Iran security chief Ali Larijani and head of IRGC's Basij confirmed killed in Israeli strike

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Qatar's defence ministry said it intercepted a missile attack on Wednesday as blasts were heard in Doha.

"Armed forces intercepted missile attack which targeted State of Qatar," the ministry of defence said in a statement, released shortly after an AFP journalist in the capital heard several blasts.

The repercussions of the war in the Middle East would be felt globally, Iran's top diplomat said on Wednesday, suggesting more Western officials should push back against the conflict.

"Wave of global repercussions has only begun and will hit all - regardless of wealth, faith, or race," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X, accompanied by a copy of the US National Counterterrorism Center director's resignation announcement prompted by the war on Tuesday.

"A rising number of voices - (including) European and U.S. officials - exclaim that the war on Iran is unjust. More members of the international community should follow suit," the post added.

The United Arab Emirates has pledged to supply South Korea with 18 million barrels of additional crude oil and a shipment of naphtha, South Korea's presidential envoy to the Middle East, Kang Hoon-sik, said on Wednesday. 

An Iranian projectile hit near Australia's military headquarters for the Middle East in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, adding no-one was hurt.

"At 9:15 this morning at the Al Minhad base that Australia has in the United Arab Emirates, there was an Iranian projectile hit near that base," Albanese told reporters.

"I can confirm that no Australian personnel were injured, and everyone is absolutely safe," he added.

Saudi Arabia will host a consultative meeting of foreign ministers from a number of Arab and Islamic countries in Riyadh on Wednesday evening to discuss ways to support regional security and stability, the kingdom's foreign ministry said. 

Iranian army chief Amir Hatami threatened on Wednesday to launch a "decisive and regrettable" retaliation for the killing of security chief Ali Larijani in an Israeli air strike.

"Iran's response to the assassination of the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council will be decisive and regrettable," Hatami said in a statement.

The Revolutionary Guards, Iran's powerful military force that is separate from the army, said in a statement Wednesday that it had launched missiles at central Israel "in revenge for the blood of martyr Dr Ali Larijani and his companions".

Lebanon's health ministry said that two Israeli strikes on central Beirut early Wednesday killed at least six people and wounded 24 others, noting the toll was preliminary.

"Human remains were also recovered from the site and their identities will be determined after DNA testing," the ministry statement said.

Saudi Arabia intercepted a ballistic missile near Prince Sultan Air Base, which houses US military personnel, the defence ministry said on Wednesday as Iran continues strikes on Gulf nations.

"A ballistic missile launched toward Alkharj Governorate was intercepted and destroyed, with interception debris falling around Prince Sultan Air Base causing no damage," the defence ministry posted on X.

A projectile struck the premises of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday evening with no damage to the plant or injuries to staff reported, Iran told the U.N. nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA said on X. 

Saudi Arabia intercepted several drones and Kuwait's air defences responded to a rocket and drone attack, authorities from both countries said on Wednesday.

The Saudi defence ministry said in two statements it had destroyed a total of six drones in the east of the country.

"Kuwaiti air defenses are currently intercepting hostile rocket and drone attacks," Kuwait's military also posted on X.

The Lebanese health ministry has said that at least four people were killed and seven others injured after Israeli strikes in Baalbek.

The US military said Tuesday it had hit Iranian missile sites near the strategic Strait of Hormuz with some of the most powerful bombs in the US arsenal.

"US forces successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran's coastline near the Strait of Hormuz," Central Command said in a statement on X.

Israel hit a central Beirut neighbourhood early Wednesday, local media reported, in a strike that came without warning, as other strikes hit the city's southern suburbs.

Local media reported the strike hit the central Zuqaq al-Blat neighbourhood, where the Israeli military last week hit a Beirut branch of the Hezbollah-linked financial firm Al-Qard Al-Hassan.

In the earlier strike on the central area, the Israeli military had released a forced evacuation order in advance.

Two people were killed near Tel Aviv during an Iranian missile barrage, Israeli emergency responders said on Wednedsay, after police reported they were responding to "several" impact sites around the city and its surrounding areas.

"We saw smoke rising from a building with extensive damage and shattered glass. From among the debris, we saw two unconscious casualties, with no pulse and not breathing, with severe injuries to their bodies," the Magen David Adom emergency responder said in a statement, adding medics had pronounced the two people dead at the scene.

