Iran has vowed revenge after more than 100 people were killed in two explosions near the tomb of a general.
At the time of the explosions a ceremony was being held in the city of Kerman to mark the 2020 assassination of Iran’s top commander Qassem Soleimani.
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi said the attack was “heinous and inhumane”, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has vowed to get revenge.
According to state media, he said: “Cruel criminals […] must know that they will be strongly dealt with from now on and […] undoubtedly there will be a harsh response.”
Pic: AP
Kerman’s mayor, Saeed Tabrizi, told Iran’s state-run ISNA news agency that the blasts took place about 10 minutes apart.
Local media reports suggest more than 140 people were injured.
Kerman’s deputy governor Rahman Jalali described the blasts as “terroristic attacks” – without elaborating on who could be behind them.
The United States has said it was not involved in the explosions in Iran in any way and has no reason to believe Israel was either.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon, has blamed Israel for the explosions and said those who died were “targeted”.
The Hezbollah leader also paid tribute to Soleimani and said: “Even in his tomb, he is living. In his martyrdom, his life has become stronger, more present.
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Who was Qassem Soleimani?
“We see him in our rockets, in our homes, in the tears of the children.”
Soleimani, once Iran’s top military general, was assassinated in a US drone strike during a visit to Iraq to meet then prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.
Israel-Gaza latest: Warning ‘entire Middle East might end up in flames’
Qassem Soleimani. File pic
Iran’s Tasnim news agency, quoting two unnamed sources, reported that “two bags carrying bombs went off” at the site and that the “perpetrators … of this incident apparently detonated the bombs by remote control”.
Tehran has enemies both internally and externally.
Israel has in the past been accused of carrying out drone strikes on Iranian military facilities, while Sunni extremist groups such as Islamic State have carried out bombings, often on civilian targets, in the majority Shia nation.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s blasts.
It comes a day after Hamas’s deputy leader Saleh al Arouri died in an explosion in Beirut.
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Smoke rises in the background following the explosions. Pic: SNNTV
An ambulance arrives at the scene
The drone strike that killed Soleimani caused a major diplomatic crisis between the US and Iran, leading to retaliatory rocket strikes against US military sites in Iraq and pushing the two countries to the brink of war.
More than a million people took to the streets for Soleimani’s funeral – leading to a stampede in which 56 mourners were killed.
Having served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Soleimani became one of the country’s top commanders.
A national hero to supporters of Iran’s theocratic regime, he was often touted as the country’s second most powerful figure, behind only Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
He was the commander of the Quds Force – a division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Cops responsible for spying and military operations outside of Iran.
More than a million people took to the streets for the funeral (pictured) of Soleimani following his assassination in 2020
The group was deemed a terrorist organisation by the US.
They claimed Soleimani oversaw Quds Force officers as they tried and failed to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US Adel al Jubeir at the upscale Cafe Milano in Washington in 2011.
Soleimani was also regarded as the mastermind of Iran’s military operations in Iraq and Syria and influential in the development of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” – categorised as the “Axis of Evil” by Western officials – involving Iran and Iranian-backed militias including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli strikes killed at least 85 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Thursday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Five UN staff members have also been killed, according to the head of the UNRWA.
It comes as fighting in the enclave has restarted in recent days.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the United Nations Palestinian relief agency, said on Thursday: “In the past few days, another five UNRWA staff have been confirmed killed, bringing the death toll to 284.
“They were teachers, doctors and nurses: serving the most vulnerable.”
He added he feared “the worst is yet to come”.
“Under our daily watch, people in Gaza are again and again going through their worst nightmare,” he said in a statement.
“An endless unleashing of the most inhumane ordeals.”
Speaking in Parliament, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK government opposed the resumption of Israel’s hostilities and added that a British national was among the wounded when a UN compound was struck on Wednesday.
Israel has previously said it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas.
It denied previous reports it had targeted a UN compound.
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Briton wounded in Israeli strike
Israel resumes strikes
On Tuesday, Israel resumed heavy airstrikes on the enclave killing more than 400 people, bringing to a halt the ceasefire that had paused fighting in the 17-month war.
A day later, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) relaunched ground operations, seizing part of a key corridor that divides the north and south of Gaza – the Netzarim corridor.
On Thursday, the IDF said it had begun a ground operation in northern Gaza.
Meanwhile, Hamas fired three rockets at Israel without causing casualties.
It was the first such attack since the resumption of the IDF’s strikes.
Palestinians mourn loved ones killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters
Hospitals across Gaza said the strikes hit houses in Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza and the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Pic: Reuters
The European Hospital in Rafah said 26 people, mostly women and children, had been killed in strikes on two family homes overnight.
A father and his seven children were killed in one of the attacks, it added.
The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis received the bodies of seven people killed overnight in an attack on a home, it said.
A child looks on as Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, Hamas said talks with mediators were ongoing.
Fragile ceasefire
Hamas and Israel disagreed over how to proceed with the ceasefire after phase one came to an end.
The militant group wanted to move onto phase two to negotiate Israel’s permanent withdrawal from Gaza, the release of hostages in exchange for more prisoners and an eventual end to the war.
