UAE ‘responding to missile threat’ as Iran renews Gulf attacks

Emergency teams in the United Arab Emirates say they are “responding to missile threats”, as Iran renews its attack on neighbouring Gulf countries after the death of security chief Ali Larijani.

In a statement on X, the UAE National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority says: “Air defence systems are currently responding to a missile threat.

“Please remain in a safe location and follow official channels for warnings and updates.”

The Reuters news agency is reporting loud explosions in Dubai.

Attack kills four in Iran’s northwestern Lorestan Province

The deputy security chief of Lorestan Province says four people have been killed and eight wounded by a US-Israeli attack on rural areas in the Cheghani region.

Saudi Arabia downs drone approaching embassies district

Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry says another drone has been shot down as it “attempted to approach the Embassies District”.

Saudi forces have downed a number of drones in recent hours, as well as a ballistic missile, which saw debris falling near the Prince Sultan Air Base but did not cause any damage.

Sirens in Jerusalem, central Israel

Broadcaster Channel 12 says Israeli air defences have successfully intercepted the missiles launched from Iran.

There were no casualties, it said, adding that the attack set off air raid sirens in Jerusalem and central Israel.

Lebanese civil defence says 11 members wounded in Israeli raid

Lebanon’s civil defence says 11 of its personnel have been wounded in an Israeli attack on the southern city of Nabatieh last night.

According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed at least 912 people since March 2, and displaced more than one million people.

Israel’s military says missiles launched from Iran towards its territory

The Israeli army says missiles have been launched from Iran towards its territory, and air defence systems are operating to intercept the attack.

In a post on X, it said residents in targeted areas had been notified with a message sent to their mobile phones and were instructed to move to shelter until the threat was dealt with.

Iranian command centres, missile sites struck in Tehran, says Israeli army

The Israeli army claims to have struck Iranian command centres, missile sites and other infrastructure in Tehran yesterday.

A missile defence command centre and air defence systems were also targeted, the army claimed.

‘This is America’s war,’ says Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi

Iran’s FM Araghchi Al Jazeera that the US is responsible for the war engulfing the region.

He denies targeting civilians, defends Iran’s retaliation, and warns that the US military presence across the Gulf makes escalation unavoidable.

Araghchi also signals possible new rules for navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, while rejecting a ceasefire in favour of a permanent end to the war.

Israeli forces kill 4 people in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley

At least four people have been killed in an Israeli attack that targeted four houses in the town of Sahmar in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

Israeli attacks have killed 912 people in Lebanon and wounded 2,221 more since March 2, the Health Ministry says.

Iran executes man accused of spying for Mossad

Iran has executed a man it accused of spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

“The death sentence of an Israeli spy, who provided Mossad officers with images and information about sensitive areas in the country, was carried out this morning after going through the legal process and being approved by the Supreme Court,” Tasnim reported.

Tasnim said the man was recruited online by Israeli intelligence while in Sweden after he posted his details on a group travel advertising link. A Persian-speaking Mossad officer reportedly made initial contact, the report added.

He was arrested by the IRGC in June in the Iranian city of Savojbolagh, during the 12-day war with Israel.

He was in possession of “sophisticated spy, intelligence, and satellite communications” equipment.

‘I was not happy with the UK… they should be involved enthusiastically’

The US president says he was “very surprised” with the attitude of the United Kingdom towards the war.

“Two weeks ago I said ‘why don’t you send some ships over’ and he [Keir Starmer] really didn’t want to do it,” Trump says.

Trump says he told Starmer, “you’re our oldest ally” and stresses that he’s supported the UK’s efforts in Ukraine.

“Then they tell us that we have a mine ship around and they don’t want to do it, I think it’s terrible,” he adds. “We requested two aircraft carriers which they have and he didn’t really want to do it.”

Trump then suggests that Starmer eventually offered to send aircraft carriers to the Middle East, but says this was already “after the war had ended”.

“I was not happy with the UK,” he says. “I think they’ll be involved maybe, but they should be involved enthusiastically.”

Five things we learned as Trump pushes allies for Strait of Hormuz support

Donald Trump took some time to address Iran while speaking at a White House event – here’s what he had to say:

• The US president began by repeating his message that the US has “obliterated” Iran’s military capacity – and went on to claim that 7,000 targets have been hit in Iran so far
• The biggest point of contention surrounded support for the US operation to contain Iran’s threat to commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which Trump said the US is “hammering”
• Nonetheless, Trump told reporters that he’s asked countries for help in the Strait “to find out how they react”. He was critical of the UK, who he suggested “should be involved enthusiastically”
• The president then said his Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be announcing the countries who will be supporting US efforts in Iran soon
• After Iran announced Mojtaba Khamenei as its new supreme leader, Trump speculated “we don’t know if he’s dead or not” and suggested: “We don’t know who their leader is. We have people wanting to negotiate. We have no idea who they are”

Trump frames Strait of Hormuz efforts as test for Nato

President Trump is framing efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as a test of Nato allies.

The president says the United States does not necessarily need help securing the vital shipping route – but implies it would be revealing to see which countries ‘rise to the challenge’.

The task itself is significant: the Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints, through which a large share of global oil supplies normally pass.

When asked during a White House media conference which countries had refused to help, Trump declined to name them.

Instead, he joked about rating leaders’ performances – saying that “on a scale of zero to ten” French President Emmanuel Macron was “an eight – not perfect, but it’s France”.

Trump also pointed out that the US receives only a small share of its oil through the Strait of Hormuz – singling out other countries such as Japan, which relies on the Middle East for about 95% of its oil imports.

But the fact that he is asking other nations to help reopen the waterway – even while insisting the US does not necessarily need it – underlines the scale of the task now facing the administration.

Israeli drone strike in south Lebanon kills paramedic, wounds another

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that an Israeli drone strike hit an Islamic Health Authority point in Yater, killing one paramedic and wounding another.

