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Third Iranian enrichment site built and ready to operate, nuclear chief tells state media
A third enrichment site that Iran announced as a countermeasure to a UN nuclear watchdog resolution has already been built and is ready to operate when equipped with machinery, the head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation Mohammad Eslami has told state media, according to Reuters.
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Reuters provides updated figures on the aid workers targeted by Hamas in an ambush on a bus.
At least eight Palestinians who worked for the US-and Israel- backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation died in the ambush, the GHF said.
A bus carrying about two dozen GHF workers was raked with gunfire on last night as it headed to an aid centre in southern Gaza, the foundation said, adding that many of its staff were injured and some might have been kidnapped.
GHF’s interim director John Acree said his organisation had considered closing its centres on Thursday following the bus attack, but opted to remain open. “We decided that the best response to Hamas’ cowardly murderers was to keep delivering food for the people of Gaza who are counting on us,” he said in a statement.
Social media channels in Gaza said Hamas had targeted the bus because it was allegedly carrying GHF workers tied to Yasser Abu Shabab, the leader of a militia that has challenged Hamas’s supremacy in the enclave and is being armed by Israel.
Abu Shabab released a statement on his Facebook page denouncing images posted on social media showing Gazans allegedly killed by Hamas and as it seeks to maintain power.
Separately, the local health authority said 103 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire and 400 wounded in the past 24 hours across the battered enclave - including 21 people killed this morning near GHF sites.
The Israeli military called for residents to evacuate some areas of Gaza City, as it presses an intensified campaign in the battered Palestinian territory.
Israeli forces are “operating in the area in which you are located to eliminate terrorist infrastructure and enemy presence”, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X. The military “will continue to respond to every launch. Immediately evacuate to known shelters in Gaza City for your own safety,” he added.
Israel’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and its targeting of aid distribution points is causing civilians to starve and constitutes a war crime, Sweden’s foreign minister said, AFP reports.
“To use starvation of civilians as a method of war is a war crime. Life-saving humanitarian help must never be politicised or militarised,” Maria Malmer Stenergard said at a press conference.
“There are strong indications right now that Israel is not living up to its commitments under international humanitarian law,” she said.
“It is crucial that food, water and medicine swiftly reach the civilian population, many of whom are women and children living under wholly inhumane conditions,” she said.
Sweden announced in December 2024 it was halting funding to the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA after Israel banned the organisation, accusing it of providing cover for Hamas militants.
Third Iranian enrichment site built and ready to operate, nuclear chief tells state media
A third enrichment site that Iran announced as a countermeasure to a UN nuclear watchdog resolution has already been built and is ready to operate when equipped with machinery, the head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation Mohammad Eslami has told state media, according to Reuters.
Britain is monitoring the situation in the Middle East but has no update on staffing in the region, a spokesperson for the prime minister, Keir Starmer, said on Thursday after the United States announced it was moving some personnel due to security concerns.
“The safety of our staff is clearly our top priority so we are monitoring the situation closely but I don’t have an update ... in terms of any partial evacuation or otherwise of our own embassies,” the spokesperson told reporters.
Iran warns Israel its retaliation to any attack will be unprecedented
Iran’s retaliation to any Israeli aggression will be “more forceful and destructive” than in past offensives, Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami told state media on Thursday, according to Reuters, after Tehran said it had been alerted of a potential attack.
Israel and Iran have exchanged fire twice last year, the first such direct attacks between the region’s most entrenched enemies.
The UK government has admitted that it is currently training IDF service members on British soil.
In a written question addressed to the defence secretary tabled on 3 June, Labour MP Rachel Maskell wrote to ask when the last time was that a member of the Israel Defense Forces was trained by the UK armed forces.
In a response yesterday, Luke Pollard, the armed forces minister, said: “As part of routine Defence engagement with Israel, the UK is currently training a limited number of Israel Defense Forces personnel on UK-based training courses.”
The US embassy in Jerusalem has announced it is restricting staff movements, AFP reports.
“Due to the increased regional tensions, US government employees and their family members are restricted from travel outside the greater Tel Aviv (area) ... Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva areas until further notice,” the embassy said in a statement.
Traveling between those locations, to Tel Aviv’s airport, or down the highway through the occupied West Bank to the Jordanian border would be permitted.
The statement came a day after US president Donald Trump said US personnel were being moved out of the Middle East. Last night the US state department said that it had ordered the departure of all nonessential personnel from the US embassy in Baghdad.
Six activists who were on Gaza aid boat are en route to airport for deportation, says Israeli NGO
An Israeli NGO representing activists detained aboard a boat attempting to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza said that six were en route to the airport for deportation.
Eleven activists were onboard the Madleen alongside Greta Thunberg.
“After more than 72 hours in Israeli custody following the unlawful interception of the Madleen Freedom Flotilla in international waters ... six volunteers are now being transferred to Ben Gurion Airport for deportation,” the Adalah rights group said in a statement, AFP reports.
It added that the six – two French citizens and nationals of Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands and Turkey – were expected to be deported late Thursday or early Friday.
The US embassy in Bahrain said that reports claiming it had changed its posture in any way are false, adding that staffing and operations remain unchanged and activities continue as normal.
The statement came a day after US president Donald Trump said US personnel were being moved out of the Middle East. Last night the US state department said that it had ordered the departure of all nonessential personnel from the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. Reports also said the state department was authorising the departure of nonessential personnel and family members from Bahrain and Kuwait.
A group of 17 Palestinian children, including an 11-year-old boy who lost nine siblings in an Israel strike in Gaza last month, arrived in Italy yesterday for hospital treatment, accompanied by more than 50 family members, Reuters reports.
Adam Al-Najjar, who has multiple fractures, arrived with his mother at Milan’s Linate airport where he was welcomed by Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani, before being transferred to hospital.
The plane carried five other injured Palestinian minors, while 11 more arrived on flights to other Italian airports. A total of 70 Palestinians were set to arrive in Italy on three military aircraft that set off from Israel’s Eilat airport, the Italian foreign ministry said.
