Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East, where Iran has launched a wave of retaliatory attacks after Israel killed scores of people and injured hundreds in a surprise attack on Friday morning that it claimed was aimed at preventing its arch enemy from developing a nuclear weapon. Explosions were heard over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv early on Saturday. Two people were reported to have been killed, one in Tel Aviv in an attack on Friday night and one in central Israel on Saturday morning. In Iran, fresh explosions were reported at an airport in Tehran that houses an air force base, and across the Hakimiyeh and Tehranpars neighbourhoods in the east of the capital. The Israeli military said its air defence systems were operating. “In the last hour, dozens of missiles have been launched at the state of Israel from Iran, some of which were intercepted,” the Israeli military said. Rescue teams were working at a number of locations across the country where fallen projectiles were reported, it said. In Iran, several explosions were heard in the capital, Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. The Fars news agency said two projectiles hit Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, and Iranian media said flames were reported there. Close to key Iranian leadership sites, the airport hosts an air force base with fighter jets and transport aircraft. Israeli media said a suspected missile came down in Tel Aviv, and a loud boom was reported in Jerusalem. In other developments: Iran’s envoy to the UN security council, Amir Saeid Iravani, said 78 people including senior officials had been killed in the Israeli attacks on Friday, and that more than 320 were injured, most of them civilians . He said the US was complicit in the attacks and accused Israel of seeking “to kill diplomacy, to sabotage negotiations and to drag the region into wider conflict”.

The US role in the attack remained murky with President Donald Trump giving conflicting accounts as to his approval and foreknowledge . In the run-up to the Israeli 200-plane attack, Trump had publicly urged Israel to give diplomacy more of a chance, before US-Iranian talks that were planned for Sunday. But on Friday, the US president insisted he had been well informed of Israel’s plans and described the Israeli attack as “excellent”.

Iran launched a fresh wave of attacks on Israel early on Saturday, state media said, after Israel’s military reported it detected inbound missiles from Iran . “New round of Honest Promise 3 attacks,” state television reported, referring to the name of the Iranian military operation against Israel.

Israel’s ambulance service said 34 people were injured on Friday night in the Tel Aviv area, most with minor injuries. Police later said one person had died . On Saturday Israeli media quoted emergency services as saying one person had been killed and 19 injured by a direct Iranian strike on an area in central Israel.

A top-level UN conference on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians scheduled for next week has been postponed, French president Emmanuel Macron said on Friday. France and Saudi Arabia had been due to co-chair the conference hosted by the UN general assembly in New York on 17-20 June, and Macron had been among leaders scheduled to attend.

Dozens of Palestinians were killed and injured after Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting to receive aid near a checkpoint north of Nuseirat, Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif and Drop Site News reported, in the latest such massacre. More Palestinians were killed when Israeli gunboats targets the tents of displaced people on a beach north-west of Gaza City, al-Sharif reported . It was impossible to independently verify the reports as Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering the territory. It has also cut off internet to Gaza since Thursday.

Iran closed all checkpoints to the Israeli-occupied West Bank as the country attacked Iran, a military official said Friday. The move sealed off entry and exit to the territory, meaning that Palestinians could not leave without special coordination.

Iran has warned the United States, United Kingdom, and France that their bases and ships in the region will be targeted if they help stop Tehran’s strikes on Israel, Iran state media reported on Saturday, according to Reuters.

Pope Leo XIV appealed on Saturday for authorities in Iran and Israel to act with “reason” after recent airstrikes and to pursue dialogue. According to Reuters, he told an audience in St Peter’s Basilica he was after the situation with “great concern”. “The situation in Iran and Israel has seriously deteriorated at such a delicate moment. I wish to forcefully renew an appeal for responsibility and reason,” the pope, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). “The commitment to build a safer world free from the nuclear threat must be pursued through a respectful meeting and sincere dialogue,” he said. “No one should ever threaten the existence of the other.”

