BEIJING, June 15 – China’s State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on Sunday launched a Level-IV emergency response to flooding in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, as the lingering impact of Typhoon Wutip continues to pose risks.
The headquarters has maintained a Level-III emergency response to flooding and typhoons in the provincial-level regions of Guangdong and Guangxi.
Local authorities have been urged to intensify inspections and risk mitigation measures in key areas, including zones vulnerable to mountain floods, regions prone to geological disasters, low-lying urban areas susceptible to waterlogging, and small and medium-sized reservoirs, according to the headquarters.
Efforts must also be made to properly resettle residents affected by the typhoon in Hainan, Guangxi and Guangdong, ensure the timely allocation of relief funds, dispatch emergency supplies, and accelerate post-disaster recovery and reconstruction work, it said.
Members of rescue teams work at the site of a chopper crash in the Gaurikund area of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, India, June 15, 2025. State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) Uttarakhand/Handout via REUTERS
June 15 – All seven people on a helicopter in northern India were killed early on Sunday when it crashed while ferrying passengers on a popular Hindu pilgrimage route in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, officials said.
The helicopter was headed to Guptkashi from the shrine of Kedarnath, said the state’s director-general of information, Bansidhar Tripathi.
The Uttarakhand government ordered helicopter services to Kedarnath Valley suspended until Monday due to bad weather, Tripathi said. There have been three emergency landings and two helicopter crashes on the same route in the past month and a half, he said.
“Very sad news has been received about a helicopter crash in Rudraprayag district,” the state’s chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, posted on X, adding that the State Disaster Response Force, local administration and other rescue teams were engaged in relief and rescue operations.
Dhami said in a statement he has ordered an inquiry into the cause of the crash.
The authorities will also examine helicopter pilots and operators, and “only those pilots who have long experience of flying helicopters in high Himalayan regions will be allowed,” he said.
Helicopter service for the pilgrimage will be resumed only after a meeting with all helicopter operators, Dhami said.
The Bell 407 helicopter, operated by Aryan Aviation, took off at 5:19 a.m. (2349 GMT on Saturday), India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement.
Calls to Aryan Aviation seeking comment went unanswered.
Hundreds of thousands of people visit Uttarakhand’s Himalayan mountains every year, drawn by the belief that deities such as Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu reside here.
Kedarnath is a part of the Char Dham Yatra pilgrimage route of four temple towns, which also include Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
India has reduced the frequency of helicopter operations to Char Dham and is enhancing surveillance and reviewing operations for any further action, the aviation ministry said.
TEHRAN – More than 200 Zionists were killed or wounded in teh second wave of Iranian missile and drone strikes on occupied territories on Saturday night and early Sunday.
The cities of Bat Yam and Rehovot south of Tel Aviv were targeted and hit in these attacks.
Israeli media publish conflicting reports on casualty figures from the attack.
Some outlets reported 207 injured and 9 killed in the attacks. According to Israeli media reports, around 35 people are missing following an Iranian missile strike on Bat Yam.
Israel’s Channel 12 announced that the number of injured in Iran’s missile attack on central Israel has risen to 240, with dozens more trapped under rubble.
Israeli media described the extent of damage in parts of Tel Aviv as widespread. Footage from the attacks indicates severe and extensive destruction in areas south of Tel Aviv.
The Zionist regime’s radio reported that dozens of homes and buildings were destroyed in the city of Bat Yam due to Iranian missile strikes. According to Israeli media reports, a research center affiliated with the Zionist regime’s military in Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv, was also targeted in Iran’s missile attack.
News sources reported that Iran launched 50 ballistic missiles at the occupied Palestinian territories in a new wave of attacks.
The latest round of Iran’s large-scale military operation, codenamed True Promise III, began late on Saturday, with videos circulating on social media showing missiles striking their intended targets.
Soon after the missiles and drones were launched, the IRGC’s public relations department issued a statement, noting that the aerospace division of the IRGC had initiated this fresh phase of the operation as a direct response to renewed aggression by the Zionist regime.