The emergency responder had earlier released a statement saying the two patients were found in serious condition, while police had confirmed reports of "the fall of munition fragments in the Tel Aviv District."

The Iranian women's national football team landed at Istanbul Airport on Tuesday after several members of the delegation withdrew their asylum bids in Australia and decided to return home.

Footage from Turkish news agency DHA showed the players, wearing Iranian national team tracksuits, walking through the arrivals area at Istanbul Airport.

The players arrived in Turkey via Oman and Kuala Lumpur, having left Australia where they were competing in the Asian Cup.

Read the full story here.

Israeli media is reporting damage at the Tel Aviv–Savidor Center railway station following missile launches from Iran.

'Several' Israel sites have been hit in the latest Iran barrage. According to police, at least two people were seriously hurt.

The United States military said Tuesday that it targeted sites along Iran's coastline near the Strait of Hormuz because Iranian anti-ship missiles posed a risk to international shipping there.

Israeli media reports damage from Iranian missile interceptions in at least four sites in the country's Central District.

The U.S. aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, deployed in operations against Iran, is expected to temporarily pull into port after a fire on board, U.S. officials said on Tuesday, the 18th day of the war with Tehran.

The carrier, America's newest and the world's largest, is currently located in the Red Sea. It is expected to temporarily go to Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete, the two officials said.

Read the full story here.

Bahrain's interior ministry tells the country's residents to seek the nearest safe space as air raid sirens sound in the country.

At least two blasts were heard in Jerusalem early Wednesday after Israel's military said it had identified another round of missiles launched from Iran.

AFP reporters in the city heard the explosions and saw two bright flashes in the sky, moments after the army said its air defence systems were "operating to intercept the threat" from the latest Iranian barrage.

Several loud explosions rang out early on Wednesday in the United Arab Emirates' Dubai, AFP journalists said, as Iran continued to target Gulf countries with its retaliatory strikes.

The authorities said air defences were "responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran", with the UAE saying it has been the target of over 2,000 Iranian drones and missiles since the start of the war.

Israel's military on Tuesday ordered residents of the south Lebanon city of Tyre to leave, warning it was about to strike targets in the area it claimed are linked Hezbollah.

The military's Arabic language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, issued an "urgent alert" to residents of the city and surrounding areas, saying it planned to "act forcefully" against Hezbollah, in a social media post that included a proposed evacuation route.

The war on Iran has not delayed shipments of weapons to Taiwan or changed U.S. policy toward the island, officials from President Donald Trump's administration told members of Congress on Tuesday, despite the demands of the intense air campaign.

"Have we delayed moving things to Taiwan? We haven't," Stanley Brown, principal deputy assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, told a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.

The U.S. and Israel began airstrikes against Iran on February 28, a campaign that has raised concerns among some U.S. officials that the U.S. defense industry would be unable to keep up with demand and could be forced to slow shipments to buyers such as Taiwan, which faces steadily rising military pressure from China.

There was already a multi-billion-dollar backlog of U.S. arms shipments to Taiwan before the Iran war started. Brown said the administration was looking at ways to expedite shipments, without providing specifics.

Israel said late Tuesday it had struck sites "throughout Lebanon," targeting what it called Hezbollah rocket launching infrastructure after a series of air raid sirens in northern Israel.

"As part of the effort to degrade the organisation and thwart rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, in the past hour, the (military) struck launchers and Hezbollah terrorists throughout Lebanon," a statement said.

Earlier Tuesday, Israel said it had "detected expanded preparations by the Hezbollah" to launch rockets at Israel.

The army added that it hits Hezbollah launchers "prior to, or immediately following, a launch."

Iran's security chief Ali Larijani has been killed, Iranian media confirmed on Tuesday. 

Multiple new Israeli strikes reported in Lebanon's southern region, including in villages near Tyre, Zawtar El Charqiyeh, Ghassaniyeh and Insar, according to state media.

Initial findings by an internal U.N. inquiry suggest Israeli tank fire hit a U.N. position in southern Lebanon on March 6, wounding Ghanaian peacekeepers, according to a Western military source, underscoring the growing risks as Israeli operations expand.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line with Israel - an area that is at the heart of clashes between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.

