Iran war updates: Tehran slams Trump threats over Strait of Hormuz closure

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Here are some of the day’s top developments:

• Donald Trump issued an expletive-laden threat on Truth Social, demanding that Iran open the Strait of Hormuz or face “hell”, and saying the US will hit Iranian power plants and bridges.
• Tehran said it would respond “in kind” to any attacks on its infrastructure, with senior officials condemning the US president’s remarks as an “incitement to war crimes”.
• Trump confirmed that US forces rescued a second airman whose F-15 jet was downed in Iran. Iran’s Fars news agency reported that at least nine people were killed in air strikes in the area where the rescue operation took place.
• An Iranian missile directly hit a residential building in Israel’s northern city of Haifa, injuring four people and leaving four others missing, Israeli media outlets said.
• Iranian attacks targeted energy facilities and other sites across the Gulf, including power, water desalination and oil plants in Kuwait, causing severe damage, according to Kuwaiti authorities.
• Israel carried out several attacks in Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon, including an attack near a hospital in the capital that killed at least four people and wounded dozens more.

According to statements by the Lebanese Health Ministry today:

• An Israeli attack on Beirut’s Jnah neighbourhood killed at least five people and wounded 52.
• A strike targeting an apartment building in Ain Saadeh town east of Beirut killed three people and injured three others.
• An attack on the southern town of Kfar Hatta, far from the border with Israel, killed at least seven people, including a four-year-old girl.

You can read more here.

A video has captured the moment an Iranian missile hit a residential building in Israel’s Haifa.

Multiple injuries were reported, and some people are feared trapped under the rubble of the partially collapsed structure.

Watch our report below:

Here is the statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy about the Strait of Hormuz that we referenced earlier.

“The Strait of Hormuz will never return to its former state, especially for the US and Israel,” the IRGC said in a social media post.

It added that it is in the final stages of operational preparations for what Iranian officials have described as a “new order” for the Gulf.

The statement came days after an Iranian parliamentary committee approved draft legislation to impose transit fees on ships passing through the key waterway.

According to Iranian media reports, the proposal includes passage fees to be paid in Iran’s national currency, a ban on transit for the US and Israel, and restrictions on countries participating in unilateral sanctions against Iran.

The plan also includes provisions related to Iran’s sovereignty over the strait, the authority of its armed forces, maritime security, environmental issues and legal cooperation with Oman.

Several houses in Khan Arnaba, a town in Syria’s Quneitra province, have sustained damage from falling debris after an Iranian drone was intercepted by Israeli air defences.

Syria’s state-run Alikhbaria TV quoted Quneitra’s media directorate as saying that debris caused material damage, but there were no reports of injuries.

We are at a pivotal moment after Trump imposed a Tuesday, 8pm deadline for Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Otherwise, as he has said, “all hell will rain down” on Iran.

That is something that is very concerning for the Gulf countries, because Iran has said in the past that if the US is to go after its energy infrastructure, power sites and water facilities, then it will target facilities like that in the Gulf region.

That’s where things are right now, at a time when nerves are very much on the edge, and people are wondering what’s exactly going to happen next. If Trump is going to follow through on his threat to Iran, then what is going to happen to these countries?

The posture of the Gulf countries has been a defensive one up until now. They’ve said they do not want to escalate; they want to de-escalate. The question is what happens if Iran does strike out in retaliation to any US attacks; what happens to the Gulf countries, and then, what will the Gulf countries do in response?

Brent crude futures gained $2.4, or 2.2 percent, ‌trading at $111.43 a barrel by 22:15 GMT.

US West Texas Intermediate crude futures, meanwhile, rose $3, or 2.7 percent, to trade at $114.57 ⁠per barrel.

The General Staff of the Kuwaiti Army says that air defence systems are intercepting missile and drone attacks.

In a statement, the army says the sound of explosions heard is the result of interceptions.

Israel has been engaged in a systematic campaign against civilian infrastructure in the south of Lebanon. We have seen them targeting many of the bridges over the Litani River in the last couple of weeks. It’s a total of nine bridges that they’ve hit so far.

Israel says the reason it’s doing that is to cut off Hezbollah’s supply lines and stop them from moving men and weapons to south Lebanon. But this is civilian infrastructure; it belongs to the Lebanese state, and it is used by the thousands of civilians who do remain in southern Lebanon in defiance of these forced evacuation orders by the Israeli military.

