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What you need to know tonight

By Liam Mannix

Here’s the latest from the Middle East:

Israel and Iran struck each other on Tuesday afternoon Australian time. Israel reported the killing of the top commander of Iran’s armed forces. Iran hit Tel Aviv with a barrage of missiles, but Israel says no one was killed.

US President Donald Trump left the G7 summit earlier than planned, but ridiculed suggestions from the French president he was working to broker a ceasefire between Iran and Israel. On social media, Trump called on Iranians to evacuate Tehran.
In Iran, state media says more than 224 Iranians have been killed, most of them civilians. Separately, Washington-based Iranian advocacy group Human Rights Activists reports that 406 people have been killed, including 197 civilians. In Israel, the death toll is 24, all civilians.
You can catch up with everything we know at our regularly updated “What we know so far” page.

7.59pm

Fear and stress for Australians caught in conflict

Melbourne barrister Leon Zwier had only been in Tel Aviv a few days when sirens in the city blared to life. It was 3am on Friday, and a new front in Israel’s long-simmering conflict with Iran had begun.

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Within hours of Israel’s attack on Iran, word came that Iran had sent back a retaliatory wave of drones. Suddenly, Zwier found himself leaping into a car for an early morning dash down the highway to Jerusalem where he was due to attend a conference. “We had to beat the drones there so we’d be off the highways when they hit,” Zwier said.

Zwier is one of more than 1200 Australians trying to get out of Israel and Iran as conflict escalates between the two nations – and flights remain grounded in both. Sherryn Groch and Patrick Begley spoke to him, and others, about their experience.

7.35pm

‘We’re looking at better than a ceasefire,’ says Trump

By Cassandra Morgan

President Donald Trump has spoken to reporters, saying he is not looking for a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, but “we’re looking at better than a ceasefire”.

Trump was speaking on Air Force One after he cut short his visit to Canada for the G7 summit.

“They should have done the deal. I told them, ‘Do the deal,’” Trump said of Iran. He said he was “not too much in the mood” to negotiate now.

Trump said he had approached Iran for peace talks, and suggested the country’s officials knew where to find him if they wanted them.

When asked why he called for people to evacuate Tehran, he said he thought it was safer for them to do so.

“There’s a lot of bad things happening,” Trump said.

6.59pm

Hacking group claims destruction of Iranian bank data

Hacker group Predatory Sparrow claims it has destroyed an Iranian bank’s data.

The group, also known by its Persian name, Gonjeshke Darande, posted to social media this evening (AEST), saying it had used cyberattacks against Bank Sepah.

“‘Bank Sepah’ was an institution that circumvented international sanctions and used the people of Iran’s money to finance the regime’s terrorist proxies, its ballistic missile program and its military nuclear program,” the group posted to X.

“We thank the brave Iranians whose help made this operation possible.”

The attack was reportedly feared to have caused disruptions at petrol stations.

Predatory Sparrow has claimed responsibility for several previous attacks on Iranian infrastructure.

6.33pm

Trump wants ‘real end’ to Iran nuclear problem

Returning now to news of Donald Trump, who said he wanted a “real end” to the nuclear problem with Iran, and indicated he might send senior American officials to meet representatives of the Islamic Republic.

The US president made the comments while leaving Canada, cutting short his G7 summit trip, according to comments posted by a CBS News reporter on social media platform X.

Trump predicted that Israel would not be slowing its attacks on Iran.

“You’re going to find out over the next two days. You’re going to find out. Nobody’s slowed up so far,” the CBS journalist quoted Trump as saying on Air Force One.

On the prospect of sending US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff or Vice President JD Vance to meet Iranian officials, the president said, “I may”.

Washington has said Trump was aiming for a nuclear deal with Iran despite the ongoing military confrontation.

Reuters

6.16pm

Forty-five waiting for aid ‘killed by Israeli tank shellfire’

Israeli tank shellfire killed at least 45 Palestinians as they awaited aid trucks in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the territory’s health ministry said, adding that dozens of others were wounded.

Medics said residents had reported Israeli tanks firing shells at crowds of desperate Palestinians awaiting aid trucks along the main eastern road in Khan Younis. They expected the number of fatalities to rise as many of the wounded were in critical condition.

A ministry statement added that the Nasser Hospital, where the casualties were rushed to, had been overwhelmed by the number of deaths and injuries.

The circumstances of the killings were not immediately clear. It did not appear to be related to a new Israeli- and US- supported aid delivery network that rolled out last month and has been marred by controversy and violence.

Palestinians say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds trying to reach food distribution points run by a separate US and Israeli-backed aid group since the centres opened last month. Local health officials say scores have been killed and hundreds wounded.

In those instances, the Israeli military has acknowledged firing warning shots at people it said had approached its forces in a suspicious manner.

Israel says the new system is designed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid to fund its militant activities.

5.55pm

Iranian drone attacks to ‘intensify’ in coming hours

Iran recently launched a “more powerful” new wave of missiles towards Israel, its armed forces say.

Fresh drone attacks are expected to intensify in the coming hours, the state-run IRNA reported.

Iran Army Ground Forces commander Kioumars Heydari said that, in the past 24 hours, Iranian drones had hit and destroyed Israeli military positions.

5.41pm

‘Intense’ work under way to evacuate thousands of Australians: Deputy PM

By Cassandra Morgan

The federal government is urging Australians in Iran and Israel to shelter in place while it plans to evacuate them when airspace over the warring countries reopens.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said earlier this afternoon there were thousands of Australians in Iran and Israel.

“The airspace above Iran and Israel is closed right now, and so our advice to all of them is to seek shelter in place. That’s what they need to do, and to keep monitoring the Smart Traveller website and guidance,” Marles told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

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“We are looking at preparing continual prospects for having evacuations when opportunities arise, in other words, when the airspace opens up.

“We’re working quite intensely to look at how we can do those departures if and when airspace opens up.”

The government confirmed embassy officials in Tehran and Tel Aviv were accounted for and safe, Marles said. A small number of defence personnel in the region were also safe, he said.

5.20pm

Russia launches deadly attack on Kyiv

By Catherine Naylor

Meanwhile, Russia has continued its own war, launching one of the deadliest attacks in months on Kyiv as world leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, convene for the G7 meeting in Canada.

Waves of Russian drones and missiles struck districts across the Ukrainian capital early on Tuesday, killing 14 people and injuring 44, according to the interior ministry. One of those killed was a US citizen.

The attack damaged residential buildings, educational institutions, and critical infrastructure facilities, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

“Today, the enemy spared neither drones nor missiles,” he said about what he called one of the largest attacks on the city since Russia launched the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Witnesses said drones had swarmed over the capital and they heard what appeared to be missiles overhead.

Klymenko said a ballistic missile destroyed a section of a nine-storey residential building in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a 62-year-old US citizen had died from shrapnel wounds.