US-Iran war highlights: Israel military says new wave of missiles fired from Iran; Strikes hit several areas of Iran

The live updates to the blog are closed.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: The Israeli military said early on Saturday it was striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanese capital Beirut.

Earlier, Lebanese state media said an Israeli airstrike hit a house in a southern town early on Saturday, killing one person and wounding two others.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: Lebanese state media said an Israeli airstrike hit a house in a southern town early on Saturday, killing one person and wounding two others.

"Israeli fighter jets launched a heavy strike at dawn on a house in the town of Ghandouriyeh... resulting in one martyr and two wounded people who were pulled from under the rubble," the official National News Agency said.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: President Donald Trump said he was considering “winding down” US military efforts against Iran, saying that the US was close to achieving its objectives as the conflict, which has roiled financial markets and the region, nears a fourth week.

“We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East,” Trump said in a social-media post on Friday.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: The Trump administration on Friday issued a 30-day sanctions waiver for the purchase of Iranian oil at sea to ease energy supply pressures since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

This was the third time the US has temporarily waived sanctions in about two weeks. The U.S. had previously eased sanctions on Russian oil and on Friday issued a general license allowing the sale of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products loaded on vessels as of March 20 to April 19, according to the license posted to the Treasury Department's website.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: The Israeli military reported a fresh wave of missile attacks from Iran, after strikes also hit several areas in Tehran. Iran threatened Friday to expand its retaliatory attacks to include recreational and tourist sites worldwide

US-Iran war LIVE updates: Several areas in Tehran, along with Karaj west of the Iranian capital and the central city of Isfahan, were targeted in air attacks, according to Iran’s state-affiliated news agency.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: Israel's military issued a warning Friday to residents of Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, to evacuate ahead of strikes.

"The IDF continues to operate and strike Hezbollah's terrorist military infrastructure throughout the suburbs with increasing force," said the Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on his official Telegram channel.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: US President Donald Trump on Friday said that US is considering ‘winding down’ military operations in Iran. This comes as the United States is ramping up its military presence reportedly in the Middle East, with three additional warships and roughly 2,500 Marines now heading to the region, according to officials familiar with the deployment cited by news agency Reuters.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: Israeli police said they were investigating blast impact sites around Tel Aviv on Friday, after a warning that Iran had fired missiles and air raid sirens sounded in the city.

Sirens and blasts were also heard from Jerusalem, AFP correspondents said, following an earlier blast in the city just a few hundred metres from Jerusalem's revered holy sites of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: Iran on Friday said it had no surplus crude oil to offer to international markets, after the US treasury secretary said Washington could lift sanctions on Iranian oil at sea.

"Currently, Iran basically has no surplus crude oil left on the water or for supply in other international markets, and the US treasury secretary's statement is solely aimed at giving hope to buyers," Iranian oil ministry spokesman Saman Ghoddoosi wrote on X.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: President Donald Trump rejected the idea of declaring a cessation of hostilities in Iran, while expressing confidence the Strait of Hormuz would reopen “itself” despite allies’ reluctance to offer assistance.

“I don’t want to do a ceasefire. You know, you don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side,” Trump said Friday at the White House. “We’re not looking to do that.”

US-Iran war LIVE updates: US President Donald Trump on Friday said that the Strait of Hormuz would eventually ‘open itself’, but added that restoring full operations would still require significant help and coordination.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: Trump said reopening the Strait of Hormuz would require significant international support, stressing that the effort cannot be handled alone amid ongoing tensions in the region.

He also said Israel would likely be ready to end the war with Iran whenever the United States decides to bring the conflict to a close.

On Iran, Trump claimed the country had executed people for protesting, pointing to its crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in recent years.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: President Donald Trump branded NATO allies "cowards" on Iran Friday, as more US Marines reportedly headed to the Middle East in a possible sign of a coming ground operation three weeks into the war.

A possible target for the troops could be Iran's Kharg Island, with the White House telling AFP the United States could "take out" the vital oil hub at any time if Trump chose.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: UK reportedly allowed US to use British bases to strike at Iranian missile sites targeting ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

"They confirmed that the agreement for the U.S. to use UK bases in the collective self-defence of the region includes U.S. defensive operations to degrade the missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz," the statement said.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: A US official said the USS Boxer, along with two other amphibious assault ships, has departed from its home port in San Diego. The ships are carrying around 2,500 Marines from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the Reuters report said

US-Iran war LIVE updates: Iraq has declared force majeure on all oilfields developed by foreign oil companies, as military operations in the region have disrupted navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, preventing most of the country's crude exports from moving, oil ministry sources told Reuters

US-Iran war LIVE updates: The United States could "take out" Iran's Kharg island whenever it wanted, the White House said Friday, after a report that President Donald Trump's administration was considering plans to occupy or blockade the oil hub.

Asked about the Axios report, White House Principal Deputy Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP: "The United States Military can take out Kharg Island at any time if the President gives the order."

US-Iran war LIVE updates: The British government gave authorisation on Friday for the US to use military bases in Britain to carry out strikes on Iranian missile sites that are attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz. British ministers met on Friday to discuss the Iran war and Iran's blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, according to a Downing Street statement.

"They confirmed that the agreement for the US to use UK bases in the collective self-defence of the region includes US defensive operations to degrade the missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz," the statement said.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: The United States is deploying additional Marines to the Middle East, US media reported on Friday, possibly signaling a coming ground operation three weeks into the US-Israeli campaign against Iran.

The reports came as Axios said President Donald Trump's administration is mulling seizing Iran's strategic Kharg Island to pressure the Islamic republic to reopen the Strait of Hormuz -- a mission that could fall to US Marines.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday brought back the Vietnam war to take a jibe at the United States.

“Americans haven’t forgotten how, even as hundreds of U.S. soldiers were dying in Vietnam, and the outcome was already clear, General William Westmoreland was flown home to reassure everyone that the war was going well — that the U.S. was “winning,”” Araghchi said in a post on X.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: NATO pulled its security advisory mission out of Iraq, relocating several hundreds of the personnel to Europe, the Associated Press reported.

This came after Iranian attacks on other troops at British, French and Italian bases in northern Iraq.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: Iran Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Friday said the enemies of the Islamic republic were being defeated in a written message for Persian New Year Nowruz.

“At the moment, due to the particular unity that has been created between you our compatriots -- despite all the differences in religious, intellectual, cultural and political origins -- the enemy has been defeated,” Khamenei said.

US-Iran war LIVE updates: Iran Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Friday extended Eid and new year greetings. “This year, the spring of spirituality and the spring of nature – i.e., the auspicious Eid al-Fitr and the age-old Eid of Nowruz – have coincided, and I congratulate each and every one of the people of the nation on these two religious and national holidays,” Khamenei said.

His message came even as blasts were heard in Tehran, according to an AFP report.