Israel-Iran Conflict: Indian students evacuated from Iran land in Delhi as airstrikes intensify; Trump undecided on US involvement

Australia has started evacuating citizens from Israel amid rising regional tensions, with nearly 3,000 Australians registered for assistance across the Middle East, according to CNN. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that a small group was evacuated by land on Wednesday, and more are expected to follow within 24 hours as the situation grows “increasingly dangerous.” She reiterated Australia’s call for Iran to halt any nuclear weapons program and return to negotiations, saying, “Iran has a choice here... to discontinue its program and to return to talks.”

Around 100 Indian students evacuated from Iran amid Israeli airstrikes landed in Delhi on Thursday morning, as per reports by CNN, returning via Armenia under the government’s Operation Sindhu. According to Indian media reports, the students were first transported by road to Armenia on Tuesday and later flown out from the capital city, Yerevan, on a special flight arranged by Indian authorities.

“As part of the ongoing operation, the Indian Embassy in Iran has been assisting large numbers of Indian nationals in moving from areas seeing increased hostilities to relatively safer areas within the country and to subsequently evacuate them using the available and feasible options,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

Israel’s Air Force is carrying out a series of strikes targeting Tehran and other parts of Iran, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces early Thursday, CNN reported. This comes after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps earlier confirmed that air defense systems had been activated over Tehran.

The Israeli Air Force has confirmed that Israeli military is now conducting a series of strikes in Iran's capital city Tehran and other areas of the country, BBC reported.

The Israeli Air Force in a post on X confirmed the development and stated that it has begun "a wave of attacks in Tehran and other areas" without providing further details on the targets of the strikes being conducted.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said that it has issued evacuation warning for the residents of Arak and Khandab in Iran, Reuters reported.

The United States officials are reportedly preparing for a strike on Iran in the coming days, Bloomberg has reported. President Donald Trump has said that he isn't decisive about whether America would attack Iran or not.

The report, citing the people, noted that the situation is still evolving and could change. Some of the people, according to Bloomberg, pointed to potential plans for a weekend strike.

Speaking to reporters earlier on Wednesday outside the White House, Trump declined to say if he had made any decision on whether to join Israel's campaign. "I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do," he said.

The prospect of a US strike against Iran has exposed divisions in the coalition of supporters that brought President Donald Trump to power, with some of his base urging him not to get the country involved in a new Middle East war.

Some of Trump's most prominent Republican allies, including top lieutenant Steve Bannon, have found themselves in the unusual position of being at odds with a president who largely shares their isolationist tendencies.

Bannon, one of many influential voices from Trump's "America First" coalition, on Wednesday urged caution about the US military joining Israel in trying to destroy Iran's nuclear program in the absence of a diplomatic deal. "We can't do this again," Bannon told reporters at an event sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor in Washington. "We'll tear the country apart. We can't have another Iraq."

The anti-interventionist part of the Republican Party is watching with alarm as Trump has moved swiftly from seeking a peaceful diplomatic settlement with Iran to possibly having the United States support Israel's military campaign, including the use of a 30,000-pound "bunker buster" bomb.

- Reuters

The Israeli Air Force has said that it intercepted a drone which was launched from Iran as alerts triggered across Israel in the early morning of Thursday.

The Israeli Air Force on X wrote, "The Air Force intercepted an unmanned aerial vehicle launched from Iran."

Iranian authorities have arrested '18 enemy agents' who were building drones in the northeastern city of Mashhad for the Israeli attacks, Reuters reported quoting Iran's news agencies.

Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639 people and wounded 1,329 others, a human rights group said Thursday. The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists released the figures, which covers the entirety of Iran. It said of those dead, it identified 263 civilians and 154 security force personnel being killed.

Human Rights Activists, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country. Iran has not given regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. Its last update, issued Monday, put the death toll at 224 people being killed and 1,277 others being wounded.

- AP

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said that it continues to strike Iran while intercepting its missiles being fired into Israeli territory. The IDF said that it targeted more than 20 military sites in Iran's capital city Tehran on Wednesday night.

The IDF stated that it hit "key nuclear and missile sites" in Tehran which the Israeli military claims "fuel Iran’s weapons program and attacks on Israeli civilians".

Israel's defence system intercepted most of the Iranian missiles fired towards it, BBC reported.

US President Donald Trump reportedly approved a plan to attack Iran, but has not made a final decision, reported CBS News.

The report, quoting a senior intelligence officer, states that Trump held off from attacking Iran in case Tehran agreed to abandon its nuclear program.

When asked about US involvement in attacking Iran, Trump on Wednesday said, "I may do it, I may not do it."

US President Donald Trump's meeting in the Situation Room at the White House ended on Wednesday. The US president has rallied his top military advisers as he ponders over the next move regarding Israel-Iran conflict.

The United Nations Security Council has said that it will convene an emergency session on Friday at the request of Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan and Algeria to discuss the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel, CBS News reported.

In response to the emergency session meeting, Danny Dannon, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN said "Israel not only defended itself, it eliminated a major threat facing the entire free world."

The UN Security Council session would take place at 10:00 EDT (15:00 BST) on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said that he can mediate between Iran and Israel to end the growing conflict and suggested that the Kremlin can help negotiate a deal between the two warring nations, so that Tehran can pursue a peaceful nuclear program while relieving the pressure and concern of Israeli security.

