Closing summary
This blog has closed, but our live coverage of the ongoing crisis in the Middle East continues here.
Here’s the latest news:
Iran’s central military command rejected US president Donald Trump’s threat to destroy the country’s vital infrastructure if it did not accept a peace deal within 48 hours, calling it “helpless”. Earlier, Trump said Iran had 48 hours to make or deal or open the strait of Hormuz before “all hell will reign down on them”.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, confirmed that Israel attacked Iran’s petrochemical plants after reports from Iranian media saying at least five people were killed in an attack on the Mahshahr petrochemical zone.
US search and rescue efforts for the missing second crew member of the downed F-15E fighter jet continued into a second day as Iran came under heavy bombing. A pilot had been rescued on Friday after the F-15E Strike Eagle became the first US plane to be downed over Iran during the five-week-long war.
American and Israeli fighter jets targeted multiple strategic and civilian sites inside Iran’s capital on Friday afternoon, including Shahid Beheshti University, one of the country’s leading academic institutions, Iranian state media reported.
The death toll in Lebanon has reached 1,422 since the conflict with Israel began on 2 March, according to data from the Lebanese health ministry and reported by the Associated Press. In just the past 24 hours, Israeli strikes have killed 54 people and wounded 156.
The Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that its air defense forces successfully intercepted eight ballistic missiles and 19 drones over the last 24 hours. However, on Sunday a fire has erupted in the Shuwaikh oil sector complex that houses the oil ministry and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation headquarters, after a drone attack, and Kuwaiti state media reported that two power and water desalination plants sustained “significant material damage” after being attacked by Iranian drones.
A Lebanese security source at the main crossing between Syria and Lebanon, said they were evacuating the crossing after Israel threatened to attack it. The Israeli military said on Saturday it would strike an area near the Masnaa crossing urging residents to evacuate immediately as it continued its attacks across Lebanon.
Residents of southern Lebanon’s Kfar Hatta were told on social media by Israel to immediately leave the area, and warned that the Israeli military would soon act “with force” in the area.
Updated at 22.52 EDT
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Anti-war protests were held across the world on Saturday – here are some of the images coming into the newsroom.
People in Tel Aviv on Saturday raise their hands during a protest calling for an end to the war. Photograph: Maya Levin/APHundreds of demonstrators gathered at Dam Square in Amsterdam to commemorate International Palestinian Land Day. Photograph: James Petermeier/ZUMA Press Wire/ShutterstockMillions of followers of Shiite cleric and politician, Muqtada al-Sadr, gather at Tahrir Square in Baghdad during a protest of the US and Israel war against Iran. Photograph: Hawre Khalid/Getty ImagesDemonstrators join Rise and Resist’s anti-war protest under the Times Square US army recruiting station’s US flag, calling for an end to the war on Iran and denouncing President Trump and defence secretary Pete Hegseth. Photograph: Gina M Randazzo/ZUMA Press Wire/ShutterstockIranian-Americans and supporters of Iran rally near the White House. Photograph: Douliery Olivier/ABACA/ShutterstockIsraeli police make an arrest during an anti-war protest in Habima Square on Saturday in Tel Aviv. Photograph: Erik Marmor/Getty ImagesRed Rebels form up behind a knitted peace sign during a demonstration in Lakenheath in England, near the main gate of an RAF Base that hosts the US air force. Photograph: Martin Pope/Getty ImagesShare
Kuwait says two power and water desalination plants have sustained “significant material damage” after being attacked by Iranian drones, with two power generation units now out of service.
As we posted earlier in the blog, the Kuwaiti state media, citing the country’s finance ministry, said an Iranian drone had also attacked an office complex of government ministries, and that a fire had erupted in the Shuwaikh oil sector complex.
Gulf countries including Kuwait, have been targeted by Iranian drone strikes in retaliation for attacks launched on Iran by the United States and Israel. At the start of this month, for example, fuel tanks at Kuwait International Airport were attacked by drones.
