Israel pounded Tehran with airstrikes on Friday (March 20, 2026) as Iranians marked Nowruz, or the Persian New Yr, within the midst of a warfare that has despatched shock waves by means of the worldwide financial system and risked drawing Iran’s Arab neighbors instantly into the battle.
Activists reported listening to strikes round Iran’s capital. The assaults got here a day after Israel pledged to chorus from extra strikes on a key Iranian gasoline area and Iran intensified assaults on oil and pure gasoline amenities across the Gulf.
Iran-Israel warfare LIVE
Heavy explosions shook Dubai early on Friday (March 20) as air defenses intercepted incoming hearth over town, the place folks have been observing Id-ul-Fitr, the top of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramzan, and mosques made the day’s first name to prayers.
Iran stored up its wave of assaults launched at Israel which have despatched thousands and thousands of individuals to shelters, with sirens sounding throughout a large swath of the north, from Haifa to the Galilee to the border with Lebanon. It got here after an intense day that noticed greater than a dozen missile launches on Thursday alone, in keeping with Israel’s army.
International gasoline provides have been underneath intense strain due to Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway by means of which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned late on Thursday (March 19) that, on the request of President Donald Trump, Israel will maintain off any additional assaults on Iran’s offshore South Pars gasoline area. Iranian strikes in retaliation have led to already elevated world power costs additional surging and spurred Gulf allies to name for Trump to rein in Netanyahu.
Because the U.S. and Israel launched the warfare on Feb. 28, Iran’s high leaders have been killed and the nation’s army capabilities have been severely degraded. Mr. Netanyahu mentioned in a televised deal with that Iran not has the power to complement uranium or make ballistic missiles, though he didn’t present proof.
Nonetheless, Iran — now led by the son of the supreme chief killed within the warfare’s opening salvo — stays able to missile and drone assaults.
Brent crude oil, the worldwide customary, briefly surged above $119 a barrel, up greater than 60% because the warfare began. The European benchmark for pure gasoline costs additionally rose sharply and has roughly doubled up to now month.
U.N. Safety Council meets over Iran’s assaults on Gulf states
The United Nations Safety Council held an pressing closed assembly on Thursday (March 19) throughout which Gulf international locations careworn the necessity for Iran to halt assaults on them, mentioned Bahrain’s U.N. Ambassador Jamal Alrowaiei, the Arab consultant on the UN’s strongest physique.
However Iran has confirmed no indicators of backing down. Saudi Arabia mentioned its SAMREF refinery within the Pink Sea port metropolis of Yanbu was hit. Saudi Arabia had begun pumping giant volumes of oil west towards the Pink Sea to keep away from the Strait of Hormuz.
Qatar, a key supply of pure gasoline for world markets, mentioned Iranian missiles that precipitated intensive harm to the Ras Laffan liquefied pure gasoline facility, lowered its exports by about 17% and can value about $20 billion in misplaced income a yr. The harm will take as much as 5 years to restore, regardless that manufacturing on the facility had already been halted after earlier assaults.
Two oil refineries in Kuwait and gasoline operations in Abu Dhabi additionally have been focused by Iran, authorities mentioned.
Underscoring the hazard to ships within the area, a vessel was set ablaze on Thursday (March 19) off the United Arab Emirates’ coast and one other was broken off Qatar. Efforts to bypass the strait have been additionally underneath strain: An Iranian drone hit a Saudi refinery on the Pink Sea, which the nation had hoped to make use of in its place route.
In the meantime, the UAE mentioned Friday it disrupted what it referred to as “a terrorist community funded and operated by Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran,” arresting its operatives. It accused the lads of laundering cash whereas “working inside the nation underneath a fictitious business cowl” that sought to hold out schemes that might threaten the nation’s monetary stability.
It revealed photographs of 5 prisoners on its state-run WAM information company, with out figuring out the lads.
Netanyahu says Iran’s army has been severely hit
At Thursday’s (March 19) information convention, Mr. Netanyahu mentioned: “Iran’s air defenses have been rendered ineffective, their navy is mendacity on the backside of the ocean. … Their air drive is sort of destroyed.” He mentioned he hopes the Iranian folks will stand up towards the Islamic Republic that has dominated for almost a half-century. There’s been no signal of any organized opposition because the warfare started, after Iranian authorities crushed mass protests in January.
The Prime Minister’s feedback to overseas journalists got here amid troublesome days for Trump and Netanyahu, with a high US intelligence official resigning and claiming Israel pushed Trump into the warfare, and Israel’s assaults on South Pars, which led to Iran’s retaliatory strikes on the area’s oil and gasoline fields.
“I misled nobody,” Mr. Netanyahu mentioned. “And I did not need to persuade President Trump about the necessity to stop Iran from growing its nuclear program.” Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, mentioned that US forces have been attacking deeper into Iranian territory, with warplanes looking Iranian boats within the strait and dropping 5,000-pound bombs on underground weapons-storage amenities.
Trump says he isn’t deploying troops to Iran
Iran condemned Israel’s assault on South Pars, the Iranian a part of the world’s largest gasoline area, situated offshore within the Persian Gulf and owned collectively with Qatar.
With some 80% of energy generated in Iran coming from pure gasoline, in keeping with the Worldwide Power Company, the assault threatens the nation’s electrical energy provides.
After Trump requested Israel not assault South Pars, he additionally warned on social media that if Iran continued hanging Qatar, the US would “massively blow up the whole thing” of the sector.
Requested later about the potential for US floor troops being deployed to Iran, Trump responded: “No. I am not placing troops anyplace.”
Dying toll climbs in third week of warfare
Greater than 1,300 folks in Iran have been killed through the warfare. Israeli strikes towards the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon have displaced greater than 1 million folks, in keeping with the Lebanese authorities, which says greater than 1,000 folks have been killed. Israel says it has killed greater than 500 Hezbollah militants.
In Israel, 15 folks have been killed by Iranian missile hearth. 4 folks have been additionally killed within the occupied West Financial institution by an Iranian missile strike in a single day.
A minimum of 13 U.S. army members have been killed.
Revealed – March 20, 2026 09:51 am IST