Iran launched more missiles at Israel and U.S. bases as the war in the Middle East enters a sixth day. Israel announced multiple incoming attacks early Thursday and said it was intercepting the missiles.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it began new strikes against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. At least eight people were killed there late Wednesday into Thursday according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry and the state news agency.
Tehran has warned of the destruction of the Middle East’s military and economic infrastructure, and the war has rattled financial markets, with most taking their cues from what the price of oil is doing. Early Thursday, oil prices resumed their ascent.
The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 70 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six U.S. troops have been killed.
Here is the latest:
Trump wants to be involved in picking the next Iranian leader
Trump in an interview with the news outlet Axios said he wants to be involved in selecting Iran’s next leader and called Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son an “unacceptable” potential pick.
“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me,” Trump said of Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of the supreme leader killed on the first day of the war. Trump added, “We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”
The president also derided him as “a lightweight.’
“I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy in Venezuela,” said Trump, referring to the acting president in the South American country.
Delcy Rodriguez took power in January after Trump ordered a U.S. military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro to face U.S. drug conspiracy charges.
Bahrain says an Iranian missile hit a state-run oil refinery
Bahrain said the fire Thursday night was extinguished without injuries and the refinery was still working.
But it marked yet another Iranian strike targeting the region’s oil industry, the lifeblood of the Gulf Arab states.
Air raid sirens sounded across Bahrain earlier Thursday, with residents urged to seek shelter, and mobile phones had alerted people in Dubai of possible missile fire from Iran. Authorities in the tiny Gulf nation said a facility in the oil refining and factory town of Maameer had suffered minor damage, with no casualties.
Around 20,000 Americans have left the Middle East, State Department says
And nearly all made their own way out, without government assistance, the State Department said.
The department said the first charter flight it arranged for private citizens who want to leave departed Wednesday, with several more expected Thursday. Officials did not say where they would depart, but the department asked Americans in Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to fill out an online form for information.
Officials said they have responded to requests for information from more than 10,000 Americans in the region, but did not say how many want to leave. Americans seeking help were urged to contact an emergency task force at +1-202-501-4444.
Iranians trickle across the border with Turkey
A steady stream of Iranians were crossing the border into Turkey on Thursday after the frontier was closed for much of the day before. Most already had links to Turkey.
Elyar Akbari, a 22-year-old from Tabriz, Iran, is a student in Turkey’s western city of Izmir. He cut a visit home short due to the war, but his family stayed behind.
“I don’t believe that Iranians will leave their country,” he said. “Only students or people who already work in Turkey will come for now.”
Kadir Ozel, 40, a Turkish citizen living in Tabriz with his family, crossed to drop off his children, who will stay with their grandmother and uncle in Ankara.
“They were very scared. But I have to go back for work,” he said.
A woman who asked to be identified only by her first name, Fariba, out of security concerns, crossed to wait out the war with her son in Izmir. But her neighbors couldn’t escape because they have no money, “so they stay home, and they are scared,” she said.
— By Serra Yedikardes
Nearly 25,000 flights canceled since the start of the war
That's more than half of the roughly 44,000 flights scheduled to fly in and out of the Middle East between Saturday and Thursday, according to the latest numbers from aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Flight-tracking service FlightAware reported about 2,050 flight cancellations worldwide as of around 11 a.m. ET Thursday, following more than 2,600 cancellations on Wednesday. Dubai International Airport, a major hub, continued to see the largest number of disruptions.
Settler attacks rise in West Bank as Israel tightens restrictions during war with Iran
Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have increased since Iran war erupted last weekend, a leading Israeli rights group said Thursday.
Yesh Din said it had documented 50 instances of settler violence in 37 Palestinian communities throughout the West Bank from Saturday to Tuesday, including shootings, assaults and property damage.
“Under the cover of the war, settler violence is escalating with the aim of forcing Palestinians out and taking over their land,” it said in a statement.
That includes Israeli settlers who shot and killed two Palestinian brothers in the northern West Bank village of Qaryout on Monday, injuring others. An ambulance couldn’t reach them because Israel has closed gates and checkpoints throughout the territory, citing security.
Such violence and movement constraints aren’t new, but groups like the Palestinian Red Crescent and Yesh Din say both have increased since war broke out with Iran.
