Amid Israeli strikes, residents refuse to evacuate Lebanon’s Hezbollah bastion Tyre
As Israel has ramped up attacks on the southern Lebanese city of Tyre it has called for residents of the Hezbollah stronghold to evacuate – but some are refusing to leave their homes and businesses despite the danger. FRANCE 24’s team on the ground reports.
US attacks on Iran’s Kharg Island threaten to tip war into new ‘unrestrained’ phase
FRANCE 24 correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky reports from Jerusalem.
Israeli strike hits north Beirut suburb, local media reports
An Israeli strike hit an apartment building in a northern Beirut suburb that had also been targeted a day earlier, Lebanese media reported on Saturday.
An AFP correspondent saw rescue workers at the scene and damage, including a hole, in a building in the Nabaa-Burj Hammoud area, outside Iran-backed Hezbollah’s strongholds in the capital’s southern suburbs.
The same building had been struck on Friday without causing casualties.
Hamas urges Iran to stop ‘targeting neighbouring’ countries
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Saturday called on Iran to refrain from targeting neighbouring countries, while affirming Tehran’s right to defend itself against Israel and the United States.
“While affirming the right of the Islamic Republic of Iran to respond to this aggression by all available means in accordance with international norms and laws, the movement calls on the brothers in Iran to avoid targeting neighbouring countries,” Hamas said in a statement.
Hamas, which fought a devastating two-year war with Israel in Gaza, also called on the international community to “work towards halting” the ongoing war immediately.
The group previously condemned the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the war as a “heinous crime”, openly acknowledging his longstanding support for the Palestinian movement.
Iranian media reports no damage to Kharg oil infrastructure after US strike
No oil infrastructure was damaged in US strikes on Kharg Island, Iranian media reported on Saturday.
Fars news agency, citing sources on the ground, reported there had been no damage to oil facilities after President Donald Trump said US bombardment of the island had destroyed military targets.
Trump had threatened in a social media post to target oil infrastructure on the island, a crucial hub for Iran, if Tehran continued to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Israeli military tells residents in parts of Iran’s Tabriz to leave
The Israeli army has told people in an industrial zone in the west of Iran’s northern city of Tabriz to leave ahead of military operations.
“Urgent warning to all people located in the industrial area west of Tabriz,” the Israeli military posted on X, adding it would “continue to operate in the area in the coming hours”.
Internet shutdowns in Iran since US-Israeli strikes late last month triggered a war in the Middle East meant that residents were unlikely to be able to access online evacuation warnings.
Trump says Iran ‘totally defeated’, ‘wants a deal’ he won’t accept
Trump said Friday that Iran has been “totally defeated” in the US-Israeli military campaign against the country and wanted a deal he would not accept, despite Iranian officials pledging to continue the fight.
“The Fake News Media hates to report how well the United States Military has done against Iran, which is totally defeated and wants a deal – But not a deal that I would accept!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, without elaborating.
Drone attack takes place on US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq security sources say
A missile struck a helipad inside the US Embassy compound in Baghdad, two Iraqi security officials said.
Images showed a column of smoke rising Saturday morning over the embassy compound.
Smoke rises from the US embassy building in Baghdad, Iraq © Ali Jabar, AP
The sprawling embassy complex, one of the largest US diplomatic facilities in the world, has been repeatedly targeted by rockets and drones fired by Iran-aligned militias.
There was no immediate comment from the US Embassy in Baghdad.
Iran threatens attacks on oil infrastructure after US hits Kharg Island
The Iranian armed forces have said that any attack on Iran’s oil and energy infrastructure will lead to attacks on energy infrastructure owned by oil companies cooperating with the United States in the region, Iranian media reported.
The military’s Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said in a statement cited by Iranian media that oil and energy infrastructure belonging to firms that cooperated with the United States would “immediately be destroyed and turned into a pile of ashes” if Iran’s energy facilities were attacked.
