03/03/2026March 3, 2026Nearly 800 people have been killed in US-Israeli strikes on Iran, Red Crescent Society says
Death tolls from inside Iran range from nearly 800 to over 1,500Image: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
At least 787 people have been killed in Iran since the start of the US-Israeli air strikes on Saturday, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said Tuesday.
In a post on Telegram, the aid organization said air strikes had hit 153 cities across Iran.
The death toll is likely to increase further, as search and rescue operations were ongoing in many locations, the group said.
Hengaw, a human rights organization based in Norway, on Monday said more than 1,500 people had been killed since the escalation began four days ago.
Around 1,300 of those fatalities were members of the armed forces, while about 200 were civilians.
According to reports in Israeli media citing Israeli intelligence, the joint US-Israeli campaign has killed more than 1,000 members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard since the strikes began on Saturday.
https://p.dw.com/p/59htq
Skip next section France has Rafales over UAE, plans to send anti-drone systems to Cyprus
03/03/2026March 3, 2026France has Rafales over UAE, plans to send anti-drone systems to Cyprus
French Rafale jets have been deployed over the UAEImage: Nicolas-Nelson Richard/ECPAD/ABACAPRESS.COM/picture alliance
France has deployed Rafale fighter jets over the United Arab Emirates to protect its naval and air bases against Iranian attacks, with one base already targeted by a drone, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Tuesday.
“These Rafales and their pilots are mobilized to ensure the security of our facilities,” Barrot told the BFMTV broadcaster.
“They have carried out operations to secure the airspace above our bases,” he said.
According to the minister, “a hangar at a French base in the United Arab Emirates was hit by a drone” on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the semi-official Cyprus News Agency (CNA) has reported that France is planning to send anti-missile and anti-drone systems, as well as a frigate, to the island after a British air base there was attacked by drones.
CNA said French President Emmanuel Macron had communicated the intention to Cypriot President
Nikos Christodoulides early on Tuesday.
Cyprus is the EU member state that is closest to the Middle East, with its city of Larnaca situated just some129 miles (208 km) from the closest point in Lebanon.
https://p.dw.com/p/59hmg
Skip next section Debris from intercepted drone sparks fire at UAE oil site
03/03/2026March 3, 2026Debris from intercepted drone sparks fire at UAE oil site
A fire broke out at an oil industry zone in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday, caused by falling debris from an intercepted drone.
The incident comes as Tehran steps up its response to the joint US-Israeli attacks against Iran and its proxy group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Relevant authorities in the Emirate of Fujairah responded to a fire that broke out this morning in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (FOIZ), resulting from falling debris following the successful interception of a drone by air defence systems,” the Fujairah Media Office said.
The statement added that no injuries were reported from the incident, that the fire has been put out, and normal operations have resumed.
Iran’s retaliation campaign has seen it target countries in the Middle East that were previously considered safe havens, in particular the UAE.
Two Amazon data centers in the country were “directly struck” on Monday, the tech giant said, which caused disruptions for its cloud services in parts of the region.
https://p.dw.com/p/59hbX
Skip next section German tourism group TUI to start repatriation flights for stranded customers
03/03/2026March 3, 2026German tourism group TUI to start repatriation flights for stranded customers
German tourism group TUI is to offer flights back home to customers who have been stranded in the Middle East by the current conflict, starting on Tuesday, its CEO has said.
Sebastian Ebel said TUI was working with airlines Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways and that it expected to carry out the first flights on Tuesday with those companies.
He cited figures from the German Travel Association that suggest around 30,000 tourists are unable to fly home to Germany, saying 10,000 of them were TUI customers.
Ebel said the speed of the repatriations would depend on the security situation, which remained difficult to predict, but that the process was expected to take several days.
The widening conflict triggered by the US-Israeli offensive against Iran has led to airspace closures across the Middle East region, while cruise ships have also remained in port.
https://p.dw.com/p/59hXP
Skip next section Fresh strikes reported in Tehran on fourth day of conflict
03/03/2026March 3, 2026Fresh strikes reported in Tehran on fourth day of conflict
Plumes of smoke were seen over the Iranian capital again on Tuesday morningImage: Atta Kenare/AFP
The Iranian capital, Tehran, again came under heavy bombing on Tuesday morning, according to state media.
Local reports also say around 12 missiles struck the suburb of Pardis.
