As the conflict in the Middle East enters its sixth day, Iran has escalated tensions by launching additional missile attacks targeting Israel and U.S. bases. Early on Thursday, Israel reported multiple incoming assaults and initiated measures to intercept the missiles.
In response, the Israeli military has commenced fresh offensives against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group based in Lebanon. According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry and its state news agency, these actions have resulted in at least eight casualties from late Wednesday into Thursday.
Amidst these developments, Tehran has issued a stark warning about the potential destruction of the Middle East’s military and economic foundations. The ongoing conflict has unsettled financial markets, heavily influencing oil prices, which began climbing again early Thursday.
Here are the latest updates:
Israel’s military has announced a “large-scale wave of strikes against infrastructure” in Tehran, intensifying their offensive operations on Thursday morning.
Israel’s military said Thursday morning it had begun a “large-scale wave of strikes against infrastructure” in Iran’s capital, Tehran.
Oman helps organize flights for stranded foreigners
Oman’s top diplomat said Thursday that the sultanate was working with countries around the world to organize flights home for stranded foreigners.
Badr al-Busaidi wrote the message on X, just after Qatar Airways said it would start flights from Oman’s capital, Muscat.
“For everyone hoping to fly home from the Gulf, the Omani government is working with your governments and international airlines to organize flights to get you home,” he wrote. “We mean everyone, whatever passport you hold. The citizens of all countries have the human right to safety and security. People matter. Let’s stop the war now.”
Oman, on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, has come under attack off its coast and at its seaports, but has not seen a strike on Muscat International Airport in the war.
Qatar Airways to operate limited ‘relief flights’
Qatar Airways said Thursday it will start operating a limited number of “relief flights” as the war in the Middle East goes on.
The airline said on X that the flights will include departures from Muscat, the Omani capital, to Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Madrid and Rome. Another route will be from Riyadh to Frankfurt, Germany.
The flights will “support passengers who are stranded due to the current situation across the region.”
Airspace in Qatar remains closed over Iranian fire into the region.
Qatar Airways is a key East-West carrier.
Indonesia grants emergency stays for stranded foreigners
Indonesian immigration authorities in Bali have granted emergency stay permits and waived overstay fines for foreign nationals stranded after air route closures in parts of the Middle East disrupted international flights from the resort island.
Nearly 6,000 of passengers traveling from Bali to Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi had their flights canceled over four days at Ngurah Rai International Airport, immigration officials said.
Iranian and Israeli ambassadors trade accusations in South Korea
Ambassadors of Iran and Israel held separate news conferences Thursday in South Korea’s capital, trading sharp accusations as their countries continued an escalating war in the Middle East.
Speaking through an interpreter, Iran’s Ambassador to South Korea Saeed Koozechi demanded Seoul — a key U.S. ally — to be more vocal in demanding a halt to what he called an illegal aggression by U.S. and Israeli forces, which launched attacks despite active negotiations.
He said “many coffins would return to the United States” if it decides to deploy ground forces, and defended Iranian strikes on Gulf states hosting U.S. military bases as unavoidable.
The Israel ambassador in Seoul, Raphael Harpaz, said the joint U.S.-Israeli military operations aim both to destroy Iran’s nuclear development facilities and ballistic missile sites, and to help free Iranian people from oppression.
South Korea has supported U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions but has not explicitly endorsed the U.S.-Israeli attacks, instead calling for a swift restoration of dialogue.
Saudi Arabia destroys drone
The Saudi Defense Ministry said it destroyed a drone in the kingdom’s al-Jawf province, which borders Jordan.
Israeli strike targets Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon’s north, killing 2
The Israeli military struck a building in the Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp in the coastal city of Tripoli, killing two people, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.
The strike, which hit the area without prior warning and marked the northernmost strike so far, wounded another individual, the Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military did not immediately say who it targeted in the strike.
Located about 85 kilometers (53 miles) north of Beirut and more than 180 kilometers (112 miles) from the Lebanese-Israeli border, Beddawi was targeted during the 2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Despite a ceasefire reached in November 2024, the Israeli military said in July it struck a Hamas figure in the camp.
Israeli strike kills 3 in southern Lebanon
An overnight Israeli drone strike targeted a vehicle on a coastal highway in southern Lebanon, killing three people, Lebanon’s state news agency said.
The highway connects the city of Tyre to Naqoura, a border town near Israel.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military warned residents to move north of the Litani River, which serves as a key buffer line with villages south of it lying closest to the Israeli border.
The number of people killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon in the four days since the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah reignited has risen to more than 70, with over 430 people wounded, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Wednesday.
It is not clear how many of those killed in Lebanon were civilians, but the Health Ministry said Tuesday that they included seven children.
Officials with Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group were also killed.
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