President Donald Trump warned the U.S. will “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if it doesn’t fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, prompting Tehran to say it would respond to any such strike with attacks on U.S. and Israeli energy and infrastructure assets.
Iranian missiles, meanwhile, struck two communities in southern Israel late Saturday, leaving buildings shattered and dozens injured in dual attacks not far from Israel’s main nuclear research center.
The developments signaled the war was moving in a dangerous new direction at the start of its fourth week. Trump — who is facing increasing pressure at home to secure the strait as oil prices soar — issued the ultimatum in a social media post while he spent the weekend at his Florida home.
The death toll from the war has risen to more than 1,500 people in Iran, more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, 15 in Israel and 13 U.S. military members, as well as 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:
Israeli begins ‘wide-scale wave of strikes’ on Iran
The Israeli military said it had “begun a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting Iranian terror regime infrastructure.”
It did not immediately elaborate.
Iranian media reported new airstrikes targeting Tehran early Monday morning, without identifying the sites being hit.
One person hurt after missile interception in UAE
An Indian national living in the United Arab Emirates was hurt by falling shrapnel after the interception of a ballistic missile over an industrial area near Al Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi, authorities said Monday.
The interception happened over the Al Shawamekh area of Abu Dhabi, authorities said.
Also early Monday, both Bahrain and Kuwait sounded missile alerts over incoming Iranian fire, though it wasn’t clear if there was any immediate damage from the barrages.
In Saudi Arabia, the Defense Ministry said it destroyed drones in the kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province.
Gulf air defenses intercept missiles and drones, sirens in Bahrain
Kuwait said early Monday that its air defenses are intercepting hostile missile and drone attacks, while the UAE said its air defenses are dealing with missile and drone strikes coming from Iran.
Air raid sirens have sounded in Bahrain.
Saudi Crown Prince receives call from Macron
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received a phone call from French President Emmanuel Macron, during which Macron expressed his country’s solidarity with Saudi Arabia, condemning what he described as repeated Iranian attacks targeting the kingdom, according to a statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry posted early Monday.
Macron reaffirmed Paris’s support for measures taken by Riyadh to “safeguard its sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.”
US crude oil price volatile as Iran war continues
The price of U.S. crude oil remained volatile Sunday as the Iran war continued to hinder shipping and production in the Middle East.
West Texas Intermediate, the light, sweet crude oil produced in the United States, spiked briefly when trading resumed Sunday evening on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange but then dropped to $97.86, just under its Friday close of $98.32.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at just over $111 on Sunday. It was $112.19 on Friday and reached as high as $119.50 earlier last week.
The price for both WTI and Brent have soared since the start of the war, when Brent was roughly $70 per barrel.
Market analysts were watching closely over the weekend after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz, crucial to oil exports, would be “completely closed” immediately if the U.S. follows up on President Donald Trump’s threat to attack its power plants.
Iran launches missiles toward Israel, occupied West Bank
Israel’s military says it has detected missiles launched from Iran toward central Israel and parts of the occupied West Bank.
Loud booms were heard in Tel Aviv, where a cluster bomblets hit several places earlier Sunday.
French president warns of ‘risk of uncontrollable escalation’
President Emmanuel Macron in an X post says he has spoken with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Macron called on all combatants in the war to impose a moratorium on energy and other civilian infrastructure, and urged Iran to let traffic flow freely through the Strait of Hormuz.
Israeli military says 2 separate air defense failures let missiles get through
Military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said interceptors were launched in both cases Saturday but failed to stop the incoming fire. He added that more than 90% of launches are typically intercepted.
The two Iranian missiles injured more than 150 people in southern Israel on Saturday, hospital officials say.
The military is also investigating whether its own artillery fire accidentally killed an Israeli farmer in the country’s north in Kibbutz Misgav Am on Sunday morning, Defrin said.
He added that the military expects several more weeks of fighting.
Iran’s top diplomat blames the US for closure of Strait of Hormuz and rejects threats
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that maritime traffic isn’t passing through the Strait of Hormuz because insurance companies are concerned about the U.S.-initiated war, not because of Iran’s actions.
“Freedom of Navigation cannot exist without Freedom of Trade. Respect both—or expect neither,” Araghchi wrote on X. He added that further threats will not sway Iranians nor insurers.
Iran insists ‘safe passage’ in Strait of Hormuz is possible for non-enemies
A Foreign Ministry statement says “vessels, equipment and any capacities” belonging to the United States and Israel, “as well as other participants in the aggression,” do not qualify.
It also says any security arrangements in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Sea of Oman must be coordinated with Iran’s “competent authorities,” while taking into account “realities” around armed conflict.
