Sebastian Usher
Middle East regional editor

Another wave of missiles has been fired at Israel from Iran this evening, with reports that a building in Haifa has been hit.

Israelis have been coming to terms with the images of a devastated residential building in the coastal city of Bat Yam where seven people, including two children, were killed in an earlier strike.

Residents there told the BBC of their shock at seeing the destruction that Iran can wreak, despite the protective shield of the Iron Dome air defence system.

In Iran, people have been snarled up in huge traffic jams as they try to get out of Tehran, which is increasingly becoming a target of Israel's relentless bombardment - and one that is intensifying by the day.

Image source, ABIR SULTAN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

US President Donald Trump rejected a recent Israeli plan to kill Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, three US officials tell CBS News, the BBC's US partner.

One official says the Israelis had the opportunity to assassinate Khamenei, and Trump conveyed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it wasn't a "good idea".

They say the conversation between Netanyahu and Trump happened after Israel launched a massive attack on Iran last week.

Trump's rejection of the proposal was first reported by Reuters. During an interview with Fox News earlier this evening, Netanyahu did not directly confirm or deny Reuters' reporting.

"There's so many false reports of conversations that never happened and I'm not going to get into that," he said.

"But I can tell you I think we do what we need to do. We will do what we need to do and I think the United States knows what is good for the United States and I'm just not going to get into it."

Ione Wells
Reporting from Jerusalem

We did get some more strikes here in Jerusalem a couple of minutes ago.

It seems most of those were intercepted and sirens here have now stopped.

But there has been a direct strike in Haifa – a coastal city in the north of Israel with a strategic port. Emergency services are attending the scene.

Israel has also confirmed it’s continuing to fire at further targets within Iran.

Israel's military says they've received "reports of falls" at several sites across the country.

In an update on Telegram, the Israel Defense Forces say: "Following the situational assessment, the Home Front Command published that it is now permitted to leave protected spaces areas across the country.

"Search and Rescue forces are operating in several several locations across the country in which reports of fallen projectiles were received."

Israel Police say emergency services have had reports of a weapon hitting "one of the settlements" in the northern coastal port city of Haifa.

"At this stage, no reports of casualties have been received, but property damage has occurred," officials say.

Footage and images from Haifa show thick columns of smoke rising into the night sky above the city.

"We ask the public to stay away from crash sites and obey the instructions of the police on the ground," Israel Police add.

Israel's ambulance service, Magen David Adom, says two people have been taken to hospital for injuries suffered from shrapnel.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Persian

Image source, Reuters

Iran's state TV says the country has attacked Tel Aviv, Haifa, and other cities "with tens of Iranian missiles and drones".

It also reports that the missiles have surpassed "layers of Israeli defence system" - the Israeli military has not yet commented.

Explosions can be heard in the night skies above Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as the Iron Dome works to intercept incoming missiles.

Sirens have sounded and people have been told to take shelter.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has detected missiles launched from Iran towards Israel.

People are being urged to move to protected areas.

We’ll bring you more on this as soon as we have it.

Attack on Iran widens, but Netanyahu says Israel is on side of Iranian peoplepublished at 18:23 British Summer Time 15 June

18:23 BST 15 June

Sebastian Usher
Middle East regional editor

Israel is widening its attack on Iran by the day.

It started by targeting Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure, hitting not just the sites but the people running them.

Now, there are reports of strikes on residential areas, fuel depots, ministries and even an attack 2,000km from Israel on a refuelling plane in Mashhad airport.

The toll in casualties in Iran is also becoming clearer.

The Israeli military has spoken of opening a path to Tehran, while defence minister Israel Katz has threatened to burn the Iranian capital if Iran continues to fire missiles at Israel.

The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed Israel is on the side of the Iranian people and quoted the famous slogan of mass protests there a few years ago - Woman, Life, Freedom.

At the same time, Israelis have seen destruction and loss of life in quiet residential areas - despite the Iron Dome.

Such incidents only seem likely to drive the Israeli government’s attack on Iran even more fiercely.

But in doing so, Israel risks turning its stated aim of a war on the Islamic regime and its potential to build nuclear bombs into what may look more like a war on the Iranian people.

Image source, EPA

In the interview on Fox News, Benjamin Netanyahu is asked if regime change in Iran is part of Israel's efforts.