Israel’s Smotrich threatens to make Beirut’s southern suburbs look like Gaza
Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich warned Thursday that the southern suburbs of Beirut where Hezbollah has a strong presence will look like Khan Younis, a city in Gaza that Israel has decimated during the two-year war in Gaza.
The Israeli military issued an evacuation notice Thursday calling for all residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs to “save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately,” apparently signaling plans for heavy bombardment of the area.
“You wanted to bring hell on us, we are bringing hell on you,” Smotrich, a hawkish conservative force in Netanyahu’s government who had opposed several ceasefires in Gaza, said as he toured towns on Israel’s border with Lebanon. “Dahiyeh will look like Khan Younis, and our citizens of the north will live in peace and quiet.”
Iran awaits announcement of a new leader
Some disagreements are starting to come to light from the confidential discussions over who will be Iran’s next supreme leader.
Rumors have long swirled around the possibility of Mojtaba Khamenei succeeding his father as supreme leader as he’s close with the all-powerful Revolutionary Guards.
A member of parliament and firebrand cleric, Hamid Rasaee, wrote Thursday that the killed supreme leader’s son was “an outstanding seminarian” as well as a trusted adviser to his father and an “overseer of many of the country’s affairs.” He also called Khamenei an ayatollah, a rank he may not possess.
A reformist-aligned cleric, Rahmatollah Bigdeli, condemned what he called Rasaee’s “ignorance and bias.”
“The constitution does not specify a time limit for the validity of the interim leadership council, and questioning the validity of this council is tantamount to questioning the legitimacy of the decision-making bodies of the regime,” he replied on X.
A former minister also aligned with Iran’s reformists, Abbas Akhoundi, warned against “a diversionary and toxic debate” over the succession.
“The stench of the power struggle in wartime is nauseating,” Akhoundi wrote on X on Wednesday.
Death toll in Lebanon surpasses 100
At least 102 people in Lebanon have been killed since the onset of the latest conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement.
At least 638 others were wounded, the ministry said Thursday.
The latest conflict between the two sides was sparked by Hezbollah firing rockets into northern Israel early Sunday, with Israel striking large swaths of the country since and evacuating large parts of southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Airlines restore some limited flights
As some airspace reopened, Emirates Airlines said Thursday that it was restoring a limited schedule of flights in and out of Dubai. The carrier said it would continue to update its operations as it monitored developments. It urged customers not to go to the airport unless their flights were confirmed.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport continued a phased reopening. Tel Aviv-based El Al said that it started “proactively assigning” customers who are currently abroad to recovery flights back to Israel, but noted that its outbound flights were still not operating as of Thursday.
Tumult in Tehran as bombing continues
As the war entered its sixth day Thursday, an Iranian state-owned newspaper called Iran reported bombings at a police station and even a gym in Tehran, as residents shuttled to grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations to buy supplies and fill their tanks.
Mohammad-Sadegh Motamedian, Tehran’s governor, urged citizens to avoid stockpiling necessities to keep markets calm.
Across the capital, metro stations were less crowded than before the war, although trains continued running. Authorities said they were equipping dozens of subway stations to serve as bomb shelters, as they did during the 12-day war last June.
Ongoing, widespread bombing forced authorities Thursday to cancel a planned tour for journalists of a damaged area of the capital.
Funerals for dead Iranian security officers were held around the country, including in Kerman, Isfahan and Tabriz. Hard-liners also gathered Wednesday night in town squares and intersections to mourn and express support for the theocracy while religious songs blared from their cars.
Iran says 4 health workers killed and 11 hospitals damaged by US-Israeli strikes
Iran’s Health Ministry Spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said Thursday in a post on X that the strikes have damaged critical parts of the country’s health system.
The dead included a resident orthopedic, a radiology technician, a general practitioner and an emergency medical technician.
He said the damage has also affected emergency services and ambulances.
The economy in northern Israel sputters after years of evacuations during Gaza war
Businesses have closed, wineries have shuttered and tourists who once flocked to the Galilee’s rolling hills have yet to return after repeated evacuations drove down spending.
Fatigue in Israeli towns like Kiryat Shmona comes as much of Israel’s public and government rally behind the war effort while Israeli strikes hit targets across Lebanon.
