Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

In a White House press briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt delivers a message directly from US President Donald Trump.

Leavitt says amid reports of whether the US will be directly involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran, Trump says: "Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks."

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

Iran’s nuclear programme, which it has always insisted is peaceful, has been severely damaged.

But it’s not destroyed completely.

Large amounts of highly enriched uranium – an essential component for building a nuclear bomb – are believed to be stored hundreds of feet below the Zagros Mountains at a heavily guarded site called Fordo.

Most analysts believe this could only be reached by repeated bombing by the US Air Force, using a weapon called a Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP).

But - short of a change of regime in Iran - it would take close-up, visual confirmation on the ground and beneath the ground at Fordo, to be certain this suspect component had been destroyed.

That would require either human intelligence fed back by well-placed agents of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, or a Special Forces raid by commandos. Both are highly risky undertakings.

There also remains the risk that Iran may have dispersed material and machinery in other, unknown locations.

And furthermore that, when the dust from this conflict has settled, the Islamic Republic retains enough of the scientific knowledge to restart its nuclear activities and then race to build a crude nuclear bomb, believing it to be the best deterrent against future attacks.

US President Donald Trump has been briefed on both the risks and the benefits of bombing Iran's Fordo nuclear facility, multiple sources tell the BBC's US partner CBS News, external, and his mindset is that disabling the facility is necessary.

"He believes there's not much choice," one source tells CBS. "Finishing the job means destroying Fordo."

As we've been reporting, Trump has been weighing up the US's involvement in the conflict. He told reporters on Wednesday he had not made a final decision.

As of Thursday morning, CBS reports Trump was still reviewing his options and has not made a firm decision.

Tom Finn
Visual Journalism team

Hidden away in a mountainside south of Tehran is an enrichment plant that is vital to Iran’s nuclear ambitions - and Israel’s attempts to dismantle them.

Fordo nuclear facility is believed to be buried deeper underground than the Channel Tunnel. It has so far remained out of reach of Israel’s weaponry.

Only the US is thought to have a bomb that might be large enough to destroy it.

That move could dramatically widen a Middle East conflict.

To cause any meaningful damage, the site would need to be targeted by a “bunker buster” munition that is able to penetrate deep below the surface.

Take a look at our visual guide to explore the secretive site situated near the ancient religious city of Qom.

Stuart Hughes
Senior world affairs producer

Senior British diplomatic sources are giving little away ahead of Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s meeting with the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, aware of the seismic implications of decisions that will be made in the coming days.

They say the UK has had long-standing concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme for many years, and the foreign secretary is ready to support talks to press for a diplomatic solution to this.

They also reiterate the need for a diplomatic settlement to address the nuclear issue in the long term.

Too much is at stake to allow a recent spat between Lammy and Rubio affect this afternoon’s meeting.

A week ago, Rubio criticised the decision by the UK and four other countries to impose sanctions on two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, over their comments on Gaza.

Trump may well be weighing up his optionspublished at 17:14 British Summer Time 19 June

17:14 BST 19 June

Gary O'Donoghue
Chief North America correspondent, reporting from Washington DC

There is a temptation in times like these to believe there is a secret decision, already taken, that we're just not being told about.

It's often surrounded by - perfectly reasonable - arguments along the lines of: secrecy is critical to mission success, or secrecy and ambivalence is part of the strategy.

All this can be true.

But what can also be true is that key decisions haven't been made yet.

That is not to say that you don't move the pieces around – put planes and personnel in the right places – so that the president has the freedom to take action at a time of his choosing. But the preliminaries do not necessarily tell us anything more than the options are being left open.

So when Donald Trump says “nobody knows what I’m going to do” on Iran, and that he’ll decide “one second before it’s due”, he might well be telling the truth.

And that’s not just a Trump thing.

Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is reported to have once said that, in politics, “don't take a decision until you have to”. It’s a maxim many leaders have followed down the years.

Trump has had three consecutive days of meetings in the White House Situation Room. That suggests he isn’t just sitting back waiting to press a button, but is actively monitoring intelligence and weighing up his options.