Speaking with aid organisations over the last couple of weeks, they’re increasingly concerned about their ability to deliver supplies to those civilians. They’re worried about getting them food and medicine. And for civilians in the area, it makes it a lot more difficult for them to move around.

There have been a lot of Iranian statements today, including from the Foreign Ministry, the speaker of the parliament, and the IRGC, with all of them speaking in one voice.

The Foreign Ministry spokesperson talked about Iran’s approach to the situation and what it is going to do if its infrastructure gets destroyed by the US. He also tried to explain how the whole war is based on lies, including that Iran is pursuing the production of nuclear weapons and that it is presenting an imminent threat to the US.

Instead, he said, the real threat is the threat the US is presenting right now to Iran, and has been presenting for a long time, including this threat to destroy the Iranian people’s infrastructure, which is, to him,
an equivalent to a threat of genocide against the Iranian people.

Also, the IRGC commander said today that the Strait of Hormuz is never going to return to its previous situation, especially for the US and Israel. He said it is going to be subjected to a new order after this war, and Iran is going to extract fees on ships from now on, so that way, Iran can compensate for the destruction that has been visited on the country in this war.

So, there is no indication that Iran is being intimidated by these threats, even though that deadline is approaching very quickly. They have been consistent from day one that there is going to be no change. They are not going to submit to the threats, and they are going to retaliate. They know the places they are going to strike at and have what it takes to do that.

As Christians around the world mark the Easter holiday amid the US-Israel war on Iran, religious leaders are calling for peace.

Check out our report by Sonia Gallego:

The UAE’s Defence Ministry says its air defence systems are responding to missile and drone threats.

In a statement, the ministry said the sounds heard in the sky are the result of ongoing interceptions.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least three people have been killed, and three others were wounded, in an Israeli air attack on Ain Saadeh, east of Beirut.

Iran’s state-imposed near-total internet shutdown is now the longest nationwide blackout on record in any country, according to a global monitor, spurring frustrations among Iranians also grappling with the US-Israeli war.

More than five weeks into the conflict, the Iranian government has not explained how it expects the remnants of the country’s battered digital sector and its globally isolated economy to get through the coming months and years, even if a highly unlikely diplomatic breakthrough stops the war soon.

“There was a wave of layoffs in January, which I survived, but I didn’t survive this latest wave,” said Kamran, a product designer at a technology firm in Karaj near Tehran, who was told he was let go on Saturday, the first day of the working week after the Nowruz holidays.

A senior data analyst at a Tehran-based firm who asked to remain anonymous said that his company agreed to offer lower pay raises than expected for the new Persian year, so it would not be forced to downsize any employees for now.

“But the bosses are only doing three-month contracts, so there’s a prevailing sense that many people will have to go after that time is up,” he told Al Jazeera.

Read more here.

The IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency says that 15 ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz with permission from Iran over the past 24 hours, according to the latest figures.

According to Fars, maritime traffic through the key waterway is still 90 percent lower than it was before the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

More than 6,500 projectiles have been fired at Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, hitting residential areas, civilian areas, airports, power stations and major energy facilities.

GCC countries are saying [the Iranian attacks] are unjustified because these assets are not related to the US and have nothing to do with US attacks on Iranian facilities. They say they have so far shown a great deal of restraint because there is a lot at stake.

GCC states’ response has mostly been to try to mobilise the international community, including the United Nations Security Council.

But if Iran expands its attacks and the GCC countries feel it is becoming an existential threat, not only to their economy but also to their security, then their defensive posture could shift into a retaliatory one, which could further complicate the issue.

The Lebanese group says it has carried out a series of attacks on Israeli forces and sites in northern Israel and along the border with southern Lebanon.

In a statement, Hezbollah said explosive devices targeting Israeli forces were deployed near the town of Shamaa in southern Lebanon, and later fired on what it described as a rescue force arriving at the scene.

It also said it launched rocket attacks targeting Israeli army positions and gatherings near the town of Ainata, as well as areas east of the Khiam detention centre.

The group further reported firing rockets towards the northern Israeli towns of Nahariya and Metula, and said it targeted the Meron air operations command and control base in northern Israel.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.