Israel’s military said two soldiers were wounded Wednesday by fire from Hezbollah. In Lebanon, at least 77 people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced, both within the country and into Syria.
In northern Israel, residents strap in for more crossfire
Memories of evacuation orders remain fresh in towns near the Lebanese border as Israeli tanks moved north Thursday amid renewed fighting with Hezbollah.
“We’ve already been through two complicated years,” said Oscar Chen of Kiryat Shmona. “There are children here, and there are elderly people who don’t have the time to run, nor the strength and ability if the shelter is far.”
Tens of thousands of people in northern Israel were forced to evacuate during the past 2½ years of conflict, leaving the region struggling to recover.
Sirens sound in Bahrain in latest barrage
Bahrain is urging people to head to the nearest safe location.
Earlier Thursday, Bahrain’s defense ministry said its forces intercepted 75 Iranian ballistic missiles, destroying 65 while 10 fell inside its territory. It also reported intercepting 124 drones, downing 88 while 36 landed within the country.
Chaos sown by Iran’s attacks across the Persian Gulf is key to its strategy
For years, Iran’s theocratic government warned it would blanket the Middle East with missile and drone fire if it felt its existence was threatened.
Now, it’s doing just that.
Since the U.S. and Israel launched the war Saturday, Iran has unleashed thousands of missiles and drones at Israel, American military bases and embassies, and energy facilities across the Gulf.
Its basic strategy is to instill fear about the dangers of a widening war in hopes that allies of the U.S. and Israel will apply enough pressure to halt their campaign. There is a risk, though, that the barrage-thy-neighbors strategy could backfire.
There’s also a grim math equation at play. Iran has a finite number of missiles and drones, just as the Gulf Arab states, the U.S. and Israel all have a limited number of interceptor missiles capable of downing the incoming fire.
▶ Read more about Iran’s war strategy
Beirut’s streets snarl as residents flee
The exodus comes after the Israeli military warned residents of the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital to “save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately,” signaling plans for heavy bombardment.
Hadi Kaakour, a fleeing resident, said he wasn’t sure leaving would make him safer.
“We don’t put anything past them,” he said, referring to Israel. “They will strike us no matter where we go.”
Some residents voiced anger that Lebanon has been pulled into the wider war.
“We got sucked into a mess that we have nothing to do with,” said Yousef Nabulsi, who was also fleeing. “People have been displaced and are now staying on the streets.”
Nearly 84,000 people had already been displaced since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah resumed Monday.
Taiwanese citizens return and recount the tension of the war
A total of 252 Taiwanese citizens arrived Thursday in Taipei from Dubai, days after being stuck in cities under attack by Iran.
“At first, I didn’t know what was happening. Because there were many drills in Dubai, I thought it was just a drill. Then I followed everyone to the air-raid shelter, and I saw many people crying. I was puzzled; why were so many people crying?” said Yu Shing-lun, a 19-year-old Taiwanese university student at NYU Abu Dhabi. “I checked the news online and realized it was war.”
Tim Liu, a 34-year-old financial analyst, was traveling with his girlfriend in Dubai for a week.
“It was very tense when the attack happened. We heard explosions. I kept checking the flight status and immediately changed my ticket back to Taiwan. Luckily, everything went smoothly,” he said.
Qatar says it was attacked by a salvo of Iranian missiles and drones
The Gulf nation’s defense ministry said 14 ballistic missiles and four drones were fired at the county.
It said air defenses intercepted all the drones and 13 of the missiles, while the 14th fell in the sea off Qatar.
Iran says it launched a new wave of missiles
Iranian state television announced that the salvo of missiles had been launched in a broadcast Thursday night.
Oil prices start climbing again after stabilizing a day earlier
“Yesterday’s bounce in risk assets already looks less like a turning point and more like a classic relief rally in a market that briefly inhaled before realizing the room was still on fire,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Uncertainty about the war in the Middle East has been rattling financial markets, with most taking their cues from what the price of oil is doing.
U.S. benchmark crude jumped by $2.59 per barrel, or 3.5%, to $77.25, the highest level in more than a year. Brent, the international standard, gained 2.8% to $82.87 per barrel.
The rise in oil prices has already sent prices at the pump up close to 10%.
UK sends 4 more jets to Qatar
Britain is sending four more Typhoon fighter jets to Qatar to help defend against Iranian missiles and drones.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain is “responding to requests” from Middle Eastern allies for additional protection.
