The conflict in the Middle East intensified Thursday with Israel launching strikes on Iranian infrastructure and Iran retaliating with missile attacks on central Israel. The attacks caused destruction and injuries, while rocket fire from Lebanon targeted Israel as well. Diplomatic efforts are underway, with the U.S. and Iran reportedly communicating indirectly through Pakistan. Former U.S. President Trump criticized NATO's response. Israel aims to continue the fight and has targeted Iranian arms factories.
The war in the Middle East ramped up on Thursday as Israel launched a wave of strikes targeting Iran ian infrastructure, and Iran fired rounds of missiles at central Israel .People look at a destroyed apartment after a hit of a ballistic missile fired from Iran , left two injured on Wednesday in Bnei Brak, Israel .
The war in the Middle East ramped up on Thursday as Israel launched a wave of strikes targeting Iranian infrastructure in the central city ofIran has hit back, firing two rounds of missiles at central Israel causing destruction and injuries. Israel was also under attack from a wave of rockets from Lebanon, and an Israeli soldier in Lebanon wasIran's negotiators to"get serious soon, before it is too late." Iran has said it doesn't plan on negotiating with the U.S. at all, and that it has its own conditions. But Pakistan's chief diplomat said the U.S. and Iran are in fact negotiating indirectly through messages relayed by Pakistan. Early Thursday, Trump criticized NATO, saying:"NATO NATIONS HAVE DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HELP WITH THE LUNATIC NATION, NOW MILITARILY DECIMATED, OF IRAN." "THE U.S.A. NEEDS NOTHING FROM NATO, BUT"NEVER FORGET" THIS VERY IMPORTANT POINT IN TIME!" he said on Truth Social.Arab-Israeli residents surveys the damage following a projectile strike in the Arab-Israeli city of Kfar Qassem on March 26, 2026.NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv spoke to two military officials who told him Israel wants to keep fighting and is hoping for weeks more of war in Iran. A person briefed on the operation told NPR the Israeli military is speeding up its targeting in Iran over the next 48 hours, focusing on trying to hit Iran's arms factories as much as possible — in case a ceasefire is declared. Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, said his country had killed Alireza Tangsiri, the head of Iranian Revolutionary Guard's navy, in an overnight strike. An official in Islamabad following negotiations confirmed that Tangsiri was killed. Iran has not publicly commented. Israel also came under attack Thursday, with air sirens sounding in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and the Israeli military saying rescue crews were en route to the location of a strike at the center of the country. The military reported a soldier on the ground in Lebanon had been killed, naming him as 21-year-old Sgt. Ori Greenberg. Israel says its airstrikes continue in southern Lebanon, in advance of what Israeli officials say will be a"prolonged" ground invasion targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. Hezbollah began firing rockets at northern Israel this month in support of Iran and after months of Israel's attacks in Lebanon despite a ceasefire. Israeli officials say a civilian woman was killed by their rocket fire this week. More than a dozen people in Israel have also been killed by Iranian attacks since the start of the war. Israeli officials say they plan to take Lebanese territory up to the Litani River, which runs 10 to 20 miles north of the border with Israel. Hezbollah says it targeted a group of Israeli soldiers inside that area with a drone.at a Republican fundraising dinner on Wednesday night, the president insisted Iran was looking to do a deal but didn't want to admit it because they were afraid their citizens would turn on them. "We're winning so big. Nobody's ever seen anything like we're doing in the Middle East with Iran. And they are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they're afraid to say it because they figure they'll be killed by their own people," he said."They're also afraid they'll be killed by us. There's never been a head of a country that wanted that job less than being the head of Iran."Under a proposed U.S. plan Iran would end its nuclear program, stop supporting proxy militias in the Middle East, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and limit its missile program. In exchange Iran would get relief from sanctions. People wave national flags and hold portraits of Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei as they march in support of the Iranian armed forces in central Tehran on March 25, 2026.But Iran rejected the proposal, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the country wants to end the war only on"our own terms." Iran has given five conditions:"end to aggression by the enemy, concrete guarantees preventing the recurrence of war, clear determination, guaranteed payment of war damages and compensation, comprehensive end to the war across all fronts, incl. against all resistance groups, recognition of Iran's sovereignty over Strait of Hormuz." Iranian officials have insisted they are not negotiating with the U.S., saying the countries have only exchanged messages via regional intermediaries. Pakistan has emerged as a potential mediator for talks and there's a question over whether the U.S. and Iran could hold talks in coming days. An official in Islamabad, not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR that the Pakistani interior minister had held a secret meeting with the Iranian ambassador in Pakistan today.Ishaq Dar said on X:"US-Iran indirect talks are taking place through messages being relayed by Pakistan," adding that Turkey and Egypt were also"extending their support to this initiative."Wang Yi has also spoken to his Iranian counterpart, stressing the war"should be resolved through dialogue and negotiation, not by force."A picture taken on March 12, 2017, shows an oil facility in the Khark Island, on the shore of the Gulf.The Pentagon is set to deploy up to 3,000 paratroopers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East. NPR's international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam reports it comes as President Trump weighs whether to seize Kharg Island, Iran's main oil processing facility.The U.S. military says it has hit more than ten thousand targets so far in the air campaign on Iran.German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius gave a frank assessment of the war in remarks on a trip to Australia."What really concerns me the most about that war is there was no consultation, there is no strategy, there is no clear objective and the worst thing from my perspective is that there is no exit strategy," he said. He also criticized Washington's changing demands of Europe, noting the U.S. had asked Europe to ramp up its defense spending and told it to focus on its own backyard. "That was before the war started against Iran. Now, the arguments are different. Now they are saying: 'Where are you, you are cowards, you don't help us,'" Pistorius said. He was referring to Trump calling NATO allies cowards after they declined his request to help the U.S. reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Pistorius said while Germany would not be getting involved in the war, they could help secure the vital economic waterway once a ceasefire is agreed.Two government-affiliated Iranian news agencies, Tasnim and Fars, reported Iran's parliament is planning to formalize fees for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of the world's oil passes through the Strait, but Iran has essentially blocked most traffic since the start of the war. A oil tanker is docked unloading crude oil at the port in Qingdao, in China's eastern Shandong province, on March 25, 2026.The Strait, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, is considered an international waterway for ships to access freely. But Iranian media reported lawmaker Mohammadreza Rezaei Kouchi as saying that"parliament is pursuing a plan to formally codify Iran's sovereignty, control and oversight over the Strait of Hormuz, while also creating a source of revenue through the collection of fees.", a bloc of Arab nations, said in a briefing that Iran is already charging fees for safe passage — in violation of international law. Oil prices edged higher in Asia trading, with Brent crude trading around $100 a barrel. Asian and European stock markets also opened lower on Thursday.Displaced Lebanese children play in the playground of a public school that has been converted into a shelter in the town of Dekwaneh, north of Beirut on March 25, 2026.Saudi Arabia's Defense Ministry announced the interception of a drone in the Eastern Province, while Kuwait and Bahrain also reported attacks.In comments at Washington's Middle East Institute he said:"When Iran holds Hormuz hostage, every nation pays the ransom, at the gas pump, at the grocery store and at the pharmacy. No country can be allowed to destabilize the global economy in this way." Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv, Israel, Lauren Frayer in Beirut, Emily Feng in Van, Turkey, Diaa Hadid in Mumbai, India, Jackie Northam in Maine and Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg contributed to this report.
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