Economist James Meadway says US President Donald Trump offers threats but no clear plan to end the crisis, leaving markets unsettled as disruption from the Strait of Hormuz closure spreads beyond Asia and into Europe.
Published On 5 Apr 20265 Apr 2026
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United States President Donald Trump said early on Sunday that an American soldier who went missing in Iran after the downing of his F-15E jet has been rescued following what observers called a dramatic firefight between Iranian and US rescue forces.
The US and Iran were racing to find the airman for about two days, with Tehran calling on the public to hand over the soldier to the authorities in what appeared to be attempts to capture an American prisoner of war as the US-Israel war on Iran entered its 37th day.
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That scenario would have delivered a significant win to Tehran amid the ongoing pummelling of its territory, and for Washington, a stunning blow, analysts say. It could have been the moment that parts of Trump’s support base, which has so far supported the war, started to rethink their stance, they say.
“It was a major test for the American military because they really don’t want to leave any of their servicemen behind enemy lines,” Amin Saikal, a professor of Middle East and Central Asian studies at the Australian National University, told Al Jazeera.
But this rescue “also really frees up President Trump to pursue whatever strategy he has in mind”, Saikal added, referencing Trump’s 48-hour deadline for Iran to make a deal or open the Strait of Hormuz “before all Hell will reign down on them”. Trump has already threatened to bomb energy plants in Iran. Targeting of civilian infrastructure is seen as a violation of the laws of war.
At least 2,076 people have been killed, and 26,500 have been injured in Iran since February 28, when the US and Israel first launched strikes on Iran and killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and several other senior military and political leaders.
The conflict has since escalated into a regional war with Iran retaliating against Gulf countries hosting US military and commercial assets.
The F-15E jet carrying two members was flying over southern Iran when it was shot down on Friday morning local time.
According to Tehran, the aircraft was shot down by Iran’s “new advanced air defence system”, which it said remained effective despite claims by the US that it had been destroyed.
It was the first time during the war, and the first time since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, that a US aircraft had been shot down.
Washington immediately launched a rescue mission. Although US forces rescued one crew member hours after the crash, the second pilot, believed to be a colonel-rank weapons system officer, was yet to be found.
At least one Black Hawk helicopter was hit in the initial rescue, but US officials said it managed to stay airborne.
Trump suggested that the US appeared to have the location of the airman and was tracking him as the rescue mission unfolded in an area with difficult, mountainous terrain that made physical recovery challenging.
An A-10 Warthog aircraft was also hit near the Strait of Hormuz around the same time as the F-15E, but its pilot was able to eject before the plane crashed and was subsequently rescued. Iranian media reported that this aircraft was also hit by Iran’s defence system.
How did Iran react?Following the downing of the F-15E, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) cordoned off some parts of the mountainous southwestern Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province because they believed the airman went down in the vicinity.
Iranian media also reported that parts of the southern Khuzestan region, an important energy hub, were being scrutinised. That region was the focus of heavy US-Israeli strikes on Saturday that killed at least five people and injured dozens.
Iranian authorities, in a rare move, called on the public on Friday to help find and capture the missing American soldier. State media reported that Tehran offered a $60,000 reward for the airman as clips on state TV repeatedly played footage showing the remnants of the downed US aircraft.
Nomadic tribes in the area, appearing to heed the calls, set about searching for the US airman. Footage from state media showed men carrying rifles and Iranian flags moving in between the mountains of the country’s southwest region.
Some successfully shot at two US Black Hawks that were part of the rescue mission, Iranian officials said. The BBC also verified footage appearing to show Iranian men firing their rifles at US helicopters.
Nomadic groups in Iran, and elsewhere, usually carry rifles to protect their cattle from wildlife and bandits.
The IRGC on Sunday claimed that Iranian forces destroyed two C-130 aircraft and two Black Hawk helicopters during the operation to rescue the US pilot in southern Isfahan.
Early on Sunday morning, Trump announced in a post on Truth Social that the missing soldier had been rescued in “one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S History”.
“This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour, but was never truly alone because his Commander in Chief, Secretary of War, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and fellow Warfighters were monitoring his location 24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue,” Trump said in his message.
The president revealed some details of the high-risk operation. He had ordered that dozens of aircraft carrying “lethal weapons” be sent in to retrieve the airman who had managed to evade Iranian forces for two days. All the while, the US was tracking the airman.
Although Trump did not reveal details of the firefight believed to have ensued when the US closed in on the airman and went to retrieve him, he confirmed that the officer “sustained injuries” and added that “he will be just fine”.
Al Jazeera’s John Hendren gathered that there was a “heavy firefight” as what was meant to be a “get-in and get-out” rescue operation dragged on.
While US forces had aimed to use the cover of night to conduct the rescue mission after closing in on the airman, enemy fire prolonged the mission into daylight, making it more dangerous.
“We’ve heard it described to us as a heavy firefight,” Hendren reported. “In the end, they managed to spirit that airman out of the country … and into safety, but it didn’t come without injuries, including injuries to that airman himself, but in the end, the US was allowed to avoid a situation where they would have a prisoner of war inside of Iran.”
Hendren added that the US had earlier started a disinformation campaign in Iran, according to officials, claiming the airman was already rescued, to jeopardise Iran’s search.
Iran has not yet confirmed the incident. Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said the firefight appeared to have occurred in the Kohgiluyeh Boyer-Ahmad region, and that nine people have been reported killed in “strikes”, although it is unclear if it was related to the US rescue mission.
Meanwhile, Iranian authorities said on Sunday morning that yet another US aircraft – a Lockheed C-130 Hercules – had been downed.
The US has not responded to those claims. At least one such aircraft was spotted flying low over southwest Iran, along with two smaller refuelling helicopters, during the rescue mission effort of the last 48 hours.
