Two doctors, child killed in Israeli airstrike on Iranian hospitals
Al Mayadeen | June 21, 2025
Iranian Health Minister Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi announced on Saturday that recent Israeli airstrikes on Iran have resulted in the deaths of two female doctors and a child, and left several medical staff injured. The attacks reportedly involved direct strikes on hospitals and emergency vehicles.
According to Zafarghandi, one of the doctors was a pediatrician, while the other, a gynecologist, was killed along with her child while performing her medical duties.
The Israeli assault targeted three hospitals and six ambulances engaged in transporting the wounded. The Ministry of Health identified the affected medical facilities as:
- Hakim Children’s Hospital in Tehran – June 13
- Primary Healthcare Center in Qasr-e Shirin – June 13
- Farabi Hospital in Kermanshah – June 16
- Iranian Red Crescent Society Center in Tehran – June 18
According to the Iranian Health Ministry, at least 430 civilians have been killed and more than 3,500 injured since the beginning of the Israeli aggression.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei on Monday said “Israel” was deliberately targeting civilian areas, stating that the attacks were “a grave violation of international law and a war crime,” reportedly directed by Israeli security officials.
“History will judge,” he warned, adding, “eternal shame awaits the regime’s backers and apologists.”
Third hospital in Tehran deliberately targeted in a week of Israeli aggression
Press TV – June 20, 2025
A third hospital in the Iranian capital Tehran was deliberately attacked early on Friday by the Zionist regime, according to Iran’s ministry of health.
In a statement, the ministry’s public relations wing said the latest act of aggression marks the third instance of a public health facility being targeted during a week of wanton aggression.
“Another hospital in Tehran was targeted by rockets by the Zionist regime at 4:45 AM on June 20, 2025,” Dr. Hossein Karampur, the director of the ministry’s public relations department, wrote on X.
Last week, a children’s hospital in Tehran was also targeted, which resulted in a number of injuries and damage to the hospital building.
In addition to the three hospitals, at least six ambulances and one health service center have also been directly and deliberately hit in Israeli aerial strikes in one week, amounting to brazen violation of international conventions.
A female doctor, who worked at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, was killed in the Israeli aggression along with her husband and a three-year-old child.
The horrendous attacks on healthcare facilities and healthcare personnel in Iran have drawn widespread condemnation as they impede access to critical medical care and endanger the lives of patients and medical personnel.
Since the aggression was launched against Iran last Friday, Israeli regime has deliberately targeted civilian areas, hospitals, and media houses in clear violation of international law.
However, according to human rights activists in Iran, the international community continues to turn a blind eye to these gross violations.
Mohammad Marandi: Iran Prepares for War with America
Prof. Seyed Mohammad Marandi and Prof. Glenn Diesen
Glenn Diesen | June 19, 2025
Seyed Mohammad Marandi is a professor at Tehran University and a former advisor to Iran’s Nuclear Negotiation Team. Prof. Marandi discusses the US preparations to enter the war directly, and Iran’s preparations to fight the US. Trump will only accept Iran’s surrender, yet he does not appear to have the means to achieve this objective. What will happen if US strikes are ineffective and US military assets in the region are attacked? The only path forward now is reckless escalation.
UK joining US-led Israeli war on Iran would be illegal, says Attorney General
MEMO | June 19, 2025
The UK’s participation in a potential US-led attack on Iran on behalf of Israel could be unlawful, according to legal advice issued to Prime Minister Keir Starmer by Attorney General Lord Hermer. The warning, reported in The Telegraph, sharply limits Britain’s ability to support military action and presents a political headache for Starmer, who is under pressure to back Washington while avoiding another illegal war reminiscent of Iraq.
Hermer, who was recently appointed as Attorney General and is a close ally of Starmer, has issued legal advice stating that any UK military involvement must be strictly limited to defensive actions, namely protecting allies, rather than participating in direct offensive operations against Iran. One official who reviewed the legal opinion remarked: “The AG has concerns about the UK playing any role in this except for defending our allies.”
This caution comes as speculation grows that US President Donald Trump may order strikes on Iranian nuclear infrastructure, using American stealth bombers and joint US-UK bases such as Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. While the UK retains sovereign control over the base, any US offensive would require British authorisation.