Read the full story here.

President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said France would "never" help secure the Strait of Hormuz "in the current context" of hostilities, rebuffing his US counterpart Donald Trump's call for help.

Speaking at a defence council meeting, Macron said France could help escort vessels in the strategic waterway, through which around 20 percent of global seaborne oil passes, but only after the situation has calmed down.

Last week, Macron said France and its allies were preparing a "defensive" mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively shut by Iran in response to the war launched by the United States and Israel on February 28.

Read the full story here.

Scandinavian airline SAS said Tuesday it will cancel at least a thousand flights in April after the war in the Middle East sent fuel prices surging.

"The price of jet fuel has doubled in ten days. Even if we try to absorb cost increases as much as possible, this is a shock that directly hits the airline industry," CEO Anko van der Werff told Swedish business daily Dagens Industri.

SAS had been one of the first carriers to announce fare increases to account for soaring jet fuel prices.

"We are cancelling a few hundred flights in March, but trying to protect our traffic as much as possible," the SAS chief said.

He said more cancellations were expected after Easter, when traffic normally dips.

The measures will affect "at least a thousand" flights, though he stressed this remained limited in scale given SAS operates around 800 flights a day.

Most of the cancelled flights in March were domestic routes in Norway, with only a few affecting Sweden and Denmark, according to a SAS statement sent earlier to AFP.

"Given the ongoing situation in the Middle East, including the sharp and sudden increase in global fuel prices, we are taking measures to strengthen our resilience," the statement said.

"One such measure is a limited number of short-term flight cancellations."

Iraqi air defenses intercept a new drone attack on the US embassy in Baghdad, Al-Araby TV reports, citing a security source. The report comes after explosions were heard in the area.

Iraq was in contact with Iran to try to arrange passage for some of its oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, the country's oil minister told local media.

A founding member of the OPEC cartel, crude oil sales make up 90 percent of Iraq's budget revenues. Before the outbreak of war on 28 February, Iraq mainly shipped its oil - roughly 3.5 million barrels per day - from the southern Basra fields via the Strait of Hormuz.

Read the full story here.

Saudi Arabia's ministry of defence reports new interceptions of three drones in unspecified parts of its eastern region.

Russia has been expanding its intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Iran, providing satellite imagery and improved drone technology to aid Tehran’s targeting of U.S. forces in the region, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Three Lebanese soldiers were killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday, the Lebanese army said, as Israel carried out new raids and again ordered residents of vast parts of southern Lebanon to evacuate.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on 2 March when pro-Iran Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel in response to US-Israeli strikes that killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israel has responded with intense strikes in multiple Lebanese regions and ground operations in the south, with its finance minister saying this month that Beirut's suburbs would soon "resemble" the badly damaged Gazan city of Khan Yunis.

Read the full story here.

Israel said it would halt UN children's fund shipments to Gaza originating from Egypt after it said it foiled an attempt at tobacco and nicotine smuggling in UNICEF-coordinated shipments Tuesday.

Israel "informed the head of UNICEF of the suspension of aid shipments to the Gaza Strip originating from Egypt and coordinated by the agency, following the thwarting of an attempted smuggling of tobacco and nicotine products detected today (Tuesday) at the Kerem Shalom Crossing within humanitarian aid shipments coordinated by the agency," COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body in charge of civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said in a statement.

COGAT added that the suspension would remain in place "until the agency provides the findings of a full investigation, as well as an official response on the matter".

The UN on Tuesday urged Israel to immediately halt its dramatic settlement expansion in the West Bank, raising "ethnic cleansing" concerns with over 36,000 Palestinians displaced in a single year.

A fresh report from the United Nations rights office, looking at the 12 months up to 31 October, 2025, warned that Israel's accelerating expansion of unlawful settlements and annexation of large parts of the West Bank was driving "unprecedented" displacement.

"The displacement of more than 36,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank represented the mass expulsion of Palestinians on a scale previously unseen, amounting to unlawful transfer that is prohibited under international humanitarian law," the report said.

Read the full story here.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that it would hunt down Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

"We don't know about Mojtaba Khamenei, we don't hear him, we don't see him, but I can tell you one thing: we will track him down, find him, and neutralise him," military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told reporters.