Tzruya “Suki” Lahav, a violinist and poet who played with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in the mid 1970’s on some of the band’s most beloved LPs, has died. She was 74.
Yonatan Albalak, her son, posted on Facebook April 2 that his mother had been “gathered into infinity after a short and hard battle with the cursed disease” of cancer.
“She wrote songs that touched people’s hearts,” he wrote, describing her as “a special woman, smart, pure in heart and loving life. She was the best mom I could ever ask for.”
Lahav’s tenure with the group lasted only between 1974 and 1975, yet she contributed several standout moments to Springsteen’s catalog. She performed on “The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle” and its follow-up, the smash “Born to Run.” She played the famed violin intro to the classic single “Jungleland,” and performed the multi-tracked choir on “4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” after a church vocal group failed to turn up for the session. She also played on a fan-favorite, widely-bootlegged cover of Bob Dylan’s “I Want You.”
She entered Springsteen’s camp after her husband, Louis Lahav, engineered on Springsteen’s 1972 debut album, “Greetings From Asbury Park.” Lahav told the Jerusalem Post in 2007 that she joined the group as “a young girl in a flowing white dress from Kibbutz Ayelet Hashahar in the Upper Galilee, barely out of the army, barely married … I went from kibbutz harvest music to rocking with Bruce.”
She remained a major artist in Israel for decades after her tenure with Springsteen. She recorded with the Israeli rock band Tamuz, and wrote songs for prominent Israeli artists like Rita, including “Yemei Hatom” and “Shara Barkhovot.” She won the ACUM Lifetime Achievement Award and the Arik Einstein Prize there. In 1990, “Shara Barkhovot” was Israel’s submission to the Eurovision Song Contest.
Hebron, occupied West Bank – Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque is no more than 50 metres from Aref Jaber’s home, in the neighbourhood that bears his surname, reflecting his family’s long history in the Palestinian city.
The 51-year-old has taken advantage of that proximity since his childhood, regularly praying at the mosque, one of the most important Islamic sites, and a Palestinian national symbol.
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But the Ibrahimi Mosque of Jaber’s childhood is not the one of today. A 1994 massacre of Muslim worshippers by the Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinians. Instead of getting justice, Palestinians faced more restrictions in the aftermath of the attack.
Israeli settlers began establishing an illegal presence in Hebron, part of the occupied West Bank, in 1968, the year after Israel seized control of the Palestinian territory. The settlers have been working to grow their presence ever since, with increased support from the Israeli government.
After 1994, Israel began taking steps to, in effect, control the Ibrahimi Mosque – known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs – by closing off large areas in Hebron’s Old City and the southern area surrounding the mosque, then dividing it between Muslims and a few hundred Jewish settlers, granting the latter the right to pray there.
This was followed by the signing of the Hebron Agreement with the Palestinian Authority in 1997, which stipulated the division of the city into two parts: H1, under Palestinian control, comprising 80 percent of the area, and H2, under Israeli control, comprising 20 percent, but including the Ibrahimi Mosque and the Old City.
Following this series of events, settlement activity intensified in the heart of Hebron. Settlers established illegal outposts within the Old City and began gradually expanding and seizing new homes under the protection of the Israeli army.
Meanwhile, Palestinians were subjected to closures, restrictions and repressive measures aimed at forcing them to leave the Old City, thus facilitating Israeli control over the mosque.
Jaber had hoped that his children would pray at the mosque daily and become familiar with it, but Israeli measures prevented this.
He explained that since 1994, the southern gate of the mosque, which residents of his neighbourhood used for access, has been closed. They have instead been forced to take alternative routes, turning a journey of 50 metres into one that now spans almost three kilometres.
Things have gotten worse since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, when Israel also ramped up its attacks in the West Bank.
Israel tightened its grip on the mosque and its surroundings, closing more of the alternative routes.
“The difficulty of reaching the mosque is compounded by the procedures at the iron and electronic gates installed at its entrances and in its vicinity,” Jaber said. “We are subjected to searches, detention, and harassment without any justification, and often young men, boys, and even women are arrested.”
The Israeli government says that the restrictions are necessary for security reasons – to protect Israeli settlers whose presence in the West Bank’s most populous city is illegal under international law.
Jaber explained how the Israeli army closes barriers and gates around the mosque and the neighbourhoods that surround it for extended periods under security pretexts. Palestinian residents are not allowed to leave their homes, even to shop, while settlers are permitted to move freely throughout the Old City.
Israeli authorities also used the justification of the current conflict with Iran to close access to the Ibrahimi Mosque for Palestinians for six days from February 28, allowing it to reopen for a limited number of worshippers on March 6.
But these measures aren’t only aimed at restricting Palestinians in the vicinity of the mosque, but also seem to be an attempt to establish complete Israeli security control over it, with measures similar to those Israel employs at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.
In Al-Aqsa, the third holiest site in Islam, renewable expulsion orders are used to prevent the entry of worshippers deemed troublesome. Searches are also regularly conducted at the gates of Al-Aqsa, as well as detentions, confiscation of identity cards and restrictions on entry to certain parts of the mosque compound.
Israel now regularly conducts similar actions at the Ibrahimi Mosque.
The Israeli army issued orders to remove Moataz Abu Sneineh, the director of the Ibrahimi Mosque, and other employees from the mosque for 15 days in January. The Palestinian Authority said that the orders were part of “an attempt to reduce their role in the administration and supervision of the Ibrahimi Mosque’s religious and administrative affairs”.
Israeli officials have also tried to push through construction work in the mosque without the approval of Palestinian officials.
On February 9, the Israeli cabinet approved the transfer of licensing, building and municipal administration powers in Hebron from the municipality to the Israeli Civil Administration, in addition to establishing a separate settlement municipality within the city.