The legal advice presents a major political dilemma for Starmer. A committed Atlanticist, the UK prime minister has signalled strong support for US-Israeli interests, but any attempt to bypass legal scrutiny in backing a unilateral military campaign may undermine his government’s legitimacy at home and abroad. Comparisons are already being drawn to Tony Blair’s controversial decision to join the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, a war widely deemed illegal by international legal experts and condemned for bypassing the UN Security Council.
Israel’s unprovoked bombing campaign inside Iran, has killed over 300 civilians. Israel’s own justification—that its strikes are defensive—is not accepted under international law unless there is an imminent threat. Any UK participation in such operations could therefore violate its obligations under the Geneva Conventions and customary international law.
Meanwhile, the British government appears to be stepping back from immediate escalation. “We want to de-escalate rather than escalate,” a No. 10 spokesperson said. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has flown to Washington for urgent talks, while Defence Secretary John Healey is said to be reviewing contingency plans for RAF involvement.
Starmer’s government has authorised the deployment of six additional Typhoon fighter jets to Cyprus, with preparations underway to expand UK capacity in the Gulf. However, sources say no final decision has been made regarding the potential use of Diego Garcia.
The warnings come as Trump threatens what he described as a “very big” response to Iran’s missile attacks on Israel. Iran, in turn, has vowed to resist any foreign aggression, rejecting calls for surrender.
Legal experts say the Starmer government must avoid repeating the mistakes of the Iraq war. Any military action outside the bounds of self-defence or without UN Security Council approval is illegal.
Israel issues death threat to Iran’s supreme leader
RT | June 19, 2025
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, “can no longer be allowed to exist.” Previous media reports suggested that US President Donald Trump blocked an Israeli plan to assassinate him.
Israel launched airstrikes last Friday targeting Iranian nuclear facilities and carried out targeted killings of senior military officials. The attacks elicited an Iranian response and the two countries have traded blows since.
Katz made the statement following a missile strike that reportedly seriously damaged Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva, a major city in southern Israel. Shlomi Codish, the hospital’s director general, said the missile hit an old building that had been evacuated.
“There is widespread damage to other buildings at the hospital. All patients and all staff were in shelters,” Codish said. “The several injured we have are lightly hurt, mostly from the blast shockwave.”
Katz claimed Khamenei was personally ordering strikes on hospitals, which he asserted justified calling for the Iranian leader’s death. He also accused Khamenei of seeking Israel’s destruction.
Iranian media, however, reported that the intended target was an Israeli military intelligence facility located in the Gav-Yam Negev Advanced Technologies Park, about 1.3km from the hospital.
Reports from several Western outlets last week stated that Israel had consulted the US about a plan to assassinate Khamenei prior to the latest escalation. According to Axios, Trump rejected the idea, with US officials telling Israel, “The Iranians haven’t killed an American and discussion of killing political leaders should not be on the table.”
In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Iran had tried to assassinate Trump twice and still considered him a target due to his firm stance against Tehran.
The US authorities accused two individuals, one of them posthumously, in two separate cases of trying to assassinate Trump on his 2024 campaign trails, but linked neither to Tehran. US officials also claimed that Iran conspired with people in the US to kill Trump before his second election victory, which Tehran denied.
Trump threatened Khamenei this week, stating on social media that he is “an easy target, but is safe” because “we are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.” He also demanded unconditional surrender from Iran.
The rise of Abu Shabab: Mapping the Gaza militia armed by Israel
By Muhammad Shehada | The New Arab | June 10, 2025
A political earthquake hit Israel last week when former Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman revealed that “the Israeli government is giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons, identified with Islamic State [in Gaza], at the direction of the prime minister”.
Netanyahu has since admitted that Israel had been “running” proxy militias in Gaza, but tried to put a positive spin on it, claiming that such a move aims to challenge Hamas’s rule.
But branding these gangs as potential rivals to Hamas masks the very goal of why Israel created them in the first place. Around 300 untrained thieves, drug dealers, criminals, and convicted murderers cannot overpower Hamas’s estimated 30,000 militants.
Their actual role has more to do with advancing Israel’s genocide, starvation, and ethnic cleansing in Gaza while creating plausible deniability.
