In a statement released by his office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was using bridges and railways to transport materials to make weapons.
He said he approved the strikes with Defense Minister Israel Katz and said they weren’t meant to target Iranian civilians but the government.
“This is no longer the same Iran, nor is it the same Israel. We are changing the balance of power from one end to the other,” Netanyahu said.
Israel’s military in a statement said it struck eight bridges in Tehran, Karaj, Tabriz, Kashan and Qom that were being used by Iranian forces to transport weapons and military equipment.
A whole civilisation will die, says Trump as Iran warns attack on US soil
United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday, April 7, announced that a whole civilisation will die tonight, “never to be brought back again, as the Iranian military warned of extending their attacks to American infrastructure.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?” Trump wrote on TruthSocial.
“We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World,” he added. “47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, meanwhile, said they will not hesitate to extend their attacks on US soil if the US attacks their civilian facilities, “crossing their red lines.”
“We will do to the infrastructure of America and its partners what will deprive them and their allies of the region’s oil and gas for many years”, the statement reads.
“American leaders lack the ability to calculate the critical assets that would be within range of our fighters if they attacked our infrastructure,” it added. “Our response will extend beyond the region if the US military crosses our red lines.”
It also issued a new threat to the Gulf Arab states.
“We have exercised great restraint and had considerations in choosing retaliatory targets, but from now on all these considerations have been removed,” the warning read.
US Vice President JD Vance says he’s ‘confident’ Iran will respond by deadline
Speaking during a news conference in Hungary’s capital Budapest, Vance said the United States had already defeated Iran militarily and that Iran was now “trying to exact as much economic pain on the world as possible” by keeping the Straight of Hormuz closed.
“I hope they’re smart,” he said.
The US, he said, “has the ability to extract much greater economic cost on Iran than Iran has an ability to extract cost on us or on our friends in the world.”
“We feel confident that we can get a response, whether it is positive or negative, by 8 o’clock tonight,” he said, referring to the 8 pm ET deadline set by President Trump.
Top US Senate Democrat calls Trump ‘an extremely sick person’
Senator Chuck Schumer responded to President Trump’s dire threat against Iran by calling on Republicans to vote against the war.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, has joined with others in his party in forcing votes on legislation that would halt Trump from ordering further attacks on Iran unless he received congressional approval. So far, though, just a few Republicans have voted to rein in Trump’s power to order the attacks.
Schumer said on social media that any Republican who declines to vote “against this wanton war of choice owns every consequence” of Trump’s actions.
Explosions heard at Kharg Island, Israel bombs Iran’s railway bridges
US strikes Kharg Island again, according to a White House official who wasn’t authorised to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The US military targets on the island, the official said. The strikes come hours ahead of a deadline Trump set for Iran to capitulate to his demands or face a major attack.
The US had earlier in the war struck several targets on the island, including air defenses, a radar site, an airport and a hovercraft base, according to satellite analysis by the Institute for the Study of War and American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project.
Earlier Tuesday, the semiofficial Mehr news agency put out a report saying there had been several explosions on Kharg Island, without elaborating.
Earlier, the Israeli Defence Forces issued an urgent warning in Farsi asking all Iranians to refrain from using and travelling by train. “Dear Citizens, for the sake of your security, we kindly request that from this moment until 9 pm, you refrain from using and traveling by train throughout Iran.”
“Your presence on trains and near railway lines endangers your life,” the warning read.
Hours after the warning, the governor of Mashhad reportedly announced the immediate suspension of all rail services from the city’s central railway station.
Iranian authorities reported that a series of airstrikes took out a railway bridge in Kashan, a train station in Mashhad, and a highway bridge near Tabriz on the Tabriz-Tehran freeway.
Neither the United States nor Israel immediately claimed the attacks.
Lebanon death toll rises to 1,530
According to the most recent data released by the Lebanese Ministry of Health, at least 1,530 individuals have been killed in Israeli strikes across the country since March 2.
As many as 4,812 people have been injured in the same time period, the ministry said.
Pakistan sources say efforts to facilitate talks between US, Iran underway
Efforts to expedite negotiations between the US and Iran are ongoing, two Pakistani sources with knowledge of the discussion told Reuters even as Israeli strikes on Iran double and Trump’s deadline nears.
Pakistan’s military also voiced support for government efforts aimed at ending the conflict in the Middle East, stressing the need for restraint and dialogue while warning that recent attacks on Saudi Arabia risk undermining ongoing diplomatic initiatives.
