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7.37pm
After the ‘mother of all wars’, regret and celebration in Beersheba
By Matthew Knott
Beersheba: When trouble strikes, Rafael Aronov runs towards it.
During the October 7 attacks of 2023, the Israeli special forces police officer travelled to Ofakim, near the Gaza border, to fight off Hamas militants who had stormed into Israel and murdered civilians. When an Iranian missile struck a hospital in his home town of Beersheba last week, he served as a first responder, helping to evacuate injured patients.
On Tuesday morning, the war between Israel and Iran came into Aronov’s own home when the walls of his apartment building started shaking as he and his wife, Lior, sheltered in their bedroom. An Iranian missile had struck an apartment building just a few hundred metres away, killing four of his neighbours and shattering the windows of his apartment.
The hit on Beersheba was one of the most damaging since Israel and Iran began trading fire 12 days earlier, and the last to pierce Israel’s air defences before a ceasefire deal took effect.
As he cleans up the broken glass from his apartment building, Aronov expresses mixed emotions about the truce. Part of him wishes that Israel had tried to overthrow Iran’s theocratic regime and redraw the political map in the Middle East, not just weaken Tehran’s military capabilities.
“The job is not done,” says the professional mixed martial arts fighter, who is nicknamed “The Cop” because of his police work. “Yet on the other hand, 28 people have died and that’s a high price.“
Among the Israelis who died on Tuesday: Eitan Zacks, an 18-year-old off-duty soldier; his mother, Michal; and his girlfriend, Noa, as they sheltered in their safe room.
7.31pm
Trump to meet with Zelensky
By Hannah Hammoud
Ahead of his side meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later today, Trump says the pair will be discussing the difficulties faced by Ukraine, as well as the progress being made in Gaza.
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Trump said he believed the strikes on Iran will help secure the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
“I think great progress is being made on Gaza. I think that because of this attack that we made, I think we’re going to have some very good news,” he said at The Hague.
The US President said he will also be speaking to Zelensky about his dealings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I’ve spoken to Putin a lot, and he actually was very nice,” Trump said.
“He volunteered help on Iran. I said, ‘No, I don’t need help in Iran. I need help on Russia. Help us on Russia, not on Iran’. But he was very nice. We’re going to talk about that.”
7.10pm
Despite ‘inconclusive’ intelligence, Trump confident Iran will abandon nuclear program
By Hannah Hammoud
At odds with his own declaration of “total obliteration”, President Trump says intelligence from the strikes on Iran is inconclusive.
“The intelligence says we don’t know – it could have been very severe,” he said. “But I think we can take the ‘we don’t know’ [as] it was very severe. It was an obliteration.”
Trump said the attacks have set Iran’s nuclear development back by decades.
“I don’t think they’ll ever do it again. I just don’t think they’re going to. I think they’re going to take their oil, they’re going to have some missiles, and they’ll have some defence,” he said.
“I think they’ve had it. I mean, they just went through hell. The last thing they want to do is enrich.”
7.00pm
‘Professional stabbers’: Rubio dismisses intelligence leak
By Hannah Hammoud
Speaking at The Hague, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio backed President Donald Trump, labelling those who leaked US intelligence as “professional stabbers”.
A leaked report by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency revealed that attacks by the US didn’t cripple the core components of Iran’s program below ground, including its centrifuges.
Rubio said the government was conducting an investigation with the FBI into the leak, adding that news organisations were spinning the assessments to make Trump look bad, even though Rubio declared the strikes an “overwhelming success”.
“All this stuff about the intelligence – this is what a leaker is telling you. They read it, and then they go out and characterise it the way they want to characterise. This is the game they play,” Rubio said.
“These leakers are professional stabbers. That’s what they are.
“This was complete and total obliteration. They’re in bad shape. They are way behind today compared to where they were just seven days ago because of what the president did.”
6.45pm
‘They’re sick’: Trump continues attack on reporters
By Hannah Hammoud
Trump has gone on to label American news outlets CNN, MSBNC and The New York Times as “scum”.
The US President is insistent that Iran’s nuclear sites have been destroyed, and that reporting that suggests otherwise is “fake news”.
Trump insists the sites were destroyed and is unhappy that journalists are querying the extent of the damage, which is yet to be formally confirmed by the Pentagon or the international nuclear watchdog.
“This was an unbelievable hit by genius pilots and genius people in the military, and they’re not being given credit for it because we have scum that’s in this group [of media organisations],” he said.
“They’re bad people, they’re sick, and what they’ve done is they’re trying to make this unbelievable victory into something less.”
6.39pm
Trump likens US strikes on Iran to Hiroshima
By Hannah Hammoud
Trump reiterated his view that the US obliterated Iran’s nuclear sites when he was asked about reports referencing only a partial impact.