Furthermore, recent evidence indicates that Israel may have been collaborating with some of these Islamic State-linked elements even before 7 October.
Abu Shabab: A front for an Israeli proxy?
The most prominent gang leader in Gaza is Yasser Abu Shabab. His name first appeared in August 2024 on Hamas-linked social media groups as the figure responsible for looting the vast majority of humanitarian aid and reselling it on the black market for astronomical prices.
A senior security source told The New Arab that Abu Shabab’s gang had been active for months before then.
Local authorities knew Abu Shabab well. He was serving a long sentence in prison for the possession of large quantities of drugs, according to three knowledgeable sources. He was one of many inmates who escaped under the cover of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.
Some other inmates were released on parole when Israel began bombing government facilities. Israeli newspapers like Maariv and Yediot Ahronot confirmed Abu Shabab’s criminal history through people close to him, and even added that he had links to the Islamic State (IS) through smuggling drugs from Sinai into Gaza.
Police in Gaza were perplexed when he emerged as a top gang leader. The security source told The New Arab that Abu Shabab is 35 years old, thin, weak, short (around 150cm in height), uncharismatic, illiterate, has strabismus in one eye, and has never received military training.
To them, he didn’t seem like someone with the leadership skills necessary to form a group of 300 armed militants, steal truckloads of aid, and store it under the radar.
Local authorities quickly decided that Abu Shabab was merely a front for an Israeli astroturfing campaign to maintain its policy of starvation in Gaza after the international community pressured Netanyahu to ease his total siege and allow a trickle of aid into the enclave.
What made this clear, according to them, is how Israeli drones bombed emergency committee volunteers or police officers every time they came close to thwarting a looting attempt by that gang in particular.
By late September 2024, Abu Shabab was talked about in Gaza as an Israeli-backed collaborator, not just a gang leader. That is when Hamas militants attempted to ambush him, firing around 90 bullets at a vehicle they thought belonged to Abu Shabab.
The vehicle, however, was identical to the one used by Islam Hijazi, the program officer of a US charity called Heal Palestine. She was tragically killed in the incident.
Two months later, Abu Shabab received widespread media attention after he burned a fuel truck and completely shut down the route used by aid convoys to retaliate against another Hamas ambush that killed his brother Fathi and 21 other members of his gang.
Soon after, the Washington Post revealed that the UN had named Abu Shabab in an internal memo as the main figure behind aid looting under “passive or active IDF protection”. This left little room for doubt that Abu Shabab’s gang was a tool for Israel to maintain starvation while externalising blame.
Mapping gang leaders: IS, ex-PA intel officers, and murderers
Abu Shabab’s deputy is thought to be Ghassan al-Dahini, 38, reportedly a former lieutenant in the Palestinian Authority (PA). Dahini is the one running the gang’s operations on the ground and actively trying to recruit new members, along with Saddam Abu Zakkar, per local authorities. His Facebook profile displays Israeli hostage emojis.
Another senior Palestinian security source told The New Arab that Dahini was a member of the “Army of Islam”, the extremist group responsible for kidnapping journalist Alan Johnston in 2007.
The group pledged allegiance to IS in 2015. Ghassan’s brother, Mohammed, died in prison after he was detained on drug-related offences, and Ghassan himself was imprisoned twice in March 2020 and November 2022, per the source. He added that “the Army of Islam relied on Dahini for the Sinai smuggling routes”.
On Sunday, Dahini posted a video of himself in military gear in Eastern Rafah close to Israel’s perimeter fence. He was standing next to a white pickup truck with a UAE license plate from Sharjah and firing a brand-new Serbian Zastava rifle.
Another prominent gang leader in Rafah is Shadi Soufi, a convicted murderer who was awaiting a death sentence before 7 October for killing a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader. Like Yasser, he also escaped prison during the war and was named by humanitarian organisations as responsible for looting aid under Israeli protection in Rafah.
Soufi, al-Dahini, and Abu Shabab are from the same Bedouin Tarabin clan that stretches across Rafah, Israel’s Negev desert, Egypt’s Sinai, and Jordan. Abu Shabab’s family recently disowned him for collaborating with Israel and said they will go after him to hold him accountable.