Critics say Britain was caught unprepared to defend allies in the region and the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean after a drone struck the U.K. base there over the weekend.
Starmer said Britain had already sent additional fighter jets and ground-based air defenses in January and February as the United States amassed forces in the region. He added that British planes have been flying since Saturday to intercept Iranian drones and missiles.
Mideast stands at Berlin's tourism fair are empty
The Iran war has cast a long shadow at the world’s biggest tourism fair, the ITB, underway in Berlin. Representatives from countries like Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Israel never made it to the fair as they couldn’t leave their countries due to the closed airspace.
Tourism operators, travel agencies and airlines are currently more concerned about how to bring tens of thousands of stranded travelers back home than trying to sell future trips to the Middle East.
Still, Ramzi Maaytah, the managing director of the Jordan Tourism Board, said he was positive that travel would recover quickly after the end of the war.
“We are optimistic that things will be settled soon, the skies will be clear and tourism will be resumed,” Maaytah said.
Turkey condemns Iranian drone attack in Azerbaijan
The Turkish Foreign Ministry has called for an immediate end to the attacks which it said “target third countries in the region and increase the risk of the war spreading.” It added that Turkey would continue to stand by its ally, Azerbaijan.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed the drone attacks with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov.
A day earlier, NATO forces intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Iran that was heading toward the Turkish airspace.
UN peacekeepers say combat underway in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops move in
U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon say they have seen and heard clashes, including ground combat, in southern Lebanon as more Israeli forces have moved across the border.
“Ground combat was observed west of Kfar Kila,” a village near the border with Israel, overnight, which included “firing of shots,” said Tilak Pokharel, spokesperson for the mission known as UNIFIL.
In the town of Khiyam, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Israeli border, he said, peacekeepers saw “air attacks and flares and heard explosions.”
Iranians rally in Romania in support of the US-Israeli campaign
Members of the Iranian community rallied in Bucharest, the Romanian capital, on Thursday, holding up posters of Iran’s exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, as well as Israeli and American flags.
“Make Iran Great Again … Thank you Mr. President,” read one poster, a reference to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Abdolreza Heidari, one of the rally’s organizers, told The Associated Press that it's “a war that people wanted.”
Mehrbod, a student who only gave his first name because of fears for his loved ones back home said his grandparents and friends are in Iran.
“I couldn’t get in touch with them very well because they can’t connect to the internet,” he said. “Last time I talked to them, they were OK. They have hope that something will change because the regime now is at its weakest point.”
Azerbaijan says 4 people injured in Iranian drone attack
The office of Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General said four airport workers were injured in the Iranian drone attack on Nakhchivan, two more than earlier reported. Nakhchivan is a landlocked autonomous exclave of Azerbaijan that borders Iran.
It said the attack inflicted “significant damage” to an administrative building of the Nakhchivan airport, and a flight to Nakhchivan from Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, was diverted back for security reasons.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry decried Iran’s denial of the attack and said it “can in no way be considered acceptable.”
The ministry said Iran fired four drones in the direction of Nakhchivan, including one at a school where classes were underway, and demanded Iran apologize for the attack.
Japanese rugby player in Bahrain endures sleepless nights
Kenta Kutsuna, a professional Japanese rugby player with the Bahrain Rugby Football Club, has had sleepless nights as missile alerts ping on his phone and air sirens wail every few hours since the war began last weekend.
From the balcony of his apartment in Al Janabiyah, west of the Bahrain capital of Manama, Kutsuna has witnessed attacks on a U.S. military base. A warplane hit a skyscraper, a drone smashed into a residential building, and a barrage of missile interceptors launched from the U.S. base, he said.
“All I could do was to pray,” he said in a video interview with The Associated Press.
When sirens go off, he gathers with his teammates in a windowless living room. He mostly stays indoors, away from the windows with the curtains drawn, venturing out only briefly when he needs groceries.
Japan is arranging chartered flights to Tokyo for its citizens, but Kutsuna plans to stay with his teammates, working out indoors to be ready when matches resume.
Israeli army issues mass evacuation warning for Beirut suburbs
The Israeli military issued an evacuation notice Thursday calling for all residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs to “save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately,” apparently signaling plans for heavy bombardment of the area.
