Israeli tanks are massing at the Lebanese border as Israel continues to flex its military power to its enemies in the region and Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to produce ‘many surprises’ in the latest Middle East war.
A mass of Israeli tanks were seen at the nation’s northern border with Lebanon today.
Soldiers were seen making preparations on a hill that the formation was sat on.
It comes amid continuing Israeli strikes on the nation, as well as neighbour Beirut and oil storage facilities in Tehran.
As the war continues to grow in scale, Netanyahu last night claimed that Israel has an ‘organised plan with many surprises.’
The Israeli leader added in his video statement that his nations aimed to ‘destabilise the [Iranian] regime [and] to enable change.’
Speaking to members of Iran’s military, he said: ‘You are also in our sights. Whoever puts his weapon down, no harm will come to him. Whoever doesn’t do that, his blood is on his head.’
And speaking to the Iranian people, he claimed Israel was not trying to divide the nation, instead stating: ‘We are trying to free Iran.’
A mass of Israeli tanks were seen at the nation’s northern border with Lebanon today
Soldiers were seen making preparations on a hill that the formation was sat on
Explosions erupt following strikes at Tehran Oil Refinery in Tehran on March 7, 2026
Shortly after the video was published, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a US airstrike damaged an Iranian desalination plant on Qeshm Island, warning that in doing so ‘the US set this precedent, not Iran.’
Such infrastructure is critical for drinking water supplies in the parched deserts of the Gulf.
An Israeli attack on oil storage sites in Tehran sent up pillars of fire that could be seen in Associated Press video as a glow against the Saturday night sky. It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war.
The war, which erupted on February 28 after joint US-Israeli strikes hit Iran, has so far killed at least 1,230 people in the Islamic Republic, more than 300 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials.
The UAE’s Defence Ministry says it intercepted all 16 missiles, while a 17th fell into the sea. It says it intercepted most of the drones, but four fell in UAE territory.
The ministry says it is ready to ‘firmly confront’ the threats.
Iran’s president earlier Sunday threatened to increase attacks on US targets across the region in the face of ongoing Israeli and US strikes. The Emirati statement did not specify the locations of Sunday’s attacks.
French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Cyprus on Monday to show France’s solidarity with the European Union nation targeted by drones last week.
Macron will meet there with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides and Greece Prime Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Macron’s office said Sunday. ‘Together with our European partners, the aim will be to strengthen security around Cyprus and in the Eastern Mediterranean,’ the statement said.
Fire burns and smoke rises from Aqdasieh Oil Depot after being reportedly hit by strike, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran in this screengrab taken from a social media video released on March 8, 202
The visit will also help coordinating efforts to ensure the safety of European nationals in the region and support repatriation operations, it said.
Cypriot and British officials haven’t said where the Shahed drone that hit the Royal Air Force base in Akrotiri came from, but speculation is that it was the work of Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah. Warplanes intercepted a pair of drones in a second attempted strike on the UK base last Monday.
US and Israel strikes in Iran have damaged about 10,000 civilian structures across the county, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said.
In a social media post, the Red Crescent said the structures include 7,943 residential units and 1,617 commercial units along with several medical and educational facilities.
The Iranian Red Crescent warned people in Tehran to take extra precautions to avoid toxic amounts of pollutants in the air stemming from a fire that broke out after Israeli struck multiple oil storage depots late Saturday. Heavy, black smoke from the fires blocked out the sun on Sunday morning.
The Red Crescent advised the public to avoid turning on air conditioners or going outside immediately after rainfall due to concerns about toxic acid rain.
The Red Crescent also encouraged people to protect exposed food and to gargle salt water to clean the throat from oily soot particles they may have inhaled. Tehran’s governor recommended everyone wear masks outside.
A Pakistani driver was killed overnight when debris from an aerial interception fell on a vehicle in Dubai, authorities said Sunday. It’s the second death of a Pakistani national there in recent days.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the deaths of the two Pakistanis in Dubai.
Explosions erupt following strikes in Tehran on March 7, 2026
Two other civilians, from Nepal and Bangladesh, have been killed by missile debris in Dubai since the US and Israel launched a war against Iran on Feb. 28, triggering Iranian missile and drone attacks on its Gulf neighbours.
Iran’s parliament speaker said Sunday oil prices will continue to soar, inflicting pain on the global economy as long as the war in the Middle East goes on.
Oil prices have soared since the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, reaching its highest levels since 2023.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude jumped 8.5% to $92.69 on Friday – up from nearly $70 a barrel just late last week. Meanwhile, benchmark US crude climbed 12.2%, to $90.90 a barrel on Friday.
‘If the war continues like this, there will be neither a way to sell oil nor the ability to produce it,’ Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a social media post. He said the war is not only impacting the US, but also the Middle East and the whole world ‘due to Netanyahu’s delusions,’ referring to the Israeli prime minister.
US and Israeli strikes in Iran have killed 200 children and around 200 women, the Iranian Health Ministry said Sunday.
They are among more than 1,200 people killed in the war, spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said in a social media post.
He said more than 1,000 others, including about 400 women, have been injured since February 28.
Iran’s president has threatened to step up attacks on American targets throughout the Middle East as the US and Israel press ahead with their air campaign.
‘When we are attacked, we have no choice but to respond. The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be,’ President Masoud Pezeshkian said in video comments Sunday. ‘Our Iran, our country, will not bow easily in the face of bullying, oppression or aggression – and it never has.’
Pezeshkian appeared to be backtracking from conciliatory comments toward his Gulf neighbours on Saturday. Those comments, in which he appeared to apologise for attacks on their soil, were quickly contradicted by Iranian hard-liners.
Pezeshkian said Iran is not looking for a battle against neighbouring Arab countries, many of which host American military bases. ‘They are our brothers,’ he said, accusing the US of trying to pit the region’s countries against one another. Many Iranian attacks have gone beyond US bases in the region, striking energy facilities, hotels and cities.
The sky over Iran’s capital was blanketed with smoke Sunday morning, hours after Israeli strikes hit oil facilities in Tehran, Associated Press footage showed.
An explosion erupts following strikes near Azadi Tower close to Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran on March 7, 2026
Fars news agency reported that Saturday’s strikes hit four oil storage facilities and an oil production transfer centre in Tehran and Alborz. Four tanker drivers in the centre were killed, it reported.
The strikes sent up pillars of fire that could be seen in AP video as a glow against the Saturday night sky.
It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war.
A missile alert sounded Sunday morning in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Bahrain says Iranian drone attack has caused `material damage’ to desalination plant
It is the first time an Arab country says Iran has targeted a desalination plant during the nine-day war.
Hundreds of desalination plants sit along the Persian Gulf coast, and the Arab countries in the region rely heavily on the facilities for their drinking water
Israel’s military said on Sunday that it had struck a series of fighter jets that pre-revolutionary Iran purchased from the United States.
The fleet of F-14s parked at Isfahan Airport, south of Tehran, was a pillar of the Iranian air force and historically used to defend its airspace.
The Israeli military did not say whether the jets were destroyed. It also said it had struck detection and air defence systems.
