Key events
Show key events only
Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Qatar’s defence ministry said it intercepted a missile attack today as blasts were heard in Doha.
“Armed forces intercepted missile attack which targeted State of Qatar,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement, released shortly after an AFP journalist in the capital heard several blasts.
Share
Updating our earlier post about an Iranian missile barrage that killed two people in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel’s national railway company said shrapnel had also disrupted train services.
Authorities reported that falling munitions had hit multiple sites in central Israel in the overnight barrage that triggered air raid sirens across the area, after another day of heavy Israeli bombardments in Iran and Lebanon.
Police spokesperson Dean Elsdunne said that, according to an initial assessment of the deadly impact, a residential building was hit by a cluster bomb in Ramat Gan. The munition “collapsed the roof in on an elderly couple that were in their room. Unfortunately, this couple did not go to the safe room when the alarm sounded, and as a result, we have this unfortunate tragedy,” Elsdunne said.
The latest deaths took the toll from missile attacks on Israel since the start of the Middle East war late last month to 14 people.
Share
Global air travel remains severely disrupted after the war in Iran forced the closure of important Middle Eastern hubs including Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, stranding tens of thousands of passengers.
Greece’s largest carrier is latest to announce cancellations: flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut and Amman have been cancelled until 22 April, and to Erbil and Baghdad until 24 May. Flights to Dubai were cancelled until 19 April and to Riyadh until 18 April.
Other international carriers suspending flights to Middle Eastern destinations including Tel Aviv and Dubai are Air Canada, Air France KLM and Cathay Pacific, in some cases through to May.
Share
Israeli airstrike hits Beirut’s Bashoura neighbourhood
An Israeli airstrike has hit Beirut’s Bashoura neighbourhood, according to reports from Reuters and AFP, with a loud explosion heard in the area.
The strike came after the Israeli military issued a statement urging the evacuation of a building in the central Beirut neighbourhood ahead of the attack targeting Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
The residential and commercial area has become a target of Israeli airstrikes this month.
Share
The war on Iran has not delayed shipments of weapons to Taiwan or changed US policy toward the island, officials from President Donald Trump’s administration told members of Congress on Tuesday, despite the demands of the intense air campaign.
“Have we delayed moving things to Taiwan? We haven’t,” Stanley Brown, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Political-Military Affairs, told a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.
The US and Israel began airstrikes against Iran on 28 February, a campaign that has raised concerns among some US officials that the US defense industry would be unable to keep up with demand and could be forced to slow shipments to buyers such as Taiwan, which faces steadily rising military pressure from China.
There was already a backlog of US arms shipments to Taiwan before the Iran war started. Brown said the administration was looking at ways to expedite shipments, without providing specifics.
Speaking at the same hearing, Director of the Defense Security cooperation Agency Michael Miller said in 2023 he signed a directive to prioritize Taiwan above other buyers that may be in the queue for competing weapons purchases.
“That remains standing guidance. So, in the matter of whether there was a competition between provision of Harpoons to Saudi Arabia or to Taiwan, Taiwan would take priority,” he added, referring to the anti-ship missile.
Share
Iran foreign minister says global repercussions of the war 'will hit all'
Iran’s foreign minister said today that the global repercussions of the Middle East war “will hit all”, suggesting more western officials should push back against the conflict.
“[A] wave of global repercussions has only begun and will hit all – regardless of wealth, faith, or race,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X, accompanied by a copy of the US National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent’s resignation on Tuesday.
In his resignation letter, Kent said he could not “in good conscience” support the ongoing war in Iran,” because “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation”.
Abbas Araghchi said there was a “rising number of voices – (including) European and US officials” exclaiming that the war on Iran was unjust. “More members of the international community should follow suit,” his post said.
Share
Updated at 23.35 EDT
Lebanon said Israeli strikes on central Beirut early Wednesday without warning killed at least six people, as Israel’s military warned it would strike a third district in the capital.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on 2 March when Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel in response to US-Israeli strikes that killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel has responded with intense strikes in multiple Lebanese regions and ground operations in the south, and has hit central Beirut several times, with and without warning.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said a strike in the early hours of Wednesday hit an apartment in the central Zuqaq al-Blat neighbourhood, a densely populated area close to the government’s headquarters and several embassies.
Share