The change, part of an internationally condemned Israeli push to increase control over the West Bank and make Israeli settlement easier, is seen as illegitimate and dangerous to the existing status quo, threatening freedom of worship and public order, according to a statement issued by the Hebron Municipality in response to the decision.
Abu Sneineh told Al Jazeera that Israel has transformed the mosque into something resembling a “military barracks” due to the stringent measures it imposes, which “aim to reduce the number of worshippers there”.
According to Abu Sneineh, the Israeli government interfered in the authority of the Ministry of Religious Endowments, and the call to prayer was prevented from being performed dozens of times a month. Worshippers were subjected to humiliating treatment at the mosque entrance, including beatings, verbal abuse and expulsion. Abu Sneineh said the measures were part of a systematic Israeli policy aimed at transforming the mosque into a Jewish synagogue.
“Israel is trying to impose a new reality by controlling the mosque and obstructing worshippers’ access to it, whether during Ramadan or at other times. After October 2023, the measures became even more stringent to erase the Islamic identity of the place, as if it were racing against time to seize control of it,” he added.
On February 28, coinciding with the start of Israeli-American strikes on Iran, the Israeli army expelled worshippers and staff from the mosque and informed them of its closure until further notice, just as it had done at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on the same day under the declared state of emergency measures.
The director of the Youth Against Settlements group and a resident of the Old City, Issa Amro, believes that the situation at the Ibrahimi Mosque is more dangerous than at Al-Aqsa Mosque because it has suffered from temporal and spatial division since 1994.
The “arbitrary” barriers, the closure of surrounding markets and main roads leading to it, and recently the closure of checkpoints in the southern area of the city – which includes the Old City and the Ibrahimi Mosque – prevent approximately 50,000 citizens from accessing it, along with the transfer of supervisory authority of parts of the mosque to the Religious Council in the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement, are extremely dangerous steps that threaten the Palestinian identity of the site, Amro said.
“The Jewish area [of the mosque] has been expanded, and recently, residents around the mosque have been living a difficult life due to soldier violence, settler terrorism, the constant closure of barriers, and restrictions on leaving their homes. They live as prisoners in their own homes in fear of settlers and soldiers, and disturbed by the constant gatherings held by settlers in the mosque,” he added.
According to the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ) – a Palestinian research institute – approximately 40,000 Palestinians live in the H2 area, alongside about 800 Israeli settlers residing in 14 small illegal settlement outposts. These outposts are under heavy protection from thousands of Israeli soldiers deployed around the perimeter of the area and in the streets of the Old City, preventing Palestinians from leading normal lives.
The outposts are managed by the Hebron Settlements Council, which is linked to the parent settlement, Kiryat Arba, located east of the city.
A research study published by the institute in November 2025 revealed a significant increase in the forced displacement of Palestinians from the H2 area over the past two decades.
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said in a 2019 report that about 35,000 Palestinians lived in Hebron’s H2 area when the Hebron Agreement was signed in 1997. Today, only around 7,000 remain. Roughly 1,000 of them live in a particularly restricted zone around the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood and Shuhada Street – formerly Hebron’s main shopping street, which is now closed to Palestinians, due to the presence of several illegal Israeli settlements.
Palestinian families in the Old City and the vicinity of the Ibrahimi Mosque are subjected to various forms of pressure, including demolition orders under the pretext of unlicensed construction, frequent arrests, settler attacks on residents and students travelling to and from school, economic restrictions, shop closures, and movement restrictions, particularly regarding access to places of worship and hospitals.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the area contains 97 various military checkpoints and barriers.
These are often closed for hours or even days at a time without prior notice, paralysing movement within the Old City and the residential areas adjacent to the mosque.
Observers see these measures in Hebron as a prelude to establishing a fait accompli in the West Bank as a whole, which has been subjected for more than two years to accelerated policies aimed at controlling the largest possible area of land and expanding settlements.
Settlement affairs researcher Mahmoud al-Saifi told Al Jazeera that Israel has sought over the past two years to solidify the annexation of the West Bank, particularly Area C, which constitutes more than 61 percent of the total area of the West Bank.
Israeli authorities have approved 54 new official settlements and 86 smaller outposts in 2025 alone, according to data from Peace Now, which monitors settlement activity.
Planning was approved or advanced for some 51,370 settlement units in the West Bank from late 2022 to the end of 2025, a figure also announced by Israeli government agencies based on data from the Higher Planning Council.
In addition, 222 kilometres of secondary and bypass roads were constructed in the two years preceding January 2025, aimed at connecting outposts to main settlements.
As a result of these policies, the Palestinian presence has dwindled in many areas, particularly the Jordan Valley, where their number has decreased to no more than 65,000.
“Israel is implementing a policy of encirclement and strangulation of small villages in the West Bank by confiscating land and preventing Palestinian construction, in contrast to the frenzied settlement wave that Smotrich called a ‘settlement revolution,’ and the accompanying bitter reality for Palestinians,” al-Saifi said.
There are now thousands of armed settlers spread throughout the West Bank, al-Saifi noted. Skilfully trained and often called settlement guards, they are essentially a rear guard force for the Israeli army, used to attack and intimidate Palestinians and seize their land.
“All Bedouin communities are located in Area C, and 47 of them have been forcibly displaced since October 2023, meaning more than 4,000 Palestinians have been displaced in just two and a half years,” al-Saifi said. “This is part of ethnic cleansing and de facto annexation on the ground.”
Iran says US-Israeli attacks on the Mahshahr Petrochemical Zone have killed five and wounded 170.
Published On 5 Apr 20265 Apr 2026
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“This explosion will definitely worsen their condition.” The chief of Tehran’s Del Aram Sina Psychiatric Hospital showed media the damage a recent US-Israeli strike caused to the medical facility. He says it is now unable to treat patients suffering conditions like PTSD.
