Trump says he wants Iran oil as Israel continues Tehran strikes

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Israeli airstrikes killed at least four people in the Gaza Strip on Monday, local health officials said, in the latest round of violence since a US-brokered ceasefire took effect more than five months ago.

Medics said three people were killed and two others wounded when an Israeli plane fired a missile at a group of Palestinians near the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City.

Later on Monday, another Israeli airstrike killed one person and wounded six others outside a local community kitchen in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics said. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

NATO said Monday its forces had intercepted an Iranian missile heading towards Turkey, confirming an earlier announcement by the Turkish defence ministry.

"On Monday 30 March, NATO again successfully intercepted an Iranian ballistic missile heading to" Turkey, alliance spokeswoman Allison Hart said.

"NATO is prepared for such threats and will always do what is necessary to defend all allies," she added.

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry and Israel's military said.

The military said it shot and "neutralised" a man who had accelerated his vehicle towards soldiers deployed near the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem.

Israel's military sometimes uses the word "neutralise" in cases where someone is killed.

The health ministry said that 31-year-old Abdulrahman Abu al-Rub was shot dead by Israeli troops at the Anab checkpoint near Tulkarem.

US President Donald Trump threatened Monday to destroy Iran's oil export hub of Kharg Island, oil wells and power plants if it does not soon agree to a deal to end the war.

A day after sounding conciliatory and suggesting a deal could be reached this week, Trump wrote on his Truth Social network that the United States is in "serious discussions" with "a more reasonable regime" in Tehran. But he added an ominous warning.

"Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately 'Open for Business,' we will conclude our lovely 'stay' in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet 'touched,'" Trump said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday voiced hope for working with elements within Iran's government, saying the United States privately had received positive messages.

Rubio said there were internal "fractures" inside the Islamic republic and that the United States hoped that figures with "power to deliver" take charge.

"We are hopeful that that's the case," Rubio told ABC News program Good Morning America.

"There are clearly people there talking to us in ways that previous people in charge in Iran have not spoken to us in the past, some of the things they're willing to do," he said.

A ballistic missile launched from Iran entered Turkish airspace before being shot down by NATO air and missile defences deployed in the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey's defence ministry said on Monday.

The incident marked the fourth such incident since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran, following three earlier interceptions by NATO systems earlier this month that prompted Ankara to protest and warn Tehran.

Tehran has denied in the previous three incidents that it authorised such launches and has asked Ankara to form a joint investigation into the matter.

The ministry said all necessary measures were being taken "decisively and without hesitation" against any threat directed at Turkey's territory and airspace.

An Israeli air strike killed at least three people in the Gaza Strip on Monday, local health officials said, in the latest round of violence since a US-brokered ceasefire took effect more than five months ago.

Medics said three people were killed and two others wounded when an Israeli plane fired a missile at a group of Palestinians near the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Monday pledged to work with Germany to enable more Syrians to return home and rebuild their country after its devastating civil war, as he made a historic visit to Berlin.

Europe's top economy is home to the largest Syrian diaspora in the European Union at more than a million, many of whom arrived during the peak of the migrant influx in 2015-2016.

After meeting Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Sharaa said that "we are working with our friends in the German government to establish a 'circular' migration model".

This would "enable Syrians to contribute to the reconstruction of their homeland without giving up the stability and lives they have built here, for those who wish to stay", he said.

Merz, who has made a tougher immigration policy a priority since taking office last year, also said he and Sharaa were "working jointly towards more Syrians being able to return to their homeland".

Sharaa, 43, a former Islamist rebel leader, was speaking on his first trip to Germany since ousting his country's longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad in late 2024.

He has managed to build relations with Western governments and made several overseas trips, including to the United States, France and Russia.

As a result, many international sanctions on Syria have been lifted to help the country rebuild after a bloody 14-year civil war.

Israel's military said Monday it had pulled a battalion out of the West Bank after a soldier assaulted a CNN photojournalist last week in a village in the occupied Palestinian territory.

A CNN team was reporting on the aftermath of an assault by Israeli settlers and the establishment of an illegal outpost near the Palestinian village of Tayasir on Thursday when they were detained by Israeli soldiers, the Foreign Press Association said in a statement.

After the soldiers pointed their guns at the CNN crew, "an IDF soldier approached CNN's photojournalist from behind, placed him in a chokehold, slammed him to the ground, and damaged his camera", said the association, which represents hundreds of journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

CNN corroborated the details in its own report on the incident, identifying the photojournalist as Frenchman Cyril Theophilos.

"This was not a misunderstanding... It was a violent assault on clearly identified journalists and a direct attack on press freedom," the FPA said.

On Monday, the military, in a rare move, withdrew a battalion from the West Bank following the incident.

"The operational deployment currently being carried out by the reserve battalion will be suspended," it said in a statement.