Another prominent leader of the Abu Shabab gang is Essam Soliman Nabahin, 35, a convicted murderer and IS member. He was implicated in a series of bombings against Hamas in 2015 by extremist Salafist groups and escaped to Sinai to formally join IS’s ranks. He caught the attention of Egyptian media in 2017 after taking part in attacks against the Egyptian army.
Nabahin’s name resurfaced in June 2023 when the police raided a house in central Gaza where he was hiding. He killed a police officer and was convicted in a military court before his escape in the early days of the war.
Israel says Nabahin was previously “recorded launching rockets into Israel without coordination with Hamas”.
Local authorities in Gaza have long suspected that IS-linked individuals like Nabahin were being pushed by Israel’s Shin Bet to fire one or two primitive projectiles sporadically to give Israel a pretext to strike Gaza and bomb specific targets. Hence, the police detained those militants repeatedly.
A senior Palestinian security source told The New Arab that authorities in Gaza caught a collaborator in 2018 who directed such occasional rocket attacks to give Israel cover for military action in Gaza.
Other members of the gang include multiple known drug dealers and convicted murderers.
How is Israel helping them?
Israel’s government has admitted it provided weapons to these gangs, mostly rifles and other light weaponry, in addition to money and equipment. Footage posted by Abu Shabab’s gang showed them driving in white pickup trucks with machineguns on top that looked virtually identical to those of Hamas.
In addition, Israel provides these gangs with safe refuge in areas fully depopulated by the Israeli military, like Rafah, and declared “extermination zones”, where any Palestinian entering would be killed on the spot. They are also provided with logistical support, protection, and even access to Israeli territory.
A Palestinian journalist documented one case of a gang member crossing into Israel, which could explain how those gangs disappeared completely during the ceasefire last January.
On the ground, the Abu Shabab gang has established warehouses operated with forklifts where they store looted aid. They have also established a military complex, according to the UN, which said the Israeli army would force aid convoys to drive through the areas where the gangs had positioned their militants and put up checkpoints to loot trucks.
And where the Israeli military goes, so do the gangs. After Israel issued forcible expulsion orders for Khan Younis and raided the European hospital and its surrounding area, Abu Shabab moved into the ‘Jarghoun’ villa in that very same area, per security sources.
On Tuesday, Israeli news channel i24 reported that Israel had launched airstrikes to protect the gang after it was attacked by Hamas militants in southern Gaza. The strikes killed four Hamas members.
What role do the gangs play on Israel’s behalf?
The Israeli-backed gangs in Gaza have become an unofficial arm of the Israeli military. For instance, whenever Israel gets pressured to allow food into Gaza, it immediately unleashes the gangs to maintain their use of starvation as a weapon of war, while blaming it on Hamas.
Experts believe Israel is using starvation as a tool for genocide by imposing conditions on a group “calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. Prolonged starvation inflicts permanent mental and physical damage, particularly on children.
Israel has also been using these gangs to orchestrate chaos and engineer societal collapse through attacks on markets, shops, private businesses, homes, warehouses, soup kitchens, and other places vital to maintaining the population’s survival.
For instance, in early May 2025, a gang attacked a communal kitchen in Gaza. As soon as volunteers arrived to stop the looting, Israel bombed it and killed six volunteers, which implies it was a coordinated attack.
The Israeli army also sends the gangs on reconnaissance and surveillance missions in dangerous areas. Last month, Hamas released footage of an ambush it carried out against armed men in Rafah whom it thought were undercover Israeli troops. They turned out to be Abu Shabab militants.
Israel also uses the gangs to infiltrate Palestinian society and gather intelligence, as well as to kidnap and interrogate Palestinians by luring them with the promise of food, as documented by Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi.
Israel is using proxy gangs for the final phase of the war
The most concerning use of these gangs, however, is Israel’s recently announced plan to push Gazans into camps in Rafah on Egypt’s borders to depopulate and destroy “everything that remains” of the rest of the enclave. This is a precursor to Israel’s declared goal of the mass expulsion of Palestinians into Egypt and other countries.
