Israel’s Military Warns Iranians to Evacuate Arms-Making Facilities, Signaling Possible New Strikes

Rescue personnel work at a residential building following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at central Israel June 15, 2025.  REUTERS/Yossi Zeliger
Rescue personnel work at a residential building following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at central Israel June 15, 2025. REUTERS/Yossi Zeliger
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Israel’s Military Warns Iranians to Evacuate Arms-Making Facilities, Signaling Possible New Strikes

Rescue personnel work at a residential building following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at central Israel June 15, 2025.  REUTERS/Yossi Zeliger
Rescue personnel work at a residential building following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at central Israel June 15, 2025. REUTERS/Yossi Zeliger

The Israeli military warned Iranians on Sunday to immediately evacuate “military weapons production factories,” likely signaling new strikes are coming. 

Col. Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, posted the warning on the social platform X in Iran’s Farsi language. 

Adraee in the past has signaled other strikes in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Yemen amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. 

His warning came just after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi signaled Tehran would stop its attacks on Israel if Israel stopped its strikes. 

Israel unleashed airstrikes across Iran for a third day on Sunday and threatened even greater force as some Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses to strike buildings in the heart of the country. Planned talks on Iran's nuclear program, which could provide an off-ramp, were called off. 

The region braced for a protracted conflict after Israel's surprise bombardment of Iran's nuclear and military sites on Friday killed several top generals and nuclear scientists, and neither side showed any sign of backing down. Iran said Israel struck two oil refineries, raising the prospect of a broader assault on Iran's heavily sanctioned energy industry that could affect global markets. 

US President Donald Trump has expressed full support for Israel's actions while warning Iran that it can only avoid further destruction by agreeing to a new nuclear deal. 

Araghchi said Sunday that if the Israeli strikes on Iran stop, then “our responses will also stop." 

Explosions in Tehran  

New explosions echoed across Tehran and were reported elsewhere in the country early Sunday, but there was no update to a death toll put out the day before by Iran's UN ambassador, who said 78 people had been killed and more than 320 wounded. 

In Israel, at least 10 people were killed in Iranian strikes overnight and into Sunday, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service, bringing the country’s total death toll to 13. The country's main international airport and airspace remained closed for a third day. 

Israeli strikes targeted Iran's Defense Ministry early Sunday after hitting air defenses, military bases and sites associated with its nuclear program. The killing of several top generals and nuclear scientists in targeted strikes indicated that Israeli intelligence has penetrated Iran at the highest levels. 

Death toll mounts in Israel 

In Israel, at least six people, including a 10-year-old and a 9-year-old, were killed when a missile hit an apartment building in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. Daniel Hadad, a local police commander, said 180 people were wounded and seven are still missing. 

An Associated Press reporter saw streets lined with damaged and destroyed buildings, bombed out cars and shards of glass. Responders used a drone at points to look for survivors. Some people could be seen leaving the area with suitcases. 

Another four people, including a 13-year-old, were killed and 24 wounded when a missile struck a building in the Arab town of Tamra in northern Israel. A strike on the central city of Rehovot wounded 42. 

The Weizmann Institute of Science, an important center for research in Rehovot, said “there were a number of hits to buildings on the campus.” It said no one was harmed. 

Israel has sophisticated multi-tiered air defenses that are able to detect and intercept missiles fired at populated areas or key infrastructure, but officials acknowledge it is imperfect. 

Urgent calls to de-escalate  

World leaders made urgent calls to de-escalate. The attack on nuclear sites set a “dangerous precedent,” China's foreign minister said. The region is already on edge as Israel seeks to annihilate Hamas, an Iranian ally, in the Gaza Strip, where the war is still raging after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off such calls, saying Israel’s strikes so far are “nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days.” 

Israel, the sole though undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, said it launched the attack to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The two countries have been regional adversaries for decades. 

Iran has always said its nuclear program was peaceful, and the US and others have assessed it has not pursued a weapon since 2003. But it has enriched ever larger stockpiles of uranium to near weapons-grade levels in recent years and was believed to have been able to develop multiple weapons within months if it chose to do so. 

The UN’s atomic watchdog censured Iran last week for not complying with its obligations. 

Araghchi, Iran's top diplomat, said Israel had targeted an oil refinery near Tehran and another in the country’s Bushehr province on the Arabian Gulf. He said Iran had also targeted “economic” sites in Israel, without elaborating. 

Araghchi was speaking to diplomats in his first public appearance since the initial Israeli strikes. 

Semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported that an Israeli drone strike had caused a “strong explosion” at an Iranian natural-gas processing plant. Israel's military did not immediately comment. 