In Israel

• Soroka hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel, has been damaged by a missile strike - experts tell BBC Verify that it looks like a direct hit. Iran says it was aiming for a military site near the hospital
• The attack prompted Israel's defence minister to say Iran's leader "should no longer exist"
• Israel's health ministry says 71 people were injured in that attack. Several other areas in Israel were also hit overnight

In Iran

• In an interview with the BBC, Iran's deputy foreign minister warned US President Donald Trump not to get involved in the conflict. This is "not America's war", he said
• Overnight, Israeli forces attacked Iran’s nuclear sites, including the Arak heavy water reactor
• The country has been restricting internet access since yesterday, making it harder for people abroad to contact anyone in the country

What happens next?

• UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged Trump to step back from military action against Iran
• This comes after the BBC's US partner CBS News reports that Donald Trump has approved plans to attack Iran, but hasn't made a final decision yet

• Iran has been saying it will target assets of countries that help defend Israel - the UK hasn't offered Israel any help in intercepting Iranian missiles, an Israeli spokesperson tells the BBC

Coming up, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is meeting with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy at around 14:00 EDT (19:00 BST) - with discussions expected about the conflict between Iran and Israel.

Stay with us for the latest developments.

Image source, Reuters

The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has condemned attacks on health facilities in the wake of ongoing tensions between Iran and Israel.

"The reports on the attacks on health so far are appalling," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus writes in a post on X.

Tedros cites this morning's attack on the Soroka Medical Center in Israel, as well as the reported deaths of Iranian Red Crescent Society health workers in Tehran.

"We call on all parties to protect health facilities, health personnel and patients at all times. The best medicine is peace," he writes.

Babrak Ehsas
Reporting from Herat, Afghanistan

I'm in the western Herat province in Afghanistan - bordering Iran - where thousands of Afghans are returning each day.

I have met dozens of Afghans who had valid Iranian visas but fled the country after Israel's attack.

Safiullah, 24, from Kabul, had lived in Isfahan for the last two months. He says: “I waited three days to get a ticket to return to Afghanistan. Tickets prices are three times higher now and very difficult to get one.”

He adds: “When I saw the situation, I decided to leave."

Isfahan is located in central Iran - nearly 240km (149 miles) south of the capital Tehran. It has been hit by Israeli strikes many times.

Mehran, 35, had worked in construction in Iran for many years.

He said he saw Iranians trying to leave cities to rural areas, adding that the “price of food and everything else were significantly increased. It was hard to get bread in bakery".

“I was working in three construction projects, all of them were off after the attack. I decided to leave the country.”

We can bring you the latest pictures from the Soroka hospital, which was hit during an Iranian missile attack earlier today.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter

Image source, Magen David Adom

Paramedic Arye Myers arrived at the Soroka hospital in southern Israel at 09:00 local time (07:00 BST) to help evacuate patients after it was hit by a missile.

He tells me that cancer patients “came out in wheelchairs and hospital gowns very stressed".

Some critically ill and intensive care patients were “carried out on stretchers while connected to oxygen tanks”, says Myers, who is part of the Magen David Adom emergency rescue team.

He says patients told him that being inside the hospital when the missile hit was a “terrifying experience – they felt the entire building shake with the impact, and the windows near them shattered”.

"We brought in four intensive care buses to move people in intensive care," he says, adding that 250 patients have been moved to other hospitals.

Hospital footage suggests direct hit, experts saypublished at 15:32 British Summer Time 19 June

15:32 BST 19 June

By Jake Horton

As we’ve been reporting, an Iranian missile has damaged the Soroka hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel this morning.

Israel says the site was directly hit, but Iranian state media has reported that authorities there say a military infrastructure site next to it was struck - and the hospital was damaged “by the blast wave”.

Our team has verified a video of the site’s exterior that shows smoke rising out of its roof which appears to have partially caved in.

We’ve been putting verified video and images of the aftermath to munitions experts and asking them to assess what happened.

Trevor Lawrence, an explosives expert at Cranfield University told us: “The video of the building shows extensive damage to the top but relatively little damage to the sides, which would suggest a direct hit rather than the effect of an adjacent blast.”

