Israel’s defense minister threatened on Saturday that “the intensity of the attacks” by Israel and the United States against Iran’s ruling theocracy will “increase significantly” as the war in the Middle East entered its fourth week.
Britain condemned Iran for targeting Diego Garcia, a joint U.K.-U.S. base in the Indian Ocean. The distance of Saturday's attack suggests Tehran is able to send missiles much farther than Iran had acknowledged.
Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility was hit in an airstrike, an official Iranian news agency reported Saturday, saying there was no radiation leakage. Israel denied responsibility, and the Pentagon declined to comment.
The U.S. and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that topples Iran’s leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programs. There have been no public signs of any such uprising, and the war shows no sign of abating.
The death toll has risen to more than 1,300 people in Iran, more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, 15 in Israel and 13 U.S. military members, and a number of civilians on land and sea in the Gulf region. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.
Here is the latest:
UN nuclear watchdog says no reports of leak or damage at Israeli site
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on X that “no abnormal radiation levels have been detected” after Iran said it targeted Israel’s nuclear assets.
The remote city of Dimona houses Israel’s main nuclear research center. The country is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though its leaders neither confirm nor deny it.
4 Palestinians killed, 9 injured in West Bank in first three weeks of war, police say
At least four Palestinians were killed by missiles from Iran in the Israel-occupied West Bank during the first three weeks of war, according to the Palestinian police spokesperson. Three women, one of whom was pregnant, and a child from the same extended family were killed in a trailer that served as a beauty salon in the town of Beit Awa.
The police have identified 198 missile fragments that fell across the West Bank, injuring nine people and damaging 27 buildings and properties. One person also died after falling from height while watching rockets.
The West Bank does not have the same safety infrastructure as Israel to protect citizens from missiles, including warnings, sirens, or bomb shelters. In previous rounds of conflict, missiles targeting Israel from Iran, Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen have avoided the majority-Muslim West Bank and east Jerusalem. This time, Iran’s missiles have inflicted heavy damage, with some fragments falling near the Al Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s Old City.
A wave of executions is feared in Iran after 3 young men hanged
The hanging by Iran of a 19-year-old star wrestler and two other young men this week is raising alarm among rights groups that a wave of executions may be underway as authorities facing relentless attacks from the U.S. and Israel seek to squelch public dissent.
Tens of thousands were arrested during a January crackdown on nationwide protests. Rights groups say at least 27 death sentences that have been issued, another 100 face charges that carry the death penalty, and Iranian state media have aired hundreds of forced confessions to crimes punishable by death.
Amnesty International said their trials have been “grossly unfair,” using confessions extracted by torture.
The executions were “intended to instill fear in society and deter new protests,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group. He worries many more “executions of protesters and political prisoners may be imminent.”
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Israel-Iran war expected to last several more weeks, Israeli military chief says
Israel is only at the halfway point in the war with Iran, the military’s chief of staff said on Saturday, as the country entered the fourth week of war against Iran.
“Dear citizens of Israel — we are at the midway point, but the direction is clear,” Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said. “In about a week, on Passover, the Festival of Freedom, we will continue to fight for our freedom and our future.”
Israel: Iran used two-stage intercontinental missile against Diego Garcia
Iran targeted Diego Garcia Island with a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile, Israel’s military said. This refers to missile with at least two rocket engines, one allowing the missile to reach space, and the other propels it to its target, at a range of up to 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles).
“These missiles are not intended to strike Israel. Their range extends to the capitals of Europe — Berlin, Paris, and Rome are all within direct threat range,” Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Saturday evening.
Analysts split over whether lifting Iranian oil sanctions will lower prices
Some analysts are skeptical that oil prices will drop due to the Trump administration’s move to lift sanctions for 30 days on Iranian oil already at sea.
“Prices will likely still continue to rise so long as the Strait remains silent,” Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a U.S. fuel-tracking service, said Saturday.
Henning Gloystein, managing director for energy, climate and resources for Eurasia Group, a New York-based risk consulting group, said he expects crude oil prices to fall slightly on Monday, but not because lifting sanctions will increase supplies.
“It’s more because it’s seen as part of Trump’s efforts to start to find an off-ramp, he said. Iran has already been shipping oil out of the Strait of Hormuz throughout the war, he noted.
Israel-Iran war expected to last several more weeks, Israeli military chief says
Israel is only at the halfway point in the war with Iran, the military’s chief of staff said on Saturday, as the country entered the fourth week of war against Iran.
“Dear citizens of Israel — we are at the midway point, but the direction is clear,” Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said. “In about a week, on Passover, the Festival of Freedom, we will continue to fight for our freedom and our future.”