Iran's parliament speaker on Tuesday warned that maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz would not resume on the same terms even after the current conflict is over.

"The Strait of Hormuz situation won't return to its pre-war status," Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, in an English-language social media post.

Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of Iran's paramilitary Basij force was killed in U.S.-Israel attacks, Iran's state media said on Tuesday. Israel had earlier on Tuesday said it killed Soliemani. 

Iran is selecting ships from friendly countries to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial trade waterway cut off by the Middle East war, data trackers indicated Tuesday.

Tehran's forces have closed off the waterway, through which a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passes in peacetime, with deadly hits reported on vessels since the war began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February.

But at least five ships exited the Strait via Iranian waters on 15 and 16 March, maritime intelligence firm Windward said in an analysis report on Tuesday.

Read the full story here.

Powerful Iran-backed armed group Kataeb Hezbollah in Iraq demanded late Tuesday that every "foreign soldier" leave the country, its security chief said.

"Iraq's instability is due to the malicious American presence, and security will not be achieved until the last foreign soldier leaves Iraqi territory," the group's new security chief Abou Moujahed al-Assaf said in a statement.

The group - designated by Washington as a "terrorist organisation" - is part of an umbrella movement known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has been claiming daily attacks on US interests in Iraq and the region, and which has always demanded the withdrawal of US troops from the country.

More than 10,000 people displaced by war have been received by authorities in Lebanon's northern-most Akkar province, with 17 out of its 21 shelters having reached capacity, officials say.

Katyusha rockets and an explosive drone targeted the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, according to security sources, triggering the activation of C-RAM air defence systems and warning sirens across the area.

An explosive drone also targeted the embassy and an explosion was heard nearby, though there was no immediate confirmation of casualties or damage.

President Donald Trump is delaying a diplomatic trip to China that had been planned for months but began to unravel as he pressured Beijing and other world powers to use military might to protect the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump said Tuesday while meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in the Oval Office that he would be going to China in five or six weeks' time instead of at the end of the month. He said he would be "resetting" his visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, without elaborating.

US President Donald Trump said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has made the wrong choice in not supporting Washington over war in the Middle East.

"He hasn't been supportive, and I think it's a big mistake," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I'm disappointed with Keir - I like him, I think he's a nice man, but I'm disappointed."

Israel's "political assassinations" of Iranian leaders are illegal, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Tuesday.

Israel said earlier Tuesday it killed Iran's security chief Ali Larijani. Tehran has not yet confirmed this.

Supreme leader Ali Khamenei and dozens of other senior officials have been killed in US-Israeli strikes on Iran since the war started on 28 February.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. had been informed by most of its NATO allies that they did not want to get involved with the country's military operation in Iran.

"Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer 'need,' or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID!" Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, also singling out Japan, Australia and South Korea. 

France is ready to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz but only once the situation has become "calmer", said President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday.

"We are not a party to the conflict and therefore France will never take part in operations to open or liberate the Strait of Hormuz in the current context," Macron said following US President Donald Trump's demand that allies help secure the waterway effectively shut by Iran in response to US-Israeli strikes.

"However, we are convinced that once the situation becomes calmer... we are ready, alongside other nations, to take responsibility for an escort system."

Lebanon's health ministry said Tuesday that Israeli attacks have killed 912 people in the country since war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah on 2 March, raising a previous toll of 886 a day earlier.

The new ministry statement said the toll included 67 women, 111 children and 38 health workers, with 2,221 other people wounded.

Threats from Israeli officials to unleash Gaza-level destruction on Lebanon are "wholly unacceptable", the UN said Tuesday, and warned that "deliberately attacking civilians or civilian objects amounts to a war crime".

"Another tragic chapter in Lebanon's history is being written," United Nations rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warned last week that Beirut's southern suburbs would "very soon ... resemble Khan Yunis" - a southern Gaza city which has been heavily damaged by Israeli bombardments during the two-and-a-half-year war.

"Statements by Israeli officials threatening to impose the same level of destruction on Lebanon as inflicted in Gaza are wholly unacceptable," Kheetan said.

"Such rhetoric, coupled with the Israeli military's announcement that it will deploy additional forces and expand its ground incursion, intensify deep fear and anxiety among the Lebanese population," he warned.