The extent of damage at the South Pars natural gas field was not immediately clear. Such sites have air defense systems around them, which Israel has been targeting. 

Iran calls nuclear talks ‘unjustifiable’ 

Oman, which has been mediating indirect talks between the US and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program, said a sixth round planned for Sunday would not take place. 

“We remain committed to talks and hope the Iranians will come to the table soon,” a senior US official said on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks. 

In a post on his Truth Social account early Sunday, Trump reiterated that the US was not involved in the attacks on Iran and warned that any retaliation directed against it would bring an American response “at levels never seen before.” 

“However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!” he wrote. 

‘More than a few weeks’ to repair nuclear facilities  

In Iran, satellite photos analyzed by AP show extensive damage at Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz. The images shot Saturday by Planet Labs PBC show multiple buildings damaged or destroyed. The structures hit include buildings identified by experts as supplying power to the facility. 

UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to have been hit, but the loss of power could have damaged infrastructure there, he said. 

Israel also struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan. The International Atomic Energy Agency said four “critical buildings” were damaged, including its uranium conversion facility. It said there was no sign of increased radiation at Natanz or Isfahan. 

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with official procedures, said that according to the army's initial assessment “it will take much more than a few weeks” for Iran to repair the damage to the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites.  

The official said the army had “concrete intelligence that production in Isfahan was for military purposes.” 



Russia and Ukraine to Hold First Peace Talks in Seven Weeks 

A security personnel stands guard in front of the Ciragan Palace before the third meeting between Russian and Ukrainian delegations for peace talks in Istanbul, Türkiye, 23 July 2025. (EPA)
A security personnel stands guard in front of the Ciragan Palace before the third meeting between Russian and Ukrainian delegations for peace talks in Istanbul, Türkiye, 23 July 2025. (EPA)
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Russia and Ukraine to Hold First Peace Talks in Seven Weeks 

A security personnel stands guard in front of the Ciragan Palace before the third meeting between Russian and Ukrainian delegations for peace talks in Istanbul, Türkiye, 23 July 2025. (EPA)
A security personnel stands guard in front of the Ciragan Palace before the third meeting between Russian and Ukrainian delegations for peace talks in Istanbul, Türkiye, 23 July 2025. (EPA)

Russian negotiators flew to Türkiye to hold peace talks with Ukraine on Wednesday, the Kremlin said, before what will be the first direct discussions between the warring sides in more than seven weeks. 

Russia played down expectations of any breakthrough at the meeting, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this week should focus in part on preparing a summit between himself and President Vladimir Putin. 

"Naturally, no one expects an easy road. Naturally, this will be a very difficult conversation. The projects (of the two sides) are diametrically opposed," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 

Previous talks in Istanbul on May 16 and June 2 led to the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war and the remains of dead soldiers. But those meetings lasted less than three hours in total and made no breakthrough towards a ceasefire or a settlement to end almost three and a half years of war. 

US President Donald Trump last week threatened heavy new sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its exports unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days. 

But three sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters that Putin, unfazed by Trump's ultimatum, would keep on fighting in Ukraine until the West engaged on his terms for peace, and that his territorial demands may widen as Russian forces advance. 

On Wednesday, Russia said its forces had captured the settlement of Varachyne in Ukraine's Sumy region, where Putin has ordered his troops to create a buffer zone after Ukraine mounted a shock incursion into Russia last year and held onto a chunk of its territory for months. Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report. 

In recent weeks, Russian forces have launched some of their heaviest air attacks of the war, focusing especially on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. 

Ukraine has hit back with attacks of its own, and last month inflicted serious damage on Russia's nuclear-capable strategic bomber fleet by smuggling drones close to air bases deep inside the country. 

CONFLICTING DEMANDS 

Zelenskiy said earlier this week that the agenda for talks was clear: the return of prisoners of war and of children abducted by Russia, and the preparation of a meeting between himself and Putin. 

Putin turned down a previous challenge from Zelenskiy to meet him in person and has said he does not see him as a legitimate leader because Ukraine, which is under martial law, did not hold new elections when Zelenskiy's five-year mandate expired last year. Russia also denies abducting children. 

The Kremlin said this week it was unrealistic to expect "miracles" from the talks. 

At the last meeting on June 2, Russia handed Ukraine a memorandum setting out its key demands, including: full withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from four regions of the country that Russia has claimed as its own; limits on the size of Ukraine's military; enhanced rights for Russian-speakers in Ukraine; and acceptance by Kyiv of neutral status, outside NATO or any other alliance. 

Ukraine sees those terms as tantamount to surrender, and Zelenskiy described the Russian stance as an ultimatum. 

Ukraine wants an immediate ceasefire, reparations, international security guarantees and no restrictions on its military strength.