ARAD, Israel (AP) — The United States and Iran threatened to target critical infrastructure Sunday as the war in the Middle East, now in its fourth week, puts lives and livelihoods at risk throughout the region.
Iran said the , crucial to oil and other exports, would be "completely closed†immediately if the U.S. follows up on 's threat to attack its power plants. Trump late Saturday set a 48-hour deadline to open the strait.
Israeli leaders visited one of two southern communities near a secretive nuclear research site struck by Iranian missiles late Saturday, with scores of people wounded. Prime Minister said it was a “miracle†no one was killed. Israel detected more Iranian missiles fired toward the area Sunday evening.
Netanyahu also claimed Israel and the U.S. were well on their way to achieving their war goals. The aims have ranged from weakening Iran's nuclear program, missile program and support for armed proxies to enabling the Iranian people to overthrow the theocracy.
The developments signaled the war, which the U.S. and Israel launched Feb. 28, was moving in a dangerous new direction, despite Trump's comment last week he was considering “winding down" operations. It has killed over 2,000 people, rattled the global economy and sent oil prices surging.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an airstrike that killed a man in northern Israel, while Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called Israel's targeting of bridges in the south “a prelude to a ground invasion.â€
Energy and desalination plants are threatened
Iran has practically closed the Strait of Hormuz that connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. passes through it, but attacks and threats of further strikes have stopped nearly all tanker traffic. Some of the largest oil producers have made cuts because their crude has nowhere to go.
The U.S. and its allies in Europe and Asia rely heavily on the oil to meet energy demand. In its most recent attempt to relieve pressure on energy prices, the U.S. has lifted some sanctions on Iranian oil at sea.
Trump said if Iran didn't open the strait, the U.S. would destroy its “various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!â€
The U.S. has argued that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard controls much of the country’s infrastructure and uses it to power the war effort.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf responded on X that if Iran's power plants and infrastructure are targeted, then vital infrastructure across the region — including energy and — would be considered legitimate targets and “irreversibly destroyed.â€
Under international law, power plants that benefit civilians can be targeted only if the military advantage outweighs the suffering it causes to civilians, legal scholars say.
Separately, Iranian officials said they would keep providing safe passage through the strait to vessels from countries other than its enemies.
Strikes in Israel and Iran bring new nuclear concerns
Iran said its strikes in the Negev Desert late Saturday were in retaliation for an earlier attack on Iran’s in Natanz, according to state-run media.
Tehran praised the attack as a show of strength, even as Israel's military asserts that Iranian missile launches have gradually decreased in frequency since the war began.
“If the Israeli regime is unable to intercept missiles in the heavily protected Dimona area, it is, operationally, a sign of entering a new phase of the battle,†Qalibaf said.
Southern Israel’s main hospital received at least 175 wounded from Arad and Dimona, its deputy director Roy Kessous told The Associated Press.
Israel is nuclear weapons, though it doesn’t confirm or deny their existence. The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on X it had not received reports of damage to the Israeli center or abnormal radiation levels.
Israel denied responsibility for hitting Natanz on Saturday, while the Iranian judiciary’s official news agency, Mizan, said there was no leakage. The Pentagon declined to comment on the strike.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has said the bulk of Iran’s estimated 972 pounds (441 kilograms) of enriched uranium is elsewhere, beneath the rubble at its Isfahan facility.
Iran says strikes also hit a hospital
Iran said strikes hit a hospital in Andimeshk. Its health ministry said patients and doctors were evacuated to another city.
Iran's death toll in the war has surpassed 1,500, state media reported Saturday, citing the ministry. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. More than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states have been killed in strikes.
A Qatari military helicopter crash on Saturday, blamed on a technical malfunction, killed all seven aboard, Qatari authorities said.
A civilian is killed in northern Israel
An Israeli civilian was killed in his car in the northern town of Misgav Am in what Israel's military originally said appeared to be a rocket attack. It later said it was looking into the possibility that the death was caused by Israeli soldiers' fire.
Israeli authorities identified him as 61-year-old farmer Ofer “Poshko†Moskovitz. Two days ago, Moskovitz told a radio station that living near the Lebanese border was like “Russian roulette."
Hezbollah launched strikes on Israel soon after the war began, calling it retaliation for the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah . Israel then targeted Hezbollah in deadly airstrikes and expanded its ground presence in southern Lebanon.
Israel on Sunday expanded its target list to include bridges over the Litani River that Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hezbollah is using to move fighters and weapons into the south. Israel later struck the Qasmiyeh bridge near Tyre, giving an hour's warning. Destroying bridges further isolates residents from the rest of Lebanon.
Katz also ordered the military to accelerate its destruction of Lebanese homes near the border.
Lebanese authorities say Israel's strikes have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 1 million. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.
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Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Koral Saeed in Abu Snan, Israel; and Isabel Debre in Beirut contributed.