The strikes have targeted a series of strategic Israeli military and industrial sites, including oil refineries and electricity grids.
TEHRAN – Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that Tehran will intensify its retaliatory military strikes against the Israeli regime if the Zionists continue their acts of aggression.
In a telephone conversation with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday, Pezeshkian said the Zionist regime has violated all international regulations with the support of the US and other Western countries.
Regarding Iran’s response to the Zionist regime, Pezeshkian said if the Islamic Republic was not able to defend its territory in the face of the criminal and child-killing regime, the Iranians would witness everyday acts of aggression and massacre by Israel.
The president warned that Israel will receive a more powerful and severe response from the Iranian Armed Forces if it continues its aggression.
The ongoing Israeli aggression shows why Iran must enhance its defense power, Pezeshkian said, noting that the Islamic Republic has always sought to strengthen peace and security in the region and worldwide.
The president also stated that the Zionist regime’s coordination with the US in violating Iran’s territorial integrity in the midst of indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington is proof of the US’ dishonesty and untrustworthiness, his official website reported.
For his part, Sharif emphasized Pakistan’s support for Iran, saying the Zionist regime’s aggression against Iran is violation of all international laws.
The Pakistani prime minister also expressed hope for peace and tranquility, deploring the fact that the Zionist regime commits with impunity all these crimes that violate the UN Charter and international regulations.
TEHRAN – Yemeni forces launched a major hypersonic missile attack on Tel Aviv early Sunday, striking sensitive Israeli military targets in a move coordinated with the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to a senior Yemeni military official. Yahya Saree, spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces, announced on Sunday morning that Yemeni forces carried out a new military operation against the Zionist occupiers in central Tel Aviv.
He said that the missile units launched several “Palestine-2” hypersonic ballistic missiles at sensitive positions in the occupied Yafa region over a 24-hour period.
“The operation successfully hit its targets and was conducted in coordination with recent strikes by the Iranian Armed Forces and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps against the criminal Zionist enemy,” Saree said.
He added that Yemen’s armed forces salute the Islamic Republic of Iran—its people, its military, and its leadership—for their courageous and unwavering resistance to the Zionist regime’s brutal aggression.
“In the name of God Almighty, they continue to deliver firm and successive blows to the enemy’s military bases, command centers, and strategic facilities,” he declared.
Saree reiterated Yemen’s firm commitment to supporting the people of Gaza and the resistance fighters until the Zionist aggression is halted and the blockade on the Strip is lifted.
He also called upon Arab and Islamic nations to take initiative, stating: “Jihad is one of the gates of Paradise, opened only to the chosen by God. Rise up against the Zionist crimes against your brothers in Gaza—what is happening there today will reach you tomorrow.”
This escalation took place as Iran launched the third phase of the “True Promise” operation in the early hours of Sunday in retaliation in response to Zionist enemy’s attack on civilian targets and nuclear academicians, targeting the heart of the occupied territories with a combined barrage of missile and drone strikes.
Massive explosions rocked areas around Ben Gurion Airport and eastern Tel Aviv as a result of Iran’s strikes, causing extensive destruction.
Zionist media outlets, despite military censorship, confirmed that at least six strategic locations across the occupied land were hit directly by Iranian missiles.
Iran’s attacks heavily targeted the cities of Bat Yam and Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv.
While Israeli media published conflicting casualty reports, some confirmed that 207 people were injured and at least 9 were killed, with dozens still missing in Bat Yam.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported the number of injured has risen to 240, with many still trapped under rubble.
Zionist regime radio stated that dozens of homes and buildings were destroyed in Bat Yam, and a military-linked research center in Rehovot was directly hit.
In the aftermath, the occupying regime enforced strict military censorship, preventing the media from reporting the full scale of the devastation.
According to informed sources, the actual death toll and extent of damage far exceed what the Israeli regime has admitted publicly.
