Israel-Iran war live: foreign ministers from Europe and Iran to meet in Geneva for talks

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Fire erupts near Microsoft office in southern Israel after Iranian missile strike – reports

An Iranian missile hit Beersheba early on Friday, emergency services have said, a day after a missile hit a hospital in the same southern city. Iran said it had targeted Microsoft’s office and the fire that erupted in the city was reportedly in the next street.

The Magen David Adom rescue service posted a picture of what appeared to be several vehicles on fire on X. It said no injuries had been reported but Israeli media later cited it as saying five people had sustained minor injuries.

An Israeli military official said that Iran had fired a single missile and that an interceptor had been fired in response but had failed to intercept it, the Times of Israel reporter Emanuel Fabian reported.

CNN reported that the fire was near a tech park that houses a Microsoft office. The building with Microsoft’s name on it was visible in other footage posted online.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Microsoft was the intended target.

In a statement quoted by Drop Site news, it said it had targeted the company “because of its close cooperation with the Israeli army and its being part of the system supporting aggression, and not just a civilian entity. The cyber area that was attacked also includes the residences of people from the espionage and artificial intelligence fields, who operate in direct cooperation with the enemy army and its security apparatus.”

Opening summary

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East.

Foreign ministers from the UK, France and Germany are to meet their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araqchi in Geneva on Friday aiming to create a pathway back to diplomacy over its nuclear programme.

The meeting comes a day after US President Donald Trump set a two-week deadline to decide whether the US will join Israel’s war on Iran to allow for negotiations to continue.

The White House said that the US president would “make a decision on whether to attack Iran within two weeks”. It added that correspondence with Tehran had continued and there was still hope of negotiations.

UK foreign secretary David Lammy, speaking after a meeting with his US counterpart Marco Rubio on Thursday, said it was “time to put a stop to the grave scenes in the Middle East and prevent a regional escalation that would benefit no one”.

The talks will be held in Geneva, where an initial accord between Iran and world powers to curb its nuclear programme in return for sanctions lifting was struck in 2013 before a comprehensive deal in 2015. The latest nuclear negotiations between Iran and the US collapsed when Israel launched its surprise attack on Iran on 12 June.

An Iranian official said Tehran has always welcomed diplomacy, but urged the so-called E3 to use all available means to pressure Israel to halt its attacks on Iran. “Iran remains committed to diplomacy as the only path to resolving disputes – but diplomacy is under attack,” the official said.

Israel meanwhile openly declared its support for regime change in Iran, with defence minister Israel Katz saying Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist”.

In other key developments:

• At least 22 Palestinians have been killed after Israeli forces opened fire on aid seekers near the Netzarim axis in central Gaza, Al Jazeera reported early on Friday, citing a source at al-Awda hospital in Deir al-Balah. On Thursday Israeli attacks on Gaza killed at least 72 people, including 21 who had gathered near food distribution sites set up by the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF). The dead included women and children, according to Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif, who posted footage of the bodies of children scattered in the street after an Israeli attack on tents housing displaced Palestinians near Gaza City.

• Israel carried out strikes on Iran’s Arak heavy-water reactor, its latest attack on Iran’s sprawling nuclear program. Iranian state television said there was “no radiation danger whatsoever” and that the facility had been evacuated before the attack. Israel also targeted the Natanz site, which has been hit several times.

• A week of Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 657 people and wounded 2,037 others, a human rights group said. The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said of those dead, it identified 263 civilians and 164 security force personnel being killed. Iran has not given regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. Its last update on Monday, it put the death toll at 224 people and 1,277 wounded.

• At least 240 people were wounded by Iranian missile strikes on Israel on Thursday morning, the AP reported. The outlet said that four individuals has been seriously wounded, citing Israel’s health ministry.

• Iran on Thursday accused the UN’s nuclear watchdog of acting as a “partner” in what it described as Israel’s war of aggression. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) accused Iran in a report prior to the start of the Iran-Israel war of non-compliance with its obligations in its nuclear programme.

• Iraq’s top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani warned against targeting Iran’s leadership and said that the Iran-Israel war could plunge the whole region into chaos. Sistani said in a statement on Thursday that any targeting of Iran’s “supreme religious and political leadership” would have “dire consequences on the region”.