The remarks came during a meeting of top commanders chaired by Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, a statement from the military read.
It said the military strongly condemned recent attacks on Saudi Arabia’s petrochemical and industrial facilities, calling them an “unnecessary escalation” that could spoil “sincere efforts to resolve the conflict through peaceful means.”
The forum noted that Saudi Arabia’s restraint “despite grave provocations” had helped enable mediation and diplomatic options but warned that continued attacks risk damaging the “conducive environment” needed for negotiations.
UN to vote on watered-down resolution to open Strait of Hormuz
The UN Security Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz that has been repeatedly watered down because of opposition from Russia and China. But it remains unclear whether they will still veto the Bahrain-sponsored measure.
The vote is scheduled just hours before an 8 pm Eastern deadline set by US President Donald Trump for Iran to open the strategic waterway or face attacks on its power plants and bridges. One-fifth of the world’s oil typically passes through the strait, and Iran’s stranglehold during the war has sent energy prices soaring.
It’s doubtful the resolution, even if adopted, would impact the war, now in its fifth week, because it has been significantly weakened to try to get Russia and China to abstain rather than veto it.
Missile strikes UAE telecommunications building, injuring 2
A telecommunications building in the United Arab Emirates was struck Tuesday by an Iranian ballistic missile, injuring two people, authorities said.
The missile hit an administrative building for the Thuraya Telecommunications Company in Sharjah, the medical office said.
The two Pakistani nationals injured in the strike were taken to a hospital, the office said.
Container ship hit in the Persian Gulf
A container ship in the Persian Gulf has been hit by a projectile that caused damage, the British military said Tuesday.
The attack happened in international waters south of Iran’s Kish Island, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
It said no one was hurt and there was no environmental impact from the apparent attack.
Over 20 ships have been attacked in the Mideast by Iran since the war began.
Israeli drone strike targets Mashgara town in eastern Lebanon
Israel launched a drone strike on Mashgara town in Bekaa Valley, to the east of Lebanon, Al Jazeera reported. Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it launched missile strikes on Misgav Am and Metula sites in Israel.
Iranian youth asked to form human chains around power plants
Iran called upon all young people, including “athletes, artists, students, university students and their professors” to form human chains around power plants ahead of United States President Donald Trump’s threatened strikes.
“Power plants that are our national assets and capital, regardless of any taste or political viewpoint, belong to the future of Iran and to the Iranian youth,” Alireza Rahimi, identified by Iranian state television as the secretary of the Supreme Council of Youth and Adolescents, said as he issued the video call in a newscast.
Iran has formed human chains in the past around its nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned the US that attacks on civilian infrastructure are banned under international law, according to his spokesperson. Trump, speaking with reporters, said he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes with such attacks.
As the deadline neared, efforts were still underway to reach a negotiated solution. Even though Iran has rejected the latest proposal from the US, officials involved in the diplomacy say that talks are still ongoing.
US lawmakers call for Trump’s removal, invoke 25th Amendment
US lawmakers have invoked the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution and asked Trump’s administration to remove him from office.
The 25th Amendment can be invoked when a president is unable or deemed unfit to serve, providing for a transfer of power.
Trump’s rambles on the social media platform, TruthSocial, have concerned many, with US lawmakers specifically calling for the use of Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to be used against him.
On Sunday, April 5, he said, “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F**kin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J TRUMP.”
Arizona Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari is the latest among others to call for the amendment. “Trump is escalating a devastating, illegal war, threatening massive war crimes and targeting civilian infrastructure in Iran. In the last 48 hours alone, the rhetoric has crossed every line,” she wrote on X.
Previously, Congresswoman Ilham Omar responded to Trump’s threat to Iran, saying, “This is not ok. Invoke the 25th Amendment. Impeach. Remove. This unhinged lunatic must be removed from office.”
Iran’s president says 14 million have volunteered to sacrifice their lives
Facing a looming US deadline, Iran’s president said Tuesday that 14 million Iranians, including himself, have volunteered to sacrifice their lives in the war.
President Masoud Pezeshkian made the comment on X just ahead of Trump’s deadline to bomb power stations and bridges in Iran if it doesn’t loosen its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
The figure is double other figures mentioned by state media in the past about volunteers the government had been soliciting by text messages and media as the war went on.
Iran is home to 90 million people. Many remain angry at the government over its bloody crackdown on nationwide demonstrations and the 14 million figure likely is aimed at trying to dissuade the promised American bombing campaign.