TEHRAN – Iran’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned recent comments by French and German officials, calling their statements blatant interference and blasting them for ignoring Israel’s crimes while targeting Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Esmail Baqaei, responded to the “brazen and meddlesome” remarks by French and German officials in a series of posts on the social platform X.
“Shameful,” Baqaei wrote on Saturday. “Israel targets peaceful nuclear facilities, bombs homes, and kills Iranians in cold blood in clear violation of international law — yet Macron now decides to distort Iran’s nuclear program. The level of hypocrisy is astonishing.”
In a separate tweet, Baqaei also addressed the German government’s hostile stance, reminding the German officials of a long history of Iran’s stance against war and aggression.
“Remember the facts of history,” he wrote.
“Germany ignited two world wars, but Iranians, out of humanitarian values, gave refuge to Jews fleeing Hitler — ask the descendants of Polish and French refugees who received Iranian passports to find refuge from Hitler’s persecution. Those who have always stood on the wrong side of history should now remain silent.”
The remarks come amid escalating Western criticism of Iran’s nuclear activities, while Western governments remain silent or complicit in the face of Israel’s ongoing aggression against civilians and disregard for international norms.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and legal under international law, and sees Western attacks as politically motivated and aligned with Zionist interests.
TEHRAN – The Zionist regime attacked the command headquarters of the Iranian Defense Ministry and an oil storage facility in Tehran on Saturday night.
The Israeli military aggression against Iran entered the third day on Sunday.
The Zionist regime’s aircraft attacked the command headquarters of the Defense Ministry of Iran and the Organization of Defensive Research and Innovations (SEPAND) in northern Tehran.
An administrative building of the command headquarters of the Defense Ministry has sustained minor damages in the strike.
The Israeli regime also launched an attack on an oil storage facility in Tehran’s northwestern Shahran region on Saturday night, causing a huge fire at the installation.
The Iranian Oil Ministry said the two oil tanks hit by the Israeli projectiles did not contain much fuel.
Iran retaliated the Israeli attacks by launching a barrage of ballistic missiles at the cities of Haifa, Bat Yam and Rehovot south of Tel Aviv.
The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said facilities producing fuel for Israeli fighter jets and the regime’s energy supply centers were hit and destroyed in the missile strikes.
TEHRAN – The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said facilities producing fuel for Israeli fighter jets and the regime’s energy supply centers were hit and destroyed in the latest wave of Iranian missile strikes.
“In continuation of Operation True Promise III and in response to today’s crimes and aggressions by the Zionist regime, facilities producing fuel for fighter jets and the regime’s energy supply centers were targeted with a barrage of drones and missiles,” the IRGC said in a statement early Sunday.
“The offensive operations of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue with greater intensity and scale if the enemy’s crimes and acts of aggression persist.”
The statement went on to say the air defense systems of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force, under the command of the integrated network and the joint national air defense headquarters, successfully intercepted and destroyed 3 cruise missiles, 10 drones and dozens of hostile micro-drones belonging to the Zionist army in conflict zones across the country.
The latest stage of Iran’s large-scale military operation commenced late on Saturday, with videos circulating on social media showing missiles hitting their targets.
The main focus of this new round of Operation True Promise III was the occupied port city of Haifa and its surroundings, which is home to several critical military and industrial facilities of the regime.
The strikes, according to Israeli media reports, targeted a series of strategic Israeli military and industrial sites, including oil refineries and electricity grids.
Images showed a massive blaze at the Haifa oil refinery, with thick black smoke billowing into the sky, with preliminary reports suggesting that the ensuing blaze is emitting toxic chemicals into the air.
Some regional media reports described Saturday night’s attack by the IRGC as the “largest missile attack” ever carried out by the Iranian armed forces against the occupied territories.
TEHRAN – Iran has hard evidence that the American forces have been supporting the Israeli regime’s military attacks against the Islamic Republic, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said, warning the US to step away.
