Israel launches strikes on Iran as US warns Tehran against retaliation – latest news

UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has urged Tehran not to retaliate after Israel launched a series of airstrikes targeting military sites in Iran overnight.

The government said it was monitoring the unfolding situation in the Middle East “closely” after the strikes early on Saturday.

The attacks did not target nuclear or oil facilities, two Israeli officials confirmed to the Associated Press. Iranian state media have said that two soldiers have been killed as a result of the Israeli strikes.

Countries around the world have been reacting to the latest escalation in the conflict between Iran and Israel.

A senior US government official has said Israel’s strikes appear to have been a targeted and proportional response to Tehran’s earlier attacks.

The Biden official said this should be the end of direct exchange of fire between the two countries.

“Should Iran choose to respond we are fully prepared to defend Israel and support Israel and there will be consequences should Iran make that unfortunate decision,” said the official. “But as far as we’re concerned, this direct exchange, this should be the end of it.”

The Kingdom of Saudia Arabia has expressed “its condemnation and denuciation of the military targeting of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is a violation of its sovereignty and a violation of international laws and norms.”

The Kingdom also urged “all parties to exercise the utmost restraint and reduce escalation”.

Pakistan have also strongly condemned the Israeli strikes. They said the strikes “undermine path to regional peace and stability and also constitute a dangerous escalation in an already volatile region.”

Palestinian militant group Hamas has also issued a statement on social media app Telegram, saying that the strikes are a “flagrant violation of Iranian sovereignty and an escalation that threatens the security of the region”.

The United Arab Emirates has also expressed “deep concern over the continued escalation and its impact on regional security and stability”.

Two soldiers were killed in Saturday morning’s Israeli airstrikes on Iran, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported.

“The army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in defending Iran’s security and protecting the people and Iran’s interests, sacrificed two of its fighters while countering projectiles from the criminal Zionist regime,” the statement said.

Israel’s strike on Iran was designed with the intention of minimizing casualities and keeping the impact to a level that would allow Iran to deny major damage and contain the situation, sources have told The Washington Post.

The official, who was briefed on Israel’s plans, told the paper that the strikes were a larger-scale version of the response Israel launched in April.

The Israeli military said its aircraft targeted facilities that Iran used to make missiles fired at Israel as well as surface-to-air missile sites.

There has been no immediate indication that oil or missile sites were hit – locations that would have marked a much more serious escalation.

Speaking at a press conference in Samoa, the British prime minister said: “I am clear that Israel has the right to defend itself against Iranian aggression and I am equally clear that we need to avoid further regional escalation and urge all sides to show restraint.

“Iran should not respond,” said Keir Starmer.

“We will continue to work with allies to de-escalate the situation across the region.”

Microsoft has dismissed two employees who organised an unsanctioned vigil at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, to honour Palestinians killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.

The employees, dismissed via phone call late on Thursday, hours after the vigil was held during lunch, were members of the “No Azure for Apartheid” coalition within Microsoft. The group has actively opposed the company’s provision of cloud computing services to the Israeli government. Both employees argued that the vigil mirrored other employee-led campaigns Microsoft has hosted in support of humanitarian causes.

“We have so many community members within Microsoft who have lost family, lost friends or loved ones,” said Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist. “But Microsoft really failed to have the space for us where we can come together and share our grief and honour the memories of people who can no longer speak for themselves.”

Asked for comment, Microsoft stated on Friday that it had “ended the employment of some individuals in accordance with internal policy” but declined to give specific details.

One of the dismissed employees, Mohamed, an Egyptian national, said he now faces the challenge of securing a new role within two months to retain his work visa and prevent deportation. His colleague, Hossam Nasr, explained that the vigil was aimed both to “honour the victims of the Palestinian genocide in Gaza and to call attention to Microsoft’s complicity in the genocide” due to the use of its technology by the Israeli military.

Iran will resume flights as normal from 9am, the semi-official news agency Tasnim reported this morning, following a brief suspension after Israel struck military targets in the country.

Malaysia has condemned Israel’s recent air strikes on Iranian sites, calling them a “clear violation of international law” that further destabilises an already tense region.

In a strongly worded statement, Malaysia’s foreign ministry urged an “immediate cessation of hostilities” and appealed for an end to what it described as a “cycle of violence”.

The ministry warned that Israel’s ongoing attacks against Middle Eastern countries risk edging the region closer to an expanded conflict. “Israel’s actions seriously undermine regional security,” the statement read, expressing concern over the potential for escalation.

Iraq announced the reopening of its airspace and the resumption of flights, reported state news agency INA citing the ministry of transportation, following a brief suspension which it had attributed to regional tensions.

Saudi Arabia condemned the military targeting of Iran as a “violation of its sovereignty” and international laws, urging all parties to exercise maximum restraint and calling on the international community to take action towards de-escalation and ending conflicts in the region.