Israeli strikes kill 400, injure over 3000 in Iran: Health ministry

Israeli attacks on Iran over the past nine days have killed over 400 Iranians and left 3,056 others wounded, Hossein Kermanpour, head of the Iranian Health Ministry’s public relations, said on Saturday, June 21.

“Among the injured, 2,220 have been treated and discharged from Ministry of Health hospitals, while 232 received outpatient care at the scene of the attacks,” Kermanpour said in a post on social media platform X.

According to the health official, the majority of the casualties have been civilians, with 54 women and children among those killed in the Israeli strikes.

As the conflict continues, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said earlier in the day that one of its rescue helicopters was damaged as a result of a “treacherous Israeli attack.”

Israel launched a series of large-scale airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites on June 13, killing several top commanders and nuclear scientists. In response, Iran retaliated overnight with missile and drone strikes on Israeli territory, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) stated it had killed three senior commanders in Iran overnight. One of them was Saeed Izadi, the commander of the Palestine Corps in the Quds Force, a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Qatar’s PM denounces ‘Israeli aggression’

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the sidelines of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in Istanbul.

During the discussion, Sheikh Mohammed reaffirmed Qatar’s “strong condemnation and denunciation of the Israeli aggression against Iranian territory,” calling it a “violation of Iran’s sovereignty and security” and a breach of international law, as per a statement from the Qatari Foreign Ministry.

He also mentioned the importance of regional and international cooperation to ease tensions, stating that Qatar is making “strenuous efforts” with its partners to restore dialogue.