations were still under way.

The row follows a failed legal attempt by campaigners to have Israeli stands barred from the show, the world’s biggest display of aerial defence and civilian aviation technology.

The leader of the council and local MPs boycotted boycotted the opening ceremony in protest against Israel’s actions in Gaza.

The Israeli defence ministry said: “Israel denounces a measure that is both political and commercial, concluding that it aims to bar its defence industries from the European market,” it said.

Nine Israeli companies are at the show.

President Putin is seeking to divert global attention from Russia’s war in Ukraine by positioning himself as a mediator in the escalating Israel–Iran conflict, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) have said.

President Putin with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, in 2022

OFFICE OF THE IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER/AP

They believe Putin’s strategy would be to weaken international support for Kyiv by exploiting the crisis in the Middle East, as Russian forces ramp up attacks in eastern Ukraine and target critical energy infrastructure.

Ukrainian officials have warned that reduced Western attention, particularly from the US and Europe, risked emboldening Russian.

Over the weekend, President Zelensky cautioned that rising oil prices linked to the Middle East conflict could strengthen Russia’s military capacity and expressed concern that US military aid might be diverted from Ukraine to Israel. Ukraine said five of its citizens, including three children, have been killed in strikes on Israel, while Russia is evacuating its citizens from Iran and closing its Tehran embassy.

The US embassy in Israel suffered “minor damage” after an Iranian missile attack hit Tel Aviv, America’s ambassador Mike Huckabee wrote on X.

President Trump has warned Iran that if it attacks the US “in any way, shape or form”, the “full strength and might of the US Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before”.

About 700,000 Americans live in Israel.

China has urged Iran and Israel to immediately take steps to “prevent the region from falling into greater turmoil”.

“We urge all parties to immediately take measures to cool down the tensions, prevent the region from falling into greater turmoil, and create conditions for returning to the right track of resolving issues through dialogue and negotiations,” Guo Jiakun, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said on Monday.

Sirens are sounding in Beersheba and the surrounding area after a missile was launched from Yemen.

An Israel Defence Forces spokesman said: “The IDF has identified that a missile was launched from Yemen into Israeli territory.

“Defence systems are working to intercept the threat. Action must be taken according to Home Front Command guidelines.”

Israel said that eight people were killed in the attacks overnight by Iran and that almost 300 were injured, with at least one person in a serious condition.

Many people were evacuated from Petah Tikva, a city close to Tel Aviv

NIR KEIDAR/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES

Two of four people killed in Petah Tikva, close to Tel Aviv, died after their home was directly hit by an Iranian missile.

At least 21 people have been killed in Israel since Friday.

Israel Katz, Israel’s defence minister, warned that Tehran’s residents would “pay the price” for Iran’s attacks

Iran has executed a man convicted of spying for Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Monday, identifying the man as Esmail Fekri.

The execution was the third in recent weeks on charges of espionage on behalf of Israel.

The IDF has released a video it claims shows airstrikes on Iranian troops heading to a ballistic missile launch site south of Tehran.

The launcher itself was also shelled, according to the IDF.

There were reports on Sunday evening that Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to ­assassinate Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

OFFICE OF THE IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER/WANA/REUTERS

“Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No. Until they do we’re not even talking about going after the political leadership,” said a senior official in the Washington administration.

The Israelis reported that they had an opportunity to kill Khamenei, but Trump dissuaded them, the officials told Reuters.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, told Fox News: “There are so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I’m not going to get into that. But I can tell you, I think that we do what we need to do, we’ll do what we need to do. And I think the United States knows what is good for the United States.”

Iran said it “successfully” struck Israel with a salvo of missiles on Monday.

Israelis were told to seek shelter in bunkers across the country as the conflict with Iran continues

ITAI RON/REUTERS

“A new wave of attacks by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps … enabled missiles to successfully and effectively hit” targets in Israel, the Guards said in a statement quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

President Trump has said the US could become involved in the war between Israel and Iran, after warning that “the full strength and might” of his country’s military would be ready to retaliate.

Threatening direct military action against Iran, he wrote on his Truth Social site: “If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before.”

He later added: “We’re not involved in it. It’s possible we could get involved.”

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Israel’s military said on Monday that it had struck command centres in Tehran belonging to Iran’s Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Israeli air force “struck command centres belonging to the Quds Force of the IRGC and the Iranian military, with precise direction from the [Israeli military] Intelligence Directorate,” read an army statement.

It specified that the targets were located in the Iranian capital.

The death toll from Iranian strikes on Sunday has risen to four, with at least 87 injured, Israeli emergency services have said.

Tel Aviv was once again a main focus of the Iranian assault

RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS

Iranian missiles penetrated Israel’s “Iron Dome” defences again on Sunday night in several areas.

Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said the victims were “two women and two men, all approximately 70 years old. So far, MDA teams have evacuated 87 casualties to hospitals.”

Firefighters reported a residential building had been struck near the coast while Israelis sought cover from aerial attacks in basement shelters across the country.

Israeli police said there had been damage caused to a district in Tel Aviv, while Israel’s public broadcaster Kan said Iranian missiles had targeted the port city of Haifa, causing multiple injuries.