Justin Bronk, a senior analyst at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) agreed that it “looked like a direct impact on the roof”.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
BBC Persian, World Service reporter

Iran's mission to the UN says in a post on X that the country “categorically rejects" Israel's “false claim” that it targeted the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, Israel.

It says that Iran’s strikes are “precise” and only target “facilities directly involved in and supporting” Israel’s attacks on Iran.

Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the “blast wave” of Iran targeting an Israeli military command base caused “superficial damage” to the hospital.

Israel has accused Iran of targeting the hospital. Israel’s deputy foreign minister said Iran’s attack was “deliberate” and “criminal”.

Image source, Reuters

Israel's Ministry of Health says 271 people have been injured following strikes this morning, with 71 injured during the attack on Soroka hospital.

"Most of the slightly injured were injured on the way to the protected area or suffered panic attacks," the ministry says in its update on X.

The Israeli prime minister's office said that Iranian missile strikes had killed at least 24 people in Israel since the start of the conflict.

Iranian officials have not given an update on casualties today.

The country's health ministry said on Sunday that at least 224 people had been killed and more than 1,200 injured in Israeli air strikes since Friday, when the conflict began.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) - a Washington-based human rights organisation that has long tracked Iran - says 639 people have been killed in Iran since Friday last week.

Donald Trump has hit back at reports in the Wall Street Journal newspaper that he has approved attack plans for Iran, but was holding off on giving the final order.

The BBC's US partner CBS News also reported the same yesterday.

In a social media post a little while ago, the US president says: "The Wall Street Journal has No Idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran!"

It's a federal holiday in the US today so much of Washington DC is quiet.

That's not the case, however, at the White House where there are a handful of events that we're watching.

At 11:30 EDT (16:30 BST), Donald Trump will receive an intelligence briefing.

Less than two hours later, at 13:00 EDT, we're expecting a White House press briefing.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is meeting with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy at 14:00 EDT about the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel.

We'll bring you the latest news from these events as we hear it.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged Donald Trump to step back from military action against Iran.

The prime minister says there was a "real risk of escalation" in the conflict, urging all sides to seek a diplomatic outcome.

He says there have previously been "several rounds of discussions with the US" and "that, to me, is the way to resolve this issue".

His comments come as Foreign Secretary David Lammy takes the UK's plea for de-escalation to Washington, where he will meet Trump's top diplomat Marco Rubio.

Lammy and US Secretary of State Rubio will discuss the situation in the Middle East on Thursday evening.

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

An Israeli spokesperson has told the BBC that no request has been made to the UK for assistance in intercepting incoming Iranian drones or missiles.

Nor has any assistance has been offered by the UK, they add.

Where does Iran's military capability stand?published at 14:36 British Summer Time 19 June

14:36 BST 19 June

Chris Partridge
BBC News weapons analyst

While Israel and the US heavily focus on air power, Iran's military might is focused on missiles, hundreds of which have been targeting Israel these past few days.

The Institute for the Study of War has data on the types of missiles available, their fuel systems and ranges.

Israel has placed huge emphasis on knocking out Iranian missile sites, now that the Israeli Air Force has achieved air dominance over a large part of the country.

Image source, Institute for the Study of War

Tom Bennett
Reporting from Ramat Gan

I’ve just spoken to Jan Kapusniak, 38, who lives close to where an Iranian missile struck the business district of Ramat Gan, just outside Tel Aviv, this morning.

“Even though I don't agree with the current government, especially their internal politics, when it comes to this operation against Iran, I agree,” he says.

“Because the current conditions under which Israel can hit Iran’s nuclear programme are good. Hezbollah is decimated."

“From a military point of view, the Israeli operation is something magnificent. What the army is able to do there, especially the first day. It was incredible coordination, unprecedented.”

Jan is not alone. Support for Israel’s attack on Iran is strong across the whole country.

A poll by Hebrew University found that 70% of Israelis back the attack on Iran - including 83% of Jewish Israelis. But, notably, 68% of Israeli Arabs oppose it.