Images of plumes of smoke rising over the Alborz mountain range outside the capital were shared on social media.
It was not clear what targets were struck, or who launched the strikes, but Israel’s military said in a post on X that it was “conducting simultaneous targeted strikes against military targets in Tehran and Beirut.”
Explosions were also reported in Karaj city outside the capital, and in Isfahan in the center of the country.
https://p.dw.com/p/59hTv
Skip next section READ MORE: Middle East conflict affects key shipping route
03/03/2026March 3, 2026READ MORE: Middle East conflict affects key shipping route
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important transport routes for oil, gas and fertilizer, has been severely disrupted by the conflict in the Middle East.
If the situation continues, economies around the world could be negatively impacted, as you can read in this article: Strait of Hormuz halts after US‑Israel attack on Iran
https://p.dw.com/p/59hL3
Skip next section Israeli military say soldiers active in southern Lebanon
03/03/2026March 3, 2026Israeli military say soldiers active in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military has said its soldiers are “operating in southern Lebanon” as Israel continues strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in the neighboring country.
It said troops had been deployed at several locations near the border to help increase security for residents of border areas in northern Israel.
In a statement, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said: “To prevent the possibility of direct fire targeting Israeli communities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorized the IDF to advance and secure additional strategic areas in Lebanon, and from there to defend the border communities.”
The announcement comes as Hezbollah has said it has targeted three Israeli military bases with drone or rocket strikes in reponse to Israel’s “criminal” attacks on its strongholds in Lebanon, including in Beirut.
It said its fighters had attacked the Ramat David air base and the Meron base in northern Israel with drones, and a a base in the occupied Golan Heights with rockets.
https://p.dw.com/p/59hFs
Skip next section Picking new supreme leader ‘won’t take long’ — Iranian source
03/03/2026March 3, 2026Picking new supreme leader ‘won’t take long’ — Iranian source
A new Iranian supreme leader will be chosen in the very near future, according to the clerical body tasked with electing someone to the position.
Choosing a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on Saturday amid the US-Israeli offensive, “won’t take long,” said a member of the Assembly of Experts, cited by the ISNA news agency.
Iran’s supreme leader possesses the highest religious and political authority in the country, above the president.
Only two people have so far held the position since the Islamic Republic of Iran was founded in 1979 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was the first to take the office.
https://p.dw.com/p/59h5l
Skip next section German police warn of airline hotline scams amid Mideast conflict
03/03/2026March 3, 2026German police warn of airline hotline scams amid Mideast conflict
German police have warned travellers affected by the Iran war to be wary of fraudulent airline service hotlines when trying to rebook flights amid disruption caused by the conflict.
The warning comes after a women from the southern state of Bavaria was tricked into paying €2,500 ($2,920) for what she thought was a valid booking.
Bavaria’s State Criminal Police Office (BLKA) urged consumers to obtain hotline numbers only from the official website of their booking portal or airline and not to rely on paid search engine advertisements.
It said booking changes should be made exclusively through official customer accounts and called on people to report cases suspected fraud to authorities without delay.
The German Travel Association has said that as many as 30,000 people from Germany might be stranded in the Middle Eastamid the widening conflict triggered by the US-Israeli offensive against Iran.
https://p.dw.com/p/59h5T
Skip next section Melania Trump chairs Security Council meeting on education during conflicts
03/03/2026March 3, 2026Melania Trump chairs Security Council meeting on education during conflicts
Melania Trump was considered an unusual choice to chair the meetingImage: Timothy A. Clary/AFP
The wife of US President Donald Trump, Melania Trump, has chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York that focused on children, technology and education in conflict situations.
The meeting came after unconfirmed reports that dozens of children have been killed at a girl’s school in southern Iran amid Israeli and US strikes, while several schools across the Middle East have been closed amid the widening conflict, with pupils moving to remote learning.
Although Melania Trump did not mention the US-Israeli offensive launched on Saturday against Iran, she offered her condolences to the “families who have lost their heroes, who sacrificed their lives for freedom” as she opened the session.
“The US stands with all of the children throughout the world. I hope soon, peace will be yours,” she said.
In her remarks, the US first lady stressed that education was vital for preventing conflict, saying that if countries make it a priority, it “leads to something powerful — to greater understanding, moral reasoning — and tolerance of others. Peace.”
