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.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed over the weekend in US-Israeli strikes, will be buried in the holy city of Mashhad, Fars news agency reports.
Khamenei, who died at 86 after leading the country 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.
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.”
The Israeli military said it had struck a compound in Iran that it said aimed to develop "necessary capabilities" for nuclear weapons, without providing any evidence for the assertion.
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.
The military operations in Iran & across the region are devastating & present a serious threat to children.
— United Nations (@UN) March 3, 2026
Civilians, schools & hospitals must not be attacked.
Every child has the right to live free from fear.
— @childreninwar & @UN_EndViolence https://t.co/i8TX4CDF8V pic.twitter.com/g1pc9t4yoX
