The IDF has begun striking what it describes as Hezbollah infrastructure in the Dahiya neighbourhood, a densely populated commercial and residential area in the southern suburbs of Beirut. The IDF had earlier issued forced evacuation orders for the whole population of Beirut’s southern suburbs – home to 500,000 people – sparking widespread panic and leading to huge queues of traffic as people tried to flee. It comes in spite of calls from world leaders including Emmanuel Macron urging Israel not to expand the war into Lebanon. According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israeli strikes have killed at least 123 people and injured 683 in Lebanon since Monday.
Donald Trump has claimed – without evidence – that Iran’s air force and navy are “gone”. Speaking during an event at the White House, the US president said: “We’re destroying more of Iran’s missile and drone capability every single hour – knocking them out.” He went on: “So [Iran] have no air force, they have no air defence. All of their airplanes are gone, their communications are gone. Other than that, they’re doing quite well. Their navy is gone, [they lost] 24 ships in three days, that’s a lot of ships,” he said, along with 60% of Iran’s missiles and 64% of its missile launchers.” Echoing comments he made earlier this week, Trump added that the US military and Israel are “totally demolish[ing]” Iranian targets “far ahead of schedule”.
Trump also said he must “be involved in the appointment” of Iran’s next leader as he was in Venezuela, and dismissed the idea of the assassinated ayatollah’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, succeeding his father as supreme leader as “unacceptable”. Read more about the US president’s remarks here.
The UK’s defence secretary John Healey declined to rule out Britain joining US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Read more about that here.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he received a request from the United States “for specific support” in dealing with Iran’s Shahed attack drones, as the US and its allies in the Middle East seek Ukraine’s expertise in countering such attacks from Russia. “I gave instructions to provide the necessary means and ensure the presence of Ukrainian specialists who can guarantee the required security,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “Ukraine helps partners who help ensure our security and protect the lives of our people.” More on that here.
Azerbaijan has responded strongly to an alleged drone strike in the Nakhchivan region near the border of Iran. Although Iran has denied any involvement, Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, has ordered the country’s armed forces to be at “the highest level of readiness” for any retaliatory action and summoned Iran’s ambassador to the foreign ministry in Baku.
Iran claimed it had hit a US oil tanker in the northern Persian Gulf and that the vessel was on fire. There was no immediate confirmation of the incident or comment from the US. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it maintains full control of the strait of Hormuz and has effectively closed it to oil and gas exports.
Iran continued to launch a wave of missiles at Israel, sending millions of residents into bomb shelters, just hours after moves to limit Trump’s ability to prolong the war were blocked in Washington. Other countries in the Gulf region continued to deal with the fallout: six people were injured in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates from falling debris after air defences intercepted a drone, and Qatar officials urged residents to stay inside as air defences worked to halt an attack. The ministry of defence in Bahrain said on Thursday that their air defences had destroyed 75 missiles and 123 drones since the start of the conflict.
The Israeli military said it was beginning a new widespread wave of attacks in Tehran. Israel also said it carried out strikes on Beirut targeting Hezbollah; while Lebanese state media reported an Israeli drone strike killed a Hamas official.
The World Health Organization said it had verified more than a dozen attacks on health infrastructure in Iran amid the US-Israeli campaign. Four healthcare workers have been killed and 25 others injured, according to the organisation.