“I implore you to build a future generation of leaders who embrace peace through education,” she told council members.
It was the first time the spouse of a world leader has chaired a Security Council meeting.
President Trump and his administration have often criticized the UN as ineffective and corrupt.
https://p.dw.com/p/59h2x
03/03/2026March 3, 2026’Take over your govenment’ Trump tells Iranians as US officials insist they are not seeking regime change
Despite calls for new leadership in Iran before strikes began on Saturday, several top US officials have now stressed that regime change is not the goal for the conflict.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance have stressed that destroying Iran’s nuclear program is the main objective.
In an interview with Fox News, Vance said that, “in a perfect world,” there would be a new leader in Tehran who would be willing to deal more directly with Washington, but that Trump’s purpose is to “make sure the Iranian terrorist regime does not build a nuclear bomb.”
“Obviously, the president and I would prefer that you have a friendly regime in Iran … but fundamentally, so long as we achieve the president’s objective to make it clear that Iran can’t build the bomb, I think the president will be happy with the outcome.”
His statements came despite Trump tearing up the JCPOA agreement with Iran during his previous administration. Under the deal with Western allies, Tehran had agreed to major curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
In a video message, Trump called on Iranians to “take over your government” when the US and Israeli strikes finished.
https://p.dw.com/p/59h2q
03/03/2026March 3, 2026US evacuates non-emergency personnel from Iraq, Bahrain, and Jordan, closes Kuwait embassy ‘indefinitely’
The US State Department has said it will evacuate all non-critical personnel and their families from its embassies and consulates in Iraq, Bahrain and Jordan after its embassy in Riyadh was hit by a drone attack, causing what officials categorized as “minor damage” without providing further details.
Later, they also added Qatar to the list of countries where staff were being evacuated, as well as the United Arab Emirates.
This comes a day after the US Embassy in Kuwait was also hit. On Tuesday it was closed indefinitely over “regional tensions,” officials said.
The State Department has also issued a warning to US citizens to leave Iran and several other Middle Eastern countries, including Israel, Egypt, and Lebanon.
https://p.dw.com/p/59h2v
Skip next section Iran accuses US of entering a war ‘on behalf of Israel’
03/03/2026March 3, 2026Iran accuses US of entering a war ‘on behalf of Israel’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi has said that comments by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio showed that the United States “entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel.”
In a post on X, Araghchi said that “Mr Rubio admitted what we all knew: [The] US has entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel. There was never any so-called Iranian ‘threat’.”
Earlier, on Monday, Rubio said that US attacks on Iran were for the United States’ own protection ahead of an “imminent threat.”
“There absolutely was an imminent threat, and the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us,” Rubio told reporers in Washington.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” he said.
“We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after [Iran) before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,” he said.
https://p.dw.com/p/59h1Y
Skip next section Iran war won’t be ‘endless’: Netanyahu
03/03/2026March 3, 2026Iran war won’t be ‘endless’: Netanyahu
Israel‘s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the US-Israel war with Iran won’t be ” endless” in an interview with Fox News.
“You’re not going to have an endless war,” Netanyahu said in the interview broadcast on Monday. “This is going to be a quick and decisive action.”
He later qualified that the conflict “may take some time, but it’s not going to take years.”
Netanyahu also claimed Israel and the United States had to act because Iran had been building new nuclear weapon sites that would have been impossible to attack within months.
Netanyahu alleged that Iran had been working on new weapons sites since June 2025 when the US and Israel launched coordinated strikes on the Islamic republic.
“They started building new sites, new places, underground bunkers that would make their ballistic missile programs and their atomic bomb programs immune within months,” Netanyahu said.
https://p.dw.com/p/59gzh
Skip next section Trump suggests US could retaliate ‘soon’ over strike on embassy
03/03/2026March 3, 2026Trump suggests US could retaliate ‘soon’ over strike on embassy
President Donald Trump has suggested that the United States would retaliate “soon” for the attack on its embassy in Riyadh and for the killing of six US military personnel in Iranian strikes.
Speaking to the US cable network NewsNation on Monday, Trump reportedly said “you’ll find out soon” how the US would respond, without providing further detail.
He added that he didn’t “think boots on the ground [in Iran] will be necessary,” according to NewsNation White House correspondent.
US Central Command on Monday afternoon that six service members had been killed.
https://p.dw.com/p/59gxC