“We hear it was obliteration. It was a virtual obliteration. When you take a look at the ground above … if you look at the before and the after picture, everything above is burned black, the trees, everything,” he said.
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“I believe it was total obliteration. I believe they didn’t have a chance to get anything out because we acted fast. It would have taken [Iran] two weeks, maybe. But it’s very hard to remove that kind of material, very hard and very dangerous for them to remove it.”
Trump said Israel was conducting a report on the strikes that will reveal the true extent of the damage.
“That hit ended the war. I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing that ended that war,” he said.
6.31pm
Trump arrives at NATO summit
By Hannah Hammoud
US President Donald Trump has arrived at The Hague for the NATO summit, speaking alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Regarding the United States’ attack on Iran, Trump said he believed the hits amounted to “total obliteration”.
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“We had a tremendous victory, a tremendous hit,” he said.
“They’ve got a country, and they’ve got oil, and they’re very smart people, and they can come back.
“Israel got hit very hard, especially the last couple of days, … those ballistic missiles. Boy, they took out a lot of buildings …
“Bibi Netanyahu should be very proud of himself … they’re [Iran] not going to be building bombs for a long time.”
While Trump has celebrated the strikes, early US intelligence assessments have found American airstrikes had only a limited impact on Iran’s nuclear program.
This is the first we’re hearing from Trump following his spray against Iran and Israel following the ceasefire violation, when he said the pair “don’t know what the f--- they’re doing”.
6.15pm
NATO chief sees a ‘transformational’ summit ahead
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte was upbeat that the military alliance would agree on massive spending hikes at a “transformational summit” on Wednesday, with leaders of the member states now assembled at The Hague in the Netherlands.
The 32-nation alliance is expected to agree to a new defence spending target of 5 per cent of gross domestic product, as the United States – NATO’s biggest-spending member – shifts its attention away from Europe to focus on security priorities elsewhere.
“So a transformational summit. Looking forward to it,” Rutte told reporters before chairing the meeting’s only working session, which was expected to last less than three hours.
But ahead of the meeting, Spain announced that it would not be able to reach the target by the new 2035 deadline, calling it “unreasonable”. Belgium signalled that it would not get there either, and Slovakia said it reserves the right to decide its own defence spending.
Spain, like many NATO allies, faces major economic challenges, and Trump’s global tariff war could make it even harder for America’s allies to reach their targets. Some countries are already squeezing welfare and foreign aid spending to channel extra funds into their military budgets.
On Tuesday, Trump complained that “there’s a problem with Spain. Spain is not agreeing, which is very unfair to the rest of them, frankly”. He has also criticised Canada as “a low payer.” In 2018, a NATO summit during Trump’s first term unravelled due to a dispute over defence spending.
But Rutte conceded that “these are difficult decisions. Let’s be honest. I mean, politicians have to make choices in scarcity. And this is not easy”. But he said, “given the threat from the Russians, given the international security situation, there is no alternative”.
Other countries closer to the borders of Russia and Ukraine – Poland, the three Baltic states and Nordic countries – have committed to the goal, as have NATO’s European heavyweights Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
5.49pm
Iran moves to block UN nuclear watchdog
Iran’s parliament approved a bill on Wednesday to suspend co-operation with the UN nuclear watchdog, Iran’s Nournews reported.
The country’s Supreme National Security Council now needs to give final approval to the move.
As Iran continues to be questioned on its nuclear weapons program, an Iranian lawmaker said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi should not be allowed to enter the country.
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Alaeddin Boroujerdi, a member of the national security and foreign policy commission in Iran’s parliament, said co-operation with the IAEA should be suspended.
Iran’s move to fully suspend its co-operation aligns it with Israel, which does not permit UN inspections of its nuclear facilities due to not being a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
The extent of Israel’s nuclear capabilities remains unclear, as the nation has never confirmed or denied possessing nuclear weapons.
Reuters
4.52pm
‘Apocalyptic regime’: Abbott throws support behind US intervention
By Hannah Hammoud
Appearing on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program on Wednesday, former prime minister Tony Abbott said the US was right to intervene in the war.
“I think that the [US] should act in accordance to their interest and values, and it is in the interest and values of all liberal democratic countries that the current Iranian regime never gets access to nuclear weapons,” he said.
“The job in this case bravely begun by Israel and powerfully continued by the United States is to ensure that this … apocalyptic regime never, ever, ever, gets access to nuclear weapons.”
Meanwhile, earlier today Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked about comments made by Donald Trump that Israel and Iran “don’t know what the f--- they’re doing”.
“I think that he stated his views pretty abruptly, and I think they were very clear,” Albanese said.
