Netanyahu orders expansion of security buffer zone in southern Lebanon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a meeting with US President Joe Biden (not pictured) and the Israeli war cabinet, during Biden's visit to Israel, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel. PHOTO: REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had instructed the military to further expand the existing security buffer zone in southern Lebanon, vowing to fundamentally change the security situation there.
"I have just instructed to further expand the existing security buffer zone. We are determined to fundamentally change the situation in the north," Netanyahu said in a video statement from the Northern Command.
He said the decision aimed to strengthen Israel's security posture along the northern frontier, amid ongoing tensions along Israel's northern border, where cross-border hostilities have raised fears of a broader regional escalation.
Iran accuses US of ground assault plans
Iran said it was ready to respond to a US ground attack, accusing Washington on Sunday of preparing a land assault even as the Trump administration sought talks and as regional powers met in Pakistan to try to end the conflict.
As the conflict entered its second month, Israel's military said it carried overnight strikes on Tehran, targeting what it described as a facility producing critical components for ballistic missiles and a weapons production and storage site.
Iran launched multiple missile salvos at Israel on Sunday, sending millions of people across the country into shelters. Israel's fire and rescue service said a blaze had broken out in an industrial area in the country's south after an "impact".
Also Read: Pakistan, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Egypt begin talks on US-Iran war in Islamabad
Chemical manufacturing and industrial plants, as well as a hazardous waste treatment facility, are located in the industrial area. It was not immediately clear if a missile had hit the area, or if the fire was caused by debris from an interception.
Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf accused the US of sending messages about possible negotiations while at the same time secretly planning to send in troops, adding that Tehran was ready to respond if US soldiers were deployed.
"As long as the Americans seek Iran's surrender, our response is that we will never accept humiliation," he said in a message to the nation.
The war, which began on February 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iran, has spread across the Middle East, with Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis launching on Saturday their first attacks on Israel since the start of the conflict.
The assault points to a potential new threat to global shipping, already hit by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, previously a conduit for about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.
US marines start arriving in Middle East
Washington has dispatched thousands of Marines to the Middle East, with the first of two contingents arriving on Friday aboard an amphibious assault ship, the US military has said.
The Washington Post quoted US officials as saying the Pentagon was preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, adding that it was not yet clear if President Donald Trump would approve such plans.
Reuters has reported that the Pentagon has considered military options that could include ground forces.
Trump faces a stark choice between seeking a negotiated exit or escalating militarily that risks a protracted crisis, and would likely weigh further on his already low approval ratings.
"President Trump has poor options all around to end the war," said Jonathan Panikoff, former US deputy national intelligence officer for the Middle East. "Part of the challenge is the lack of clarity related to what a satisfactory outcome would be," he added.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Egypt met in Islamabad to discuss ways to halt the Iran war, which has killed thousands of people and caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies.
Pakistan, which along with Turkey and Egypt has been relaying messages between Washington and Tehran, was hosting four-nation talks and looking for proposals that could bring the two sides together, a Pakistani foreign ministry official said.
The countries meeting in Pakistan have floated proposals to Washington tied to maritime traffic and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as part of wider efforts to stabilise shipping flows.
Washington said last week it had offered a 15-point ceasefire plan, with a proposal to reopen the waterway and restrict Iran's nuclear programme, but Tehran has rejected the list and put forward proposals of its own.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced earlier that a fifth soldier had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon, underscoring the growing regional scope of the conflict.
In Tehran, Qatari news channel Al Araby TV said an Israeli missile struck the building housing its office, causing extensive damage and forcing the suspension of live broadcasts.
“An Israeli missile targets the Al Araby TV channel building in the capital, Tehran... extensive damage and the suspension of live broadcasting,” the channel said in a post on X.
Footage from inside the office showed shattered glass, broken windows and debris scattered across the newsroom. Images from outside showed damaged surrounding buildings and streets covered with rubble.
The risk of a broader regional war increased further after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement launched its first attacks on Israel since the conflict began, officials said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday the US could achieve its aims without ground troops, but that it was deploying some to the region so Trump would have "maximum" flexibility to adjust strategy.
The Pentagon was also expected to deploy thousands of soldiers from the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division.
Iran’s IRGC said it will target Israeli or US-affiliated universities in the region in retaliation for the attacks on Iranian universities.
