Israel stepped up airstrikes against Iranian missile launchers and factories on Tuesday, and Iran retaliated across the Gulf region, disrupting energy supplies and travel. The war, triggered by Israeli and US attacks that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has intensified with both sides trading air strikes, fuelling concerns over regional stability and global oil markets.
Trump says 'everything's been knocked out' in Iran: The US President on Tuesday boasted of wide damage on Iran inflicted by the US-Israel attack, while denying that Israel had forced his hand into launching the war. Trump also said that it would be preferable for a leader from within Iran to take power after the end of the US-Israel conflict with Tehran, rather than Reza Pahlavi.
Israel stirkes Iran Council Session selecting new Supreme Leader:
Israel has carried out a strike targeting a meeting of Iran’s top leadership body as officials gathered to select a new Supreme Leader. The strike hit while members of the Supreme Council of Iran were in session and “counting the votes for the appointment of the supreme leader.”
Israel launches ground invasion of Lebanon: Israeli troops advanced into a border area in southern Lebanon after Israel's Defence Minister ordered forces to “take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon”. Military spokesperson Effie Defrin said the aim was to create a buffer zone “between our residents and any threat.”
Iran targets Gulf cities, energy sites: Explosions were reported in several Gulf cities as Iran struck industrial and diplomatic targets across the region. Tehran also targeted US bases in Bahrain and Qatar, prompting evacuation efforts by several governments. Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said two drones struck the US embassy in Riyadh, causing a fire and minor damage. The embassy said it was suspending consular services in the kingdom.
Iran shuts Strait of Hormuz: The IRGC said it was closing the Strait of Hormuz and warned it would “burn” any vessel attempting to pass through the waterway, which carries about 20% of global oil and gas supplies.
US strikes IRGC assets: The US military said it destroyed IRGC command posts as well as Iranian air defence and missile launch sites.
Death toll rises in Iran: Iranian state media, citing the Iranian Red Crescent, said the death toll from Israeli and US attacks had risen to more than 787. Tehran said the dealth toll from an Israeli strike on a girls’ school in Minab has risen to 165. The UN human rights chief called for a “prompt, impartial and thorough investigation” into the attack.
The Gulf kingdom has successfully destroyed 74 missiles and 92 drones since Iran began launching attacks on targets throughout the Middle East, Bahrain’s military says.
It didn’t give a figure for failed interceptions.
“The General Command states that the use of ballistic missiles and drones to target civilian infrastructure and private property constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the Charter of the United Nations, particularly the principles of distinction and proportionality,” an update shared on social media reads.
“These indiscriminate and heinous attacks represent a direct threat to regional peace and security.”
The UAE says it has been targeted by more than 1,000 attacks, a number that according to the Foreign Ministry exceeds the combined total of attacks suffered by all other targeted countries.
The emirate has not made a decision to change its defensive posture amid Iran’s attacks, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the country reserves the right to defend itself.
It added that the UAE also has not participated in the war, nor has it permitted the use of its territory, territorial waters, or airspace in any attack against Iran.
Tom Fletcher said civilians must be protected under international law but strikes are hitting homes, hospitals and schools.
“Civilians and civilian infrastructure have been under attack in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, the occupied Palestinian territory, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and beyond,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
Fletcher said he has activated contingency plans across Iran and the region including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
He said the U.N. is constantly assessing damage and scaling up the humanitarian response required.
Qatar’s security agencies have arrested two cells of operatives associated with the Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the state-run Qatar News Agency reports.
These are the first known arrests of the kind in Qatar since Israel and the US launched their bombing campaign against Iran on Saturday, and since Iran responded by attacking its Gulf neighbours with missiles and drones.
The Qatari Ministry of Defense has said that the country was targeted by two ballistic missiles launched from Iran, one of which was intercepted and another of which struck the Al-Udeid Air Base, which hosts US forces.
“Qatar Ministry of Defense announces that the State of Qatar was targeted by two ballistic missiles launched from the Islamic Republican of Iran,” a statement reads.
“Air defense systems successfully intercepted one of the missiles, while the second missile struck Al-Udeid Air Base without causing any casualties.”
Rafael Grossi says there’s no evidence Iran is building a nuclear bomb but he noted the country’s refusal to grant International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors full access to facilities is a matter of “serious concern”.
“I have been very clear and consistent in my reports on Iran’s nuclear programme: while there has been no evidence of Iran building a nuclear bomb, its large stockpile of near-weapons grade enriched uranium and refusal to grant my inspectors full access are cause for serious concern,” Grossi said in a social media post.
“For these reasons my previous reports indicate that unless and until Iran assists the IAEA in resolving the outstanding safeguards issues, the agency will not be in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful.”