"The battalion will remain in reserve service and will undergo a process aimed at reinforcing its professional and ethical foundations."

The battalion would resume operational activity once the process is completed, the military added.

It was the second such incident involving CNN this month.

Kosovo on Monday approved sending troops to Gaza for an international security force as part of a U.S.-backed initiative after last year's ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Several nations including Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan and Albania have committed troops to the International Stabilization Force to keep peace and back a transitional administration in Gaza under U.S. President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace."

Kosovo's government said in a televised ministerial meeting on Monday the defence ministry had decided to send a force to Gaza after receiving a U.S. invitation in December.

"We are ready to participate and help the people of Gaza, because we ourselves have been and are beneficiaries of international forces since 1999," Prime Minister Albin Kurti told the session.

The government did not reveal numbers of troops going to Gaza.

Violence in Gaza has persisted with the Israeli military killing over 680 Palestinians since the ceasefire with militant group Hamas began in November, local health officials say. More than 72,000 have been killed since the war started in October 2023.

Kosovo, a Balkan country of 1.6 million people, is an ally of the U.S. which backed its independence from Serbia in 2008.

Israel's Ministry of Defence on Monday said that it had placed a $48 million order for "tens of thousands" of 155mm artillery shells from Israeli defence company Elbit Systems.

The order was part of a broader ministry strategy to reduce Israel's reliance on foreign munitions and expand domestic production, the ministry said in a statement.

Israel's military said Monday that it had struck a university in Tehran run by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, claiming the institution was used for advanced weapons research.

"In recent days, one of the IRGC's central military infrastructure sites was recently struck, located within the compound of Imam Hossein University, the IRGC's primary military academic institution, which also serves as an emergency asset for the regime's military bodies," a military statement said.

Spain summoned Israel's top envoy to Madrid on Monday in protest over Israeli police blocking the Latin Patriarch from Christianity's holiest site in Jerusalem, the foreign minister said.

"This cannot happen again. Catholic worship must be able to be celebrated normally," Jose Manuel Albares told RAC1 radio after Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa was prevented from holding Palm Sunday mass at the Holy Sepulchre church.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez joined a chorus of international condemnation on Sunday, denouncing an "attack on religious freedom".

Israel said the cardinal would be allowed to regain access to the site and cited security concerns for the measure.

Iran's military said Monday that Israel was behind an attack on a desalination plant in Kuwait.

"The brutal aggression by the Israeli regime against Kuwait's desalination plant, carried out in recent hours under the pretext of accusing the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sign of the vileness and depravity of the Zionist occupiers," said the military's operational command Khatam Al-Anbiya in a statement carried by state TV.

An Israeli airstrike on a residential building near Beirut's southern suburbs killed at least three on Monday, a security source told AFP.

The strike reportedly "targeted an office used by Hezbollah, killing three members and seriously wounding three others", while the Israeli army, for its part, announced it had "begun striking Hezbollah terrorist infrastructures in Beirut".

An AFP photographer said the targeted apartment is located in a neighbourhood crowded with shops and commercial establishments, several of which were damaged, adding that armed Hezbollah members set up a security cordon following the strike.

Iran on Monday said its ambassador to Lebanon would remain in the country despite being declared a persona non grata and ordered to leave.

"Our ambassador ... will continue his work as Iran's ambassador in Beirut and remains present there," said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei in a weekly press briefing, adding that the embassy in Beirut remains "operational".

Spain's leftist government has closed Spanish airspace to US planes carrying out missions against Iran in addition to denying Washington use of its bases, the defence minister said on Monday.

"The bases are not authorised, and of course neither is the use of Spanish airspace for actions related to the war in Iran," Margarita Robles told journalists, confirming a report by El Pais daily.

Iran said on Monday it was not seeking nuclear weapons, but the issue of whether to remain part of the non-proliferation treaty was under review in parliament.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has never sought and does not seek nuclear weapons," said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei in a weekly press briefing.

"Regarding membership in this treaty, regardless of our clear position on the prohibition of all weapons of mass destruction, this is genuinely a debate taking place within public opinion and at the parliamentary level."

Israel's military said Monday it had struck dozens of weapons production sites, including a long-range surface-to-air missiles manufacturing line, in Iran's capital, Tehran.

"During waves of airstrikes over the past two days in Tehran, approximately 40 weapons production and research facilities were struck," the military said.

The targets, it said, included "a facility used for assembling long-range surface-to-air missiles", a site assembling components for "anti-tank missiles and small anti-aircraft missiles", and a facility that produced and researched "ballistic missile engines".

The Israeli military on Monday said a soldier was killed a day earlier in combat in southern Lebanon, bringing to six the number of troops killed since fighting with Hezbollah started earlier in March.

"Sergeant Liran Ben Zion, aged 19, from Holon... fell during combat in southern Lebanon," the military said.