In a meeting with the foreign ambassadors to Tehran on Sunday, Araqchi reaffirmed Iran’s right to self-defense and to give a retaliatory response to the Israeli regime, which has been attacking Iran’s nuclear, military and civilian areas since June 13.
He stressed that the Zionist regime would have been unable to take the act of aggression singlehandedly without the US’ support.
Iran has been carefully monitoring the situation and has overwhelming evidence that the American forces have been backing the Israeli attacks, Araqchi stated.
What is more important than the evidence is US President Donald Trump’s explicit support for Israel, the foreign minister said, adding, “The US is complicit in the Israeli strikes and must be held accountable.”
The US must announce its clear stances and condemn the Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Araqchi added, saying Tehran expects Washington to step away.
The foreign minister also denounced the UN Security Council’s indifference to the Israeli aggression against Iran.
Araqchi stated that Iran’s purpose in attacking military and economic targets in the occupied territories was self-defense and countering aggression.
He explained that Iran targeted the Israeli regime’s military sites in the first wave of missile attacks, but when the Zionist regime started to attack economic targets on the second day of its onslaught, Iran retaliated and began to hit economic targets on Saturday night.
The Israeli regime attacked a number of residential neighborhoods of Tehran as well as military and nuclear sites in other parts of Iran in the early hours of June 13.
Several top military commanders, at least six Iranian nuclear scientists, and dozens of civilians have been martyred in the strikes.
The Iranian Armed Forces have taken retaliatory action against the Zionist regime, hitting several cities in the occupied territories with destructive ballistic missiles.
ISTANBUL – The Iranian Navy intercepted a British destroyer in the northern Indian Ocean meant to help guide Israeli missiles toward Iranian territory, state news agency IRNA reported Saturday.
According to a statement from the public relations office of the First Naval Zone, the destroyer was detected by Iranian intelligence systems Friday night and warned by combat drones before it could advance toward the Persian Gulf.
The vessel is said to have been forced to change course after being tracked in the Sea of Oman.
Israel launched a series of strikes against Iranian territory, targeting nuclear and missile facilities early Friday, killing senior military figures and scientists.
SANAA, June 14 – An Israeli airstrike on Saturday night hit a house in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, where a “secret meeting of senior Houthi leaders” was allegedly taking place, according to a source close to the Houthi group.
The house, located in southern Sanaa, was cordoned off by heavy Houthi security forces as ambulances rushed to the scene.
Local anti-Houthi media reported on social media that the meeting was chaired by Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Supreme Political Council, and Abdulkarim al-Gumari, the Houthi military chief of staff.
Other media sources reported that the secret meeting was also attended by top Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi; the head of the Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi; and the Houthi military intelligence chief, Abu Ali al-Hakim.
The Houthis have yet to issue an official statement.
Residents living near the targeted house told Xinhua they saw at least 10 charred bodies at the scene.
The Houthi group, who controls much of northern Yemen, has been targeting Israel since November 2023 in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The group has strongly condemned the ongoing Israeli attacks on Iran, vowing in a statement that it would intensify long-range missile attacks against Israel.
Missiles launched from Iran towards Israel are seen from Tubas, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, June 14, 2025. REUTERS
TEL AVIV/DUBAI, June 14 – Israel and Iran launched fresh attacks on each other late on Saturday, stoking fears of a wider conflict after Israel expanded its surprise campaign against its main rival with a strike on the world’s biggest gas field.
Tehran called off nuclear talks that Washington had said were the only way to halt Israel’s bombing, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks were nothing compared with what Iran would see in the coming days.
Israel’s military said more missiles were launched from Iran towards Israel late on Saturday, and that it was working to intercept them. It also said it was attacking military targets in Tehran. Iranian state television said Iran had launched missiles and drones at Israel.
Several projectiles were visible in the night sky over Jerusalem late on Saturday. Air raid sirens did not sound in the city, but were heard in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
Israel’s ambulance service said a woman in her 20s was killed and 13 other people injured when a missile struck a two-story house in northern Israel.
