Israeli forces said on Tuesday they were targeting Hezbollah commanders in Beirut as part of a widening campaign that has sparked clashes across the Middle East since the weekend. The Israeli military posted on X that it was conducting targeted strikes against military sites in both Tehran and Beirut.
The operations followed a series of dramatic escalations after the United States and Israel carried out strikes on Iran over the weekend that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran and allied groups responded with attacks on Israeli territory, strikes on neighbouring Gulf states, and assaults on energy and infrastructure assets that are important to global oil and gas supplies.
Explosions echoed across Tehran into the early hours of Tuesday while US and Israeli forces continued to hit Iranian targets. Israeli air strikes have also spread into Lebanon, and the UN refugee agency said at least 30,000 displaced people have sought shelter there since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensified. Officials expect more civilians to seek safety as hostilities continue.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the decision to go to war in a televised interview, arguing Iran was rebuilding facilities that could make its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes harder to counter; he did not present evidence for those claims. US President Donald Trump said the United States has the capacity to sustain operations longer than an initially projected four-to-five-week window.
Analysts who examined satellite imagery reported only limited activity at two Iranian nuclear sites before the recent strikes, which could indicate Tehran was assessing or attempting to salvage damage from earlier US attacks. Observers warn that the intensity and regional spread of the strikes, combined with the apparent absence of a clear exit strategy, raise the prospect of a prolonged conflict with major geopolitical and economic consequences.
The fighting has disrupted civilian life and commerce across the region. Major energy producers have reported outages and paused production; Qatar temporarily halted liquefied natural gas output, and some Israeli gas fields were taken offline. Attacks and drone strikes damaged facilities in the UAE, Bahrain and Oman, and there were incidents affecting commercial shipping and seafarers in nearby waters.
Governments and international organisations moved quickly to respond. The US State Department ordered evacuation of non-emergency personnel and families from Bahrain and Jordan and urged citizens in parts of the Middle East to leave by commercial means. Several countries arranged special flights to repatriate nationals. India postponed some board exams for students in the Middle East and organised evacuation flights, while authorities in Kashmir and other areas imposed security restrictions amid protests over Khamenei’s killing.
Diplomatic strains emerged among allies. President Trump publicly criticised UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer over Britain’s initial reluctance to join strikes on Iran, calling the change in tone “sad.” The UK later authorised limited defensive use of its bases to support US operations. International firms also reported damage to infrastructure: Amazon said some data centres in the UAE and Bahrain were hit, disrupting cloud services.
On the Israel-Lebanon border, witnesses and officials reported incursions and shifting frontlines, and the Lebanese army pulled back from several forward positions. The humanitarian toll is mounting alongside the military actions, with civilian casualties and seafarer injuries reported amid strikes across the Gulf.
As the situation evolves, leaders on all sides have offered differing accounts of objectives and exit plans. The lack of a clear endgame and the widening scope of attacks have increased fears of a longer, broader confrontation that could further destabilise the region and disrupt global energy markets.
