Iran Refuses to Yield to US and Israel

Dubai: Israel has struck southern Lebanon, Beirut and an oil storage facility in Tehran as the war in the Middle East keeps escalating, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised "many surprises" for the next phase of the conflict.

Iran also hit a desalination plant in Bahrain. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a U.S. airstrike damaged an Iranian desalination plant on Qeshm Island, warning that in doing so "the U.S. set this precedent, not Iran." Such infrastructure is critical for drinking water supplies in the parched deserts of the Gulf.

An Israeli attack on an oil storage facility in Tehran sent up pillars of fire that could be seen in Associated Press video as a glow against the Saturday night sky. It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war.

The conflict has rattled global markets, disrupted air travel and left Iran's leadership weakened by hundreds of Israeli and American airstrikes.

Here is the latest:

Israel's army chief tells Israeli public to prepare for war to take a long time'

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Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir spoke at an assessment held with the Home Front Command chief and other military officials, in comments provided by the army.

"Israel has already been in a state of prolonged emergency for two years," Zamir said. "What we mainly need right now is perseverance and patience. It will take a long time yet, you need to be prepared for that, and however long it takes, it will take."

Israel confirms it struck hotel in central Beirut, says 5 Iran-linked commanders killed

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The military said the overnight strike by its Navy killed five top commanders in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps while they were "hiding in a civilian hotel."

It said they served in the Guard's Quds Force's Lebanon and Palestine corps and were involved in funding, arming and providing intelligence to Hezbollah and Hamas.

The Quds Force works heavily with Iran's allied militant groups in the region.

Last week the Israeli military said it killed the acting commander of the Quds Force's Lebanon Corps in an airstrike in Teheran.

Macron urges Iran to halt strikes in phone call with the country's president

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French President Emmanuel Macron said he had talks with Iranian President Massoud Pezechkian on Sunday and urged him for stopping strikes.

"I stressed the need for Iran to immediately cease its strikes against countries in the region," Macron said in a post on X.

He also called on Iran to guarantee freedom of navigation by "putting an end to the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz."

Macron also mentioned the case of Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, two French nationals who were released from an Iranian prison in November and transferred to the French Embassy in Tehran, after more than three years in detention on spying charges. He called for their return to France as an "absolute priority."

Macron also stressed deep concern regarding the development of Iran's nuclear and ballistic program and said a diplomatic solution is necessary.

Both leaders agreed to remain in contact, according to Macron's post on X.

Macron is the first Western leader to talk to Iran's president since the beginning of the war.

Macron speaks with Iranian president

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French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on the phone Sunday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. He also had separate talks with President Donald Trump, Macron's office said.

No other details provided.

Lebanon says over a half-million people have been displaced in the week of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lebanon says over a half-million people have been displaced in the week of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

The actual number is likely higher. Lebanon's count of 517,000 refers to those who registered on the government's online portal. The cash-strapped government has struggled to accommodate the large number of people who have fled their homes in large parts of southern and eastern Lebanon.

Israel over the past week has called on residents in dozens of villages across southern Lebanon and the entirety of Beirut's southern suburbs to evacuate as the fighting intensifies.

Six Palestinians have been killed this week in interactions with Israeli settlers

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Palestinian mourners marched down the main street of the West Bank village of Khirbet Abu Falah Sunday, hoisting high the coffins of three men killed in an interaction with settlers.

Earlier in the day, Israeli settlers had attacked Palestinians near the village, which is east of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied territory, the military said. Two Palestinians were killed by gunfire and a third died from suffocation, likely due to tear gas, the military said.

The deaths bring the total number of settler-related killings of Palestinians in the West Bank to six this week, and seven in the roughly nine weeks since the start of 2026.

That's a major spike. In all of 2025, the UN human rights office reported nine Palestinians killed by settlers.

Tensions on Israel's northern border as military beefs up presence to counter Hezbollah

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Israelis along the northern border with Lebanon Sunday watched and worried as the area grew increasingly militarized during yet another round of fighting with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Military jeeps and trucks with tanks on them could be seen on roads close to the border.

"I believe that our army today will bring order regarding Hezbollah and eliminate them permanently so we can live here in peace," said Morris Yakuti, a poultry farmer from the area.

Others weren't so sure.

"Since I have enough experience in this area all my life, I think it's just another circle of war and it will not end this war, so it will happen again and again," said Harella Matalon Aizenshtadt.

Israel's renewed offensive began last week after Hezbollah launched rockets toward northern Israel during the war's opening days.

The subsequent strikes have been the most intense since a November 2024 ceasefire.

The first day of the Iran war was the deadliest, an independent monitoring group says

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Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, the U.S-based group known as ACLED, said over 43% of the fatalities were documented that day, Feb. 28, in 10 countries. ACLED has documented over 1,000 incidents in the first week of the war across 16 countries.

The deadliest single strike during the first week was on Feb 28 on a girl's school near a Revolutionary Guards base in Minab in southern Iran, that killed 168 civilians.

That was followed by another strike on a playground in Shiraz, in central Iran, on March 5, that killed 20 people. Another strike on a residential area in Lamerd, in Fars province, killed 19 on the first day of the war, ACLED said.

Although ACLED recorded fewer strikes on civilian sites in Iran, they caused more causalities, it said. Over 57% of civilian casualties in Iran resulted from 3.4% of the recorded strikes by the US and Israel.

Sirens spread to central Israel in successive barrages from Iran

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Moments after residents of southern Israel were warned of incoming ballistic missiles from Iran, sirens sent millions more Israelis in the Tel Aviv metro area and parts of the West Bank into shelters as the army said it had detected another missile attack.

Analyst says separatism will strengthen Iranian government

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However disdainful of their government in Tehran, most Iranians are wary of Trump's courting of Iranian Kurdish groups, said Alex Vatanka, a fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C.

Iranians see the U.S. president's calls to the Kurds and posts on social media as signals that Trump desires not the liberation but rather than the fragmentation of Iran.

"What Iranians are by and large hearing is not regime change in Tehran, not this glorious move to a secular democracy and so forth, but basically the dismantling of Iran," Vatanka said. Talk of separatism, from the Kurds and other minority groups like Baluchis, Ahwazi Arabs and Azeris "is going to undermine that bigger effort aimed at the regime and it will demoralize the opposition."

Vatanka said that territorial losses in Iranian Kurdish areas or perhaps three Iranian islands claimed by the United Arab Emirates would rally Iranians around the flag if not the authorities against foreign interference. (AP)

DUBAI: British Broadcasting Corporation has verified a video posted online overnight, showing a line of fire burning in a street in north-west Tehran.

"The fire is in Koohsar Boulevard, in Shahran neighbourhood, the report said, where about 2km (1.2 miles) away an oil depot was reportedly struck on Saturday evening. It's not clear whether the two incidents are connected," the report said.

According to the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), oil depots in Tehran and Alborz provinces were attacked last night.