The Abu Shabab gang recently announced establishing an encampment area in eastern Rafah near the Egyptian borders and is using the very aid they have been systematically looting to lure starved Gazans into moving there.
This announcement was preceded by a clear rebranding psyop, where the same gang responsible for looting aid suddenly and shamelessly declared itself as a new “security force” that aims to “protect aid from looting”. They have since emerged in brand-new military and police uniforms in the Israeli-designated buffer zone in Rafah, where no Palestinians are allowed to enter.
Remarkably, Israel has allowed these gang members to wear Palestinian flags and insignia on their uniforms, while at the same time refusing to let the Palestinian Authority’s staff at the Rafah border crossing wear any such symbols.
In other words, Israel is using these gangs as a front. The Israeli army knows that if it orders Gazans to come to camps in eastern Rafah, people will immediately know it’s a trap for mass expulsion. But if a uniformed Palestinian force with good PR on social media makes such a demand, some people might fall for the trap.
Israel has used this same proxy tactic in Lebanon against Palestinians in 1982, where the Israeli military bolstered the South Lebanon Army (SLA) and used it and other militias to commit the Sabra and Shatila massacre, which saw 3,500 Palestinians killed.
Those collaborators collapsed after the Israeli army’s withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, as their leaders surrendered or fled to Israel. The same fate awaits these new Israeli-backed gangs once the Gaza genocide comes to an end.
Muhammad Shehada is a Palestinian writer and analyst from Gaza and the EU Affairs Manager at Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
Follow him on Twitter: @muhammadshehad2
Israel risking ‘nuclear catastrophe’ – Moscow
RT | June 17, 2025
Israel’s ongoing strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities pose unacceptable threats to international security and risk plunging the world into a catastrophe, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said.
Israel began bombing Iran on Friday, claiming Tehran is nearing the completion of a nuclear bomb. Iran has dismissed the accusations as groundless and retaliated to the Israeli military operation with waves of drone and missile strikes.
“The ongoing intensive attacks by the Israeli side on peaceful nuclear facilities in Iran are illegal from the point of view of international law, create unacceptable threats to international security and push the world towards a nuclear catastrophe,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on Tuesday.
The conflict’s escalation risks the further destabilization of the entire region, the ministry added, urging the Israeli leadership to “come to its senses and immediately stop raids on nuclear installations.”
The harsh reaction to Israel’s attack on Iran from most of the international community illustrates that the Jewish state is only supported by countries acting as its “accomplices,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Israel’s backers pressured the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board to push through last week’s “biased anti-Iranian resolution” on Tehran’s nuclear program, which “gave West Jerusalem a free hand, and led to this tragedy,” according to the ministry.
Report: Israel threatens “Dahiya-style” assault on Tehran in bid to destabilise Iran
MEMO | June 16, 2025
Israel is preparing a “Dahiya-style” military operation targeting the Iranian capital, Tehran. The plan, disclosed by Israeli broadcaster Channel 14, reportedly seeks to destabilise Iran’s government through systematic bombing of strategic sites while coercing mass evacuation from densely populated areas.
The operation, is said to have been greenlit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz, draws directly from Israel’s controversial military doctrine first employed during its 2006 war on Lebanon.
That assault saw the wholesale destruction of the Dahiya district in southern Beirut—a stronghold of Hezbollah—marking the beginning of what military officials would later describe as a deliberate strategy of “disproportionate force” and the targeting of civilian infrastructure to achieve political objectives.
In a message addressed to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Katz issued a stark warning: “Tehran will be treated like Beirut.” Israeli military sources confirmed that the occupation army have begun issuing Farsi-language warnings to residents near so-called dual-use or military sites, a tactic previously deployed in Gaza and Lebanon to pre-emptively displace civilian populations ahead of attacks.
Israeli airstrikes early Monday targeted the Iranian Ministry of Defence, the Foreign Ministry, and a civilian home adjacent to the Ministry of Communications. The assault marks a significant escalation and comes amid a wider regional campaign that has already seen Israel strike targets in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen and Gaza where the Zionist state has been accused of committing genocide.
