The Israeli military said early on Monday it was striking Hezbollah across Lebanon, after the militant group launched missiles and drones towards Israel in retaliation for the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. The Shia Muslim group has long been one of Tehran’s principal allies in the Middle East.
Explosions were heard in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, according to witnesses. Lebanese security sources told Reuters that Israel had struck the city’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.
The Israeli military urged people in nearly 50 villages in eastern and southern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of possible retaliatory strikes after Hezbollah fired into Israel. Roads in southern Lebanon and leading out of Beirut’s southern suburbs were gridlocked early Monday with people fleeing.
Trump warned on Sunday that combat operations in Iran were continuing and would carry on “until all of our objectives are achieved”. He continued to justify the operation, saying “an Iranian regime armed with long range missiles and nuclear weapons would be a dire threat to every American … I once again urge the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian military police, to lay down your arms and receive full immunity or face certain death.”
The US president told Fox News that 48 leaders have been killed in US and Israeli strikes on Iran. “It’s moving along. It’s moving along rapidly. This has been this way for 47 years,” Trump said. “Nobody can believe the success we’re having, 48 leaders are gone in one shot.”
A suspected drone strike hit RAF Akrotiri – a UK base in Cyprus – the British Ministry of Defence confirmed. There were no casualties in the incident at the base. The suspected strike came hours after Keir Starmer said the UK had allowed the US to strike Iranian missile sites from British bases as officials plan an unprecedented rescue operation for UK citizens in the Gulf.
Oil prices have soared and stock markets came under pressure on Monday after the US-Israeli strikes on Iran prompted fears of significant global economic disruption. Brent crude jumped by as much as 13% during early trading – to hit $82 per barrel, a 14-month high – as the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz, one of the most important arteries for global trade, intensified concerns over oil supplies.
Three US service members have been killed in action as part of US military operations against Iran, the US Central Command said on Sunday. They were the first confirmed deaths since the US began launching strikes against Iran on Saturday. Trump warned in a Truth Social video that there would probably be more casualties.
The death toll from a missile strike on a girls’ school in southern Iran has risen to almost 165, according to Iranian state media. The school, which was struck on Saturday morning, appears to be the worst mass casualty event of the US-Israeli-led bombing campaign on Iran so far.
Trump said earlier that Iran’s new leadership wanted to talk to him and that he had agreed, according to an interview with the Atlantic. “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner,” he said.
Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, said Tehran would “not negotiate with the United States,” in response to reports that Iran is trying to revive negotiations with Washington.
Just 27% of Americans approve of the US strikes that killed Iran’s leader, while about half – including one in four Republicans – believe Trump is too willing to use military force, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Sunday.
The war led to major disruption to the airline industry and the plans of hundreds of thousands of travellers in the Middle East and beyond as countries across the region closed their airspace and three of the key airports that connect Europe, Africa and the west to Asia halted operations.