At least five people have reportedly been killed and more than 70 injured in the southern Israeli city of Arad following the latest Iranian ballistic missile attack.
Some reports indicate that one building collapsed while people were inside, while another was engulfed in fire.
Nine buildings are believed to have been damaged, and there are concerns about a large number of people missing and trapped.
A major emergency was declared with many casualties, and rescue teams and fire units were dispatched to the scene.
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) countries said they were ready to take the necessary measures to support global energy supplies and reaffirmed the importance of protecting maritime routes, including the Strait of Hormuz.
"We... express our support for our partners in the region in the face of unjustified attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies," said a statement from the ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy.
"We condemn in the strongest terms the regime's reckless attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, including energy infrastructure," they said.
Iran said it attacked Dimona "after the US and Israel attacked the Bushehr power plant and the Natanz facilities."
Iran's Tasnim news agency wrote: "The enemy has once again received an unforgettable lesson. The missile attack on the Dimona area has once again sent a clear message: no area is safe from Iranian missiles. The enemy must surrender before it is too late," the Guardian reports.
The Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, commonly known as the Dimona Nuclear Reactor, is a nuclear facility located in the Negev Desert in southern Israel, about 13 kilometers southeast of the city of Dimona.
Iranian President Masoud Pezizian said that "an immediate cessation of US and Israeli aggression, with guarantees that it will not be repeated in the future," is the only way to end the current war and prevent a wider regional catastrophe.
In a phone call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pezeshkian said that any solution must include firm guarantees to prevent future military attacks on Iran, according to a statement from the Iranian embassy in India.
During the talks, Pezeshkian also called on the BRICS group of major emerging economies to play an independent role in stopping aggression against Iran. He also reiterated Iran's position that the United States is responsible for a military attack on an Iranian elementary school, which is estimated to have killed 168 students, the Guardian reports.
Natural gas prices in Europe have risen by up to 35 percent this week, as Iran and Israel hit some of the region's most important gas facilities.
The European Union has called on member states to reduce gas storage targets and gradually start replenishing reserves to curb demand, the Financial Times reported.
The Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supplies pass, is practically closed to most ships.
Leading US allies in Europe, as well as Japan and Canada, have pledged to join "appropriate efforts" to ensure safe passage through the strait, but Germany and France have stressed that the fighting must first stop.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Kyodo news agency that Iran was ready to allow Japan-bound vessels to pass through the strait, through which about 90 percent of Japan's oil imports pass.
Muslims celebrated Eid al-Fitr on Friday, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, while Iranians marked Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, issued a message on the occasion.
Khamenei, who did not attend Eid prayers and has not been seen in public since the initial Israeli attack, which killed his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a statement that Iranians responded with unity and resistance and had "dealt a powerful and disorienting blow to the enemy."
US President Donald Trump said the United States was considering a "phased winding down" of its military operation against Iran, as Iran and Israel continued to exchange attacks on Saturday, with Iranian media reporting that the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz had been attacked.
In a post on social media, Trump said the US was close to achieving its goals, but insisted that other countries should take the lead in securing the vital waterway through the Strait of Hormuz, whose near-total closure threatens a global energy shock.
Trump and his administration have sent conflicting messages about US goals during the war, now entering its fourth week, leaving traditional US allies struggling to respond, Reuters recalls.
Trump has suggested that the war could gradually wind down as the Iranian threat recedes, while at the same time US Marines and heavy landing craft are arriving in the region on a mission whose objectives are not immediately clear.
Iran reports attack on uranium enrichment facility in Natanz
"We are very close to achieving our goals as we consider winding down our major military efforts in the Middle East in response to the terrorist regime of Iran," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
"The Strait of Hormuz will need to be guarded and monitored, as needed, by other countries that use it - the United States does not use it," he added. "If asked, we will assist those countries in their efforts in Hormuz, but that should not be necessary once the Iranian threat is eliminated."
More than 2.000 people have been killed in Iran since the US and Israel attacked on February 28, while American voters are increasingly concerned about signs that the war could spread further.
Key energy infrastructure in Iran and neighboring Gulf states was attacked, causing oil prices to rise by 50 percent.