The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, has shared more on the story that Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson has not ruled out the possibility that the bilateral talks with the United States scheduled to take place in Muscat on Sunday will go ahead: Speaking to Iranian media the foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaee said: “It is still unclear what decision we will make in this regard on Sunday.” He added: The other side did something that practically rendered negotiations and dialogue meaningless. He emphasised that it is unthinkable for the Islamic Republic of Iran that “the Zionist regime [Israel]” would have committed such a war in the region without the coordination or conscious green light of the US. It had been expected that Iran would feel compelled immediately to end all talks, so the Iranian indecision is a surprise, possibly reflecting diplomatic pressure on the country to find a way out of the crisis. Donald Trump had urged Iran to attend the talks – the sixth set of talks that are being brokered by Oman. The meeting was due to be the first in which both sides would have tabled written proposals. The sticking point for both sides is whether Iran could retain the right to enrich uranium at much lower levels than now. Iran is content for this to happen subject to independent monitoring, but only on the condition that US sanctions are lifted. The US is insisting that Iran lose its right to enrich since there is no sure way of preventing Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb if it continues to enrich domestically. The US believes that if Iran is to have a civil nuclear programme it should import uranium from third countries. Iran says it is a sovereign right to enrich.

Iran’s state TV reported on Saturday that about 60 people, including 20 children, were killed in an Israeli attack on a housing complex in the Iranian capital Tehran.

Iran’s airspace has closed ‘until further notice’, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP), citing Iranian state media.

Iran said the dialogue with the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme is “meaningless” but said it is yet to decide on whether to attend planned talks on Sunday, reports Reuters. “The other side [the US] acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime [Israel] to target Iran’s territory,” state media on Saturday quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying. “It is still unclear what decision we will make on Sunday in this regard,” Baghaei was quoted as saying. He said Israel “succeeded in influencing” the diplomatic process and the Israeli attack would not have happened without Washington’s permission, accusing Washington of supporting the attack. Iran earlier accused the US of being complicit in Israel’s attacks, but Washington denied the allegation and told Tehran at the UN security council that it would be “wise” to negotiate over its nuclear programme. The sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks was to be held on Sunday in Muscat, but it was unclear whether it would go ahead after the Israeli strikes. Iran denies that its uranium enrichment programme is for anything other than civilian purposes, rejecting Israeli allegations that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons. US president Donald Trump told Reuters that he and his team had known the Israeli attacks were coming but they still saw room for an accord.

Lebanon said it had temporarily reopened its airspace on Saturday at 10am local time (7am GMT/8am BST), the state news agency NNA said. The airspace will be shut down again starting from 10.30pm local time (7.30pm GMT/8.30pm BST) till 6am (3am GMT/4am BST) on Sunday, NNA reported citing the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority.

Israel’s military said on Saturday it was striking dozens of missile launchers in Iran, after announcing it had targeted air defences with a wave of strikes in the Tehran area overnight. The Israeli air force “continues striking dozens of surface-to-surface missile launchers in Iran”, the military said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Two deputy commanders at the Iranian armed forces’ general staff were killed in Israeli attacks, Iranian state media reported on Saturday. According to Reuters, it was unclear when the two commanders were killed but their deaths were announced on Saturday. Israel’s attacks on Iran since Friday have killed at least 78 people, including senior military officials, in what are Israel’s biggest attacks ever against Iran.

Iran confirmed that its Fordow nuclear facility sustained limited damage after recent attacks, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Saturday, citing a spokesperson for the country’s atomic energy organisation. “There has been limited damage to some areas at the Fordow enrichment site,” state atomic energy agency spokesperson Behrouz Kamalvandi said, reports Reuters.

France and Saudi Arabia have postponed next weeks UN conference in New York on a two state solution. The high level three day conference starting 17 June was seen as a moment for countries such as France and the UK to clarify their plans formally to recognise the state of Palestine. There was a concern that the sudden Iran crisis meant senior Arab ministers would not have felt able to leave the region to fly to New York. Many Gulf states are trying to ensure they do not become drawn into the Iran-Israel conflict. Decisions about recognition – bound to be denounced as a betrayal by the Israeli government – would also be harder to take at a time when Israel is locked in military combat with Iran. The postponement underlines how Israel can still lead in shaping the agenda in the Middle East.