The Lebanese army says two of its soldiers were killed in a second Israeli strike on south Lebanon on Tuesday, after an earlier strike killed one soldier and wounded four others.

In a statement, the army said the two soldiers were struck while on motorbikes on the Zebdine-Nabatiyeh road in the country's south.

Hezbollah on Tuesday denied it had any members in Kuwait a day after the Gulf country announced the arrest of 14 Kuwaitis and two Lebanese nationals allegedly affiliated with the group over a "sabotage plot".

"Hezbollah categorically denies the allegations and accusations issued by the Kuwaiti interior ministry," the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group said in a statement, calling the allegations "baseless" and adding: "There are no Hezbollah cells, members or networks in Kuwait."

Iranian authorities called on people to pack streets nationwide Tuesday to defy enemy "plots", over two weeks into war with Israel and the United States, on a night usually marked by Persian new year festivities.

The message, broadcast widely in Iranian media, urged people to join religious groups "in the squares of all the country's cities from 5:00 pm (1330 GMT)".

It said it would be a "popular gathering to neutralise the potential plots of elements of the Zionist enemy", referring to Israel.

The call came after Israel said it had killed Iran's security chief Ali Larijani, which has not been confirmed by Tehran, and ahead of expected evening celebrations of Chaharshanbe Suri, an ancient Iranian festival of light and fire marked before the new year, Nowruz.

The four youths arrested on suspicion of detonating an explosive device outside a Rotterdam synagogue were probably "recruited", the Dutch justice minister said Tuesday, with investigators probing possible links to Iran.

The attack on the synagogue in the early hours of Friday was followed by similar explosions outside a Jewish school and an office building in Amsterdam.

The blasts caused minimal damage to the buildings and no one was hurt.

"Until now, everything points to the fact that the young men in Rotterdam were recruited," David van Weel told parliament.

"And the possibility that Iran is involved in this attack is being explicitly investigated," he added.

The head of the National Counterterrorism Center resigned on Tuesday, becoming the first and most senior member of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to resign over the war in Iran, saying Tehran posed no imminent threat to the United States.

Some experts have said an imminent threat would be required for the United States to launch a war under current law.

After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.

I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this… pic.twitter.com/prtu86DpEr

— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) March 17, 2026

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence also did not immediately respond. Intelligence officials were caught off guard by the news.

Kent is close with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has kept a low profile since the Iran war began.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least three people including a child in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, local health authorities said, the latest violence jeopardising the ceasefire which has been under strain during the Israeli-U.S. war against Iran.

Medics said the airstrike targeted a vehicle in the western area of Khan Younis, south of the enclave, killing three people, including a child, and wounding 12 other people. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the killing of Tehran's national security chief Ali Larijani was part of efforts to give Iranians a chance to remove their rulers.

"This morning we eliminated Ali Larijani, the boss of the Revolutionary Guards, which is the gang of gangsters that actually runs Iran," Netanyahu said in a televised statement.

He said the overthrow of the clerical authorities by Iranians "will not happen all at once, it will not happen easily. But if we persist in this - we will give them a chance to take their fate into their own hands."

Elbit Systems, Israel's largest defence firm, is seeing a new surge in demand due to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran after reaping strong revenues as a result of the 2023-2025 Gaza war.

Elbit chief executive Bezhalel Machlis said on Tuesday the company was working around the clock to ensure Israel did not run out of ammunition and other military systems, and to supply foreign customers - including Gulf countries.

"The success of Israel in Iran creates a lot of interest and a lot of traction. There is a lot of interest in many countries who are suffering from the same enemy (Iran)," Machlis told Reuters, citing countries including the United Arab Emirates - where Elbit has a subsidiary - and Bahrain.

British Airways said it has cancelled flights to and from several destinations in the Middle East until June as war in the region disrupts the global aviation industry.

The airline has cancelled flights to Amman, Bahrain, Dubai, and Tel Aviv through 31 May, it said in a statement shared with AFP on Tuesday.

Flights to Doha have also been suspended until 30 April, with the airline operating a "limited schedule" until 31 May.

"Due to the continuing uncertainty of the situation in the Middle East and airspace instability... we've extended the temporary reduction in our flying schedule in the region," the airline said in a statement.