The Pentagon declined to comment on the Natanz attack
Iran’s official news agency Mizan said Saturday’s airstrike on the country’s Natanz nuclear facility did not result in any radiation leakage. Natanz is Iran’s main enrichment site and was also hit in the first week of the war, damaging several buildings according to satellite images.
Israel’s military said it was not responsible for striking Natanz, which Russia condemned Saturday as a violation of international law. The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a social media post Saturday that Iran informed it of the attack, with “no increase in off-site radiation levels reported.”
The same nuclear facility was targeted by Israel and the United States during the 12-day war with Iran in June 2025.
Iran says there is no crude oil stranded at sea for US to lift sanctions on
The U.S. announcement that it will lift sanctions on Iranian crude stranded at sea is an attempt to manipulate the market, since there is no such oil, Iran’s Oil Ministry spokesperson, Saman Ghodousi told Iran’s state media.
“At present, Iran essentially has no crude oil left in floating storage or any surplus available for supply to other international markets, and the U.S. Treasury Secretary’s remarks are solely intended to reassure buyers and manage the market psychologically,” he said late Friday.
Iran war halts Qatar helium output, threatening global tech supply chains
Iran’s attack this week on Qatar’s natural gas export facility threatens to disrupt not just world energy markets but also global technology supply chains because the helium it produces is crucial for a range of advanced industries.
The gas that makes party balloons float is a byproduct of natural gas production, and a key input in chipmaking, space rockets and medical imaging.
Qatar supplies a third of the world’s helium, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and had to halt production shortly after the war erupted three weeks ago. After repeated Iranian drone attacks on Ras Laffan, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant, state-owned QatarGas reported “extensive” damage that will take years to repair and cut annual helium exports by 14%.
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Iran said it is targeting Israel’s nuclear program, dozens injured in Dimona
Rescue services said more than two dozen people were lightly injured in a missile attack on the southern Israeli city of Dimona. They also treated a 10-year-old boy in serious condition and a 40-year-old woman in moderate condition, both with shrapnel injuries.
The remote desert city of Dimona houses Israel’s main nuclear research center, which opened in 1958. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though its leaders neither confirm nor deny this.
Iran said it is targeting Dimona after the Natanz nuclear enrichment site was targeted earlier. Israel’s military said it was not responsible for striking Natanz.
Israeli prime minister’s foes in Iran and Lebanon could shape his election prospects
Benjamin Netanyahu must soon decide when to hold Israel’s next elections. With war raging on multiple fronts and no end in sight, Israel’s enemies in Iran and Lebanon may help make that decision for him.
The stakes could hardly be higher: A victory will add to his legacy as Israel’s longest-ruling leader and fend off, if not quash altogether, calls for a reckoning over the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks that triggered 2 ½ years of war across the region.
A defeat risks turning him into the highest-profile political casualty of that attack — the deadliest in Israel’s history — which still casts a long shadow over the country’s psyche and already has led to a string of high-profile resignations and firings.
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Trump’s mixed messages on Iran: ‘Winding down’ the war and easing sanctions but adding more troops
Trump frequently contradicts himself, sometimes in the same speech, social media post or even sentence. In the past 24 hours, he sent a torrent of mixed signals about the Iran war, raising more questions about the direction of the conflict and his administration’s strategy.
Within the space of a few hours Friday, Trump said he was considering winding down the war, his administration confirmed it was sending more troops to the Middle East and, in an effort to lessen the economic impact on global energy markets, the United States lifted sanctions on some Iranian oil for the first time in decades — relieving some of the pressure that Washington traditionally has used as leverage.
The confusing combination of actions deepens a sense among Trump’s critics that there is no clear, long-term strategy for the war the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran. Now in its fourth week, the war remains on an unpredictable path and a credible endgame is unclear even as the global economy is being roiled.
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Several people injured in Israel from missiles
Several people in northern Israel were wounded by shrapnel as the area came under constant missile fire from Lebanon. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said at least five people were injured in a barrage Saturday evening.
Israel has also been striking hundreds of targets in southern Lebanon and the suburbs of Beirut after Hezbollah joined the war in support of Iran.
Death toll in Lebanon from war with Israel reaches 1,024
The Health Ministry said Saturday that three deaths were reported over the past 24 hours, and 99 people were wounded, raising the total injured to 2,740.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, when the Iran-backed militia fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran triggered a widening war in the Middle East.
Israel has since ordered evacuations from large parts of southern and eastern Lebanon as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs, and more than 1 million people have been displaced.