The Dahiya Doctrine represents a formal Israeli military strategy of deliberate and complete destruction. The doctrine openly advocates for the obliteration of entire civilian neighbourhoods, regardless of the proportionality or legality of such action. Human rights groups and legal experts have long condemned it as a doctrine of annihilation—tantamount to collective punishment—intended to erase communities under the guise of military necessity
Under international law, such tactics, particularly those that fail to distinguish between civilian and combatant populations, are explicitly prohibited. Yet Israeli officials have repeatedly reaffirmed their commitment to the doctrine.
Israel strikes Iranian state broadcaster’s office
RT | June 16, 2025
The Israeli military has targeted the headquarters of Iran’s state broadcaster (IRINN) as part of its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic. The office has continued operating despite sustaining damage, according to Iranian media.
The strike came as IRINN was broadcasting live on air. Videos shared by both Israeli and Iranian media show a female anchor being forced to interrupt her work as the room she is in is affected by the attack. Dust and small pieces of debris can be seen flying in the air before the lights in the room go off after the sound of an explosion.
At least four bombs hit IRINN’s Political Affairs Office, which is operated by the Iranian Broadcasting Agency (IRIB), the state news media outlet said. Photos and videos from the scene show the building on fire, with plumes of thick black smoke rising above it.
The IRIB maintains that broadcast resumed just minutes after the strike. It is unclear how many people were affected by the attack. The female anchor identified as Sahar Emami was reportedly unharmed and returned to work. She condemned the attack in a talk with IRIB and questioned the international community’s inaction “in the face of silencing journalists.”
The Israel Defense Force (IDF) confirmed that it had struck the broadcaster’s office, claiming the facility had been singled out because its “infrastructure and assets” were allegedly being used by the Iranian Army under the guise of civilian activity.
According to Israeli Defense Ministry Israel Katz, the broadcaster was specifically targeted in the strike. “Iranian propaganda and incitement mouthpiece is on its way to disappearing,” he stated just before the attack, as reported by the Jerusalem Post.
Offices in Tehran shared by RT and Ruptly also had to be evacuated on Monday due to intensifying Israeli strikes against the city. The bureau chief of RT’s Tehran Office, Hami Hamedi, said that staff members had to promptly flee their office, as they received a warning from Iranian authorities about an impeding Israeli strike targeting their building.
On Friday, Israel launched a series of air raids against Iran, including one that targeted a uranium enrichment center in Natanz and another which assassinated several senior military commanders and scientists. Iran retaliated by firing dozens of ballistic missiles into Israel. The sides have been exchanging attacks ever since.
‘Israel’ bombs Iranian hospital, escalating civilian targeting
Al Mayadeen | June 16, 2025
The Israeli occupation has reportedly targeted Al-Farabi Hospital in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah, marking a serious escalation in the ongoing war.
The hospital strike follows a series of attacks on civilian and residential infrastructure across Iran by the Israeli occupation forces.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said attacking hospitals and residential areas was reportedly directed by the Israeli security minister, denouncing it as “a grave violation of int’l law and war crime.”
“History will judge,” Baghaei asserted, promising that “eternal shame awaits the regime’s backers & apologists.”
Katz outright threatens Tehran civilians
Although no official Israeli comment has been made regarding the incident, the action is consistent with the threats of Israel Katz, the Israeli foreign minister, who threatened to target civilians in Iran.
The targeting of medical facilities constitutes a direct violation of international humanitarian law and is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. The strike on Al-Farabi Hospital, which serves as a critical regional health center, drew immediate condemnation from Iranian officials and human rights observers.
Iranian authorities stated that multiple civilians were injured and ER services were severely impacted by the Israeli strike on the hospital. Footage from the scene showed significant damage to the hospital’s exterior and surrounding residential buildings.
‘War crime’: Iran’s foreign ministry building hit during Israeli aggression; many injured
File photo of the building hosting Iran’s Foreign Ministry in the capital Tehran
Press TV – June 15, 2025
Iran’s foreign ministry has strongly condemned the Israeli military aggression on one of its buildings in the capital, Tehran, which left many people injured, including ministry staff.
Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh, in a statement on Sunday, denounced the assault as a “deliberate and ruthless” act perpetrated by the “criminal Israeli regime.”
“The casualties include a number of my colleagues, who were transferred to a hospital for treatment,” said Khatibzadeh, who also heads the ministry’s foreign policy think tank, Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS).
