Israel pounds Beirut as Iran’s Larijani threatens Gulf

Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon continued Thursday, targeting buildings in central and southern Beirut, including the campus of the Lebanese University, killing two academics.

At least 687 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon since the country was drawn into the conflict after Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel, the country’s information minister said Thursday. Meanwhile, after expanded Israeli evacuation orders for all areas south of the Zahrani River, the International Organization for Migration said Thursday that more than 800,000 people have been displaced.

Earlier on Thursday, Iranian state TV broadcast the first public message from new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, read aloud by presenters. In it, he said the closure of the Strait of Hormuz should continue and called for "revenge" over the US and Israel's attacks on Iran, pointing to the Feb. 28 strike on Iran's Minab school that killed 168 people, primarily children. Ali Larijani, a top security official in Iran, threatened in a post on X that should the US target Iran's electricity, "the whole region will go dark in less than half an hour."

At least one person was killed after explosive-laden boats believed to be operated by Iran struck two oil tankers off the coast of Iraq near the country's Basra Port overnight. Iranian state media outlets reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had taken responsibility for attacking one of the ships. The Iraqi News Agency reported that all oil terminal operations were suspended after the attack. Another ship was reportedly attacked before dawn on Thursday near the Emirati port of Jebel Ali.

On Tuesday, US warplanes struck minelayer boats belonging to the IRGC. The strikes follow growing concern among US military officials that IRGC naval forces were preparing to deploy floating mines in the narrow waterway, as Al-Monitor reported.