Iran’s parliament speaker threatens financial entities
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf on X says that “entities that finance the US military budget are legitimate targets.” He specifically mentions Treasury bonds.
He adds that “we monitor your portfolios. This is your final notice.” It is not the first time Iran has threatened financial entities like banks in the war.
Iran criticizes Trump’s ‘public threat’ in another letter to the United Nations
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency says Iran’s U.N. ambassador wrote to both the council and U.N. chief Antonio Guterres. The letter calls attacks on power plants “inherently indiscriminate and clearly disproportionate.”
Trump late Saturday threatened to attack such plants if Iran doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz in 48 hours.
Iran urges the UN Security Council to act
A letter from Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi asks the council to “compel the aggressors to immediately cease all unlawful attacks” and make them pay reparations for damage to Iran’s nuclear and other sites. Iran’s main enrichment site, Natanz, was struck again Saturday.
The U.N.’s most powerful body has voted to condemn Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Gulf neighbors but the resolution did not mention the strikes from Israel and the U.S. that launched the war.
The letter also urges the council to make Israel place its own nuclear facilities under “verification and monitoring” of the U.N. nuclear watchdog. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though it doesn’t confirm or deny their existence.
Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 4 Palestinians
An Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip hit a vehicle in the central Nuseirat refugee camp and killed three police officers, according to officials with Awda Hospital.
Eight others were wounded, the officials said, and another Palestinian was killed in Gaza City, according to Shifa hospital.
The deaths were the latest fatalities among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since an October ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than 2-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli forces have carried out near-daily airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones, killing more than 670 people in Gaza during the ceasefire, according to Gaza health officials.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on Sunday’s strikes, but has previously said it will respond to violations of the ceasefire that threaten its soldiers.
US reminds travelers to ‘exercise increased caution’
The State Department issued its latest warning Sunday, noting that airspace closures during the Iran war can disrupt travel and American diplomatic facilities abroad have been targeted inside and outside the Middle East.
“Groups supportive of Iran may target other U.S. interests overseas or locations associated with the United States and/or Americans throughout the world,” the government warned.
Israel detects more Iranian missiles fired toward nuclear center
Alarms sounded in the area around one of Israel’s major nuclear research centers on Sunday evening, a day after two Iranian missiles wounded more than 150 people in the cities of Arad and Dimona.
Israel’s rescue services said there were no immediate reports of injuries.
Son of Iran’s last shah asks US and Israel to spare civilian infrastructure
Exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi called on the U.S. and Israel to “continue targeting the regime and its apparatus of repression, while sparing the civilian infrastructure Iranians will need to rebuild our country.”
“Iran’s civilian infrastructure belongs to the Iranian people and to the future of a free Iran,” he wrote on X.
Trump has threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if the country does not open the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on X that “delirious threats on the battlefield” are having the opposite impact by strengthening Iran’s unity and illustrating Trump’s desperation.
Israeli hospital treated more than 150 people after Iranian strikes
Dr. Roy Kessous, deputy director of the Soroka Medical Center in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, says the hospital treated shrapnel wounds, severe physical trauma and a few cases of acute anxiety.
He says the hospital is trained for such events, but the scale, including entire families wounded together and in some cases left homeless, added to the pressure. Still, he said the hospital remains prepared.
“We are ready to receive wounded from the area again right now,” he told The Associated Press.
Lebanon’s president condemns Israeli strikes on bridges as ‘unjustified’
President Joseph Aoun’s statement comes hours after Israel blew up another key highway bridge in southern Lebanon.
Israel says it is striking bridges to hinder Hezbollah’s movements. The strikes have increasingly cut off large parts of the south as fighting continues.
“They are a prelude to a ground invasion,” said Aoun, adding that Lebanon has raised concerns through diplomatic channels. The president has vowed to disarm Hezbollah and offered direct negotiations with Israel to end the ongoing war.
War between Israel and Hezbollah has killed 1,029 people in Lebanon
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Sunday that 118 children and 79 women are among those killed, and at least 2,786 others have been wounded.
The country’s death toll as of Saturday was 1,024 people.
German leader speaks with Trump about the Mideast and Ukraine
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he discussed the situations in Iran, Israel and Ukraine with Trump on Sunday.
“We agreed to remain in close contact,” Merz wrote on his X account. “Our exchange will be continued soon.”
‘Russian roulette’ living near the border, said an Israeli farmer killed in an attack
Israeli authorities identified the man killed in Misgav Am as Ofer “Poshko” Moskovitz, a farmer who said in a recent interview that living near the border was like “Russian roulette.”