While speaking to press, Putin said “it's a delicate issue,” but added that “in my view, a solution could be found.” When asked by reporters how would Russia react if Israel kills Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Putin refused to answer, stating that “I don't even want to discuss such a possibility.”

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he doesn't want to carry out a US strike on Iran but suggested he stands ready to act if it's necessary to extinguish Iran's nuclear program. Trump continued his increasingly pointed warnings about the US joining Israel in striking at Tehran's nuclear program as Iran's leader warned anew that the United States would be greeted with stiff retaliation if it attacks.

The stakes are high for Trump and the world as he engages in a push-pull debate between his goals of avoiding dragging the US into another war and preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. “I’m not looking to fight," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "But if it’s a choice between fighting and having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do.”

Trump pondered his next steps as the US embassy in Israel began evacuating a number of diplomats and family members who had asked to leave Israel. Meanwhile, senior European diplomats are set to hold talks with Iran in Geneva on Friday, according to a European official familiar with the matter.

- AP

The Jammu and Kashmir Students' Association has thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for the launch of evacuation effort, after 110 students were evacuated from the war-torn Iran.

"We remain hopeful that all remaining students will be evacuated soon," the Jammu and Kashmir Students' Association said in a statement.

First flight carrying over 100 Indian students, who were evacuated from war-torn Iran to Armenia, has successfully landed in Delhi early on Thursday, PTI reported.

The decision to evacuate Indian students came after Israel and Iran got involved in a conflict, trading strikes at each other and heightening tension in the Middle East region.

Amid escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, Indian students in Tehran were moved out of the city, 110 of them crossing the border into Armenia, through arrangements made by the Indian Embassy on Tuesday under 'Operation Sindhu'.

President Donald Trump kept the world guessing on Wednesday whether the U.S. will join Israel's bombardment of Iranian nuclear and missile sites, as residents of Iran's capital streamed out of the city on the sixth day of the air assault.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump declined to say if he had made any decision on whether to join Israel's campaign. "I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do," he said.

Offering a glimmer of hope for negotiations, Trump in later remarks said Iranian officials wanted to come to Washington for a meeting and that "we may do that." But he added, "It's a little late" for such talks.

The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain plan to hold nuclear talks with their Iranian counterpart on Friday in Geneva, a German diplomatic source told Reuters. The aim of the talks, which the source said are taking place in coordination with the United States, is to persuade Iran to firmly guarantee that it will use its nuclear program solely for civilian purposes. —Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin says that that all parties involved should look for solutions to end the conflict between Israel and Iran. Moscow has shared its proposals for achieving peace, he added.

A handout photo made available by the Iranian Army on 18 June 2025 shows the wreckage of a downed Israeli drone near the city of Isfahan, Iran.

At least one – and perhaps as many as three – aircraft associated with the Iranian government appear to have flown to Muscat in Oman on Wednesday afternoon where cancelled talks on Iran’s nuclear programme were supposed to take place on Sunday but were cancelled amid Israel’s attack.

-The Guardian

According to the Ministry of Communications, Iran will temporarily impose restrictions on internet access.

The United States is arranging evacuation efforts for its citizens in Israel, including flights and cruise ship departures, US ambassador Mike Huckabee announced on Wednesday in a post on X. He said the US embassy in Jerusalem is coordinating the plans and urged American nationals to register with the State Department’s Smart Traveler programme for updates.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has defended Iran’s response to Israel’s military strikes, calling it “legitimate self-defence” against what he described as Israeli “state-terrorism.” He accused Israel of killing hundreds of civilians and targeting medical workers, journalists, and residential areas in its recent attacks. “These attacks were organised while the Iranian nuclear negotiations were taking place,” Erdoğan said, adding that Israel, a nuclear-armed state that “does not recognise any international rules,” carried out a “terrorist act” without waiting for the talks to conclude.

Iran told the International Maritime Organization’s security committee that Israel had expanded its “unlawful attacks” to include strikes on petrochemical and gas infrastructure in Asalouyeh, a major energy hub on Iran’s Gulf coast. “These actions directly endanger international maritime security and the global energy supply chain,” the Iranian delegation said in a livestreamed statement. Warning of broader consequences, Iran added that without urgent international intervention, the risk of escalation at sea was “imminent.” Iran has previously threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for global oil trade. On Wednesday, maritime agencies advised commercial vessels to avoid Iranian waters near the strait.

Iran has firmly rejected Trump’s claim that Iranian officials sought a meeting at the White House. In a post on X, Iran’s mission to the UN said, “No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House,” adding that “the only thing more despicable than his lies is his cowardly threat to ‘take out’ Iran’s Supreme Leader.” The mission further declared, “Iran does NOT negotiate under duress, shall NOT accept peace under duress, and certainly NOT with a has-been warmonger clinging to relevance,” echoing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s stance that Iranians “do not answer well to the language of threat.”

US Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday said that he has asked the Trump administration to provide all 100 senators a classified briefing on the situation unfolding between Israel and Iran that has resulted in days of the two countries trading missile attacks.

"We've gotten briefings and I have requested that we get an all-senators classified briefing," Schumer said, adding that he believes it will be granted.

Iran has issued an evacuation warning for residents of the Israeli city of Haifa according to Iran's SNN News

India launches Operation Sindhu to evacuate Indian nationals from Iran with the first flights coming to Delhi at 2am.