Routes to Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia will continue to operate, while its flights to Abu Dhabi will resume on October 25, as previously announced.

India on Tuesday denied holding talks with Iran about releasing three tankers seized in February in exchange for ensuring safe passage for Indian ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

Indian authorities seized the three Iran-linked ships near Indian waters alleging they had concealed or altered their identities and were involved in illegal ship-to-ship transfers at sea.

Reuters reported on Monday, citing sources, that Iran had asked India to release the U.S.-sanctioned ships as part of talks seeking the safe passage of Indian-flagged or India-bound vessels out of the Gulf via the Strait.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called on the United States and Israel on Tuesday to end their war with Iran and said the EU was consulting with governments in the Middle East about how to bring the conflict to a conclusion.

In an interview with Reuters in Brussels, Kallas also said the door was not closed to European participation in efforts to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz but it would be most likely to come as part of a diplomatic solution.

Kallas said Europe did not understand some of the United States' actions under Trump or its objectives in Iran but had become used to his unpredictability and "more calm" in its responses.

(Reuters Exclusive)

Poland will not send troops to Iran as the conflict does not directly affect its security, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday, adding that the United States and other powers understood Warsaw's decision.

U.S. President Donald Trump called on allies over the weekend to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as Iranian forces continue attacks on the vital waterway amid the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, now in its ​third week.

Poland's government "does not plan any expedition to Iran, and this does not raise any doubts on the part of our allies," Tusk said before a government meeting.

He said this covered Poland's land, air and naval forces, which are still being built up in the face of the conflict over the border in Ukraine.

Tusk said securing the Baltic Sea remained a central element of Poland's strategy.

Israeli airstrikes on residential buildings, displaced people and healthcare workers in Lebanon raise concerns under international law and may amount to war crimes, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.

"Israeli airstrikes have destroyed entire residential buildings in dense urban environments with multiple members of the same family, including women and children, often killed together," U.N. human rights office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva.

The U.N. human rights office called for an investigation into deadly strikes on displaced people sheltering in tents along Beirut's seafront and on a healthcare centre ​in the town of Bint Jbeil.

"International law is very clear that deliberately attacking civilians or civilian object amounts to war crime."

The Israeli military launched an air strike near Beirut's international airport, in the city's southern suburbs, on Tuesday, after several raids hit the area earlier in the day.

"Israeli warplanes launched a raid, the third today on the southern suburbs, targeting the old airport road near the Ansar Stadium in the Burj al-Barajneh area," a short distance from Beirut International Airport, state media reported.

The Lebanese civil aviation authority, in a statement to state media, said the airport continued to operate normally and that the road leading to it remained passable.

مشاهد من الغارة على الضاحية الجنوبية pic.twitter.com/eHDkwGOKsz

— LebanonFiles (@lebanonfile) March 17, 2026

Albania on Tuesday designated Iran's Revolutionary Guards a "terrorist organisation" and Iran as a state "supporting terrorism" as the Middle East war raged on.

The Balkan nation's ruling Socialist party used its parliamentary majority to adopt a resolution to designate the ideological arm of the Iranian military despite an opposition boycott.

"The Albanian parliament declares the Islamic Republic of Iran a state that supports terrorism and a state that uses terrorist means in the pursuit of its foreign policy objectives," the resolution said.

The document also condemned cyberattacks believed to be carried out by Iran-linked hackers against its institutions, including an incident earlier this month targeting its parliamentary IT system.

Iran's ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali, has denied a media report that the country's new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is receiving medical treatment in Moscow, the state TASS news agency reported on Tuesday.

Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported over the weekend that the 56-year-old, who was reported to have been severely injured in a U.S.-Israeli airstrike that killed his father, had been moved to Moscow for medical treatment following President Vladimir Putin's personal invitation.

The Kremlin declined to comment on the original media report.

Tens of millions more people will face acute hunger if the Iran war continues through to June, according to analysis from the World Food Programme released on Tuesday.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that began on February 28 have choked up key humanitarian aid routes, delaying life-saving shipments to some of the world's worst crises.

An extra 45 million are projected to be pushed into acute hunger because of rises in food, oil and shipping costs, pushing the global tally above its current record level of 319 million, Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme Carl Skau told reporters in Geneva.