Trump is using ‘the only language the Iranians understand,’ US Treasury chief says
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Trump is using “the only language the Iranians understand” by threatening to destroy the country’s power plants unless Tehran fully opens the Strait of Hormuz.
The combative rhetoric offers a glimpse into how the Trump administration is framing and defending the war effort.
Bessent told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump “will take whatever steps it takes” to achieve his goals in the war with Iran.
The secretary was asked about the comment last week that Trump was considering “winding down” military operations and whether the president is now escalating the conflict.
“They are not mutually exclusive,” Bessent said. “Sometimes you have to escalate to de-escalate.”
US ambassador to the UN suggests Iran’s power plants are valid military targets
On Fox News on Sunday, Mike Waltz defended Trump’s threat to attack power plants if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz.
Waltz said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard controls much of the country’s infrastructure and uses it to power its war effort. He said Trump would start by destroying “one of Iran’s largest power plants” without identifying it.
“There are gas-fired thermal power plants and other type of plants,” Waltz said, adding that “the president is not messing around.”
Under international law, power plants that benefit civilians can be targeted only if the military advantage outweighs the suffering it causes to civilians, legal scholars say.
WHO chief says war at a ‘perilous stage’ with attacks near nuclear facilities
The United Nations’ top health official says the war has reached a “perilous stage” following strikes on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility and in the city of Dimona not far from an Israeli nuclear research center.
“Attacks targeting nuclear sites create an escalating threat to public health and environmental safety,” said World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
He called on warring parties to “exercise maximum military restraint and avoid any actions that could trigger nuclear incidents.”
NATO chief downplays Trump’s rift with alliance
Mark Rutte, NATO’s secretary-general, acknowledged that Trump has been angry at other countries over his push to get allies more involved in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
But Rutte stressed during an interview with Fox News Sunday that more than 20 countries now are “coming together to implement his vision” to ensure the shipping channel can function.
Rutte, who said he spoke with Trump several times this week, said it was “crucial” that the U.S. was taking military action in Iran since its nuclear and ballistic missile programs posed an “existential” threat to the world.
Israel destroys a bridge on the southern Lebanese coastal highway over the strategic Litani River
The Israeli military has been destroying bridges over the river, which link large swaths of southern Lebanon to the rest of the country.
Israel says Hezbollah militants have been using these routes to move into southern Lebanon, where fighting has intensified in recent days as Israel keeps up its ground operations and airstrikes.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued a warning an hour before the Qasmiyeh bridge near the coastal city of Tyre was struck.
The Israeli army also said Sunday it was launching new strikes in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.
Turkey’s top diplomat meets with Iranian, European and US officials
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held meetings with the foreign ministers of Iran and Egypt, as well as the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and unspecified U.S. officials, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported Sunday.
The topic of discussion was steps which can be taken to end the war.
Qatar is not engaged in mediation efforts aimed at ending the war, diplomat says
The small Gulf country has a long history of mediating disputes and has good ties with the United States.
It also maintained businesslike relations with Iran before the war, positioning it to serve as a potential mediator. But those ties have deteriorated following Iranian strikes on natural gas facilities and other Qatari targets.
The diplomat says Qatar is “currently focused on defending our country” and addressing the gas crisis.
“We are not currently engaged in any mediation efforts,” the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
— By Josef Federman in Jerusalem
Iranian Health Ministry says patients evacuated from a ‘heavily damaged’ hospital
Ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour says the evacuations from the Imam Ali Hospital in the southwestern city of Andimeshk came after an airstrike a day earlier.
“Suffering patients in the city of Andimeshk were forced to leave the only hospital in the city,” Kermanpour wrote on X.
He posted images showing a hospital ward with a partially collapsed ceiling, a corridor with broken glass, and debris scattered across the floor.
Kermanpour said the patients have been evacuated to another city.
International law bars targeting purely civilian targets like power plants, expert says
Rachel VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School, says plants that are confirmed to be dual-use — meaning they also benefit the military — can be targeted only if the strategic advantage outweighs the harm it causes to civilians.
Causing excessive suffering to civilians makes it a war crime under international law, said VanLandingham, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force who served chief legal adviser for international law at U.S. Central Command.
Trump said on Saturday that he would give Iran 48 hours to open the vital Strait of Hormuz or face a new round of attacks. He said the U.S. would destroy “various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”
VanLandingham said: “It could be lawful, but the way he said it sounds awful because he doesn’t provide any kind of nuance.”
Netanyahu doesn’t say whether Israel will strike Iran’s energy grid
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was noncommittal when asked about Trump’s threats to strike Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz isn’t opened, and whether Israel would join.
“I think President Trump knows exactly what he’s doing. And whatever we do we do together and as far as possible in confidence,” Netanyahu Israeli prime minister said Sunday.