They said, "The US has until 12 on Monday, March 30, Tehran time, to condemn the bombing of Iranian universities; otherwise, Israeli and American universities in West Asia will be targeted." They warned students, staff, and nearby residents to stay at least one kilometre away from these universities.
🚨 Urgent Evacuation Warning 🚨
Iran's Armed Forces Central HQ:
🔻'The U.S. has until 12 on Monday, March 30, Tehran time, to condemn the bombing of Iranian universities; otherwise, Israeli and American universities in West Asia will be targeted.' https://t.co/3H5KNPIZkD pic.twitter.com/8XcXV7aCs3One of Iran's oldest universities, the University of Science and Technology, was bombed by US-Israeli forces on Saturday. The extent of casualties remains unclear.
Video of the US bombing of Iran University of "Science and Technology".
This university is one of the top five universities of technology in Iran pic.twitter.com/uWBWITF6f3Iranian media said at least five people were killed in a US-Israeli attack on a residential unit in the northwestern city of Zanjan.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, who hosts talks from Sunday with the Turkish, Egyptian and Saudi foreign ministers on ways to ease regional tensions.
The Israeli military said on Sunday it had targeted Tehran's weapons manufacturing infrastructure, including dozens of storage and production sites the day before. Five people were killed in a strike on a pier in the southern port city of Bandar-e-Khamir that also destroyed two vessels, Iranian state media reported on Sunday.
Read More: Iran FM warns Israel of 'heavy price' after attacks on steel factories, power plant, nuclear sites
It also hit targets in Lebanon, resuming its war against Iran-backed Hezbollah, killing three Lebanese journalists in a strike on a media vehicle, Lebanon's Al Manar TV reported, as well as a Lebanese soldier. A follow‑up strike on the rescue workers sent to assist them also caused fatalities.
Israel's military said it had targeted one of the journalists, accusing him of being part of a Hezbollah intelligence unit and saying he had reported on locations of Israeli soldiers.
Iran kept up attacks on Israel and several Gulf states after hitting an air base in Saudi Arabia on Friday and wounding 12 US military personnel, two of them seriously, in one of the most serious breaches of US air defences so far.
Air defences shot down a drone near the residence of the leader of the Iraqi Kurdish ruling party, Masoud Barzani, in Erbil, security sources told Reuters early on Sunday. Security sources said on Saturday that another drone attack had targeted the home of the president of Iraq's Kurdistan region.
Israel, which regularly faced missile attacks from the Houthis before the war, confirmed a missile had been fired at it from Yemen. There were no reports of casualties or damage.
The attack pointed to a potential new threat to global shipping, already hit by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, previously a conduit for about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.
The group carried out a second strike on Israel, said Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree, vowing more strikes to come.
The Houthis have shown an ability to strike targets far beyond Yemen and disrupt shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, as they did in support of Hamas in the Gaza war.
With the US midterm elections due in November, the increasingly unpopular war has weighed on Trump's Republican Party. He has appeared eager to end it soon, while also threatening escalation.
Demonstrators took to city streets across the US on Saturday in anti-Trump rallies described by organisers as a call to action against the war on Iran.
Trump has threatened to hit Iranian power stations and other energy infrastructure if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz. But he extended a deadline he had imposed for this week, giving Iran another 10 days to respond.
Iranian threats to attack ships in the strait have kept most oil tankers from attempting the waterway. Iran has agreed to let an additional 20 Pakistani-flagged vessels pass through the strait, with two ships permitted to transit daily, said Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.
Also Read: UN chief warns Iran war 'out of control,' world staring down barrel of wider conflict
Israel has targeted Iran's nuclear infrastructure. The head of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom, which has evacuated staff from the Bushehr nuclear power plant on the Gulf coast, said the attacks threatened nuclear safety.
Pezeshkian said Iran would "retaliate strongly if our infrastructure or economic centres are targeted".
Iranian attacks were reported in multiple areas across the Gulf, including Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
An Iranian airstrike hit the Israeli village of Eshtaol, near Jerusalem. Seven people were hospitalised, Israel’s ambulance service said. Aluminium Bahrain said its facilities were targeted in an Iranian attack on Saturday, Bahrain's state news agency reported.