Israel says displaced Lebanese people won’t be allowed to return home

Israel has warned that thousands of Lebanese forced from their homes by its military campaign will not be allowed to return any time soon as Israeli troops expand ground operations in southern Lebanon.

The announcement has echos of the Gaza genocide in which Israel forcefully displaced all of Gaza’s population since it started its war in October 2023.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said Israeli forces had entered additional areas in the south.

Soldiers are now operating in “new locations”, he said, claiming the advance as “limited and targeted”.

The push comes days after Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the army to widen its offensive.

Despite a ceasefire signed in November 2024, Israel has continued attacking Lebanon. Since 2 March Israel has intensified its bombardment across Lebanon, killing almost 900 civilians and displacing more than 830,000 Lebanese people.

Europe must act carefully on Middle East energy disruptions: Von der Leyen

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says Europe’s actions in response to Middle East oil and gas disruptions and rising energy prices should be limited in scope and short-lived.

“It is important that any short-term measures do not ⁠delay the decarbonisation of ⁠the energy system, do not increase the demand for ⁠oil and gas, ⁠are temporary and ⁠targeted, and minimise fiscal costs,” von der Leyen wrote ‌in a letter.

Germany won’t participate in war on Iran: Chancellor Merz

German Chancellor ⁠Friedrich Merz ⁠says his country will refrain from participating in the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, Merz said Germany lacked the mandate from the United Nations, the European Union, or NATO under the Basic Law, and it was clear from the outset that the war is not a matter for NATO.

“The United States ⁠of America and Israel did not consult us prior to this ⁠war either. As for Iran, there ⁠has never been ⁠a joint decision on the ‘whether’ of the matter. That is why the question ‌of how Germany might become militarily involved here does ‌not ‌arise,” he added.

Lebanon says 1 million people displaced by Israeli war

Lebanon says more than one million people have now been displaced as Israel’s war on the country continues to drive civilians from their homes.

In its latest daily update, authorities said large numbers of people have been forced to register as displaced while tens of thousands have sought refuge in emergency shelters, the official Lebanese National News Agency reported.

“The total number of self-registered displaced persons reached 1,049,328, and the total number of displaced persons in shelters reached 132,742,” a statement said. “The death toll has risen to 886 and the number of wounded to 2,141.”

Death toll from strike near Iraq’s border with Syria rises to 6

At least six Iran-backed fighters have been killed in a strike near Iraq’s western border with Syria.

An earlier death toll said four fighters were killed and three others wounded.

The troops from the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), now part of Iraq’s regular army – were struck by a “Zionist [Israeli] bombing” that targeted “an official security position”, according to the PMF.

Earlier, an official with the group told AFP news agency the attack hit a checkpoint, blaming the US.

Another four fighters were wounded, the PMF added in a statement, bringing the total injured to seven.

Trump says France is keen to help on the Strait of Hormuz

⁠⁠President Trump says ⁠he spoke ⁠to French President Emmanuel Macron who he said is ‌willing to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz.

France has insisted it will not join the war on Iran, maintaining a strictly “defensive” approach in the Middle East.

Israel claims missile debris falls near Al-Aqsa mosque, Church of Holy Sepulchre

Israeli police said fragments from missiles and interceptor systems landed at several sensitive religious sites in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City during Iranian missile interceptions.

Authorities said debris was discovered near the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and in the Jewish Quarter after air defence systems engaged incoming missiles over the city.

“During the recent salvo fired from Iran toward Jerusalem, several intercepts occurred over the city,” police said.

Officers later located “fragments of missiles and interceptor debris, some of significant size, at multiple sites in the Old City”.

Missile debris struck the roof of a residential building in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.

‘Overwhelming view in EU this is an illegal war of choice’

EU Ambassador James Moran says there is broad agreement across Europe the war on Iran by Israel and the United States lacks any legitimacy.

“There is an overwhelming view in the European Union that this is an illegal war of choice on the part of Israel and the United States, and Europe should have absolutely nothing to do with it, at least so far as offensive actions are concerned,” Moran told Al Jazeera.

He added the position reflects a strong consensus across the bloc.

“And I think there’s very, very strong consensus for that in the mainstream of European Union thinking.”

However, Moran warned Europe still faces serious economic and security consequences from the conflict, particularly if tensions threaten shipping routes in the Gulf.

“Europe is paying the highest price for the threats against the Strait of Hormuz”, and at the same time “[Russian President] Putin, who is the main adversary for Europe, is getting most of the benefit in terms of higher oil prices.”

Moran said European leaders are now discussing how they might help protect shipping through the strait without joining the war.

“The problem is how to do that strictly defensively, and not getting dragged into a war of aggression.”

More from Trump’s news conference

• Additional strikes continue from all directions every single hour on Iran.
• We destroyed everything on Kharg Island except the area where the oil is – we left the pipes.
• For purposes of someday rebuilding that country, I guess we did the right thing, but it may not stay that way.
• More than 30 mine-laying Iranian ships have been destroyed.
• We strongly encourage other nations whose economies depend on the Strait of Hormuz far more than ours – we want them to come and help us with the strait.

Turkiye: Israel’s invasion of Lebanon ‘further deepens instability’

Ankara has “strongly condemned” Israel’s ground assault on southern Lebanon.

“The [Benjamin] Netanyahu government’s implementation of genocidal and collective punishment policies, this time in Lebanon, will lead to a new humanitarian catastrophe in the region,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.

“We reiterate our solidarity with Lebanon in the face of these attacks, which violate Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Trump says some countries not ‘enthusiastic’ about Hormuz help

President Trump has criticised allies for their lukewarm response to his call to help protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz during the Israel-US war against Iran.

“For 40 years we’re protecting you, and you don’t want to get involved,” Trump told reporters. “We strongly encourage the other nations to get involved with us and get involved quickly and with great enthusiasm,” he said.

Trump wants nations to help police the crucial strait after Iran responded to US-Israeli attacks by ‌using drones, missiles, and mines to effectively close the channel for tankers that usually transport one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas.