Published On 4 Apr 20264 Apr 2026
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We take you on a walkthrough of Iran’s coastline and strategic islands marking its architecture of control.
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Videos show Palestinians in Gaza scrambling to extinguish a vehicle engulfed in flames in az-Zawayda after it was targeted by an Israeli drone. Israel has killed more than 700 people since the October 10 “ceasefire,” according to local officials.
Published On 4 Apr 20264 Apr 2026
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“A civilised government never targets institutions of knowledge.” Iran’s minister of science said the US and Israel are the ones that belong in the Stone Age following an attack on Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University. Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi visited the site to see the damage.
Published On 4 Apr 20264 Apr 2026
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Tehran says it is the fourth attack near the nuclear plant amid the US-Israel war on Iran.
Published On 4 Apr 20264 Apr 2026
One person has been killed by projectile fragments after United States-Israeli strikes targeted a location close to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The agency, citing confirmation from Iranian authorities, said in a statement on X that there was “no increase in radiation levels” after Saturday’s attack.
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Later on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed the Bushehr facility had been “bombed” four times since the war erupted, criticising what he described as a lack of concern for its safety.
The strike comes as the US and Israel escalate their targeting of Iranian industrial sites, even as experts warn of the high risks of striking nuclear or petrochemical facilities.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi expressed “deep concern about the reported incident and says [nuclear] sites or nearby areas must never be attacked, noting that auxiliary site buildings may contain vital safety equipment”, the statement read.
Grossi also reiterated a “call for maximum military restraint to avoid risk of a nuclear accident,” the IAEA added.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) confirmed the incident, also in a post on X.
An “auxiliary” building on the site was damaged, but the main sections of the power plant were not affected by the strike, the government agency said, adding that the person killed was a member of security personnel.
It’s the fourth time the site has been attacked since the start of the US and Israel’s war on Iran, the AEOI noted.
The Bushehr plant is Iran’s only operational nuclear power plant. It is located in Bushehr city, home to 250,000 people, and is one of Iran’s most important industrial and military nodes.
Meanwhile, US and Israeli strikes on Saturday hit several petrochemical plants in the southern Khuzestan region, an important energy hub, according to Iranian media.
At least five people are reported injured.
Explosions were heard, and smoke was also seen rising after missiles hit several locations across the Mahshahr Petrochemical Special Economic Zone.
The state-run Bandar Imam petrochemical complex, which produces chemicals, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), polymers and a range of other products, was struck and sustained damage, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported.
A provincial governor in Khuzestan added that the Fajr 1 and 2 petrochemical companies, as well as other nearby facilities, were also hit, according to the Fars news agency. The extent of damage is unclear.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed it shot down an MQ-1 drone over central Isfahan province on Saturday, hours after authorities said they forced down two US warplanes.
Isfahan, which houses an underground uranium conversion and a research site, was one of three facilities bombed during US and Israeli strikes on Iran last June.
Celebrations in Tehran as Iran’s military says the strikes show its forces still have fighting capability against the US and Israel.
Published On 4 Apr 20264 Apr 2026
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Christians across Lebanon observed Good Friday, praying for peace as Israeli strikes and evacuation orders continue across the country.
Published On 3 Apr 20263 Apr 2026
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WASHINGTON — A crew member was rescued after an American aircraft went down Friday in Iran, the Associated Press reported, citing U.S. and Israeli officials.
U.S. forces launched a rescue mission in southwestern Iran after at least one American crew member ejected from a fighter jet downed by Iranian defenses, according to a U.S. official and news outlets.
The downing of the jet, an F-15E, was confirmed to The Times by a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly. That type of jet reportedly carries a standard crew of two, but it was not clear if more than one crew member ejected.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has maintained for weeks that the U.S. has “complete, uncontested control of Iranian airspace” after destroying the country’s air defenses.
“Iran has no air defenses, Iran has no air force,” he said at a March 13 Pentagon news conference. “Today, as we speak, we fly over the top of Iran and Tehran, fighters and bombers all day, picking targets as they choose, as our intelligence gets better and better and more refined.”
But the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that a new type of Iranian air defense system deployed for the first time in recent days had shot down a warplane on Friday.
The statements stirred a flurry of conflicting instructions from Iranian state-affiliated broadcasters. One local television channel initially encouraged viewers to search for the downed pilot and “shoot them as soon as you see them.”
It then changed the instructions, according to the Associated Press, after local police issued a statement asking the public to capture and turn in American pilots alive to security agencies to “receive a precious prize.”
On social media, Iranian accounts posted videos purporting to show helicopters searching for downed pilots in Iran’s western and southern provinces, according to a report from Fars News.
Fars also reported officials in Iran’s southwest were offering a “valuable reward” to anyone “who captures the American pilot alive.”
Images of a tail section posted on social media had markings indicating it was from the 48th Fighter Wing, which is based at RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom, according to Peter Layton, a visiting fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia, in an interview with NBC News.
The development came as U.S. and Israeli forces escalated attacks on civilian sites and key infrastructure across Iran Friday, including strikes on residential buildings, health centers and Iran’s largest bridge, with President Trump warning that the U.S. “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran.”
On his social media, the president posted dramatic images of the smoldering B1 bridge, a towering cable-suspended viaduct that was severed in U.S.-Israel strikes late Thursday.
“The biggest bridge in Iran comes tumbling down, never to be used again — Much more to follow!” Trump wrote.
Connecting Tehran to the city of Karaj, the $400-million bridge was Iran’s largest, and was often regarded as one of the most prominent, expensive and complex engineering endeavors in the Middle East.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei labeled the attack a “war crime in the style of ISIS terrorism.” Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi called the act a sign of moral collapse by “an enemy in disarray,” stating that such actions will not compel Iranians to surrender.