Iran said the Shahran oil depot in Tehran was targeted in an Israeli attack but that the situation was under control.
U.S. President Donald Trump had warned Iran of worse to come, but said it was not too late to halt the Israeli campaign if Tehran accepted a sharp downgrading of its nuclear programme.
A round of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks due to be held in Oman on Sunday was canceled, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi saying the discussions could not take place while Iran was being subjected to Israel’s “barbarous” attacks.
In the first apparent attack to hit Iran’s energy infrastructure, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said Iran partially suspended production at the world’s biggest gas field after an Israeli strike caused a fire there on Saturday.
The South Pars field, offshore in Iran’s southern Bushehr province, is the source of most of the gas produced in Iran.
Fears about potential disruption to the region’s oil exports had already driven up oil prices 9% on Friday even though Israel spared Iran’s oil and gas on the first day of its attacks.
An Iranian general, Esmail Kosari, said on Saturday that Tehran was reviewing whether to close the Strait of Hormuz controlling access to the Gulf for tankers.
BUSHEHR – The Israeli regime has reportedly conducted strikes against two natural gas installations in southern Iran, escalating the war to a new level.
On Saturday evening local time, one small Israeli drone hit a section of the South Pars Gas Condensate Field, causing an explosion and a fire.
South Pars is a mainly offshore facility but has a number of onshore sections as well. In the Saturday Israeli strike, an onshore section of the field in its Phase 14 was targeted.
Gas production was briefly halted at the site as a result of the attack, but according to local reports, the fire was quickly extinguished and did not spread to other areas.
Another small Israeli drone attacked Fajr-e Jam natural gas processing field, in eastern Bushehr Province.
AHMEDABAD, India – Search and recovery teams continued scouring the site of one of India’s worst aviation disasters for a third day after the Air India flight fell from the sky and killed at least 270 people in Gujarat state, officials said Saturday.
The London-bound Boeing 787 struck a medical college hostel in a residential area of the northwestern city of Ahmedabad minutes after takeoff Thursday, killing 241 people on board and at least 29 on the ground. One passenger survived.
Recovery teams working until late Friday found at least 25 more bodies in the debris, officials said.
Dr. Dhaval Gameti at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad told The Associated Press the facility had received 270 bodies, adding that the lone surviving passenger was still under observation for some of his wounds.
“He is doing very well and will be ready to be discharged anytime soon,” Gameti said Saturday.
Hundreds of relatives of the crash victims have provided DNA samples at the hospital. Most bodies were charred or mutilated, making them unrecognizable.
Some relatives expressed frustration Saturday that the process was taking too long. Authorities say it normally takes up to 72 hours to complete DNA matching and they are expediting the process.
“Where are my children? Did you recover them?” asked Rafiq Abdullah, whose nephew, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren were on the flight. “I will have to ask questions. Government is not answering these questions.”
Another relative persistently asked hospital staff when his relative’s body would be handed over to the family for last rites.
“Give us the body,” the relative insisted.
Alongside the formal investigation, the Indian government says it has formed a high-level, multi-disciplinary committee to examine the causes leading to the crash.
The committee will focus on formulating procedures to prevent and handle aircraft emergencies in the future and “will not be a substitute to other enquiries being conducted by relevant organisations,” the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement.
TEHRAN – The regime deployed these advanced aircraft in its early Friday morning aggression against the Islamic Republic on Friday, which resulted in the assassination of several high-ranking Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists, and civilians, including women and children.
In an official statement, the Iranian Army’s Public Relations Office announced that its air defense forces had successfully struck and destroyed two F-35 fighter jets along with multiple drones belonging to the Zionist regime.
The report noted that the fate of the pilots remains unknown and is currently under investigation. Further information will be released in due course.
The F-35 fighters used by the Zionist regime are considered the most advanced in their class.