"This would take global hunger levels to an all-time record and it's a terrible, terrible prospect," he said. "Already, before this war, we were in a perfect storm where hunger has never been as severe as now, in terms of numbers and how deep that hunger is," he added.

Skau said its shipping costs are up 18% since the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran began on February 28 and that some have had to be rerouted. The extra costs come on top of deep spending cuts by the WFP, as donors focus more on defence, he added.

Ambrey says it has received a report of a vessel sighting explosions in its vicinity while anchored 4 nautical miles north-northwest of UAE's Sharjah Port.

One Lebanese soldier was killed and four others were wounded in an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said Tuesday, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The soldiers were struck while travelling by car and motorcycle in the village of Qaaqaaiyat al-Jisr in the Nabatiyeh district and taken to hospital, the army said in a post on X.

An earlier statement by the army had said five were wounded, two critically.

The Lebanese army has reported casualties in recent days, including an incident earlier this month in which three soldiers were among those killed in Israeli strikes, according to the army.

إلحاقًا بالبيان السابق المتعلق بإصابة ٥ عسكريين في منطقة قعقعية الجسر - النبطية نتيجة غارة إسرائيلية معادية، استشهد أحد العسكريين المصابين متأثرًا بجراحه.#الجيش_اللبناني #LebaneseArmy pic.twitter.com/FHtyFNlGeP

— الجيش اللبناني (@LebarmyOfficial) March 17, 2026

A series of distant blasts were heard on Tuesday from Jerusalem after sirens sounded in northern Israel following a warning that Iran had fired missiles, AFP journalists said.

"The IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat," the Israeli military said.

Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz cannot be addressed independently of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, according to his Telegram account on Tuesday.

Araghchi also called upon states and institutions concerned with global peace and security to condemn U.S.-Israeli attacks on his country.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it targeted Akram al-Ajouri, head of the military wing of the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in a strike in Iran.

"We conducted a strike against Akram al-Ajouri," a military official told reporters during a briefing, adding that the "senior commander in the Islamic Jihad of Gaza" had been living in Iran and had not been confirmed killed.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad is an ally of Hamas, both backed by Iran.

An airstrike hit positions belonging to Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi forces north of Baghdad on Tuesday, police sources said.

Falling debris from a missile intercept killed one person on Tuesday in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi, authorities said.

The incident took place in the Bani Yas area "following the interception of a ballistic missile by air defences", the Abu Dhabi Media Office said on X.

It brings the death toll in the United Arab Emirates since the start of the Iran war to eight, with six civilians dead as well as two military personnel killed in a helicopter accident.

On the east coast of the country, the oil industrial zone of Fujairah was hit on Tuesday morning, sparking a fire but causing no injuries, local authorities said.

It was the second day in a row that the site was hit, with a source telling AFP on Monday that oil storage loading had been shut down by an attack.

Two medical staff were injured when shrapnel fell on an emergency medical centre in Kuwait on Tuesday, the health ministry said, as Iran pressed on with a campaign of attacks across the Gulf.

"Two members of the emergency medical teams sustained injuries while at their workplace at an emergency medical centre when shrapnel fell on the site," the health ministry said.

U.S. President Donald Trump rejected an offer by Russian President Vladimir Putin to move Iran's enriched uranium to Russia as part of a deal to end the U.S. and Israel's war against Tehran, Axios reported on Friday.

Putin made the proposal in a phone call with Trump this week and the Republican president turned it down, the report added, citing sources.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog told AFP on Monday that an offer by French leader Emmanuel Macron to host direct talks with Lebanon was "a very positive development".

"I think it's very important that there should be talks," Herzog said in an exclusive interview at his Jerusalem residence.

Iraq's oil minister said Baghdad is talking to Iran about allowing some of the country's oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the state news agency reported on Tuesday, as Iraq seeks to ease disruptions to crude exports following recent attacks on tankers in its own waters.

Iranian state media says a message from Iran's top security chief Ali Larijani will be "published soon."

Israeli media has said an Israeli strike targeted Larijani in Iran on Tuesday, as his fate remains unclear.

The Israeli military says it killed Iran's Basij paramilitary chief in a strike.