Since the resurgence of hostilities between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group, Israel has struck sites in Beirut’s suburbs and issued a blanket warning for residents of southern Lebanon south of the Litani River to evacuate their homes. But it had not issued a blanket evacuation order for areas outside of Beirut’s capital.
After the attacks by the U.S. and Israel on Iran triggered a new war in the Middle East, Hezbollah launched missiles and drones into Israel Monday for the first time in over a year, and Israel has retaliated with bombardment of southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Seventy-seven people have been killed and more than 83,000 people displaced in Lebanon by the renewed conflict.
France, Italy and Greece agree to coordinate deployment of military assets to Cyprus and Eastern Mediterranean
The three countries will work together to ensure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, according to a French diplomat.
The decision was announced Thursday after French President Emmanuel Macron called Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The diplomat spoke anonymously in line with government practices.
Noting that the Suez Canal and the Red Sea were under strain, Macron said earlier this week that France was taking the initiative to build a coalition to bring together the necessary means, “including military ones,” to restore and secure traffic through these maritime routes.
Supply of food to 50 million people in Gulf affected by blocked ports, group says
The war in the Middle East has blocked access to major ports in the Gulf region, impacting the supply of food to over 50 million people in a region highly dependent on agricultural imports, a ship-spotting platform said Thursday.
MarineTraffic.com said that container vessels heading to ports in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait are now stranded.
This has impacted agricultural supplies to over 50 million people in the Gulf, a region that imports over 90% of its food, it said.
Sri Lanka says another Iranian vessel is in its waters
A Sri Lankan minister said Thursday that another Iranian ship has arrived in its waters, a day after a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off the country’s coast, killing at least 87 people and wounding 32 others.
Government spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa confirmed the presence of the second Iranian ship in response to a question in parliament. But he did not provide further details about the ship or the number of people on board.
He said the government was making an “intervention to minimize loss of lives and to safeguard the regional peace.”
At least 38,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria, U.N. refugee agency says
The U.N. refugee agency, citing Syrian authorities, told The Associated Press that at least 38,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria – mostly Syrians – in the wake of new fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.
On Wednesday, UNHCR and Lebanese officials said 84,000 people have been internally displaced within Lebanon, and that 100,000 people were displaced within Iran in the first two days after U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, but there are no immediate signs of large numbers of people trying to leave the country.
Oil tanker struck in Iraq
A security official with Iraq’s navy said an oil tanker flying the Bahamas flag was hit by an explosion Thursday while docked near Khor al-Zubair port in southern Iraq. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
The official said a small, unidentified boat approached the tanker at 01:20 a.m. local time, shortly before an explosion was heard near the vessel’s left side. The cause of the explosion and the extent of the damage were not immediately clear.
Also Thursday, Iraq’s state-run Iraqi News Agency reported that an attempt to launch missiles from an area in Basra province in southern Iraq “intended to target a neighboring country,” was thwarted and that security forces seized a mobile launch platform carrying two missiles that were ready to be fired.
UAE hit by missile and drones
The United Arab Emirates’ Defense Ministry said Thursday that one ballistic missile and six drones hit the country’s territory, as the war widens in the Middle East.
The ministry added in a statement that it repelled six missiles and 131 drones Thursday, and hundreds since the start of the war.
Earlier this week, shrapnel from the interception of cruise missiles killed three residents, and falling shrapnel in past days has wounded 94, it said.
Rising death toll in Iran
The death toll in Iran from the ongoing war with the United States and Israel has reached at least 1,230 people, an Iranian government agency said Thursday.
The Iran’s Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs offered the toll.
Iran denies launching drone toward Azerbaijan
Iran’s general staff of the armed forces denied Thursday that it had launched a drone toward Azerbaijan.
The denial comes, however, as Iran has repeatedly denied targeting oil infrastructure and other civilian targets during the war, despite its drone and missile fire hitting those sites.
Iran targets Israel with large missiles, Revolutionary Guard says
Iran launched its large Khorramshahr-4 missiles in an attack Thursday targeting Israel, the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said.
The Guard said the missiles had a 1-ton warhead. The missiles also can be multiple warhead. Israel has said Iran used cluster munitions in attacks.
The Guard claimed attacks in Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates as well.
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