“Some are very enthusiastic about ⁠it and some aren’t. ⁠Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside ⁠sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic. And the ⁠level of enthusiasm matters ⁠to me.”

Several US allies said on ‌Monday they have no immediate plans to send naval vessels to unblock the ‌Strait ‌of Hormuz.

Joining an EU gathering in Brussels on Monday to discuss skyrocketing oil prices during the US-Israeli war on Iran, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Berlin had no intention of joining military operations during the conflict.

a“We need more clarity here,” Wadephul told reporters ahead of the meeting. “We expect from the US and Israel to inform us, to include us into what they’re doing there and to tell us if these goals are achieved.”

“Once we have a clear picture of that, we believe we need to move into the next phase, namely, defining a security architecture for this entire region, together with the neighbouring states,” he said.

Meanwhile, speaking from Berlin, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that while there would be “no military participation” from his country, it was prepared to support diplomatic efforts “to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz”.

“This is not our war. We have ⁠not started it,” said Pistorius. “What does … Trump expect a handful or two handfuls of European frigates to do in the Strait of Hormuz that the powerful ⁠US Navy cannot do?”

Also speaking from Berlin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s spokesman said the conflict has “nothing to do with NATO”. Stefan Kornelius told reporters NATO was “an alliance for the defence of territory”, adding that “the mandate to deploy NATO is lacking”.

Germany’s position was echoed by fellow NATO member the United Kingdom. Speaking from London about joining any mission in the Strait of Hormuz, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “Let me be clear: that won’t be, and it’s never been envisioned to be, a NATO mission.”

Starmer stressed the UK would “not be drawn into the wider war”. However, he said the UK was discussing with the US and allies in Europe and the Gulf the possibility of using its mine-hunting drones already in the region.

A number of EU countries joined Germany in reacting with scepticism to Trump’s call on Sunday for a naval coalition to deploy warships to secure the key Gulf waterway, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil shipments transit.

The strait has essentially been shuttered as a result of the war, which has seen the US and Israel launch deadly attacks across Iran since February 28. Iran has retaliated by firing missiles and drones across the wider Middle East, roiling global energy markets.

Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten told the country’s ANP news agency that it would be “very difficult to launch a successful mission there in the short-term”.

Lithuania and Estonia said NATO countries should consider a US request for help but cautioned over the need for greater clarity around various aspects of any potential mission.

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna also said that US allies in Europe want to understand Trump’s “strategic goals”. “What will be the plan?” he asked.

⁠Greek government spokesman ⁠Pavlos ⁠Marinakis said ⁠that Greece ⁠would not ⁠engage in ⁠any military operations ‌in the Strait of Hormuz.

Italian Foreign ⁠Minister Antonio ⁠Tajani said Italy was not involved in any naval missions that could be ‌extended to the area.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said, however, that Europe should keep an open mind ⁠on helping to ensure freedom of navigation in the strait even if the continent did not support the ⁠US-Israeli decision to go to war with Iran.

“We must face the world as it is, not as we want it to be,” Rasmussen said, adding that the EU must decide on a plan “with a view towards de-escalation”.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski invited the Trump administration to go through the proper channels.

“If there is a request via NATO, we will of course out of respect and sympathy for our American allies consider it very carefully,” he said.

Sikorski made a reference to Article 4 of NATO’s founding treaty, which allies can invoke if they believe their territory or security is under threat.

On Monday, Trump appeared to criticise countries reluctant to help unblock the waterway

“Some  are very enthusiastic about it, and some aren’t. Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me,” he said at an event at the White House.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters before the meeting in Brussels that the bloc’s leaders would focus on how the EU could contribute to reopening the waterway.

“We first need to discuss what the member states are willing to do in the Strait of Hormuz,” she said. “Of course, the needs to open the Strait of Hormuz are there right now.”

Kallas said the strait’s closure, which has sent oil prices to more than $100 a barrel, was benefitting Russia’s war on Ukraine, which is largely funded by Moscow’s energy revenues.

Reporting from Brussels, Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen said what was clear is that European leaders are “increasingly feeling the pressure from Trump to help him reopen the Strait of Hormuz”.

“There is very little appetite [on the part of EU leaders] for joining the war, especially because they feel left out of the loop,” Vaessen said. “They will be discussing a way to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but that doesn’t necessarily mean sending warships.”

In an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, Trump said NATO faced a “very bad” future if his proposal for a military operation in the strait received no response or a negative one.

France  has suggested the EU could expand its Aspides mission, a small naval mission established in 2024 to protect ships from attacks by Yemen’s Houthis in the Red Sea.

It currently has an Italian and a Greek ship under its direct command and may also call upon a French ship and another Italian vessel for support.

Ali Khaled Bani Odeh, 37, his 35-year-old wife Waad, and two of their children – Mohammad and Othman, aged five and seven, respectively – were shot in the head in the village of Tammun on Sunday. Two of their other children were wounded by shrapnel, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Speaking to the Reuters news agency at the hospital, Khaled, 12, one of the two surviving boys, said he heard his mother crying, his father praying, but no voice of any of his other brothers before silence prevailed after shots sprayed the car.

“We came under direct fire; we didn’t know the source. Everyone in the car was ⁠martyred, except my brother Mustafa and me,” the boy said.

He said soldiers, who ⁠pulled him out of the vehicle before beating him, shouted: “We killed dogs.”

The  Israeli military said in a statement that its forces were part of an operation in Tammun to arrest Palestinians wanted for involvement in “terrorist” activity against them.

“During the operation, a vehicle accelerated toward the forces, who perceived an immediate threat to their safety and responded with gunfire. As a result, four Palestinians who were in the vehicle were killed,” the military said, adding that the circumstances of the incident are under review.

In a statement posted on X, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the killings, which it said were “not isolated” incidents, but “part of a comprehensive and systematic aggression” towards the Palestinians by Israel.

‘Injured children beaten’

Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Tammun, said the family was returning to their village from a day out when the incident took place.