“Every bridge and building will be built back stronger. What will never recover: damage to America’s standing.”
The attacks come after Trump announced what he described as a two- to three-day “off-ramp” from hostilities, while simultaneously warning he would bring Iran “back to the Stone Ages” if it didn’t cede to U.S. demands.
Reports from Iranian state media and international monitoring groups indicate strikes have also hit homes, religious centers, universities and municipal infrastructure across multiple provinces, raising concerns among humanitarian organizations about the widening scope of targets.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday that the U.S. and Israel have carried out routine attacks on Iranian healthcare facilities since March 1.
“WHO has verified over 20 attacks on health care in Iran, resulting in at least nine deaths, including that of an infectious diseases health worker and a member of the Iranian Red Crescent Society,” Tedros wrote on X.
Iran’s health ministry estimated about 2,076 people have been killed and 26,500 wounded by U.S.-Israeli attacks since fighting broke out Feb. 28. An estimated 1,300 have been killed in Lebanon, according to its health ministry, while more than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank.
Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed, and 19 Israeli service members have been reported dead in a five-week-old war that has triggered growing unease stateside.
A recent Pew Research Center survey conducted in late March found that most Americans opposed direct U.S. military involvement in a war with Iran. A separate Gallup poll reported declining approval for the administration’s handling of foreign policy.
Lawmakers in both parties have raised concerns about Israel’s influence in the Trump administration’s decision to enter a lengthy conflict, stoking debates over military aid and executive war powers.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that she plans to oppose future military aid to Israel, including for its Iron Dome defense systems. She argued that the Israeli government recently funded a $45-billion defense budget and is “well able” to bankroll its war without U.S. help.
“I will not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that consistently ignores international law and U.S. law,” she said on X.
Iran returned fire, again aiming at infrastructure targets operated by its Gulf neighbors. A series of airstrikes set Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery on fire, the Associated Press reported, as Kuwaiti firefighters were working to knock down several blazes there.
Kuwait also reported that an Iranian attack significantly damaged a desalination plant, which supplies drinking water to the region.
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Israel all scrambled to intercept incoming Iranian missiles Friday, according to reports, despite the Pentagon’s assurances that Iran’s military facilities and missile capacity have been largely wiped out.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates shut down a gas field after a missile interception reportedly rained debris on it and started a fire, the Associated Press reported.
The war has pushed Iran to tighten its grip over the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices soaring 50%, upending stock markets, and stirring supply chain disruptions that threaten to destabilize global food markets.
Americans felt the oil rally again this week, after Trump’s Wednesday address dashed investors’ hopes of a swift end to the conflict, sending U.S. crude prices up 11% Thursday and another half point on Friday.
Drone footage from Israel shows damage to a factory in Petah Tikva after debris from an intercepted Iranian missile struck the site. The attack comes as Israel says it continues to intercept incoming missiles, on the 35th day of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Published On 3 Apr 20263 Apr 2026
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For decades, leaders who were responsible for war crimes tended to plead ignorance or insist it was a mistake and their hands were clean. What has changed in the Middle East is the swaggering contempt we have seen from the United States, Israel and Iran as they instead dismiss, mock or flout the international laws protecting civilians. If the international community does not urgently reassert support for those norms, it may be acquiescing to their destruction.
US President Donald Trump, who told The New York Times he doesn’t “need international law” and the only restraint on his power was his “own morality”, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has dismissed “tepid legality” in favour of “maximum lethality”, have expressed little regard publicly for the safety of civilians affected by the US-Israeli war on Iran, which just entered its second month.
After announcing that the US had “demolished” Iran’s Kharg Island, Trump told NBC News, “We may hit it a few more times just for fun.” Hegseth has declared that “no quarter” would be given to enemies in Iran. That phrase indicates troops are free to kill those seeking to surrender rather than capture them. Such scenarios have served as a textbook example of a war crime in US military academies.
The Trump administration is not alone in this regard. In language eerily reminiscent of the war in Gaza, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has threatened to demolish homes across southern Lebanon and block hundreds of thousands of civilians from returning.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has declared US banks, investment firms and commercial ships valid targets despite their civilian status. Its spokesman warned Iranians that any street protests would be met with “an even harsher blow” than the January massacres, in which security forces killed thousands across the country. A state television presenter was more direct, saying opponents in the diaspora would face consequences that would see their “mothers sit in mourning”.
These statements are worthy of our attention not only because they telegraph a blatant disregard for civilian life but also because these leaders seem to mean it.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in Iran, more than 1,200 in Lebanon, and 17 in Israel. Altogether, several million people across the Gulf, Israel and Lebanon have been displaced or forced to flee from their homes. Based on a preliminary US military report, US forces were responsible for a deadly attack on an elementary school in Minab, Iran, in which more than 170 children and staff were killed.
The Israeli military has fired white phosphorus, which can burn to the bone, on Lebanese homes despite a clear prohibition on its use as a weapon in populated areas. Iran has launched internationally banned cluster munitions at Israeli cities and attacked commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The international legal system, designed to protect civilians during armed conflict, did not falter overnight. Unflinching US support for Israel as it carried out acts of genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza, destroyed its hospitals and water systems, carried out countless air strikes that turned neighbourhoods into rubble and killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians over two and a half years contributed to a sense that some leaders would always be above the law.
Those double standards are alive and well, profoundly corroding respect for international law. When Iran struck Gulf energy infrastructure, condemnation rightly came within hours. But when Israel unlawfully dropped white phosphorus on Lebanese neighbourhoods, the same governments went quiet. Leaders need to say, with equal specificity and force, that attacks on Iranian power plants, Lebanese homes and Gulf civilian facilities are violations of the laws of war, regardless of who the perpetrator is. Otherwise, the rules are just a cudgel for punishing rivals.