Read more:
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Siblings among those killed in one of Gaza’s deadliest days
A man sits amid rubble in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters/Hatem Khaled
Israel wanted to temporarily extend phase one and for more hostages to be released.
It cut off all supplies to Gaza to try and pressure the group into doing so before restarting its military campaign.
The war started after Hamas militants attacked Israeli communities in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.
More than 49,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing conflict, according to Gaza’s health authorities,
The tone has changed totally. It’s a remarkable turnaround from the Oval Office meltdown to the perfect phone call.
President Trump is wholly transactional. His desire for give and take far outweighs any ideological instincts. He has no particular alignment to Ukraine or, for that matter, to Russia.
He just wants a deal. Peace would stop the killing as he has said repeatedly. It would also allow for deals which can benefit America: recouping the taxpayer money spent on Ukraine and reconnecting the American economy with Russia.
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Will Trump turn on Putin?
But trumping all that is his legacy and his image. He wants to be seen as the peacemaker president.
Since the Oval Office moment, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy seems now to have recognised all that.
Ukraine’s approach towards Trump has changed. Zelenskyy is now playing his game: transactionalism.
The minerals deal hasn’t dissolved. The indications I am getting is that it’s essentially been upgraded and broadened to a wider scope: fuller economic cooperation.
Zelenskyy needs to encourage America deep into his country economically. Has he bought into the idea that a US economic footprint amounts to a key part of a security guarantee?
Read more:
A timeline of Trump and Zelenskyy’s relationship
What could be the future of Ukraine?
Sky’s correspondents react to Trump-Putin phone call
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The old adage is: “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” That’s too true with President Trump.
Zelenskyy now feels like he’s at the table and I am told he doesn’t feel coerced.
The challenges remain huge though: he doesn’t trust Putin. That’s what he tried to tell President Trump in the Oval Office. The performance that day proved to him that Trump is inclined to trust Putin.
Zelenskyy must use transactionalism to draw an impatient Trump in.
President Trump is in a hurry for a deal. He’s inclined to accept wholly disingenuous commitments from Russia, or as one source put it to me: “Trump has a high tolerance for bullshit…”
That’s the jeopardy for Zelenskyy.
World
Donald Trump has ‘very good’ call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which he discusses US ownership of Ukrainian energy plants
US President Donald Trump has had a “very good” call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the White House says, during which US ownership of Ukraine’s energy network was discussed to help protect it.
Mr Trump also agreed to “help locate” additional air defence support in Europe after a request from the Ukrainian leader, a statement about the one-hour phone call said.
Further talks will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in the coming days, and the US will continue intelligence sharing with Ukraine, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Mr Trump also agreed to work to ensure missing Ukrainian children are returned home and both parties agreed to a temporary 30-day ceasefire involving attacks against energy facilities, with the US president saying the US “could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise”, Ms Leavitt said.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio also issued a statement about the call saying that “President Trump also discussed Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants.
“He said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise. American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure.”
The White House statement added that Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy also reviewed the situation in Kursk and agreed to share information closely.
The presidents instructed their teams to move ahead with the details of implementing a partial ceasefire, with discussions to include expanding any ceasefire to the Black Sea.
“We have never been closer to peace,” Ms Leavitt added.
In comments later on Wednesday, Mr Zelenskyy said that Mr Trump understands that Ukraine will not recognise occupied land as Russian, and that he would like the US president to visit Ukraine – adding that “it would be helpful for Trump in his peace efforts”.
In an earlier statement, President Zelenskyy said the two leaders had “a positive, very substantive and frank conversation”.
Mr Zelenskyy echoed much of Mr Trump’s statement about what was decided, and said later that he “felt no pressure” from the US president.
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Trump and Zelenskyy ‘on track’
“We agreed that Ukraine and the United States should continue working together to achieve a real end to the war and lasting peace. We believe that together with America, with President Trump, and under American leadership, lasting peace can be achieved this year,” Mr Zelenskyy said
He added that Ukraine would “continue working to make this happen”.
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“I stressed that Ukrainians want peace, which is why Ukraine accepted the proposal for an unconditional ceasefire,” he said. “I highlighted the importance of President Trump’s concept of peace through strength. We agreed to maintain constant contact, including at the highest level and through our teams.”
In an earlier post on Truth Social, Mr Trump said the “very good” phone call lasted around one hour.
Read more:
A timeline of Trump and Zelenskyy’s relationship
What could be the future of Ukraine?
Sky’s correspondents react to Trump-Putin phone call
“Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs,” Mr Trump said.
“We are very much on track,” he added.
The call marks the first time Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy have spoken since the disastrous confrontation in the White House last month.
Mr Zelenskyy travelled to Washington expecting to sign a critical minerals deal but left early after he and Trump clashed in front of the world’s cameras.
On Tuesday, Mr Trump and Vladimir Putin held a phone call lasting about an hour and a half in which the Russian leader rejected a full 30-day ceasefire.
He agreed to not attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days. The two countries also swapped 175 prisoners each earlier this morning.
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