“They were surprised to see undercover Israeli forces shoot towards their car nonstop,” she said.

Ibrahim  added that the Israeli soldiers later took the injured children who survived the shooting out of the car and beat them up.

“The extended family says the father and the mother did not know that Israeli forces were there as they were in a Palestinian car,” she said, adding that this was just a family of six trying to have a normal day.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health, meanwhile, said another Palestinian was killed in an attack by Israeli settlers overnight.

Israeli settlers in the West Bank take advantage of curbs on movement imposed during the United States-Israel war on Iran to attack Palestinians, with military roadblocks preventing ambulances from reaching victims quickly, rights groups and medics say.

Settlers have killed at least five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the Iran war began on February 28, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Also, Israeli attacks on Gaza, which had declined at the beginning of the war with Iran, have begun to rise again. While a “ceasefire” went into effect in Gaza in October, Israel has been frequently breaching it.

Gaza officials on Sunday said an Israeli air attack killed three people – a man, his pregnant wife, and their son – in the western area of Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, taking the death toll of Palestinians killed by Israel ‌in the enclave since the Iran war erupted to at least 26.

Benjamin Netanyahu has spent decades preparing for this showdown with Iran; his long political career is anchored in his vow to defend Israel against its Iranian nemesis.

Having seized the chance to wage war directly on the regime, alongside the world’s most powerful military, his rhetoric around the war has been extravagant, describing it as “a fateful campaign for our very existence”.

The Israeli military’s chief of staff has called it “an operation to secure our existence and our future in the land of our forefathers for generations to come”.

One of Netanyahu’s former national security advisers has described it as “a golden opportunity to change the direction of the whole Middle East”.

“This is the culmination of what [Netanyahu] has tried to rebrand as the War of Redemption, which in his mind started on October 7, 2023. And this is – if not the last war – then the big war against Iran,” said Neri Zilber, a journalist based in Tel Aviv and a policy advisor to the Israel Policy Forum, a US think tank.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is still selling a major victory,” he added, pointing out that Israel had continued talking about the potential for regime change long after the Trump administration had stopped.

Regime change would deprive many of Israel’s regional enemies – like Hezbollah in Lebanon, or Hamas in Gaza – of Iranian funding, training, and weapons, potentially transforming Israel’s security.

But after assassinating Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei in an air strike, and making repeated calls to the Iranian people to use this moment to rise up, Netanyahu has now signalled the war may end with the regime still in place.

In his first press conference since the war began, he told Israelis that the bombing campaign had already changed the balance of power in the Middle East in Israel’s favour.

“We can already say with certainty: this is no longer the same Iran, this is no longer the same Middle East, and this is not the same Israel,” he said.

Some in Israel will read that as a sign that Israel is being asked to wind up the war, amid signs that spiralling oil prices are putting the US government under pressure to call an end to the conflict.

Strong Israeli support for this war rested partly on the idea that it would end repeated campaigns against Iran and its proxy forces across the region.

After the last war against Iran in June 2025, Israel’s prime minister heralded a “historic victory” that would “stand for generations”, saying it had “removed two existential threats” in Iran’s nuclear weapons – which Tehran has denied seeking to develop – and its ballistic missiles.

Israel had returned to war just eight months later, he said, because Iran was rapidly rebuilding its missile programme, and planning to move it – and its nuclear programme – deep underground.

The question Netanyahu faces now is: without regime change in Tehran, how long before the next time?

Military officials say the damage to Iran’s weapons programmes this time is far deeper than before – with its production sites and leadership targeted alongside missile stocks and launchers.

“Some of it is permanent, and some of it is semi-permanent,” said Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), describing the military objective as removing threats “for a prolonged period of time”.

Maj Gen Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli national security adviser and senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security think tank, says that even without Iranians taking to the streets, Israel can achieve its core goals by leaving the regime too weak to threaten it.

“If we could achieve regime change, that would change the Middle East. But we know our limitations, we’re not a superpower, and we have to be humble in our decisions,” he said.

The defence correspondent for one of Israel’s biggest circulation papers, Yedioth Ahronoth, has said unnamed military officials are reporting early signs of strain within Iran’s security apparatus, “including internal tensions within the Revolutionary Guard and isolated cases of desertion”.Netanyahu has suggested that, having created the conditions for regime change, Israel could now withdraw and wait for Iran’s internal pressures to take their course.But there is a political risk for Netanyahu in leaving the regime intact.Neri Zilber, the analyst, says the danger for Netanyahu is that his grand pronouncements about “total victory” against Iran’s network of allies across the region are just empty bombastic statements.”Hamas still controls roughly half of Gaza. Hezbollah is now putting up a much bigger fight than many people here had been led to believe after the ceasefire in 2024, [and] after last June’s war against Iran, Israel and the US are back in an even bigger war against Iran,” he said.”That’s where the danger lies for Netanyahu – that his past promises will come back to haunt him, and even the current campaign, fought at such scale alongside the most powerful military in the world, will not actually bring about the results that he’s promised the Israeli public.”

The defence correspondent for one of Israel’s biggest circulation papers, Yedioth Ahronoth, has said unnamed military officials are reporting early signs of strain within Iran’s security apparatus, “including internal tensions within the Revolutionary Guard and isolated cases of desertion”.

Netanyahu has suggested that, having created the conditions for regime change, Israel could now withdraw and wait for Iran’s internal pressures to take their course.

But there is a political risk for Netanyahu in leaving the regime intact.

Neri Zilber, the analyst, says the danger for Netanyahu is that his grand pronouncements about “total victory” against Iran’s network of allies across the region are just empty bombastic statements.

“Hamas still controls roughly half of Gaza. Hezbollah is now putting up a much bigger fight than many people here had been led to believe after the ceasefire in 2024, [and] after last June’s war against Iran, Israel and the US are back in an even bigger war against Iran,” he said.

“That’s where the danger lies for Netanyahu – that his past promises will come back to haunt him, and even the current campaign, fought at such scale alongside the most powerful military in the world, will not actually bring about the results that he’s promised the Israeli public.”