UK base on Cyprus won’t be used to strike Iran
Britain has reassured Cyprus that the U.K. air base on the island won’t be used for American attacks on Iran.
The U.K. is allowing the U.S. to use bases in England and on the island of Diego Garcia to strike Iran’s missile program.
The British government says Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides on Saturday that RAF Akrotiri “would not be involved in the UK’s continuation of its agreement with the U.S. to use U.K. bases in collective self-defence of the region.”
Akrotiri was hit by an Iranian-made drone early in the conflict, causing damage but no injuries. Iran also launched missiles at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in Saturday, failing to hit the base.
A missile alert sounded Saturday night in Dubai
Earlier Saturday, the Defense Ministry of the United Arab Emirates said it responded to three ballistic missile and eight drone attacks.
Saudi Arabia meanwhile said it downed 20 drones in a couple of hours Saturday in its eastern region, home to major oil installations. No injuries or damage was reported.
Authorities in Bahrain said sirens have sounded, signaling a potential attack.
Trump needs to show a comprehensive Iran strategy or risk congressional blowback, lawmakers say
Trump’s quip the war will end “when I feel it in my bones” has drawn alarm, especially as lawmakers are asked to approve billions in new spending.
“When he feels it in his bones? That’s crazy,” said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The administration’s stated goals — of ending Iran’s ability to obtain a nuclear weapon and degrading its ballistic missile supplies, among others — have perplexed lawmakers as shifting and elusive.
″ Regime change? Not likely. Get rid of the enriched uranium? Not without boots on the ground,” Warner said. “If I’m advising the president, I would have said: Before you take on a war of choice, make the case clear to the American people what our goals are.”
Iran may have used space launch vehicle to aim ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia
The joint British-U.S. base in the Indian Ocean is almost 4,000 miles (2,500 kilometers) away. Iran previously limited the range of its ballistic missile program to 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers), but U.S. officials have said Iran’s system for satellite launches could extend their range.
Iran’s Simorgh space launch vehicle could offer greater range “at the likely cost of terminal accuracy,” said Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think-tank.
“Ballistic missiles are space rockets. They launch, they go really high up and they come down really fast,” said Steve Prest, a retired Royal Navy commodore. “If you’ve got a space program, you’ve got a ballistic missile program.”
Prest said the launches were likely a message of defiance, to say “look what we can do,” in response to Trump’s claims that Iran’s military has been obliterated.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia say Iranian attacks on Gulf states endanger regional stability
Egypt’s president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stressed Saturday that the Iranian escalation against Gulf states endangers the safety and the stability of the region.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported that el-Sissi reiterated his country’s rejection of the Iranian attacks on the Gulf states, adding the the Egyptian president expressed solidarity with the Kingdom against threats.
Also Saturday, Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit welcomed the visits of el-Sissi and his Jordanian counterpart King Abdullah II to multiple Gulf states over the past few days, saying that these visits “reflect full Arab solidarity.”
US House speaker said mission is ‘all but done’
Trump’s fellow Republicans appear unlikely to directly challenge him, even as the conflict drags on. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the military operation will be over quickly.
“I do think the original mission is virtually accomplished now,” Johnson, R-La., told the AP and others at the Capitol this week. “We were trying to take out the ballistic missiles, and their means of production, and neuter the navy, and those objectives have been met.”
Johnson acknowledged that Iran’s ability to threaten ships in the Strait of Hormuz is “dragging it out a little bit,” especially as U.S. allies have largely rebuffed the president’s request for help, but said “As soon as we bring some calm to the situation, I think it’s all but done.”
Republicans have backed the commander in chief, so far
The Republican president’s decision to launch the U.S.-Israel-led war with Iran is testing the resolve of the Congress, which is controlled by his party.
Under the War Powers Act, the president can conduct military operations for 60 days without approval from Congress. So far, Republicans have easily voted down several resolutions from Democrats designed to halt the military campaign.
But the administration will need to show a more comprehensive strategy ahead or risk blowback from Congress, lawmakers said, especially as they are simultaneously being asked to approve billions in new spending.
Iranian hospital and tourist site damaged in strikes
A hospital and tourist site in southwestern Iran have been damaged from U.S. or Israeli strikes, killing at least one child, according to Iranian news agencies.
Strikes killed a child at the Ritaj entertainment complex in Ahvaz, according to Iran’s state news agency, and damaged the Andimeshk’s Imam Ali Hospital hospital, according to the semi-official Mehr and Fars news agencies. Both are in the Khuzestan province on the border with Iraq. The hospital said the blast created significant damage and it is no longer accepting patients, but did not give any other information.
