Iran and Israel launched new missile strikes at each other on Wednesday as the air war between the two longtime enemies entered a sixth day despite a call from U.S. President Donald Trump for Tehran’s unconditional surrender, Reuters reported.

The Israeli military said two barrages of Iranian missiles were launched toward Israel in the first two hours of Wednesday morning. Explosions were heard over Tel Aviv.

Israel told residents in a southwestern area of Tehran to evacuate so its air force could strike Iranian military installations. Iranian news websites said Israel was attacking a university linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the east of the capital.

Iranian news websites said Israel was also attacking a university linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the country’s east, and the Khojir ballistic missile facility near Tehran, which was also targeted by Israeli airstrikes last October.

The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence says Iran is armed with the largest number of ballistic missiles in the Middle East. Iran has said its ballistic missiles are an important deterrent and retaliatory force against the U.S., Israel and other potential regional targets.

Trump warned on social media on Tuesday that U.S. patience was wearing thin. While he said there was no intention to kill Iran’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “for now,” his comments suggested a more aggressive stance toward Iran as he weighs whether to deepen U.S. involvement.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now … Our patience is wearing thin.”

Three minutes later Trump posted, “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”

Trump’s sometimes contradictory and cryptic messaging about the conflict between close U.S. ally Israel and longtime foe Iran has deepened the uncertainty surrounding the crisis. His public comments have ranged from military threats to diplomatic overtures, not uncommon for a president known for an often erratic approach to foreign policy, read the report.

A source familiar with internal discussions said Trump and his team are considering a number of options, including joining Israel on strikes against Iranian nuclear sites.

A White House official said Trump spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone on Tuesday.

Trump also met for 90 minutes with his National Security Council on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the conflict, a White House official said. Details were not immediately available.

The U.S. is deploying more fighter aircraft to the Middle East and extending the deployment of other warplanes, three U.S. officials told Reuters. The U.S. has so far only taken indirect actions in the current conflict with Iran, including helping to shoot down missiles fired toward Israel.

A source with access to U.S. intelligence reports said Iran has moved some ballistic missile launchers, but it is difficult to determine if they were targeting U.S. forces or Israel.

However, Britain’s leader Keir Starmer, speaking at the Group of Seven nations summit in Canada that Trump left early, said there was no indication the U.S. was about to enter the conflict.

Khamenei’s main military and security advisers have been killed by Israeli strikes, hollowing out his inner circle and raising the risk of strategic errors, according to five people familiar with his decision-making process.

With Iranian leaders suffering their most dangerous security breach since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the country’s cybersecurity command banned officials from using communications devices and mobile phones, Fars news agency reported.

Israel launched a “massive cyber war” against Iran’s digital infrastructure, Iranian media reported.

Ever since Iran-backed Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and triggered the Gaza war, Khamenei’s regional influence has waned as Israel has pounded Iran’s proxies – from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq. Iran’s close ally, Syria’s autocratic president Bashar al-Assad, has been ousted, Reuters reported.

Israel launched its air war, its largest ever on Iran, on Friday after saying it had concluded the Islamic Republic was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has pointed to its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the international Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Israel, which is not a party to the NPT, is the only country in the Middle East believed to have nuclear weapons. Israel does not deny or confirm that.

Netanyahu has stressed that he will not back down until Iran’s nuclear development is disabled, while Trump says the Israeli assault could end if Iran agrees to strict curbs on enrichment.

Before Israel’s attack began, the 35-nation board of governors of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years.

The IAEA said on Tuesday an Israeli strike directly hit the underground enrichment halls at the Natanz facility.

Israel says it now has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate the campaign in coming days.

But Israel will struggle to deal a knock-out blow to deeply buried nuclear sites like Fordow, which is dug beneath a mountain, without the U.S. joining the attack.

Iranian officials have reported 224 deaths, mostly civilians, while Israel said 24 civilians had been killed. Residents of both countries have been evacuated or fled.

Global oil markets are on high alert following strikes on sites including the world’s biggest gas field, South Pars, shared by Iran and Qatar.

At least 59 Palestinians were killed and over 220 injured on Tuesday after Israeli tanks fired shells at a crowd gathered near aid trucks in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, according to local medics.

The strike marks one of the deadliest incidents in recent weeks as thousands of desperate civilians continue to search for food amid a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Eyewitnesses said the crowd had gathered along a main road where aid trucks were expected to pass. “They told us to move forward, then the tank shells hit,” said Alaa, a survivor interviewed at the overwhelmed Nasser Hospital.

“People are being torn apart for trying to get flour to feed their children.”

Videos shared online showed dozens of bodies sprawled across the road. The wounded arrived at the hospital in rickshaws, donkey carts, and civilian vehicles, with many lying untreated due to lack of space.

The Israeli military confirmed firing in the area, saying a crowd had approached a stuck aid truck near IDF forces. The incident is under investigation, and the military said it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals” while stressing its efforts to minimize civilian casualties.

Tuesday’s overall death toll in Gaza reached at least 73, including 14 killed in other Israeli strikes.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, nearly 400 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,000 wounded while trying to access aid since Israel partially lifted its blockade in late May.

Much of the current aid is distributed through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.- and Israeli-backed initiative operating under military protection—an arrangement the UN has criticized as unsafe and biased.

The ongoing war, sparked by the October 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel, has resulted in nearly 55,000 Palestinian deaths and left most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents displaced and hungry.

The crisis deepens as Gaza residents now watch anxiously amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran, a long-time supporter of Hamas.

The Israeli army claimed on Tuesday, June 17, that it had targeted and killed Ali Shadmani, the newly appointed commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, in a strike on Tehran.

According to the Israeli military, Shadmani was one of the closest figures to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

He had been appointed just four days earlier by Khamenei as the successor to Gholam Ali Rashid.

Meanwhile, Kioumars Heydari, Commander of Iran’s Army Ground Forces, stated Tuesday that a heavy wave of drone attacks on Israel has begun, utilizing “new and advanced weaponry,” and warned that the strikes will intensify in the coming hours.

Meanwhile, Israeli media, citing Israel’s Home Front Command, reported that alarm sirens were activated in the Golan Heights following the suspected infiltration of a drone.