The Geneva Conventions oblige every country not merely to follow the laws of war but also ensure global respect for them, including by refusing to arm forces credibly accused of violating them.
Yet arms continue to flow to belligerents on multiple sides of these conflicts with no apparent review of the likely impact. European governments that supply weapons or grant overflight and basing rights to forces unlawfully bombing civilians are not bystanders. If the actions of US and Israeli forces match the irresponsible rhetoric of their leaders, countries that arm or assist them could very well find themselves complicit in war crimes.
As during the war in the former Yugoslavia or more recently in Ukraine, the machinery of documentation and accountability needs to occur while the conflict is ongoing, not afterwards. Today, warring parties in the Middle East are working to prevent exactly that. Iran has imposed a nationwide internet shutdown and jailed people for sharing strike footage. Israel has banned live broadcasts and detained journalists. Gulf states have arrested citizens for posting images online. In the US, the Federal Communications Commission has threatened broadcasters’ licences over coverage of the war on Iran unfavourable to the Trump administration.
Governments with developed intelligence capabilities should be preserving and sharing evidence of war crimes right now: satellite imagery, communications intercepts, open-source footage. UN investigative bodies need immediate additional resources. And governments need to speak out clearly on the importance of justice for war crimes.
If this work waits until the shooting stops, the evidence may be gone, and the political will for accountability may quickly shift focus. The belligerents know it. They may even be counting on it.
The leaders repudiating the laws of war today may think they will gain from a world without rules, where brute force settles every question and all civilian harm is just written off as collateral damage. But by dismissing the principle of nonreciprocity, which makes clear that one side’s violations do not justify noncompliance by the other, they have spurred rounds of tit-for-tat strikes that put their own troops as well as their civilian populations in harm’s way.
Those who see the value of the existing system curbing the barbarity of war need to stand up for it. Otherwise, they may one day find themselves forced to explain to future generations why they did nothing while it burned.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
The United States and Israel have carried out multiple attacks on medical facilities in the course of their war on Iran.
On Thursday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian appealed to international health organisations to respond to attacks on medical facilities in Iran, including the Pasteur Institute in capital Tehran, a key centre that Iranian officials said had been targeted that day.
At least 2,076 people have been killed and 26,500 have been wounded in Iran since the US and Israel first launched strikes on the country on February 28.
Here is a closer look at how the US and Israel have hit healthcare facilities in Iran.
On Thursday, Pezeshkian wrote in an X post: “What message does attacking hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and the Pasteur Institute as a medical research center in Iran convey?”
The Iranian president, 71, a heart surgeon by profession, continued: “As a specialist physician, I urge WHO [the World Health Organization], the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and physicians worldwide to respond to this crime against humanity.”
On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei wrote in an X post: “The American-Israeli aggressors have attacked the Pasteur Institute of Iran – the oldest and most prestigious research and public health centre in Iran and the entire Middle East, founded in 1920 through an agreement between the Pasteur Institute of Paris and the Iranian government.”
Baghaei deemed the attack “heartbreaking, cruel, despicable, and utterly outrageous”.
He did not specify whether there were casualties from the attack.
The institute was founded more than 100 years ago in collaboration with the Institut Pasteur in Paris, an internationally renowned centre for biomedical research, which itself was founded in 1887.
The institute in Iran conducts research on infectious diseases, produces vaccines and biological products and provides advanced diagnostics.
The centre has played a central role in fighting endemic diseases such as smallpox and cholera. It also supports Iran’s national immunisation programme by developing and producing vaccines and related biologicals – including those used against diseases such as tetanus, hepatitis B and measles.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO, wrote in an X post on Friday that two departments of the Pasteur Institute of Iran have also been working closely with the WHO.
“The conflict in Iran, and the region, is impacting the delivery of health services and the safety of health workers, patients, and civilians present at health facilities,” Ghebreyesus wrote.
“Since 1 March, WHO has verified over 20 attacks on health care in Iran, resulting in at least nine deaths, including that of an infectious diseases health worker and a member of the Iranian Red Crescent Society,” Ghebreyesus wrote in his X post.
Some of the facilities hit include:
On Friday morning, a drone strike hit a Red Crescent relief warehouse in Iran’s Bushehr province.
While no casualties were reported, the attack destroyed two relief containers, two buses and emergency vehicles, Fars news agency reported.
On March 31, Israeli-US strikes hit one of Iran’s largest pharmaceutical companies in Tehran, the Iranian government said in a post on X.
The company was later identified as Tofigh Daru Research and Engineering Company, which is owned by the Social Security Investment Company, a state-run holding firm. On LinkedIn, Tofigh Daru states that it develops and produces active pharmaceutical ingredients “in the anticancer, narcotics, cardiovascular to immunomodulatory segments”.
No confirmed casualty numbers were reported from that strike.
This newly constructed hospital in Tehran was significantly damaged during an attack on the capital on March 29, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
About 30 patients were in the hospital at the time of the strike late on Monday, the hospital’s director told IRNA. No specific casualty figures for the hospital have been reported.
The hospital in Andimeshk in Iran’s Khuzestan province sustained damage from an explosion on March 21, according to the Mehr and Fars news agencies.
In his post on Friday, Ghebreyesus confirmed this attack and said the facility had been forced to evacuate staff and cease services.
Reports about the attack do not mention casualties at the hospital.
On March 2, Gandhi Hospital in Tehran was damaged during attacks on a television communications tower nearby.
No confirmed casualty figures were reported for the hospital itself.
International humanitarian law states that health establishments and units, including hospitals, should not be attacked, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
These protections also apply to the sick and wounded, to medical staff and to means of transport such as ambulances.
