Israel and Iran exchanged fire again on Friday, a week into the war between the longtime enemies.

Here are the latest developments:

- Iran meetings -

European top diplomats are meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Friday to discuss Iran's nuclear programme.

Foreign ministers from France, Germany, Britain and the EU are urging de-escalation, with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy saying the next two weeks are "a window... to achieve a diplomatic solution".

Iraq's top Shiite Muslim 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 Thursday that any targeting of Iran's "supreme religious and political leadership" would have "dire consequences on the region".

He warned that such action against the Shiite-led Islamic republic could spark "widespread chaos that would exacerbate the suffering of its (the region's) people and severely harm everyone's interests".

Governments around the world are evacuating thousands of their nationals caught up in the rapidly spiralling Israel-Iran conflict, organising buses and planes and in some cases assisting people crossing borders on foot.

Foreigners have rushed to leave both countries after Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign on Friday targeting Iran's nuclear and military facilities, sparking retaliation from Tehran.

With Israel's air space closed and the two countries exchanging heavy missile fire, many people are being evacuated via neighbouring countries.

- Europe -

For days, Syrians have watched as Iranian missiles and Israeli interceptors light up the skies over their territory, but the new government in Damascus has so far remained officially silent on the unprecedented conflict.

Iran was one of former ruler Bashar al-Assad's biggest backers, playing a crucial role in propping up his government by providing military advisers and the support of affiliated armed groups throughout the 14-year Syrian civil war.

European foreign ministers will hold talks Friday with their Iranian counterpart, hoping to reach a diplomatic solution to the war with Israel as US President Donald Trump mulls the prospect of US involvement.

Israel, claiming Iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched air strikes against its arch-enemy a week ago, triggering deadly exchanges.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sworn Iran will "pay a heavy price" for a strike on an Israeli hospital on Thursday, an attack Tehran said was targeting a military and intelligence base.

The United States has thousands of troops deployed on bases across the Middle East, a region in which Washington's forces have carried out repeated military operations in recent decades.

Israel launched an unprecedented air campaign against Iran last week, and US President Donald Trump has said he is weighing whether to join Israel in the fight.

US involvement in the conflict would likely result in attacks by Tehran on American troops in the region, who were already targeted by Iran-aligned forces in the course of the Israel-Hamas war.

Dragging two suitcases and wearing a rucksack, Homa looked exhausted after crossing the Turkish border following a long trip from Tehran where she'd been on holiday when the Israel-Iran war began.

The 40-year-old Iranian who works in Canada as a business analyst was stranded when Iran closed its airspace after Israel launched a massive pre-dawn bombing campaign on Friday and the Islamic republic struck back, in their most intense confrontation in history.

As Israel presses its aerial attacks on Tehran, concern is growing over the fate of foreign nationals and Iranians seen by rights groups as political prisoners imprisoned in the capital who have no chance of fleeing to safety.

Iran is believed to hold around 20 European nationals, many of whose cases have never been published, in what some Western governments describe as a strategy of hostage-taking aimed at extracting concessions from the West.

The Iran-Israel war has helped strengthen Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu domestically and overseas, just as his grip on power looked vulnerable.

On the eve of launching strikes on Iran, his government looked to be on the verge of collapse, with a drive to conscript ultra-Orthodox Jews threatening to scupper his fragile coalition.

Nearly two years on from Hamas's unprecedented attack in 2023, Netanyahu was under growing domestic criticism for his handling of the war in Gaza, where dozens of hostages remain unaccounted for.

The use of the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to distribute food in the Palestinian territory is "outrageous", the head of a UN inquiry said Wednesday.

Navi Pillay, who chairs the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Israel and the Palestinian territories, joined a growing chorus of criticism of the GHF's operations, and cited its US links.

"In every war, the siege and starvation surely leads to death," the former UN rights chief told journalists.