World News Update...

[The Founder]

ideos shared online and verified by Al Jazeera, show heavy plumes of smoke rising in the city of Kermanshah.

In one video, thick smoke is seen rising around the Dieselabad area of the western Iranian city after an Israeli strike.

Israel argues its assault on Iran’s top military leaders, uranium enrichment sites and nuclear scientists was necessary to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Iran has always insisted that its nuclear programme is peaceful, and the US and others have assessed that Tehran has not pursued a nuclear weapon since 2003.

[The Founder]

Israel undermined diplomacy, US should take firm stance: Iranian Foreign Ministry
Esmail Baghaei now addresses the issue of Iran’s negotiations with the US.

Here are his translated remarks:

We should look at the realities on the ground.
We were actively engaged in negotiations, and all of a sudden, we were taken by surprise by Israel’s belligerence.
We wouldn’t have imagined that they would take such an action backed by the United States.
It is the Zionist entity that undermined diplomacy; it is the responsibility of the US to take a firm stance.
The contradictory stance adopted by the US in the face of this belligerence is not helpful.
However, we do not have any doubt that the US administration and US officials are accomplices to this belligerence.
Raising the issue of negotiations is pointless at this time.
The Security Council must make it clear that this is an unlawful, unjustifiable belligerence.

[The Founder]

US unlikely to ‘join the battle’ against Iran
More from Ori Goldberg, the Israeli political commentator. He spoke to us from Tel Aviv about possible US involvement in the escalation and how some Israelis are feeling.

“Well, there’s certainly a desire for the US to get involved, prominently, among officials whose plans lack a clear end game or strategy… But since nobody is clear about the real goal, it’s just as obvious that the US will, certainly at this stage, refrain from getting involved,” Goldberg said.

Many Israelis believe the hostilities will continue for the foreseeable future because the government has not spoken of an “off-ramp” or an “end-game”, said Goldberg.

However, “there’s a lot of support for this war with Iran” but that could erode over time, he added.

“I think most Israelis who still care enough to try and consider what happens mid- or long-term will understand that Israel is in a problem. As time goes by, it will become clear that not only will the United States not join the battle, but that other prominent world powers are also not prepared to make the leap and join Israel in Iran in the actual fighting.”

[The Founder]

Missile launched from Yemen falls before reaching Israel: Army
An earlier military update said that Israel’s defence systems were activated to shoot down the ballistic missile, and warning sirens sounded in various parts of the country.

“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen fell prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement.

[The Founder]

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Iranian missiles in the early hours of Wednesday caused fires in an area of central Israel. Iran’s Fars News Agency says one of the targets was the Meron airbase, which is in northern Israel.

There is no indication whether that was hit.

There is military censorship in wartime in Israel, and if sensitive targets are hit, the media is not allowed to report that.

Another area that was hit earlier on Tuesday was Herzliya. Buses were set on fire in that area. The Iranian media is again saying that it was a military site.

[The Founder]

This collection of short video clips captures the sight and sound of Iranian air defences attempting to intercept attacks on sites in the country by Israeli forces.

The low rumble of multiple explosions is heard and the night sky is filled with bright flashes in what appears to be attempts by Iran’s military to intercept incoming Israeli missiles and warplanes.

Video footage shot in the daytime also shows the aftermath of the devastating Israeli strikes.

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Israeli strikes have killed 585 people across Iran, rights group says
The Washington, DC-based group Human Rights Activists says Israeli attacks have killed at least 585 people across Iran and wounded 1,326 others.

The group said it had identified 239 of the dead as civilians and 126 as security personnel.

Iran has not been publishing regular death tolls during the conflict. Its last update, issued Monday, put the death toll at 224 people killed and 1,277 others wounded.

Human Rights Activists, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, says it crosschecks local reports in Iran against a network of sources it has developed in the country.

[The Founder]

Israel and Iran have exchanged missile attacks for a sixth day, with one strike by Tehran causing a fire in central Israel. Israeli firefighters were tackling the blaze, which appeared to have engulfed several cars.

Hundreds of people have now been killed in Iran and at least 24 in Israel since the Israeli military launched its attack on the capital, Tehran, and across the Iranian countryside on Friday.