Israel’s unresolved conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah on its own borders are a sharp reminder of the limitations of military power, even after the dramatic shift in Israel’s defence strategy in the wake of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks.

“We want to be in a position from now on that no beasts can grow on our borders,” said Amidror. “We should take pre-emptive wars as something we use whenever we identify on the other side of the border, a beast that is becoming slowly stronger.”

But launching wars has historically been far easier than ending them here.

Israel is currently fighting on a second front against Hezbollah in Lebanon, after the Iran-backed group responded to the killing of Khamenei and joined Iran’s attacks on Israel.

After decades of repeated wars with Hezbollah, and a fierce campaign in 2024 that left the group weakened, many in Israel see this moment as an opportunity to end the threat on their northern border once and for all.

Israeli forces are pushing into southern Lebanon, in what they say is, so far, a defensive operation. But their chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, has said his objective is to disarm Hezbollah, and that what was needed now above all was “persistence and patience”.

“This will take considerable time,” he said, describing the current conflict as “the war of our generation: a critical war, a decisive war [that] will determine our future and our security for many years to come.”

Senior military officials say privately that a ground invasion across a large swathe of Lebanese territory is among the plans being considered.

A key question is whether Israel will continue fighting on this front, even if Washington calls an end to the campaign in Iran. And whether military advantage – whether in Gaza or in Lebanon – can lead to peace without trusted political partners and political agreements.

Despite widespread war-weariness after more than two years of constant conflicts, public opinion in Israel has remained strongly in support of this regional war. And Benjamin Netanyahu is widely expected to leverage this moment to redeem his own political legacy, after the security failings that led to the 7 October attacks, and bring forward elections due later this year.

The so-called War of Redemption that Netanyahu began in the aftermath of those attacks has already reshaped the Middle East, and brought Israel into direct conflict with its enemy in Tehran.

Netanyahu has made a career out of defending against the Iranian threat. He is now facing a new political chapter after this conflict, whether or not that threat remains.

Germany says US wrong to ease Russian oil sanctions

Germany has criticised the United States for easing some sanctions on Russian oil, warning the move could help finance Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Speaking during a visit to Norway, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Washington had taken the wrong approach as energy prices rise due to the war waged by the US and Israel against Iran.

“Easing sanctions now, for whatever reason, is wrong. We believe that is the wrong course of action,” Merz said.

He added that European leaders want to prevent Moscow from using the war involving Iran to weaken Ukraine.

Germany’s economy minister, Katherina Reiche, warned earlier that relaxing restrictions risked “further filling Putin’s war chest”.

‘Nothing good for Ukraine’ from Iran war: Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that while it is understandable the world’s attention has shifted to the Middle East, the situation is “not good” for Ukraine.

“There is nothing good for Ukraine in the war in the Middle East,” Zelenskyy told students at the Sciences Po University  in Paris.

Images show damaged US refuelling plane at Tel Aviv airport

Images circulating online appear to show a damaged Boeing KC-135 at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.

The photographs show damage to the aircraft’s tailfin while it sits on the ground at the airport. Additional images broadcast by Kan show the opposite side of the aircraft, where the damage is clearly visible.

Verification of the pictures by the BBC suggests they were taken at Ben Gurion airport and were uploaded recently.

The pictures come hours after United States Central Command confirmed that another KC-135 refuelling aircraft crashed in western Iraq on Thursday, killing all six crew members on board. US officials claimed the crash was not caused by hostile or friendly fire.

It remains unclear what caused the damage to the aircraft seen in Tel Aviv or whether it was involved in the same incident.

Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 shows the aircraft passed over Jordan before heading towards Israel.

US issues up to $10 million reward for information on Mojtaba Khamenei, Larijani

The US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice programme has called for information on “Iranian terrorist leaders”, including Mojtaba Khamenei.

The State Department set the reward at up to $10m and said information could make people eligible for “relocation”.

“These individuals command and direct various elements of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which plans, organises and executes terrorism around the world,” the poster stated.

Officials whom the US is seeking information on include:

• Minister of Intelligence Esmail Khatib,
• Deputy Chief of Staff Ali Asghar Hejazi
• Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi
• Brigadier General Eskandar Momeni
• Secretary to the Supreme Council Ali Larijani

Earlier today, Larijani joined the al-Quds Day protests in Tehran and posted pictures of his participation.

US sends 10,000 interceptor drones to counter Iranian drones

The United States has deployed 10,000 interceptor drones to the Middle East to counter Iranian drone attacks, US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll says.

The drones were shipped to the region within five days of the start of the Israeli-US war on Iran on February 28.

Officials say the drones offer a cheaper way to intercept incoming threats without relying on expensive missile defence systems.

Driscoll said each Merops interceptor currently costs $14,000–$15,000.

That would still make them potentially twice as expensive as Iran’s Shahed-136 drones, which Iranian analyst Esfandyar Batmanghelidj has estimated cost around $7,000.

Iran says it has shot down 111 drones since start of war

Iran’s military says it has shot down 111 drones since the start of the Israeli-US war, according to the Revolutionary Guards’ Sepah News portal.

The report said air defences recently downed an MQ-9 Reaper drone over Fars province and another aircraft near Tabriz, bringing the total number of drones destroyed to 111 “of various types”.

The MQ-9 Reaper is a high-end US surveillance and strike drone which typically costs about $30m to $32m, making it far more expensive than the one-way explosive drones used by Iran.

Iranian authorities did not provide a detailed breakdown of the drones they say they shot down.

Trump says US will be hitting Iran hard over ‘next week’

Trump has said in an interview that US forces would be carrying out intense strikes against Iranian targets in the coming days, as the war escalates throughout the Middle East as it heads into its third week.“We’re going to be hitting them very hard over the next week,” Trump told Fox News Radio.