The warning came after President Donald Trump said that the United States destroyed military targets on Iran’s main oil hub of Kharg Island. The island serves as the export terminal for 90% of Iran’s oil shipments.
Washington orders some US diplomatic staff to leave Oman
The United States on Friday told its non-emergency US government employees in Oman and their family members to leave the Gulf country as war rages in the Middle East.
The State Department updated its advisory to warn Americans of “safety risks,” noting “there has been an ongoing threat of drone and missile attacks from Iran and significant disruptions to commercial flights.”
Two people were killed by drone in northern Oman, state media reported Friday, as Iran continues its retaliatory attacks on neighboring countries.
One killed as missile hits house in Baghdad, say security sources
A missile struck a house used by the powerful Iran-backed group Kataeb Hezbollah in Iraq’s capital Baghdad on Saturday, killing one person and wounding two others, a security source told AFP.
“At 2:15am (1115 GMT Friday), a missile struck a house that was being used by Kataeb Hezbollah,” said the security source, adding that “a key figure was martyred,” and two members of the group were wounded.
AFP journalists heard loud bangs in the capital followed by ambulance sirens, with witnesses saying they saw smoke rising from an area in the city’s centre.
US says oil from strategic reserve to start reaching market next week
The US Energy Departmen has said it expected early deliveries of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve to begin moving to the market by the end of next week amid the Iran war.
Trump says US bombed Iran’s Kharg Island, threatens oil infrastructure
President Donald Trump has said that the US military had heavily bombed military targets on Iran’s Kharg Island, which handles almost all of Iran’s crude exports, and threatened to hit the island’s oil infrastructure.
“The United States Central Command executed one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East, and totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island,” Trump said on social media.
“I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island. However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider.
Explosions heard in central Doha as Qatar intercepts missiles
Blasts were heard in Doha early Saturday, according to AFP journalists, after Qatar’s interior ministry said it was evacuating some key areas.
Interceptors were seen over the Qatari capital’s downtown area downing two projectiles, an AFP journalist said, as Iran presses its retaliatory air campaign against Gulf states.
The Gulf state’s defence ministry said its military had “intercepted missile attack which targeted State of Qatar”.
Israeli strike on south Lebanon health centre kills 12 medical staff, health ministry says
An Israeli strike on a primary healthcare centre in southern Lebanon killed at least 12 medical personnel, the Lebanese health ministry has said as the war between Israel and Hezbollah rages on.
In a statement, the ministry said it “mourns the healthcare workers in Burj Qalawiya who were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the town’s primary healthcare centre”, adding that “12 doctors, paramedics and nurses on duty at the centre were killed, and one healthcare worker was injured” while rescue operations were still ongoing.
The ministry said the attack was “the second against the health sector in a few hours”, following a strike on Sawaneh that killed two paramedics affiliated with Hezbollah and its ally Amal.
Qatar interior ministry says evacuating ‘several key areas’
Qatar’s interior ministry on Saturday said it was evacuating a number of areas as Iran presses its retaliatory air campaign against Gulf countries.
The ministry said in a statement it was “evacuating several key areas as a temporary precautionary measure, within the framework of ensuring public safety until the danger has passed”.
In Doha’s central Musheireb district some residents received phone alerts telling them to “evacuate the area immediately… to the nearest safest place as a temporary precaution”.
Iran launches new round of missiles at Israel, state media reports
Iran launched a fresh round of missiles towards Israel, state media reported just after midnight on Saturday in Tehran, but Israeli rescue workers said there were no reported casualties.
Israel’s military said it had identified missiles from Iran and “was operating to intercept the threat,” as air raid sirens in multiple areas sent people into shelters.
Less than 30 minutes after the launch alert, the military’s Home Front Command issued a notice allowing people to leave their shelters.
The Magen David Adom emergency services said “no casualties are known” after the missile fire.
Police said they were checking reports that weapons fragments had impacted an area in southern Israel.
Welcome to the FRANCE 24 liveblog covering the war in the Middle East.