“I’m sure we will be able to show that superiority in the next few days,” Israeli ambassador Danny Danon told reporters at the United Nations.
He cautioned, however, that while U.S.-Israeli attacks have degraded Iranian capabilities and it’s harder for them to launch missiles, “they put missiles underground, in caves, in secret locations.”
He said Israel has told its own citizens and people in the region, “give us some more time” to further degrade the Iranian military and achieve its objectives: “no nuclear weapons, no missile threat, no terror infrastructure.”
“It will not continue forever,“ Danon said.
The French president says the US and Israel violated international law when they launched an unprovoked attack on Iran over the weekend, but Tehran bears “primary responsibility” for the situation.
“The United States of America and Israel decided to launch military operations conducted outside international law, which we cannot approve of,” said Emmanuel Macron.
He nonetheless stated Iran’s “dangerous” nuclear programme, support for regional proxy groups, and shooting “its own people” meant it “bears primary responsibility” for the confrontation.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency has said there’s no evidence Iran is making a nuclear bomb.
The secretary of state insisted that Trump made the decision to attack Iran because this past weekend presented what he called a unique opportunity for the mission to be successful.
“The president is determined we were not going to get hit first. It’s that simple,” Rubio said ahead of a closed-door briefing for lawmakers.
Rubio was revisiting his remarks from a day earlier that have generated fierce blowback. At the time, he said Trump believed Israel was determined to act and wanted the U.S. to go first with a preemptive strike on Iran to prevent any retaliation on American bases and operations in the region.
“We are not going to put American troops in harm’s way,” he said.
Amid the administration’s shifting reasons for the war with Iran, Rubio also returned to Trump’s initial rationale. “There is no way in the world that this terroristic regime was going to get nuclear weapons, not under Donald Trump’s watch,” he said.
Iran’s indiscriminate retaliatory attacks on targets across the Gulf states are the “wrong strategy”, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says in a televised interview with state-run TRT HABER television.
“Iran’s bombing of Arab countries without making any distinction – Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan — all of them — is, in my opinion, an incredibly wrong strategy,” said Fidan.
“It significantly increases the risk in the region. But from Iran’s own perspective as well, it is an extremely mistaken strategy.”
Iran fired another salvo of missiles at Israel this evening, the Revolutionary Guard says.
“The sixteenth wave of ‘Operation True Promise 4’ has begun with a large number of missiles and drones launched by the aerospace forces of the Revolutionary Guards against the heart of the occupied [Palestinian] territories,” a statement carried by Fars news agency said.
Israel said it launched air strikes against Iranian missile launchers and a nuclear research site on Tuesday.
US President Trump said on Monday the military campaign’s four objectives are to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, wipe out its navy, prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and ensure it cannot continue to support allied armed groups.
Trump said on social media he ordered the United States’ development finance arm to provide political risk insurance for tankers carrying oil and other goods through the Persian Gulf “at a very reasonable price.”
Political risk insurance is a type of coverage intended to protect firms against financial losses caused by unstable political conditions, government actions, or violence.
He said that, if necessary, the U.S. Navy would escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. About a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait. The disruption to that traffic caused by the war has pushed oil prices higher.
The Navy has at least eight destroyers and three smaller littoral combat ships in the region. These ships have previously been used to escort merchant shipping in the region and in the Red Sea.
The United States said Tuesday that it had arranged charter flights to help Americans leave the Middle East after Washington joined Israel in attacking Iran.
US officials have helped arrange charter flights from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates "and will continue to secure additional capacity as security conditions allow," the State Department said.
It said that more than 9,000 Americans have returned from the Middle East since the United States and Israel started the war on Saturday, with more than 300 of them from Israel.
The State Department on Monday urged Americans in all of the Middle East from Egypt eastward to leave commercially for their own safety, though airports are shut down or operating at sharply reduced capacity across much of the region.
A drone attack caused a fire near the US consulate in Dubai on Tuesday, a government statement said, a day after the US embassy in Riyadh was hit by an Iranian strike.
"Dubai authorities have confirmed that a fire resulting from a drone-related incident near the US Consulate has been successfully contained," the official Dubai Media Office posted on X.
The Dubai media office says that no injuries have been reported following a “drone-related incident” around the US consulate.
“Dubai authorities have confirmed that a fire resulting from a drone-related incident near the US Consulate has been successfully contained,” the media office said in a social media post. “Emergency teams responded immediately. No injuries have been reported.”
Iran is ready for a long war against the United States and Israel and has so far not fired its most advanced weapons, its Defence Ministry says.
“We have the capacity to resist and to continue an offensive defence longer than what [the enemy] has planned for this imposed war,” ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
“We do not intend to deploy all our advanced weapons and equipment in the first days,” he added.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday the US navy would escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz if needed amid the Iran war, and ordered Washington to provide insurance for shipping.