Hezbollah claims attack on drone base in northern Israel

Lebanese group says it struck the Giva Drone Control Base in Safed in northern Israel with a rocket salvo.This launch was part of the “al-Quds Day” operations”, Hezbollah said in a statement.

Trump administration trying to project ‘image of confidence’ in war

Trump and Hegseth are “trying to project an image of confidence and success” and reassure the American people of the success of the war on Iran so far, says Mohamad Elmasry, of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

Trump no doubt is doing this because he has seen the polling data, which shows that it is “in all likelihood the lowest rated war at the start of a war in American history,” Elmasry told Al Jazeera.

“People are seeing gas prices rise and four more US soldiers were killed in Iraq yesterday,” he added.

Elmasry said Hegseth has boasted on numerous times about the US crushing Iran’s military capabilities, but he is “clearly underestimating the Iranian military and that feeds into some of this US propaganda that we’ve been seeing”.

UAE air defences responding to incoming Iranian missiles, drones: Defence Ministry

The UAE’s air defences are currently responding to incoming missiles and drones from Iran, the country’s Defence Ministry says.

In a post on X, it said that sounds that could be heard were “the result of the air defence systems intercepting missiles and drones”.

Iranian missiles launched towards Israel, says IDF

The Israel Defense Forces says Iranian missiles have been launched towards its territory.”The IDF identified that a short time ago, missiles were launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defense systems are operating to intercept the threat,” it says in a statement.It comes after Israel launched further strikes towards Tehran earlier this morning.

There is no evidence the Iranian regime is crumbling

There was an expectation from the Americans that once the supreme leader was killed on the first day of the war there would be a fairly rapid disintegration in Iran. But there is no evidence that the Iranian regime is crumbling.

Donald Trump is a man who believes in strong leadership. Maybe his theory was there would be a Venezuela-style event after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed.

If that is the case it shows an alarming lack of knowledge about how the Iranian regime is structured.

Iran has a long history of defiance and hatred against the Americans and the Israelis.

The Israelis have explicitly said they will try and kill the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.

We do not have proof that he was wounded, perhaps grievously, in the attack that killed his father, wife, and a sister.

It is surprising that since Tehran is trying to build up a cult of his personality they did not take the opportunity to come up with some fresh material about how he is.

Meanwhile, concerns grow among Gulf countries that the Americans have left them with a terrible mess to clear up.

Hegseth claims Iran’s supreme leader is ‘wounded, likely disfigured’

Hegseth says Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is “wounded” and “likely disfigured” (as our international editor wrote earlier, we do not have proof this is the case).

Referring to a written statement from Mojtaba read aloud on Iranian state TV yesterday, Hegseth questions why there was no footage or audio of him.

“I think you know why,” he adds.

The defence secretary says Motjaba is “scared” and “injured”, claiming he is “on the run” and “lacks legitimacy”.

Key points from Caine’s briefing

Here’s are the key points that US Air Force General Dan Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, had to say at the briefing alongside Hegseth:

• Iran still has the capacity to harm commercial shipping and US-allied forces
• US forces are continuing to target Iran’s mine-laying capabilities
• The situation in the Strait of Hormuz is continuing to develop and is a tactically complex environment
• Asked about US casualties, he said the “large majority who have gone in for medical treatment” had returned to duty

US agencies ‘across all potential threats to keep Americans safe’

A journalist brings up reporting from Thursday that Iran was targeting the US state of California, which the White House later said wasn’t true.

Hegseth is asked if Iran has the capability to conduct such a strike.

He says that US agencies remain across all potential threats to keep Americans safe, and that the reports “had no impact on us”.

Iran has said they can do many things over time, including “engaging their proxies and getting them involved in the fight”, which they haven’t been able to do, Hegseth adds.

We must prevent ‘profiteering’ over energy price rises, says Starmer

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says “everything” should be done to prevent “profiteering”, in light of fears energy costs will soar due to the conflict in the Middle East.

He adds that the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband will meet with petrol retailers and energy firms in Downing Street later today to discuss what they are doing to keep prices down.

He also shared that last night RAF Typhoons “extended their action to Bahrain”.

Hegseth’s irritation felt like a sign the US is feeling the pressure

I’ve just left the Pentagon after Hegseth and Caine’s news conference.

It felt like Hegseth was trying to sell the war in the face of growing scrutiny from parts of the US media.

This, of course, is being driven by the spiralling oil prices, the apparent resilience of the Iranian regime and news of US military casualties.

Hegseth confronted the media from the start, saying the press needed to “admit” that the US and Israel were “decimating” the Iranian military.

The regime, he said, now looked up to the skies and saw the “stars and stripes and the Star of David”, which he called “the evil regime’s worst nightmare”.

He said its conventional weapons, arsenals and production were being wiped out, and the regime was cowering underground like “rats”.

He also called for a more “patriotic press”.

But on two key questions of strategy – how to secure the Strait of Hormuz and how to get rid of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile – the answers were largely evasive.

His irritation felt like a sign the administration is feeling the pressure.

Why is US not escorting ships through key oil trade route?

A reporter cites Hegseth as saying the US military has aerial and naval superiority over Iran – “yet you’re not escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Why did you not plan for this?”

“We planned for it. We recognise it. Because ultimately we want to do… sequentially in a way that makes the most sense… and ensure we’re sending the right signals to the world.”

The key lines from the Pentagon news conference

We can now bring you a quick recap of news conference which took place in the Pentagon a short while ago (scroll back through our posts from 12:06 GMT for our full coverage).

• Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US would launch its highest volume of strikes over Iran, as it continued “decimating” Iran’s military
• He said Iran has functioning air force, air defence or navy, that its missile volume is down 90%. He later said Iran would be incapable of building more weapons as soon all of their defence companies “will be destroyed”
• On the Strait of Hormuz, Hegseth accused Iran of “sheer desperation” – but claimed the US was “dealing with” it
• He said Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was “wounded” and “likely disfigured”
• Military chief General Dan Caine said the US priority was targeting Iran’s mine laying enterprise in the Strait of Hormuz
• Asked about the fatal strike on a girls’ primary school in Iran, Hegseth said the US had designated an investigating to establish what happened

US launching ‘highest volume of strikes over Iran’ today

Hegseth says Iran’s leadership is hiding and America’s will is “unshakeable, our options maximised and our capabilities still building

President Trump holds the cards, he says. “He’ll determine the pace, the tempo and the timing of this conflict.”