Israeli television channels reported an impact at an oil refinery in the northern city of Haifa on Monday, shortly after the military said it had detected new incoming missiles from Iran.

Television network Channel 12 showed thick black smoke billowing into the sky from the site.

The reports did not say what had caused the impact, though the incident came soon after the military said it had detected a fresh salvo of missiles fired from Iran.

The military said that search and rescue forces were on their way to the site in northern Israel, where reports of an impact have been received.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Sunday that Iran's heavy water production plant in Khondab was no longer operational after an Israeli military strike.

The Israeli military said Friday it carried out a strike against a heavy water plant in Arak, central Iran, describing the site as a "key plutonium production site for nuclear weapons".

On Sunday, IAEA said based on an independent analysis of satellite imagery the heavy water production plant at Khondab, which Iran reported had been attacked on 27 March, had "sustained severe damaged (sic) and is no longer operational".

It added the "installation contains no declared nuclear material".

An Israeli air strike killed at least three people in the Gaza Strip on Monday, local health officials said, in the latest round of violence since a US-brokered ceasefire took effect more than five months ago.

Medics said three people were killed and two others wounded when an Israeli plane fired a missile at a group of Palestinians near the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

Palestinian security sources identified the dead man as Ramzi Awawada and accused Israeli soldiers of leaving him to bleed to death and preventing rescuers from reaching him.

The Israeli military said forces shot and killed a Palestinian who ran towards them holding a knife.

Rights groups and medics say Israeli settlers are taking advantage of curbs on movement imposed during the Iran war to attack Palestinians in the West Bank, with military roadblocks preventing ambulances from reaching victims quickly. 

A strike hit Beirut's southern suburbs on Monday, AFPTV footage showed, after Israel issued a warning for people in the Hezbollah stronghold to leave.

The strike is the first since Friday in the area, which is now largely deserted since Israel began frequent attacks on Lebanon in early March.

AFPTV's live broadcast showed plumes of smoke rising from the southern suburbs.

Syria's military said a large-scale drone attack targeted its bases near the border with Iraq on Monday, the latest such incident since the outbreak of the Middle East war.

In a statement, the army reported "a large-scale attack by a number of drones targeting several army bases near the Iraqi border at dawn today", adding that most of the drones were intercepted.

"We are studying our options and will respond appropriately to neutralise any threat and prevent any aggression against Syrian territory."

The UN force in Lebanon said Monday that one of their peacekeepers was killed when a projectile hit one of their positions, where Israeli forces are fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah as part of efforts to establish a buffer zone.

"A peacekeeper was tragically killed last night when a projectile exploded in a UNIFIL position near Adchit al Qusayr," said a statement. "Another was critically injured."

The town of Adchit al Qusayr lies near Lebanon's southern border with Israel, where Israeli forces have been battling Hezbollah fighters for nearly a month.

Indonesia confirmed that one of its peacekeepers was killed and three others were wounded due to "indirect artillery fire".

The UNIFIL statement said they did not know the projectile's origin but had launched an investigation.

"No one should ever lose their life serving the cause of peace," it added.

Iran confirmed on Monday that Revolutionary Guards commander Alireza Tangsiri had been killed, days after Israel said it targeted him in an air strike.

A statement carried by the Guards' Sepah News website said Tangsiri "succumbed to severe injuries" from the attack.

Iranian authorities executed two men on Monday after convicting them of membership in a banned opposition group and attempting to overthrow the Islamic Republic, the judiciary said.

"After confirmation and final approval of the sentence by the Supreme Court, Akbar Daneshvarkar and Mohammad Taghavi-Sangdehi were hanged this morning," the judiciary's Mizan Online website said.

The executions come as Iran is at war with the United States and Israel following strikes against the Islamic republic on February 28 that triggered a wider regional conflict.

The two executed men were affiliated with the People's Mujahedin of Iran, also known as Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), which has been in exile since the 1980s and is designated as a terrorist organisation by Tehran.

Israeli pesticides maker ADAMA said on Monday that debris from an interception of an Iranian missile attack on Sunday caused damage to a finished goods warehouse, along with production equipment and systems.

ADAMA, part of the Chinese-owned Syngenta Group, said there were no injuries in the attack on its Ne'ot Hovav chemicals plant in southern Israel, which is now closed.

"Efforts are underway to resume normal operations in a gradual and safe manner as soon as possible," ADAMA said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

"The Company is assessing the impact on its operations and financial results, as well as the expected timeline for restoring the affected facilities to full operation."

Iran has restored electricity in parts of the capital and nearby areas after strikes damaged power grids and briefly disrupted supply, the deputy energy minister said on Monday.

"Following last night's enemy attack, the power grid in the provinces of Alborz and Tehran sustained damage and was affected," said Mostafa Rajabi-Mashhadi in an interview with state television.

"The power network across Iran's national electricity grid is stable; in Tehran and Alborz the problems have also been resolved," he added.