Israel acquired these jets primarily from the United States, with the F-35 Lightning II being produced by Lockheed Martin, an American aerospace manufacturer. Israel is one of the few countries authorized by the U.S. to operate this cutting-edge fifth-generation stealth fighter.
Delivered under the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, the first jets arrived in the occupied territories around 2016.
The F-35I, Israel’s customized variant of the stealth fighter, is designed to evade radar detection, allowing the Israeli occupation military to conduct deep penetration missions with a lower risk of interception or tracking.
However, in a significant setback for the Tel Aviv regime and its American backers, the Iranian Army managed to down two of these advanced jets during Friday’s confrontation.
JERUSALEM, June 14 – The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Saturday that it had killed more than 20 Iranian military commanders since it launched operations on Iran early Friday.
The IDF stated that in the opening strike of the operation, Israeli fighter jets, guided by intelligence, killed Gholam-Reza Marhabi, the head of the Iranian army’s Intelligence Directorate, and Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Bagheri.
“Marhabi played a key role in intelligence evaluations, operational planning, and combat preparations against Israel,” the statement read.
According to the IDF, Bagheri oversaw most of Iran’s long-range surface-to-surface and cruise missile capabilities that serve as Iran’s primary offensive tools against Israel.
He managed Iran’s firepower systems and played an active role in the decision-making processes behind Iran’s attacks on Israel in April and October 2024, it added.
He was killed alongside the air force commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, and several other senior commanders in an underground headquarters in Tehran.
A resident walks at a street near a building damaged by Russian missile strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine June 13, 2025. REUTERS
KYIV, June 14 – Ukrainian forces have stopped Russian troops advancing in the northeastern Sumy region and are now battling to regain control along the border with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
In remarks released for publication by his office on Saturday, Zelenskiy said that Moscow has amassed about 53,000 troops in the direction of Sumy.
“We are leveling the position. The fighting there is along the border. You should understand that the enemy has been stopped there. And the maximum depth at which the fighting takes place is 7 km (4.35 miles) from the border,” Zelenskiy said.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.
Russia’s troops have been focusing their assaults in the eastern Donetsk region. But since the start of the month, they have intensified their attacks in the north-east, announcing plans to create a so-called ‘buffer zone’ in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
The Russian war in Ukraine is in its fourth year, but it has intensified in recent weeks.
Ukraine conducted an audacious drone attack this month that took out multiple aircraft inside Russia and also hit the bridge connecting Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula using underwater explosives.
Moscow ramped up its air assaults after the attack.
Zelenskiy said that Ukrainian troops had maintained their defensive lines along more than 1,000 kilometres of the frontline. He also dismissed Moscow’s claims that Russian troops had crossed the administrative border into the central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk.
Zelenskiy said that Russia was sending small assault groups “to get one foot on the administrative border” and make a picture or a video, but these attacks were repelled.
Dnipropetrovsk borders three regions that are partially occupied by Russia – Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Russia now controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.
Zelenskiy acknowledged that Ukraine was unable to regain all of its territory by military force and reiterated his pleas for stronger sanctions on Russia to force Moscow into negotiations to end the war.
Two rounds of peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul produced few results that could lead to a ceasefire and a broader peace deal. The two sides agreed only to exchange prisoners of war.
Several swaps have already been conducted this month, and Zelenskiy said he expected them to continue until June 20 or 21.
In separate remarks made on communications platform Telegram on Saturday, he said that a new group of Ukrainian prisoners of war had come home as part of another swap with Russia.
“We continue to take our people out of Russian captivity. This is the fourth exchange in a week,” Zelenskiy wrote on his personal account.
Ukrainian officials responsible for exchanging prisoners said the vast majority of the soldiers released in the exchange had been held captive since 2022 with many captured during the defence of Mariupol.
The officials said Kyiv had, meanwhile, received the bodies of 1,200 of its soldiers killed in the war with Russia. The bodies were handed over to Ukraine on Friday.