He says today, the US will launch “yet again, the highest volume of strikes that America has put over the skies of Iran”.

Asked about strike on school, Hegseth says US and Israel ‘never target civilians’

Hegseth is asked about a fatal strike on a girls’ primary school in Minab, Iran.

• Iran has accused the US and Israel of hitting the school. Following the attack, US Central Command (Centcom) said it was looking into reports of the incident, while Israel’s military said it was “not aware” of any operations in the area

Hegseth says Centcom has designated an investigating officer from outside the force, who “will take as long as necessary” to establish what happened in this incident.

He says US-Israel operation “never target[s] civilians” in the war with Iran.

Hegseth asked when Strait of Hormuz will become fully operational

Hegseth is asked by one reporter when the Strait of Hormuz may become fully operational again.

He emphasises the only thing disrupting traffic in the Strait is Iran.

He says that is why one of the US’s primary objectives was to destroy Iran’s navy, and that the US is working to make sure “energy flows”.

Turning his attention to Iran’s nuclear position, he says taking out Iran’s ability to fire ballistic missiles will help ensure Iran is denied their nuclear capabilities.

US military chief also pays tribute to killed refuelling craft crew

General Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, takes over.

He also pays tribute to the four crew killed in the KC-135 crash over western Iraq, and thanks all service members for their “dedication”.

Caine says there has been a fire on board an aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, but that he believes the crew on board will “be okay”.

The US continues to attack ballistic missile and drone capabilities, and “destroying” the Iranian navy and its ability to “attack commercial vessels”, he adds.

“The Palmachim and Ovda airbases of the Zionist regime as well as the headquarters of Shin Bet were targeted by drones from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s army,” the military said in a statement on Thursday carried by state television. Israel has yet to comment on the Iranian military’s claims.

Israel said it identified more missiles launched towards the country from Iran. Missile alert alarms sounded in Jerusalem, and explosions were heard as the Israeli military sought to intercept the incoming fire.

Overnight, missile launches from Iran and Hezbollah also sent Israelis scurrying to shelters in multiple other areas, including Tel Aviv and the northern border area with Lebanon.

Israel said on Thursday that it had launched another “wide-scale” round of air strikes across Iran.

At least 13 people in Israel have been killed, and nearly 2,000 injured since the war began on February 28, according to Israeli officials.

Now in its 13th day, the war shows no sign of abating despite US President Donald Trump’s insistence that US strikes on Iran had already practically defeated it.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran remains committed to regional peace but insists the war can end only if Iran’s “legitimate rights” are recognised.

In a post on X, Pezeshkian said he had spoken with leaders of Russia and Pakistan and reiterated Iran’s position that the conflict was “ignited by the Zionist regime and the US”.

He said any resolution must include recognition of Iran’s rights, payment of reparations and international guarantees against future attacks.

There has been no response yet from Washington.

Pezeshkian posted his remarks as diplomatic efforts intensify to contain the conflict with Russia maintaining close contact with Iranian leaders and calling for a halt to hostilities.

Iran says US, Israel hitting hospitals

Hospitals and health facilities across Iran have suffered damage as US-Israeli strikes intensify, according to Iranian Deputy Health Minister Ali Jafarian.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Tehran, Jafarian said medical teams are coping with a growing number of casualties, many of them civilians.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of … victims who are killed at the scene because [the US and Israel] are carpet bombing … civilian infrastructure,” he said, adding that at least 1,395 people have been killed.

People are trapped under collapsed buildings, he said, adding that strikes on urban areas have intensified in recent days.

“We have 31 major clinical facilities and hospitals damaged. Twelve of those hospitals are inactive now.”

Al Jazeera, reporting from Tehran, said targets are not just military sites or police stations but also civilian facilities, such as schools and hospitals. He said oil depots and energy and water infrastructure around Tehran also have been targeted.

“We have reports about electricity shortages in some of the cities, such as Karaj, but also there are serious concerns right now when it comes to public health and the air that people are breathing in the Iranian capital and cities in the vicinity of the capital,” he added.

Analysts said Israel’s tactics in Iran mirror its conduct during its genocidal war in Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023. They accused Israel of dismantling entire systems by hitting schools, public infrastructure and state institutions.

A spokesman for the Iranian Red Crescent Society on Wednesday said nearly 20,000 civilian buildings, including at least 16,000 residential units, have been affected since the US-Israel war on Iran began.

In the meantime, Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on ⁠X on Thursday that ⁠any US aggression against Iranian ⁠islands in ⁠the Gulf will prompt Tehran to “abandon ‌all restraint”.

Several ⁠Iranian islands, including ⁠Kharg, are ⁠critical energy export ⁠terminals. Iranian ‌military bases are located on others.

A spokesperson for the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters said on Wednesday that any vessel linked to the United States and Israel or their allies “will be considered a legitimate target”.

You will not be able to artificially lower the price of oil. Expect oil at $200 per barrel,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “The price of oil depends on regional security, and you are the main source of insecurity in the region.”

Global oil prices have fluctuated wildly this week during continued US-Israeli attacks against Iran, which has retaliated by firing missiles and drones at targets across the wider Middle East.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies transit, and production slowdowns in some Gulf countries have raised concerns of further disruptions.

Concerns around the duration of the war, which began on February 28 and has shown no sign of abating, are also adding to uncertainty, sending oil prices soaring.

On Wednesday, three ships were hit by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, maritime security and risk firms said, including a Thai-flagged cargo vessel that came under attack about 11 nautical miles (18km) north of Oman.