Energy price shocks are further fueling inflation, hitting consumers and businesses hard - posing a major political burden for Trump as he tries to justify the war to the American public ahead of November elections, in which he could lose control of Congress.
Trump also accused NATO allies, who were not consulted about the war, of cowardice for their unwillingness to help open the strait.
Iranian gas supplies to Iraq have reportedly resumed after being suspended following an Israeli attack on Iran's largest South Pars gas field on Wednesday.
While the fighting continued, Iranian media reported that US-Israeli forces had attacked the Shahid Ahmadi-Roshan uranium enrichment complex in Natanz on Saturday morning. Technical experts determined that there was no leakage of radioactive materials and that the nearby population was not at risk.
Israel said it had no knowledge of such a strike, while the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the case was being investigated.
Russia called it a "blatant violation of international law."
Israel also attacked Beirut, saying it was targeting the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah, marking the deadliest spillover of the war with Iran since Hezbollah opened fire on Israel on March 2 in support of Tehran.
More than 20 countries - including Britain, Germany, France, Japan and South Korea - said they would contribute to efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, condemning Iran's closure of the vital waterway.
These 22 countries, mostly European, but including the UAE and Bahrain, announced:
"We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the strait. We welcome the commitment of the states participating in the preparedness planning. We condemn in the strongest terms the recent Iranian attacks on unarmed merchant vessels in the Gulf, attacks on civilian infrastructure, including oil and gas facilities...", the statement reads, as reported by the Guardian.
The US military said that Iran's ability to threaten the Strait of Hormuz was "reduced" by the bombing of an underground facility where it stored cruise missiles and other weapons, the British newspaper The Guardian reports.
Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the United States Central Command, said in a video message posted on the X network: "Not only did we destroy that facility, we also destroyed the intelligence support centers and the missile radar relays that were used to track the movements of the ships. Iran's ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz has been reduced, and we will not stop striking those targets."
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said today that attacks on Iran will "significantly increase" in the coming week.
"This week, the intensity of the attacks that the Israel Defense Forces and the US military will carry out against the Iranian terrorist regime and against the infrastructure on which it relies will increase significantly," Katz said in a video statement.
United States President Donald Trump previously said he was considering reducing military operations in the Middle East, which he and Israel began on February 28th.
Iran's Natanz nuclear facility was hit earlier today, the Mizan news agency reported, but according to it and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there was no radiation leak in or around the facility.
In Israel, fragments of an Iranian missile fell on an empty kindergarten.
Israeli army spokesman Nadav Shoshani announced on X that the building was damaged by missile fragments, but that there were no reports of casualties.
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A Patriot air defense system participated in the interception of an Iranian drone over a residential area in Bahrain on March 9, the Bahraini government told Reuters today, describing an incident in which civilians were injured.
That intercept prevented a drone attack and saved lives, the spokesman said.
The US military previously said that an Iranian drone struck a residential area on March 9, injuring civilians.
The BBC has learned that reports that two Iranian missiles were fired at a British sovereign base on the island of Diego Garcia are accurate.
The British media outlet states that no missiles reached the base.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the missile launch, citing unnamed US officials. The BBC has spoken to separate sources who have now confirmed that this is true.
The British Ministry of Defense (MoD) has neither confirmed nor denied that two Iranian missiles were fired at the base.
It said in a statement that Iran's reckless attacks across the region pose a "threat to British interests and British allies."
Great Britain has given permission to the US military to carry out what it calls defensive bombing missions from Diego Garcia.
There are currently no reports that the United States (US) has carried out bombing missions from this British sovereign base in the Indian Ocean.
The US, however, carried out bombing missions from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
The UK has not given the US permission to carry out strike missions from RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus.
Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility was the target of an attack today, the agency said in a post on its X network, Reuters reports.
The United Nations' international nuclear watchdog said there had been no increase in radiation levels off-site and added that it was investigating the report.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will convene an emergency meeting of senior ministers and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey next week to discuss plans to help households hit by soaring living costs caused by the Iran war, The Times newspaper reported on Monday, Reuters reported.
A spokesperson for Starmer's office and a spokesman for the Bank of England declined to comment on the report.
Starmer is under pressure to help British consumers after the US-Israeli war against Iran led to rising fuel, energy and mortgage prices.