In 2016, the United Nations Security Council resolution 2286 was adopted unanimously. This condemns attacks on healthcare and calls on nations to respect international law.
However, last year record attacks on healthcare during armed conflict were recorded, according to the WHO’s Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care (SSA).
The SSA said that in armed conflicts worldwide, 1,348 attacks on medical facilities resulted in the killing of 1,981 people. The majority of these deaths were in Sudan, where 1,620 people were killed, followed by Myanmar, where 148 people were killed.
This was a sharp uptick from 2024, when 944 patients and medical personnel were killed in armed conflict.
Besides Iran, Israeli attacks have also targeted healthcare facilities in Lebanon.
A month into its latest bombardment of Lebanon, Israel has killed 53 medical workers, destroyed 87 ambulances or medical centres, and forced the closure of five hospitals, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
“Israeli strikes and blanket evacuation orders are cutting people off from care and shrinking the space for health services to function,” Luna Hammad, the Lebanon medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), told Al Jazeera, adding that MSF has seen “a documented pattern of attacks affecting healthcare”.
Throughout its genocidal war in Gaza, Israel has also attacked healthcare facilities in the Palestinian enclave.
In October 2023, hundreds of people sheltering in the car park of Gaza’s al-Ahli Hospital were killed in an Israeli attack, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israel attributed the explosion at the facility to a misfired rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an allegation denied by the armed group.
In March 2024, the Israeli military said it killed 90 people in its raid on al-Shifa Hospital during a siege, as displaced Palestinians sheltering in the facility described long detentions and abuse.
In December 2024, the Israeli army arrested Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, after refusing to follow orders to abandon one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza. His arrest came a day after the military killed approximately 20 Palestinians and apprehended about 240 in a raid inside the hospital, which was one of the “largest operations” conducted in the territory until that time.
In March 2025, Israeli forces reportedly shot dead 15 Palestinian medics for the Palestine Red Crescent Society and inside clearly identifiable PRCS ambulances, during a rescue mission in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood.
Iran says it is ready to counter any US-Israeli attacks, insisting its military capabilities remain intact despite Donald Trump’s claims they’ve been ‘decimated.’
Published On 2 Apr 20262 Apr 2026
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Fuel shocks from the US-Israel war on Iran are rippling worldwide, as Strait of Hormuz disruptions push prices higher. From Nigeria to Vietnam and India, workers face soaring costs, longer hours and lost jobs amid a deepening global energy crisis.
Published On 2 Apr 20262 Apr 2026
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9-year-old Karim Al-Haj Hussein survived an Israeli strike on his home in Lebanon’s Baalbek that killed his mother, father and other family members. Karim managed to crawl from the rubble of his home, despite being injured himself.
Published On 2 Apr 20262 Apr 2026
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UN experts say Israel ’emboldened by impunity’ for previous journalist killings in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.
Published On 2 Apr 20262 Apr 2026
Three United Nations experts have called for an independent and thorough investigation into Israel’s recent killing of three journalists in Lebanon, denouncing the deadly incident as “another egregious attack on press freedom by Israeli forces”.
UN special rapporteurs Irene Khan, Morris Tidball-Binz and Ben Saul on Thursday noted that “journalists carrying out their professional duties in armed conflict are civilians and must not be targeted or made the object of attack”.
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“The deliberate killing of journalists not directly participating in hostilities constitutes a serious violation of international human rights and humanitarian law and a war crime,” they said in a statement.
The Israeli military killed Al Mayadeen journalist Fatima Ftouni, her brother, freelance photojournalist Mohamad Ftouni, and Al-Manar’s Ali Shoaib in a targeted strike on their car in southern Lebanon on March 28.
Al Mayadeen and Al-Manar are pro-Hezbollah media outlets, and Israel accused Shoaib – without presenting any evidence – of being a fighter with the Lebanese armed group.
That claim was rejected by Shoaib’s colleagues as well as by the UN experts, who on Thursday also stressed that working for media outlets affiliated with an armed group does not mean journalists are directly participating in hostilities under international law.
“Israeli officials know this, yet they choose to ignore it – emboldened by impunity for their previous killings of journalists in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank,” they said.
In February, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that Israel was responsible for two-thirds of all killings of journalists in 2024 and 2025.
More than 60 percent of the 86 members of the press killed by Israeli fire last year were Palestinian journalists reporting from the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s genocidal war in the coastal enclave, the advocacy group found.
After the killings in southern Lebanon last week, CPJ’s Middle East director Sara Qudah also warned that Lebanon is becoming “an increasingly deadly zone for journalists, despite their status as civilians who must not be targeted”.
“We have seen a disturbing pattern in this war and in the decades prior of Israel accusing journalists of being active combatants and terrorists without providing credible evidence,” Qudah said in a statement.
“Journalists are not legitimate targets, regardless of the outlet they work for.”
The UN experts also warned that Israel’s killing of Lebanese journalists is part of “an abominable push … to silence reporting on Israel’s current military action in Lebanon, and shut down news coverage of war crimes committed, just as it did in Gaza”.
At least 1,345 people have been killed and 4,040 wounded in intensified Israeli attacks across Lebanon since early March, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
EXPLAINER
As the war enters day 34, US President Donald Trump said Washington was close to achieving its objectives.
Published On 2 Apr 20262 Apr 2026
Iran has launched a new wave of missiles at Israel after United States President Donald Trump said Washington had “destroyed the Iranian military” and was close to achieving its war objectives.
Trump’s address to the nation came hours after he said Tehran had asked for a ceasefire, a claim Iran denied.
Meanwhile, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country held no hostility towards the people of the United States, Europe or neighbouring countries.
Here is what we know:
WASHINGTON — President Trump signaled Wednesday that the United States is eyeing an offramp in its war with Iran, as he also raised the possibility of a major shift in U.S. alliances, including the potential withdrawal from NATO.