Despite the risks to maritime traffic, US President Donald Trump encouraged ships to continue transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. “I think they should,” Trump said when asked whether vessels should pass through the waterway.

“I think you’re going to see great safety, and it’s going to be very, very quickly,” Trump said.

Earlier, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher called for “exemptions” for aid to transit the strait, warning that humanitarian supplies were not reaching “areas of key need in sub-Saharan Africa”.

“We’re appealing to all the parties to try and secure those routes, including the Strait of Hormuz, for our humanitarian traffic … so we can reach anyone, anywhere, on the basis of greatest need,” Fletcher said.

“We’re living through a moment right now of grave peril,” Fletcher added.

Release of oil reserves

World leaders, including members of the Group of Seven (G7) and the European Union, have been mulling what action to take in response to the war’s impact on global economies.

Christian Bueger, a professor of international relations at the University of Copenhagen and an expert in maritime security, said Europe will be facing “a major energy supply crisis” if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened.

“For the shipping industry right now, it’s impossible to go through the Strait of Hormuz,” Bueger told Al Jazeera. “And if there are not stronger signals in the near future that they can at least try to go through the strait, then we are looking at a major shipping crisis, which can last weeks if not months.”

On Wednesday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that its 32 member countries had unanimously agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves to try to lower prices.

“This is a major action aiming to alleviate the immediate impacts of the disruption in markets,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said during an address from the agency’s headquarters in Paris.

“But to be clear, the most important thing for a return to stable flows of oil and gas is the resumption of transit through the Strait of Hormuz,” he added.

The reserve supplies will be made available “over a timeframe that is appropriate” for each member state, the IEA said in a statement without providing details.

German Economy and Energy Minister Katherina Reiche said earlier in the day that the country would comply with the release while Austria also said it would make part of its emergency oil reserve available and extend its national strategic gas reserve.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it would release about 80 million barrels from its private and national oil reserves.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the country, which gets about 70 percent of its oil imports through the Strait of Hormuz, would begin releasing the reserves on Monday.

A spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters, a group described as IRGC-owned by the United Nations, said on Wednesday that “the enemy left our hands open to targeting economic centres and banks belonging to the United States and the Zionist regime in the region”.

It  warned that “people of the region should not be within a one-kilometre radius of banks”.

“The Americans should await our countermeasure and our painful response,” it also added.

Iran’s counterattacks have continued as explosions have rocked Tehran, as Iran stated that US and Israeli forces have bombed nearly 10,000 civilian sites in the country and killed more than 1,300 civilians, since the war began on February 28.

The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency released a list of offices and infrastructure run by top US companies with Israeli links whose technology has been used for military applications, describing them as “Iran’s new targets”, said Al Jazeera’s Maziar Motamedi, reporting from Tehran.

“As the scope of the regional war expands to infrastructure war, the scope of Iran’s legitimate targets expands,” the agency said.

The companies include Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM, Nvidia and Oracle, and the listed offices and infrastructure for cloud-based services are located in multiple Israeli cities, as well as in some Gulf countries, said Motamedi.

Iran’s state broadcaster on Wednesday said that an Israeli attack overnight on a bank branch in Tehran was an “illegitimate and unusual act in war”, and that “the enemy” has declared economic centres and banks tied to the US and Israel as targets themselves.

According  to state television, several employees were killed in the incident.

The warnings by the Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters came after Israel on Monday bombed a Lebanese building in Beirut’s southern suburbs that was reportedly a branch of the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Qard Al-Hassan financial institution.

Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a quasi-banking institution that offers interest-free loans to people, is one of the many charity organisations run by Hezbollah, including schools, hospitals and low-price supermarkets.

Israel has claimed it is trying to destroy Hezbollah and its capacity to operate and in the process has killed at least 570 people and displaced 780,000 in the beleaguered nation.

Amnesty warned on Tuesday that women and girls in Gaza have been pushed “to the brink” as the Israeli war has spurred a series of hardships, from mass displacement to the destruction of the local healthcare system.

Pregnant  women, as well as those who need treatment for cancer and other illnesses, have been particularly hard-hit by the lack of adequate health services in the territory, Amnesty said in a statement.

“This systematic erosion of their rights to health, safety, dignity and a future is not an unfortunate by-product of war; it is a deliberate act of war targeting women and girls,” the group said.

“It is also the foreseeable consequence of Israel’s calculated policies and practices of multiple mass displacement, deliberate restrictions on basic and essential items, as well as humanitarian relief, and two years of relentless bombardment that have devastated Gaza’s health system and decimated entire families.”

More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.

Israeli attacks have continued despite a US-brokered “ceasefire” that came into effect in October of last year, killing more than 600 people, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Israel  also continues to impede the steady flow of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced across the Strip due to the Israeli bombardment.

Last  week, the United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) said the health sector in Gaza remains “under significant constraints” as a result of the restrictions on medical supplies and equipment, as well as fuel.

“Sexual and reproductive health services remain severely disrupted due to damaged infrastructure, shortages of essential medicines and supplies and limited referral capacity,” OCHA said, noting that as many as 180 women give birth daily in Gaza.

“Severe bed shortages mean women undergoing major procedures, including Caesarean sections, are often discharged within hours and return to overcrowded displacement settings, increasing risks of complications and infection,” the agency said.

Maternal, neonatal health problems

That was echoed by Amnesty, which said on Tuesday that medical workers in Gaza reported “an exponential increase in maternal and neonatal health conditions over the past 29 months” as a result of Israel’s genocide.

That includes pre-term births, low-weight babies and babies suffering from respiratory conditions, malnutrition of pregnant women, and postpartum depression, the rights group said.

“Displacement conditions have led to infectious diseases,” Dr Nasser Bulbol, a neonatologist at Al Helou Hospital hospital in Gaza City, told Amnesty, noting that there has been an increase in high-risk pregnancies due to conditions in the Strip.

“And most women come here under stress, trauma and uncertainty, having suffered multiple displacements, lost loved ones, unable to obtain the nutritious food they require.”