“The agreement is that the exchanges will be completed, and the sides will discuss the next step,” Zelenskiy said.
Relatives mourn over the body of Palestinian teenager Ghazal Eyad, 16, who was killed while heading to an aid distribution hub, during her funeral in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. AP
CAIRO, June 14 – Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 35 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, most of them near an aid distribution site operated by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said.
Medics at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in central Gaza areas, where most of the casualties were moved to, said at least 15 people were killed as they tried to approach the GHF aid distribution site near the Netzarim corridor.
The rest were killed in separate attacks across the enclave, they added. There has been no immediate comment by the Israeli military or the GHF on Saturday’s incidents.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral.
The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday that at least 274 people have so far been killed, and more than 2,000 wounded, near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza.
Hamas, which denies Israeli charges that it steals aid, accused Israel of “employing hunger as a weapon of war and turning aid distribution sites into traps of mass deaths of innocent civilians.”
Later on Saturday, health officials at Shifa Hospital in Gaza said Israeli fire killed at least 12 Palestinians, who gathered to wait for aid trucks along the coastal road north of the strip, taking Saturday’s death toll to at least 35.
The Israeli military ordered residents of Khan Younis and the nearby towns of Abassan and Bani Suhaila in the southern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and head west towards the so-called humanitarian zone, saying it would forcefully work against “terror organisations” in the area.
The war in Gaza erupted 20 months ago after Hamas-led militants raided Israel and took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, on October 7, 2023, Israel’s single deadliest day.
Israel’s military campaign since has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the densely populated strip, which is home to more than two million people. Most of the population is displaced, and malnutrition is widespread.
Despite efforts by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar to restore a ceasefire in Gaza, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal.
Rescue personnel work at an impact site following missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Rishon LeZion, Israel, June 14, 2025. REUTERS
JERUSALEM/DUBAI, June 14 – Iran and Israel traded missiles and airstrikes on Saturday, the day after Israel launched a sweeping air offensive against its old enemy, killing commanders and scientists and bombing nuclear sites in a stated bid to stop it building an atomic weapon.
In Tehran, Iranian state TV reported that around 60 people, including 20 children, had been killed in an attack on a housing complex, with more strikes reported across the country. Israel said it had attacked more than 150 targets.
In Israel, air raid sirens sent residents into shelters as waves of missiles streaked across the sky and interceptors rose to meet them. At least three people were killed overnight. An Israeli official said Iran had fired around 200 ballistic missiles in four waves.
U.S. President Donald Trump has lauded Israel’s strikes and warned of much worse to come unless Iran quickly accepts the sharp downgrading of its nuclear programme that the U.S. has demanded in talks that had been due to resume on Sunday.
But with Israel saying its operation could last weeks, and urging Iran’s people to rise up against their Islamic clerical rulers, fears have grown of a regional conflagration dragging in outside powers.
The United States, Israel’s main ally, helped shoot down Iranian missiles, two U.S. officials said.
“If (Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn,” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said.
Iran had vowed to avenge Friday’s Israeli onslaught, which gutted Iran’s nuclear and military leadership and damaged atomic plants and military bases.
The Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran penetrated the Zionist territories with suicide drones named Arash.
TEHRAN – The Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran says it has successfully destroyed targets in the occupied territories of Israel in the wake of Israeli strikes against the Islamic Republic.
In a statement on Saturday, the Army said that its forces hit the targets inside the occupied territories early on Saturday.
The Army penetrated the Zionist territories with suicide drones named Arash.
Israeli media reported the launch of a fifth wave of Iranian missile strikes against locations across the occupied territories, including positions in Tiberias, occupied Golan, and Lower Galilee.
The reactions come as the Israeli regime waged a series of military strikes in and near the Iranian capital, Tehran, as well as other Iranian cities overnight on Friday. In a major escalation, the Tel Aviv regime also targeted residential buildings in and near Tehran.
The Israeli military also carried out targeted strikes against Iran’s top military brass.
