Gulf countries and Israel came under missile fire and Israeli forces struck Iran on Saturday, as the war raged into its second month with Washington expressing hopes for progress in talks with Tehran.
In a sign that the conflict may be expanding further, Israel’s military said air defences responded to a missile launched from Yemen — the first since the start of the war on February 28, and after threats from Iran’s Houthi allies to launch attacks.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels announced their entry into the Middle East war by launching a ballistic missile towards Israel, as the world struggled to contain the economic damage of the conflict.
The intervention of Iran’s Yemeni allies into Tehran’s conflict with Israel and the United States will spark concern about disruption to Red Sea shipping, with trade from the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz already choked off.
AFP journalists reported two blasts heard over Jerusalem, after the Israeli military said it had detected incoming missiles launched from Iran.
The apparent attack came shortly after the Israeli military said it had completed a wave of strikes across the Iranian capital Tehran.
The war began when the United States and Israel launched airstrikes across Iran, killing supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and sending shockwaves across the globe.
A month later the conflict showed no sign of ending, with Israel announcing fresh strikes on Tehran and an AFP journalist in the city reporting around 10 intense blasts and a plume of black smoke.
Emirati authorities said debris from a successful missile interception started fires at an Abu Dhabi industrial zone, injuring five Indian nationals.
Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted a missile and several drones, and Bahrain said a blaze caused by the ‘Iranian aggression’ had been brought under control.
In Israel, repeated air raid sirens sent people to shelters, including in Tel Aviv where one man was killed and two others wounded, and in the country’s north, where media reported a simultaneous attack from Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
An Iranian missile and drone attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia wounded at least 12 American soldiers, two of them seriously, according to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified officials.
An Israeli strike killed three journalists Saturday in south Lebanon, their channels and a Lebanese military source said, while Israel said one of them was a Hezbollah member.
This came as Israel continued its raids on southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah announced it had targeted Israeli forces that had entered border villages.
A Lebanese military source said earlier on Saturday that Ali Shoeib of Hezbollah’s Al Manar channel and Fatima Ftouni of Al Mayadeen, seen as close to the Iran-backed movement, were killed in Jezzine, alongside Ftouni’s brother, a cameraman.
Lebanese president Joseph Aoun condemned the killings, calling them ‘a blatant crime that violates all the norms and treaties under which journalists enjoy international protection in wars’.
Prime minister Nawaf Salam said the targeting of journalists was ‘a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.’
Several journalists have been killed in southern Lebanon since the start of the previous round of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in 2023.
Pakistan’s prime minister said he had a ‘detailed’ call with Iran’s president on Saturday, as foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey prepared to meet in Islamabad for talks on the war in the Middle East.
Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian hailed mediation efforts by Pakistan. Shehbaz Sharif’s government has emerged as a key facilitator between Iran and the United States as their war drags on, serving as an intermediary for messages between the two sides.
Top diplomats from Riyadh, Cairo and Ankara are due in the Pakistani capital Sunday and Monday for ‘in-depth discussions on a range of issues, including efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region’, the Pakistan foreign ministry said.
They will be hosted by their Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, and a meeting with Sharif is also planned, a statement read.
Kyiv denied Iran’s claim that Tehran had targeted and destroyed a Ukrainian anti-drone system depot in the United Arab Emirates, calling it a ‘lie’ and a ‘disinformation’.
Iran’s military said it had hit and destroyed the depot, which it said was used to assist US forces.
Indonesia is in talks with Iran to secure safe passage for its tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran responding favourably to Jakarta’s diplomatic efforts, a foreign ministry spokesman said.
Danish shipping giant Maersk said operations had been temporarily halted at Oman’s port of Salalah after a drone attack injured a foreign worker and damaged a crane.
Maersk, whose subsidiary APM Terminals runs the port, said ‘it was immediately evacuated and operations across the facility were temporarily suspended’, predicting it would remain closed for 48 hours.
Iran said it had targeted a US logistics vessel ‘at a considerable distance from the port’.
US president Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Friday he believes Iran would hold talks with Washington ‘this week, we’re certainly hopeful for it’.
Washington expected Tehran to respond to a 15-point US peace plan, he told a business forum in Miami. ‘It could solve it all.’
One major issue has been the near-closure of the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, which has sent markets into turmoil and pushed oil prices to levels not seen since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Thailand on Saturday joined a handful of nations that have announced they were able to secure safe passage for their oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz in an agreement with Iran.
The G7 ministers expressed the ‘absolute necessity to permanently restore safe and toll-free freedom of navigation’ in the waterway and called for ‘an immediate cessation of attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure’.
Rubio declared that Washington expects its military campaign to prove victorious within weeks.
‘When we are done with them here in the next couple of weeks, they will be weaker than they’ve been in recent history,’ he told reporters.
Iran had sent ‘messages’ to the American side but had not formally responded to the 15-point plan, Rubio said.
While Trump has extended his deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on energy assets to April 6, Iranian media reported strikes on Friday on three Iranian nuclear facilities and two steel plants, with officials saying there was no radioactive release.
Israel confirmed it had struck the Khondab heavy water complex and a uranium processing plant in Ardakan, while the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran had informed it of another strike on the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi threatened retaliation ‘for Israeli crimes’ in a post on X, saying the attacks contradicted Trump’s ‘extended deadline for diplomacy’.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned they would strike industrial sites across the region, having earlier issued similar warnings for US military bases and hotels hosting American troops.
Iranian strikes have shattered the Gulf’s reputation for stability, hitting Dubai’s airport, Bahrain’s capital and energy facilities across the region during the course of the war.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels, which did not immediately comment on the missile fire reported by Israel, had warned on Friday they would join the war if US-Israeli attacks on ally Iran continued or if more countries joined the conflict.
The Houthis have in the past attacked shipping in the Red Sea in response to regional conflicts, but had so far not intervened in the latest war.