On Monday, he pledged to support "working people" facing rising cost-of-living pressures, exacerbated by the conflict.
To begin with, the government has announced it will provide a £53 million ($70 million) aid package to help the most vulnerable households cope with the rising costs of heating oil.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said that the nuclear facility in Natanz, in central Iran, was again targeted by an attack this morning, the BBC reported.
In a statement published by Iranian media, the organization said that "technical and expert assessments" had been conducted regarding radioactive contamination and that, based on the results, "no leakage of radioactive material has been reported at this facility and there is no danger to residents of the surrounding areas."
The organization condemned the attack, stating that it violated "the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) and other regulations relating to nuclear safety and security."
The AEOI had previously confirmed the attack on Natanz and announced on March 3 that no release of radioactive material had been recorded after the strike on the facility two days earlier.
Back in June, the United States (US) dropped bombs on three nuclear facilities - Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan, and US President Donald Trump subsequently claimed that these attacks had "totally destroyed" Iran's nuclear program.
An officer was killed in a drone attack on the headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service today, the service confirmed, reports the British newspaper The Guardian.
The statement said a drone, launched by "rogue groups", killed an officer at the service's headquarters in Baghdad.
The attack occurred around ten o'clock local time, or around eight o'clock Central European time.
"One officer was martyred," the Iraqi intelligence service said in a statement published by the Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The service condemned the "terrorist attack carried out by renegade elements."
A security official and an Iraqi emergency services source said another officer was wounded.
Iran's Tasnim news agency said Saturday's latest attack on the Natanz facility in central Iran did not result in a leak of radioactive material, the British newspaper The Guardian reports.
It is reported that residents near the facility, between Tehran and Isfahan, were not at risk.
Earlier in March, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the facility had suffered damage after the United States (US) and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28.
General Saad Man, head of the Iraqi government's security media unit, confirmed the attack in central Baghdad on Saturday morning, the British newspaper The Guardian reports.
In a statement carried by the Agence France-Presse (AFP), he said: "The drone targeted the headquarters of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service in the Mansur district," he said.
He stated that the attack occurred at around ten o'clock local time, or eight o'clock Central European time.
An Iraqi security official told the agency that the target of the attack was a "telecommunications building" of the national intelligence service, which works with US advisers in Iraq as part of the coalition against the jihadists.
Iraq has been embroiled in conflict since the United States and Israel attacked its neighbor Iran in late February.
The attacks targeted Iranian-backed groups, who in turn attacked US-linked buildings or facilities in the region, including Iraq.
At least three drone strikes overnight targeted a US diplomatic and logistics hub housing US military personnel at Baghdad International Airport, according to two security officials who spoke to AFP.
The Pentagon said on Thursday that attack helicopters had carried out strikes against pro-Iranian armed groups in Iraq.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) rebuilt Hezbollah's military command after it was severely weakened by Israel in 2024, filling the gaps with Iranian officers before restructuring the Lebanese group and preparing plans for the war it is now waging in support of Tehran, two people familiar with the IRGC's activities said.
Read more about this in a separate article:
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi welcomed today "any initiative that can bring the war to a complete end," stressing that the conflict was "imposed" on Iran.
Araghchi told Japan's Kyodo news agency that Iran was "ready to listen to and consider such proposals," the BBC reported.
Although some countries are seeking a solution to the conflict in the Middle East, Iran's foreign minister said that "it does not appear that the United States of America (US) is ready to stop its aggression."
Araghchi also said that Iran is not advocating for a ceasefire, but for a "complete and comprehensive end to the war."
US President Donald Trump said last night that his administration was considering "reducing" military operations in the Middle East, even as the US announced it was sending more warships to the region and Iran threatened attacks on tourist sites around the world.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had clashed with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, killing four people, the BBC reported.
IDF spokesman for Arab media Avichai Adrai said that forces spotted several Hezbollah members on Friday evening and killed one person.
He added that an Israeli air force plane then targeted other Hezbollah members who opened fire on their forces.
Three more people were killed in tank fire, Adrai explained, stating that there were no Israeli casualties.
The air force also carried out attacks on Hezbollah headquarters in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, he continued.
In a separate update on Telegram, the IDF said rescue forces were en route to "impact sites" in central Israel, after it was reported that the rockets were launched from Iran.
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