Congress looks for Trump’s exit plan as the Iran war drags on
Trump took the United States to war without a vote of support from Congress, but lawmakers are increasingly questioning when, how and at what cost the war with Iran will come to an end.
Three weeks into the conflict, the toll is increasing: At least 13 U.S. military personnel have died, and more than 230 wounded. A $200 billion Pentagon request for war funds is pending at the White House. Allies are under attack, oil prices are spiking and thousands of U.S. troops are deploying to the Middle East with no endgame in sight.
“The real question is: What ultimately are we trying to accomplish?” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told The Associated Press. “I generally support anything that takes out the mullahs,” he said. “But at the end of the day, there has to be a kind of strategic articulation of the strategy, what our objectives are.”
Iran’s ability to threaten navigation in Strait of Hormuz is degraded, US military leader says
The head of U.S. Central Command says in his latest video update on the war that U.S. forces “remain on plan to eliminate Iran’s ability to project meaningful power outside its borders.”
Adm. Brad Cooper also detailed steps taken to undermine Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway vital to international commerce such as oil shipments.
Cooper also said that “we have built the most extensive air defense umbrella in the world over the Middle East right now.”
22 countries urge Iran to cease attacks, reopen the Strait of Hormuz
Countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, South Korea and Australia have also condemned Iran’s attacks on commercial vessels as well as oil and gas facilities in the region.
“The effects of Iran’s actions will be felt by people in all parts of the world, especially the most vulnerable,” they said in a joint statement Saturday.
Iranians hold Eid al-Fitr prayers in Tehran’s grand mosque
Thousands of Iranian worshipers on Saturday converged on Tehran’s grand mosque for Eid al-Fitr prayers marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Associated Press footage showed worshippers lining up at Imam Khomeini Mosalla and in its vast courtyard for the prayers as Israel and the United States continued launch massive airstrikes against Iran.
“It’s really a painful feeling,” Masoud Alibenam, 50 said its “really a painful feeling” that the Eid prayers are being offered without Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was killed in the first days of the war. “The leader (Khamenei) is no longer here, and we are offering the prayers in his absence.”
Worshippers also held funeral services for Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guard, who was killed in an Israeli strike Friday. The funeral procession of Amir Hossein Bidi, a pro-government cultural activist also was held after Eid prayers.
36 Iranian drones and missiles launched at Jordan in war’s third week
Jordan’s military said on Saturday this week’s attacks, which involved at least 14 missiles, left a child injured.
That brought the total number of wounded to 24 since war’s Feb. 28 start.
Over the last three weeks, a total of 240 missiles and drones have been fired at Jordan, the military said.
What is the Diego Garcia air base?
The Diego Garcia air base is home to about 2,500 mostly American personnel and has supported U.S. military operations from Vietnam to Iraq, Afghanistan and strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Islands, a remote archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean off the tip of India. The islands have been under British control since 1814.
They are at the center of a U.K. spat with President Donald Trump over Britain’s plans to hand sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius. Britain would then lease back the Diego Garcia base.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer says that will safeguard the future of the base, which is currently vulnerable to legal challenge. The Trump administration initially welcomed the deal, but in January Trump called it “an act of GREAT STUPIDITY.”
Russia says it remains Iran's loyal friend and reliable partner
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a message Saturday congratulating Iranians on the new year festival Nowruz that he wished them to “overcome these severe trials with dignity.”
The Kremlin press service also quoted Putin as sayin that “Moscow remains Tehran’s loyal friend and reliable partner.”
Iraq says attack on its intelligence headquarters has killed an officer
In a statement, the National Intelligence Service described Saturday's drone strike as a “terrorist attack” and vowed to bring those responsible to justice.
Earlier Saturday, Gen. Saad Maan, head of the Iraqi Security Media Cell said the drone targeted Service's headquarters in Baghdad’s Mansour area.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Iran holds funeral services for intelligence minister, Revolutionary Guard spokesperson
Iran held a funeral service Saturday for Minister of Intelligence Esmail Khatib in the holy city of Qom, a center of Shiite Muslim shrines and scholarship, the Islamic Republic’s state-run media reported.
Khatib was killed in an Israeli strike last week. He was one of the top Iranian officials killed in the war including the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
A funeral procession was also held Saturday for Revolutionary Guard spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini, who was killed a day earlier in an Israeli strike, according to Iran’s state-run media.
Iran’s state TV and other semiofficial outlets aired footage showing funeral prayers they said were for Naini.
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