Trump’s warning to Iran points to importance of Strait of Hormuz
A warning from U.S. President Donald Trump that the United States will “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if Tehran fails to fully open the Strait of Hormuz in 48 hours underscores how the small strip of water is a vital artery of the world economy.
On a typical day, ships carrying about a fifth of the world’s oil sail out of the Persian Gulf through the narrow passageway between Iran and Oman toward the Indian Ocean.
The war with Iran means it’s effectively closed, hemming in more than 90% of that crude and refined products, according to the International Energy Agency.
Israeli leader calls on international community to join the war against Iran
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said missile attacks on Israeli cities, near Jerusalem’s holy sites, and toward a U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean, along with the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz, are all evidence that Iran is a threat to the world.
“Israel and the United States are working together for the entire world,” Netanyahu said in the southern town of Arad, which was hit by an Iranian missile, wounding dozens of people.
“It’s time to see the leaders of the rest of the countries join us,” he told to foreign journalists.
Netanyahu claimed that some are “beginning to move in that direction” but more are needed.
Qatar confirms death of 7th person in helicopter that crashed off its coast
Qatar’s Interior Ministry says rescuers found the body of a seventh person who initially had been missing.
The Defense Ministry said four Qatari forces and three Turkish nationals — including a military officer and two civilians — were on board the helicopter that crashed Saturday in Qatari territorial waters.
All seven people on board have now been accounted for.
German defense chief demands Iran immediately stop de-facto closure of Strait of Hormuz
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius says joint efforts to secure trade routes through the Strait of Hormuz can come only after a ceasefire is achieved.
Pistorius urged Iran to ensure freedom and safe passage in the strait.
He made the comments Sunday during a trip to Japan for talks with his Japanese counterpart, Shinjiro Koizumi.
Netanyahu tours site of Iranian missile strike in southern Israel
Dozens of people were wounded and several buildings were heavily damaged in the strike in the southern town of Arad.
Netanyahu says it was a “miracle” that no one was killed by the blast. He said that if all residents had rushed to shelters, no one would have been hurt.
Netanyahu urged all Israelis to heed warnings and rush into shelters as soon as they hear a siren.
End to war would require “guarantees” Iran won’t be attacked again, foreign minister says
Abbas Araghchi called on “independent nations” to pressure both the U.S. and Israel to stop their war against Iran.
The top Iranian diplomat says any efforts to end the war should include “guarantees” that the U.S. and Israel won’t attack the Islamic Republic again, according to the state-run news agency IRNA.
Iran needs guarantees that its “sovereignty and national security won’t be violated again,” according to IRNA.
Araghchi’s comments came in a phone call Saturday with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the news agency said.
Over 170 people treated at hospital in southern Israel after missile strikes
Dr. Roy Kessous, deputy director of the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba, has said injuries from the two strikes late Saturday included shrapnel wounds as well as trauma.
Kessous says the hospital is trained for such events, but the scale — including entire families wounded together and in some cases left homeless — added to the pressure.
He said the hospital already is prepared for a similar emergency, telling The Associated Press: “We are ready to receive wounded from the area again right now.”
Israel orders destruction of all bridges over Lebanon’s Litani River
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz expanded the military’s list of targets in Lebanon to include all bridges over the country’s Litani River, a focal point of the renewed Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
Katz on Sunday accused Lebanon’s Iran-backed militant group of using the crossings over the waterway, about 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) north of Israel’s border, to move fighters and weapons into southern Lebanon.
Katz also ordered the military to accelerate its destruction of Lebanese homes near Israel’s northern border “to eliminate threats to Israeli communities.”
After Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel earlier this month, the Israeli military launched an offensive that Lebanese authorities say has killed over 1,000 people and displaced over 1 million. Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and drones into Israel.
UK says missile fell short of Diego Garcia
The British government is downplaying concerns that Iranian missiles could hit Europe, but won’t say how close they came to striking a U.K.-U.S. military base almost 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) from Iran.
The attempt toward the Diego Garcia base overnight Thursday to Friday suggests that Tehran has missiles that can go farther than previously acknowledged — or that it had used its space program for an improvised launch.
Officials confirmed the attempt on Saturday.
The Israel Defense Forces said it shows that Iran has missiles that could reach European capitals.
British Cabinet minister Steve Reed said one missile was intercepted and the other “fell short,” without specifying.
He told the BBC the government has “no specific assessment” that Iran is seeking to target Europe, “let alone that they could if they tried.”
The Latest: New threats from Trump and Iran heighten risks to energy supplies 2026 IUSTITIA.BG – Investigations 2009-2025 2026-03-23 01:57:59
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