Trump indicated in a social media post that Iran’s president wanted a ceasefire, and that the United States would be open to doing so, if Iran agrees to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping route that has been affected during the monthlong conflict.
“Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!” Trump wrote.
The remarks appeared to outline a possible diplomatic opening with Tehran, but hours later Iranian officials said that Trump’s claims about being close to a deal were “false and baseless” and that the waterway remained “firmly and decisively under the control” of the Islamic Republic’s forces.
“The strait will not be opened to the enemies of this nation through the ridiculous spectacle by the president of the United States,” the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps wrote in a statement.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday also wrote a public letter denouncing what he described as a “flood of distortions and manufactured narratives” about the war from the U.S., arguing that Iran is not a threat and had only defended itself against American aggression.
He called on the American people to “look beyond the machinery of disinformation” to reach their own conclusions about the war and its purpose.
“Is ‘America First’ truly among the priorities of the U.S. government today?” he wrote, echoing recent complaints from Trump’s own base about the president’s commitments to his campaign promises.
The dueling messages underscored the uncertainty about how much longer the conflict in the Middle East will last and whether the United States will be able to achieve its main goal of preventing Iran from ever producing a nuclear weapon.
Trump, who on Tuesday said he expects the U.S. will leave Iran within three weeks, was poised to address the nation Wednesday night about the war. The White House said the president’s address would formally outline the objectives of Operation Epic Fury, whose mission has at times been convoluted even as Trump administration officials maintain their explanations for waging the war have been “clear and unchanging.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Trump’s speech late Tuesday, after Trump downplayed remarks made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about Iran’s lingering military capabilities.
In the lead-up to those remarks, Trump told Reuters that he was looking to pull American forces from the region “quickly” with the possibility of returning to Iran periodically for “spot hits” when necessary.
The president, who said he believed the U.S. military is close to ensuring Iran loses its ability to possess a nuclear weapon in the future, did not seem too worried about Iran having highly enriched uranium in its stockpiles.
“That’s so far underground, I don’t care about that,” he told Reuters, adding that the U.S. military will be “watching it by satellite.”
Trump, however, remained focused on having Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz, an oil route through which a fifth of the world’s oil flows.
He said this week that he may pull American forces from the region and leave other countries to deal with the hurdles of reopening the waterway. But on Wednesday, he seemed to walk back that stance, and said a key part of the ongoing negotiations hinged on Iran ending the de facto blockade on the strait.
It remains unclear whether Israel, which began bombing Iran alongside the U.S. on Feb. 28, would agree to the same terms as Trump and stop hostilities against Iran.
Talks about the potential end of the conflict led stocks to rise Tuesday, but it remains unclear whether higher food prices could persist for months or longer. It is also uncertain when U.S. gas prices — which jumped past an average of $4 a gallon this week for the time since 2022 — would go lower.
As Trump considers pulling out of Iran, he is also weighing a withdrawal from NATO, telling Reuters that fellow member states’ lack of support during the war has him “absolutely” considering withdrawing from the security alliance, which was ratified by the Senate in 1949.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is planning to “reexamine” its relationship with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and whether it makes sense to be part of a “one-way-street” alliance.
“Why are we in NATO?” Rubio said. “Why do we send trillions of dollars and have all of these Americans stationed in the region, if in our time of need, we are not going to be allowed to use those bases?”
Rubio’s comment marks a notable evolution from his position in Congress. As senator in 2023, Rubio helped spearhead legislation that said the president “shall not suspend, terminate, denounce, or withdraw the United States” from NATO unless the Senate agrees by a two-thirds vote to do so.
On Wednesday, Rubio told CBS that he maintains Congress should play a role on whether the U.S. should withdraw from NATO. He added that he does not believe Trump “will remove us from NATO,” but he does believe the president will demand that NATO allies “do more.”
In a joint statement Wednesday, Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) said that the United States will remain in the treaty and that the Senate “will continue to support the alliance for the peace and protection it provides America, Europe and the World.”
Although Trump has previously threatened to end U.S. membership in NATO, his most recent remarks have put added pressure on European allies to revisit the terms of their relationship.
In a post on X, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said he had a “constructive discussion” with Trump on Wednesday about NATO.
“Problems are there to be resolved, pragmatically,” Stubb wrote.
Their conversation came after Trump and Hegseth complained that European countries have been hesitant to help the U.S. in its war against Iran. Just this week, Italy and Spain refused to allow U.S. warplanes from landing at their military bases before flying to the Middle East.
Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, defended NATO on Wednesday, saying it was the “single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen” and, more broadly, said he would not cave to pressure to join the Iran war.
“Whatever the pressure on me and others, whatever the noise, I’m going to act in the British national interest in all the decisions that I make,” Starmer told reporters. “That’s why I’ve been absolutely clear that this is not our war, and we’re not going to get dragged into it.”
As diplomatic efforts continue, the Trump administration has increased its military presence in the Middle East, with thousands of U.S. troops arriving in the region as ground operations in the war remain an option.
The U.S. military buildup in the Mideast came as fighting continued to escalate in the Persian Gulf region on Wednesday.
Iran hit an oil tanker off Qatar’s coast, prompting the evacuation of 21 crew members. In Bahrain, there were alerts for incoming missiles, while Kuwait’s state-run news agency KUNA reported that a drone hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport. Meanwhile, Jordan’s military intercepted a ballistic missile and two drones fired by Iran, and an airstrike in Tehran appeared to have hit the former U.S. Embassy compound.
Additionally, Israeli strikes killed at least five people on a Beirut neighborhood. Israel invaded southern Lebanon in March after the Iran-linked militant group Hezbollah began launching missiles into northern Israel.
This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.