Live: Iran holds funeral for top military, nuclear figures killed in Israeli strikes

Guyana, which assumed the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council for June, said the Council will convene on Friday to discuss the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Iran.

The council held a first, urgent meeting after Israel attacked Iran last Friday. The second session was requested by Iran, with support from Russia, China and Pakistan, a diplomat told AFP. 

The UN Security Council is responsible for maintaining international peace and security and tends to meet whenever peace is threatened.

Foreign ministers of Germany, France, the UK and a top EU diplomat are to hold nuclear talks with their Iranian counterparts on Friday in Geneva, according to a German diplomatic source, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Iranian media says state television broadcast briefly hacked, AFP reported on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump seemed to be on friendlier terms since Israel's attacks on Iran.

Trump apparently told reporters outside the White House that Netanyahu “is a good man” who has been “doing a good job” but has “been very unfairly treated by his country”, The Times of Israel reported on Wednesday. 

He added he had told Netanyahu to "keep going" on a call with the prime minister yesterday.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu thanked "friend of Israel" Trump for Iran war "support", according to a report by AFP on Wednesday. 

Netanyahu's attacks on Iran have bolstered his support in Israel, which had been showing cracks over the war in Gaza. 

French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel to halt strikes on Iran not linked to its nuclear programme, AFP reported on Wednesday.

A financial analyst from Canada who was in Tehran when Israel launched its attacks on Tehran on Friday, travelled to the Turkish border over land in order to return home, AFP reported on Wednesday.

Homa, who did not give her last name, was not able to leave by air after Iran closed its airspace on Friday and found a bus to make the 850-kilometre journey.

The 40-year-old woman left Tehran at 8 pm on Tuesday and arrived at the Kapikoy border crossing in Van province, eastern Turkey, on Wednesday afternoon. 

Many people were leaving Tehran, like her own family, who travelled to a neighbouring city about 30 kilometres to the west, on a journey that lasted "hours, due to heavy traffic", she said. "They are not safe, I worry about them."

Iran issued an evacuation warning on Wednesday for the residents of the Israeli city of Haifa, Iran's state television reported. 

"A few minutes ago, an evacuation notice was issued to Zionist settlers in Haifa to protect them from Iranian missile attacks," state TV said.

It showed an image of the area they would target, accompanied by Hebrew text saying: "Please leave the reported area immediately - in the next few hours, armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will operate in this area... to attack the military infrastructure of the Zionist regime."

The US ambassador to Israel on Wednesday announced plans for evacuating Americans by air and sea as the Israel-Iran conflict raged for a sixth day.

The embassy is "working on evacuation flights & cruise ship departures" for "American citizens wanting to leave Israel," ambassador Mike Huckabee posted on X.

No plans have been announced to evacuate Americans in Iran. 

Amnesty International on Wednesday urged Israel and Iran to spare civilians as their conflict escalates and alarm grows over the death toll.

"As the number of deaths and injuries continues to rise, Amnesty International is urging both parties to comply with their obligations and ensure that civilians in both countries do not further pay the price of reckless military action," said Amnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard in a statement.

“Statements by the US and the G7 so far have failed to recognize the catastrophic impact this escalation will have on civilians in both countries," she added.

“Instead of cheering on one party to the conflict over another as if civilian suffering is a mere sideshow, states must ensure the protection of civilians. Preventing further suffering must be the priority – not the pursuit of military or geopolitical goals."

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that his country would "never" surrender to Israel, after Israel stepped up its air attacks against Iran and announced it had destroyed the internal security headquarters in Tehran, AFP reported on Wednesday.

On the sixth day of the conflict, Khamenei warned the United States of "irreparable damage" if it intervened.

He was responding to threats from US President Donald Trump, an ally of Israel, who on Tuesday called on Iran to "surrender unconditionally" and said that the United States could "kill" the supreme leader, but that it would not at this time.

Even as thousands of Iranians attempt to flee the capital Tehran in the wake of Israel's bombardment, many of those working in essential services have been forced to remain.

Healthcare workers, working in a sector already battered by years of US sanctions, face a particular struggle to cope with the hundreds being killed and wounded on a daily basis.

Golnaz, a 34-year-old woman living in Tehran with her husband Keyvan, dreads the sound of explosions getting closer and closer.

"There’s barely an hour without an explosion nearby. Every time, I look at my husband and ask, 'do you think we’ll survive this?'" she told Middle East Eye.

Golnaz and Keyvan have no choice but to stay - Keyvan, 39, is a nurse and has to show up for work every day.

“There’s every kind of injury,” he said. “Children, teenagers, adults, elderly… and the number just keeps rising every day.” 

Read more: Iran's medics fear 'another Gaza' as Israeli strikes overwhelm hospitals

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Iran had the "legitimate" right to defend itself in the face of Israel's ongoing bombing campaign.

"It is a very natural, legitimate and legal right for Iran to defend itself against Israel's thuggery and state terrorism," he said.

A day earlier, Erdogan referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "the biggest threat to the security of the region".

"These attacks were organised while the Iranian nuclear negotiations were taking place," Erdogan said. "Israel, which possesses nuclear weapons and does not recognise any international rules... did not wait for the negotiations to end but carried out a terrorist act without waiting for the result."

The Turkish leader added that Ankara was closely following Israel's "terrorist attacks" on Iran, and would be on high alert for the possible effects on Turkey.

"We are making preparations for every kind of scenario," he said. "Nobody should dare to test us. We don't have any desire to take other people's lands... in the region."

The US military is "prepared to execute" any decision President Donald Trump might make on matters of war and peace, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said. He declined to confirm preparations of US strike options on Iran.

"If and when those decisions are made, the Department [of Defence] is prepared to execute them," Hegseth told the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

An Israeli strike has targeted a building belonging to the Iranian Red Crescent Society in Tehran, Iranian media including the official Irna news agency has reported.

President Donald Trump has declined to answer reporters' questions on whether the US is planning to strike Iran or its nuclear facilities. He said the Iranians had reached out but he feels "it's very late to be talking."

"There's a big difference between now and a week ago," Trump told reporters outside the White House. "Nobody knows what I'm going to do."

Trump said that Iran had proposed to come for talks at the White House. He did not provide further details. He described Iran as totally defenseless, with no air defense whatsoever.