Smoke rises after an Iranian drone attack hit fuel tanks at Kuwait International Airport on 1 April. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesShare
A Lebanese security source at the main crossing between Syria and Lebanon, says they are “currently evacuating the crossing” after Israel threatened to attack it, AFP reports.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it would strike an area near the Masnaa crossing urging residents to evacuate immediately as it continued its attacks across Lebanon.
“Due to Hezbollah’s use of the Masnaa Crossing for military purposes and smuggling of combat equipment, the (Israeli army) intends to carry out strikes on the crossing in the near future,” said the military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, urging people to leave the area.
Updating our earlier post about attacks on Kuwait on Sunday, a fire has erupted in the Shuwaikh oil sector complex that houses the oil ministry and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation headquarters, after a drone attack, the Kuwaiti state news agency reported early on Sunday.
No injuries have been reported but the KPC says emergency and firefighting teams are fighting the fire, according to the report.
Separately, Kuwait’s state media, citing the finance ministry, said an Iranian drone attacked an office complex for government ministries, causing significant material damage but no casualties.
US federal agents have arrested the niece and grandniece of the late Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, in Los Angeles, after the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, revoked their permanent resident status, officials said on Saturday.
A street poster of the late senior Iranian military commander General Qassem Soleimani in Tehran. Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/Reuters
Rubio confirmed on social media that the mother-daughter pair are “pending removal” from the US. Officials allege the older woman, Soleimani Afshar, celebrated military strikes against American personnel, praised Iran’s new supreme leader after the US and Israel killed his predecessor, and described the US as the “Great Satan”.
You can read more about their arrest, and other moves by the US to terminate the legal status of people connected to the Iranian regime in our story here.
High-resolution aerial pictures of the area involved in the Middle East war will no longer be published by US satellite imagery company Planet Labs after a request from the Trump administration.
Planet said the US government had asked satellite imagery providers to implement an “indefinite withhold of imagery”.
“Effective retroactively from March 9, 2026, Planet is moving to a managed access model, extending the publication delay for all new imagery within the designated AOI (area of interest), and releasing imagery on a case-by-case basis and for urgent, mission-critical requirements or in the public interest,” the company said in a message to clients received by AFP.
Planet, founded in 2010 by former Nasa scientists and whose images are widely used by media and researchers, said it expected the new policy to last until the end of the conflict. The other major provider of satellite imagery, Vantor, (formerly Maxar), has also announced major restrictions.
Under US law any company headquartered in the US that commercially operates high-resolution satellite imagery may be subjected to restrictions for reasons of national security or foreign policy.
Israel has been targeted this morning by missiles launched from Iran, according to the Israeli military, in the latest salvo in the Middle East war.
“A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel,” the military said on social media.
Iran’s central military command has rejected US president Donald Trump’s threat to destroy the country’s vital infrastructure if it does not accept a peace deal within 48 hours, calling it “helpless”.
Earlier today, Trump said Iran has 48 hours to make or deal or open the strait of Hormuz before “all hell will reign down on them”.
This threat came as the US and Iran were racing to find a missing US pilot after a jet was shot down over the remote Khuzestan province in south-west Iran.
Gen Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, in a statement from the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said Trump’s threat was a “a helpless, nervous, unbalanced and stupid action”.
And, echoing the religious language of Trump’s social media post, he warned that “the simple meaning of this message is that the gates of hell will open for you”.
President Trump. Photograph: Nathan Howard/Getty ImagesShare
The Kuwaiti army says its air defences are intercepting missile and drone attacks.
Posting on X, the army wrote: “Any explosions heard are a result of air defence systems intercepting hostile attacks.”
Kuwait’s defence ministry said it has dealt with eight missile and 19 drone attacks in the past 24 hours.
Pope Leo led the world’s Catholics into Easter at a Saturday night vigil Mass in St Peter’s Basilica and urged people not to feel numbed by the scope of the conflicts raging across the world but to work for peace.
Leo, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war, said that mistrust and fear have been allowed to “sever the bonds between us through war, injustice and the isolation of peoples and nations”.
“Let us not allow ourselves to be paralyzed!” the first US pope exhorted in a service for the holiest night in the Catholic calendar, when the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead.
Updated at 17.45 EDT