“More than 14 million Iranian people have declared their readiness to sacrifice their lives in the (self-sacrificing) campaign,” Pezeshkian wrote. “I too have been, am, and will remain ready to give my life for Iran.”
At least 18 killed in airstrike targeting Iran’s Alborz province
An airstrike targeting Iran’s Alborz province northwest of Tehran killed at least 18 people, state media reported Tuesday.
The strike also wounded 24 people, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.
It wasn’t immediately clear what had been targeted.
A series of intense airstrikes have pounded Iran’s capital, Tehran, including a possible weapons depot in the mountains and residential neighborhoods.
The Israelis have conducted a campaign of airstrikes killing top officials in the theocracy and its military.
15 killed in US-Israeli overnight strikes on Iran
According to local media reports, at least 15 people have been killed in overnight strikes from US-Israeli attacks across Iran. Six bodies were recovered from under the rubble of buildings in Pardis city, east of Tehran.
Nine people were targeted in an Israeli airstrike in a residential neighbourhood in Shahriar, west of Tehran province, local officials said.
King Fahd Causeway reopens after attack threats
The King Fahd Causeway, a key bridge linking Saudi Arabia and the island of Bahrain, reopened Tuesday morning after closing for hours over possible threats from Iran.
The King Fahd Causeway Authority made the announcement in a post on X, saying the only route by road between Bahrain and the Arabian Peninsula had reopened.
Bahrain’s airport has been closed over the Iranian attacks for weeks.
The hours-long closure came after a ballistic missile attack from Iran targeted Saudi Arabia and may have done damage to energy infrastructure there.
The kingdom has not elaborated on damage from that attack.
WHO suspends Gaza medical evacuations after contractor killed
The United Nations health agency has suspended evacuations from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah Crossing with Egypt after the death of one of its contractors.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post that the contractor was killed Monday in what he described as a “security incident.”
Two WHO staffers were also wounded in the incident, he said without elaborating further details.
The incident is being investigated, and the evacuations of patients and wounded people will be halted until further notice, Tedros said.
The Rafah Crossing was reopened in February after long delays in a key but mostly symbolic step in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.
Moms, dads, send your kids to man checkpoints at night: Iran general
A Revolutionary Guard general in Iran has urged parents to “send your kids to man checkpoints.”
Gen Hossein Yekta, previously identified as leading plainclothes units of the all-volunteer Basij force, made the comments on an Iranian state television channel.
“Moms, dads, take your kids’ hands and go out on streets,” he said. “Do you want your kid to become a real man? Let him feel like a hero standing right at the heart of the battlefield. Moms, dads, at night send your kids to man checkpoints. They become men!”
Basij checkpoints have been repeatedly targeted in airstrikes.
The Basij has been accepting children as young as 12 to man checkpoints. Amnesty International has warned some even carry firearms, calling their recruitment a war crime.
During nationwide protests in January, Yekta warned parents to keep their children home or they would be shot.
UAE presidential advisor says Iran’s govt can’t be trusted
An adviser to Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, says they have lost trust in the Iranian government after its attacks on Arab neighbors.
“We are facing a perfidious regime that cannot be trusted,” Anwar Gargash wrote in a social media post Tuesday, adding that his country had sought to avoid the war.
He also claimed the UAE’s position toward Iran’s attacks in the Gulf Arab countries is appreciated across the region.
Iranian state television claims 14 million have volunteered to fight
Iranian state television on Tuesday claimed 14 million people had volunteered to fight for the country if there is a ground invasion by the United States and Israel.
The claim by state TV, which included no other information, doubles an April 2 claim by Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf that 7 million had volunteered.
Iran is home to some 90 million people. Iran had conducted a bloody crackdown on nationwide demonstrations in January that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained.
State media and text message campaigns have urged people to volunteer. The government has also called on retired soldiers to express their interest in fighting, while the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force has begun accepting children as young as 12 into its ranks.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, for instance, called for a 20-million Basij force.
Synagogue damaged in airstrike in Iran’s capital
Iranian media reported Tuesday that a synagogue in the capital, Tehran, was damaged in an airstrike.
They identified the house of worship as the Rafi Niya Synagogue.
Video from the site showed rescuers moving around and what looked like a book of Hebrew scripture in the rubble.
(With inputs from agencies)
Iran has a small Jewish population still living in the country. Many fled during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
