TEL AVIV/TEHRAN, June 21— Israel and Iran exchanged missile attacks in the early hours of Saturday, as hopes for de-escalation faded and international diplomacy floundered under the weight of a spiraling regional crisis.
Iran’s Fars news agency reported that Israeli forces targeted the Isfahan nuclear facility — one of the country’s largest — though no radioactive material was leaked. Simultaneously, an Israeli strike hit a building in the city of Qom, reportedly killing a 16-year-old and injuring two others.
The Israeli military said it launched a wave of strikes against Iranian missile storage and launch sites in response to escalating threats. “We targeted infrastructure essential to Iran’s ballistic capabilities,” a senior Israeli officer said.
Around 2:30 a.m. local time, Israeli air defense systems intercepted several incoming Iranian ballistic missiles over Tel Aviv and other areas. Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency service, said sirens also rang out in southern Israel and the West Bank. Though there were no immediate reports of casualties, images showed a fire atop a residential building in central Israel — suspected to be debris from intercepted missiles.
Iran reportedly fired five ballistic missiles in retaliation, though none appeared to reach their targets, according to Israeli defense sources.
The latest confrontation follows Israel’s initial June 13 offensive against Iranian targets, citing fears that Tehran was nearing nuclear weapons capability. Iran, denying any military dimension to its nuclear programme, responded with drone and missile attacks on Israeli soil. Iran’s nuclear stance remains unchanged: “There will be no negotiations under fire,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Friday.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a U.S.-based monitor, reported that 639 Iranians — including military leaders and nuclear scientists — have died in Israeli strikes since mid-June. Israeli officials said 24 civilians have been killed in Iranian missile attacks. Reuters could not independently verify these figures.
While U.S. President Donald Trump stopped short of committing American forces to the conflict, he warned that Iran could be weeks away from building a nuclear weapon. “We can’t let that happen,” Trump said in New Jersey. He also dismissed U.S. intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard’s recent claim that there was no solid evidence of Iran weaponizing its nuclear program. “She’s wrong,” he said bluntly.
Despite his criticism of Israeli aggression, Trump said he was unlikely to urge restraint. “It’s hard to ask a country to pull back when they’re winning,” he told reporters. Still, he gave himself “two weeks” to decide whether the U.S. would join the war.
In Geneva, Araqchi met with European foreign ministers, but progress was minimal. “Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us,” Trump said, casting doubt on European efforts to broker a ceasefire.
Iran’s U.N. envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, called for Security Council intervention and voiced concern over U.S. military involvement. Israel’s envoy, Danny Danon, told the Council that Israel “will not cease its operations until Iran’s nuclear threat is fully dismantled.”
Russia and China urged immediate de-escalation, warning that further strikes could push the region into full-scale war.
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department confirmed that hundreds of American citizens had evacuated Iran since the conflict began. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran was open to discussing limits on uranium enrichment, but would reject any proposal that required full suspension: “Especially now, under Israeli strikes, that is not acceptable.”
With diplomacy faltering and hostilities deepening, the region appears poised on the edge of a larger war — one that may soon draw in more than just rhetoric.