"It could certainly be the result, because the Iranian regime is very weak," he says.

Netanyahu claims the current Iranian regime doesn't "have the people", and says "80% of the people" want to overthrow it.

He also says, "the Persian people and the Jewish people have had an ancient friendship", and adds, "the decision to act, to rise up at this time is the decision of the Iranian people".

Fox News host Bret Baier asks Netanyahu about Trump's comments that Israel and Iran "should make a deal".

"It is worth it if they [Iran] do what the president wants [and dismantles its nuclear capability]," Netanyahu says.

But he adds that Israel isn't going to wait for that.

Netanyahu says that, even if Iran agrees to stop firing missiles at Israel as part of any deal, it doesn't mean they'll stop developing their nuclear capability.

"The issue here is not de-escalation. The issue here is not ceasefire. The issue is to stop those things that threaten our survival," he says.

• As a reminder, Iran has repeatedly denied that it has a nuclear weapons programme

More from the Israeli prime minister's interview.

Fox News host Bret Baier asks Netanyahu how much Israel has damaged Iran's nuclear capacity so far.

"I think we've set them back quite a bit," Netanyahu says. "I think they were completely surprised."

He adds that Israel has secured a "free highway to Tehran", referring to the Israeli air force's aerial superiority since Friday.

"We can now pick off the targets we need in Tehran and in other places."

As said, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is giving a live interview with Fox News in the US.

He praises Donald Trump several times, telling host Bret Baier that he and Trump are "fully co-ordinated".

Trump has said the US is not involved in the conflict.

When asked if he has requested US-made 'bunker buster' bombs from Trump – weapons that can destroy underground targets – Netanyahu says: "I'm not going to get into my discussions with the president."

"But understand that his decisions are his decisions," Netanyahu adds.

He also says Israel has already damaged Iran's nuclear capability, including an attack on a nuclear plant in Isfahan.

Baier presses again about Israel's ability to strike Iranian nuclear sites underground.

Netanyahu says: "We have quite a few rabbits up our sleeve, and I don't think I should get into that."

We'll have more updates on the interview for you soon.

Image source, Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is speaking live on Fox News.

We'll bring you the main points as we get them.

Image source, EPA

Here's another comment from the German chancellor.

Friedrich Merz says it is "crucial" that Iran "must not develop or possess nuclear weapons".

Speaking to reporters before heading to a G7 summit in Canada, Merz says that "Iran's progress toward nuclear weapons led to Israel attacking military targets in Iran on Friday".

"This would be a threat to Israel, the Middle East, and the international community as a whole," he says.

Iran has denied that it has a nuclear weapons programme.

Merz adds that Israel has asked Germany to provide "fire extinguishing equipment".

"We will initiate this immediately," he says.

Here are some comments from around the world on the Israel-Iran conflict.

Iraq's prime minister, Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani, says he told the EU ambassador in Baghdad that Israel's strikes on Iran are a "direct threat to security and stability in Iraq and the region", and are meant to obstruct diplomatic efforts.

France's foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, says Iran's nuclear programme poses an "existential threat" to the security of Israel and Europe.

Germany's chancellor, Friedrich Merz, says Tehran must stop "bombing civilian targets in Israel immediately". He adds that Germany is preparing for the possibility of Iran targeting Israeli or Jewish sites within the Germany.

Turkey's foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, told his Russian counterpart in a phone call that only diplomacy could resolve the "worrying" conflict, according to an official source speaking to Reuters.

More on the phone call between Iran and Iraq that we mentioned earlier.

Iran's president has called on Iraq to stop Israel from using its airspace to launch attacks on Iran, according to a statement from the Iranian presidency.

Iraq lies between Israel and Iran.

Masoud Pezeshkian urged his Iraqi counterpart to "exercise greater vigilance... so that Iraqi territory is not misused against the Islamic Republic of Iran", according to the statement.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says its air force has attacked an Iranian refuelling plane at Mashhad Airport in eastern Iran.

In a post on X, it calls this "the most distant attack since the start of the operation".

Video shows smoke rising from Iranian Ministry of Justicepublished at 16:24 British Summer Time 15 June

16:24 BST 15 June

The BBC has verified a video that appears to show an Israeli strike on the building of Iran's Ministry of Justice.

In the footage, you can see a column of smoke rising from a building in Tehran.