Khatibzadeh described the incident as “yet another blatant war crime” and part of the Israeli regime’s “ongoing and systematic aggression” against the Islamic Republic.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli aggression on the Islamic Republic that began on Friday morning, targeting multiple locations across the country, including Tehran.
The brutal terrorist acts have resulted in the assassination of many senior military commanders, nuclear scientists, and civilians, including children and women.
In response, Iran launched Operation True Promise III, a continuation of its previous retaliatory campaigns against the Zionist entity.
The latest operation has involved large-scale missile and drone strikes by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) targeting sites across the occupied Palestinian territories.
So far, Operation True Promise III has seen the IRGC carry out a series of coordinated missile and drone strikes against high-value strategic targets across the occupied territories, including deep strikes into Tel Aviv and the occupied port city of Haifa.
These precision strikes have targeted critical infrastructure, including airbases used by the regime to launch attacks against the Islamic Republic, command and intelligence centers, industrial complexes, and fighter jet production facilities.
A flood of videos circulating on social media shows Iranian ballistic missiles piercing through multiple layers of the regime’s air defense systems with remarkable effectiveness.
On Sunday, the IRGC vowed to sustain the strikes until the entity’s “complete destruction,” issuing a strongly worded statement directed at Tel Aviv’s steadfast Western allies.
Earlier on Sunday, foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the US must accept its responsibility for Israel’s deadly aggression against the country, as evidence shows American forces helped the regime wage its terrorist assault on Iran.
“We have solid evidence indicating that American forces and bases in the region have supported the attacks by the Israeli regime’s military forces,” Araghchi told foreign envoys in Tehran on Sunday.
He emphasized that Iran’s response to Israeli aggression was based on the principle of self-defense in international relations and that every country has the legitimate right to defend itself against aggression.
Trump ‘open’ to Putin as Iran-Israel mediator
RT | June 15, 2025
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he is open to Russian President Vladimir Putin serving as a mediator in the Israel-Iran conflict. In an hour-long phone call the previous day, the two leaders focused on the Middle East crisis.
“Yeah, I would be open to it. He is ready. He called me about it,” Trump responded to ABC News’ Rachel Scott, when asked about Putin’s potential role in brokering peace.
“We had a long talk about it. We talked about this more than his situation. This is something I believe is going to get resolved,” Trump added.
After the phone call the Kremlin later said that Putin had condemned Israel’s strikes on Iran and expressed concern over further escalation, while reiterating Russia’s willingness to facilitate negotiations.
Putin recalled that Moscow had previously proposed concrete measures to facilitate “mutually acceptable agreements” in US-Iran nuclear negotiations before the current escalation, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov revealed.
“Russia’s principled position and commitment to resolving this issue remain unchanged,” Ushakov stated. “As President Putin emphasized, we will continue to act accordingly.”
Despite the cancellation of Oman-mediated nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington following Israel’s strikes, Trump maintained that discussions continued. “They’d like to make a deal. They’re talking,” he said, suggesting the escalation might actually accelerate diplomacy.
When asked about possible American engagement in the conflict, Trump stated: “We’re not involved in it. It’s possible we could get involved. But we are not at this moment involved.”
The conflict in the Middle East escalated on June 12 when Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites, killing senior military officials and prompting retaliatory missile barrages from Tehran. Both sides have exchanged fire for a third straight day.
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Breast Cancer: Before You Consent
A new Unbekoming paperback
Lies are Unbekoming | September 18, 2026
Peter Gøtzsche reviewed every randomised mammography screening trial ever conducted for the Cochrane Collaboration. Cochrane’s headline is that, assuming a 15% mortality reduction, one woman in 2000 avoids dying of breast cancer over ten years. Ten are overdiagnosed and treated. Two hundred experience false alarms.
But that headline assumes the reduction. When Gøtzsche looked only at the trials with adequate randomisation — the higher-quality ones — the reduction disappeared. No effect on breast cancer mortality. No effect on all-cause mortality.
This is the Cochrane finding, published in the establishment’s own database of systematic reviews.
No woman being asked to consent to a mammogram this week knows it.
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