Israel warns 300,000 to leave Tehran as fears rise over widening war

# Israel warns 300,000 to leave Tehran as fears rise over widening war

Event date: 2025-06-16

Israel warned roughly 300,000 people in Tehran to evacuate on June 16, according to the Associated Press, as the military conflict between Israel and Iran deepened and President Donald Trump posted an ominous message calling for the immediate evacuation of the Iranian capital.

The AP report said the warning followed an Israeli strike near Iranian state television studios that interrupted a live broadcast. The scene underscored how quickly the conflict had expanded from military infrastructure to symbolic and civilian-facing targets in Tehran. Iranian state media said the attack happened while a reporter was on air.

The same report said Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had described the campaign as a response to Iranian threats and did not rule out further escalation. The warning for residents of Tehran suggested a broader pressure campaign designed to force movement, disrupt normal life and signal that the strikes were not limited to discrete military sites.

AP also reported that the Israeli attack was part of a larger strike package that had already killed military commanders and scientists and hit multiple areas of Iran. At least 224 people had been killed in Iran since Friday, according to the report, while more than 20 people had been killed in Israel and about 300 wounded by Iranian attacks.

The conflict had already begun to affect third countries and international actors. The AP report said a branch of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv suffered minor damage from the attacks, and Washington was watching the exchange closely even as Trump insisted the U.S. was not involved. That mix of public denials and threatening rhetoric made the risk of wider war more acute.

Iran, for its part, said it had launched retaliatory strikes and that Israel had attacked hospitals and other civilian targets. The AP article reported that Iran said a hospital in western Iran had been hit and that three Red Crescent workers were killed during rescue operations in Tehran. The source also said Israeli attacks on infrastructure were prompting renewed fears of escalation beyond a limited exchange.

The June 16 AP report is best read as a turning point in which the war became openly regional in tone. Evacuation warnings, attacks on state media and high-profile online messages from Trump all pointed to a conflict that was no longer confined to military installations. The evidence supports a straight account of the warning, the live-broadcast strike and the rising death tolls on both sides.