"If necessary, the United States Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, as soon as possible. No matter what, the United States will ensure the FREE FLOW of ENERGY to the WORLD," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Israel's transport minister said Tuesday that the country will gradually reopen its airspace overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, after it was closed to civilian flights as the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran.
"The airspace will reopen gradually starting already on the night between Wednesday and Thursday, and of course subject to security developments," Miri Regev said during a press conference at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.
A spokesperson for the ministry told AFP that the airspace will initially reopen for repatriation flights only, and that people will not be allowed to fly out.
The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that it struck an underground nuclear site in Iran where it said scientists were "covertly" developing a key component for an atomic weapon.
"The IDF intelligence continued to follow the scientists' activities and located their new location at this site in a manner that enabled a precise strike on the covert underground compound," the military said, displaying a map showing the facility on the western outskirts of Tehran.
"In the site, a group of nuclear scientists operated covertly to develop a key component for nuclear weapons," it said, adding the scientists had been working at the underground location after Israel struck several Iranian nuclear sites during the previous war in June.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that the United States and Israel's military operations in Iran were conducted "outside international law", but placed primary blame on the Islamic republic.
"The United States of America and Israel decided to launch military operations, conducted outside international law, which we cannot approve of," said Macron.
But "the Islamic Republic of Iran bears primary responsibility for this situation," Macron added, citing their "dangerous" nuclear programme, support for regional proxies, and orders to shoot "its own people" during protests in January.
President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that French forces downed drones "in self-defence" during the opening hours of the Middle East conflict sparked by strikes on Iran by the US and Israel.
"We reacted immediately and shot down drones in self-defence in the early hours of the conflict to defend the airspace of our allies, who know they can count on us," Macron said, referring to defence agreements with Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said France was sending extra air defence forces and a French frigate to Cyprus following a drone attack on a British base on the Mediterranean island.
"I have ... decided to send additional air defence assets and a French frigate, the Languedoc, which will arrive off the coast of Cyprus this evening," he said in a televised speech, a day after Iranian-made drones hit the British Royal Air Force (RAF) base.
Daoud Alizadeh, the acting commander of the Lebanon Corps in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, was killed on Tuesday in an airstrike in Tehran, the Israeli military said in a statement.
The Quds Force works with Iran’s allied militant groups in the region, including Hezbollah. The army said the Lebanon Corps “supports Hezbollah force-building and functions as the connection between senior IRGC personnel and Hezbollah leadership.”
It said Alizadeh replaced the Lebanon Corps’ previous commander, Hassan Mahdavi, killed in an earlier Israeli strike.
Turkey's foreign minister said Tuesday that the United States should limit its attacks on Iran to degrading its military capabilities as forcing regime change would causes "risks" for the region.
Attacking military targets and regime change were the two main options for the war, Foreign Ministeer Hakan Fidan said in a television interview. "Moving toward the second (regime change) means introducing very different scenarios and risks for the region," he declared.
Israel's military chief on Tuesday said his forces would keep attacking Hezbollah until the Iran-backed Lebanese group was disarmed, as the war in the Middle East raged for a fourth day.
"We are determined to eliminate the threat Hezbollah poses and will not stop until this organisation is disarmed," Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir was quoted as saying in a military statement.
The latest round of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel started early Monday when Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks on Saturday.
The Spanish government has responded to US President Donald Trump’s threat to cut off all trade with Spain after Madrid refused to let the US military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran. “We have the necessary resources to contain the possible impact of the trade embargo by the US,” it said in a statement. “The US must comply with international law and bilateral EU-US trade agreements.”
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed Saturday in US-Israeli strikes, will be buried in the holy city of Mashhad, the Fars news agency said Tuesday.
Khamenei, who died at 86 after leading for 36 years, was originally from Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city, where his father is buried at the Imam Reza shrine. No date for the burial was disclosed.
Seven children have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the past two days, Lebanon’s health ministry said Tuesday.
In total, 40 people have been killed in Lebanon, including a Palestinian militant leader and a Hezbollah intelligence official, and 246 wounded in the new escalation between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
The United Nations has condemned the violence inflicted on children during the war in the Middle East, which has seen the US and Israel launch attacks on Iran’s military and civilian infrastructure. “The military operations in Iran and across the region are devastating and present a serious threat to children,” said the UN in a post.
“Civilians, schools and hospitals must not be attacked. Every child has a right to live free from fear.”
Iran held a mass funeral on Tuesday for 165 schoolgirls and staff killed in what it described as a US-Israeli attack on a girls’ school in the southern city of Minab.
It was the deadliest incident in the campaign against Tehran so far.