Israel renews assault on Lebanon after Netanyahu promises ‘many surprises’ in next phase of war

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This article was published 07/03/2026 (188 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel renewed its assault on southern Lebanon early Sunday, including targeting commanders of the Lebanese branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised “many surprises” for the next phase of the conflict.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it would “not allow Iranian terrorist elements to establish themselves in Lebanese territory.”

The latest strikes in Lebanon followed an Israeli attack Saturday on an oil storage facility in Tehran, which sent up pillars of fire that could be seen in Associated Press video as a glow against the night sky.

It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war. State media blamed “an attack from the U.S. and the Zionist regime” at the site that supplies the capital and neighboring provinces in the north.

Elsewhere, Kuwait authorities said two border guards were killed when the Gulf country was hit by a swarm of missiles and drones. The Interior Ministry said only that the guards were killed “while performing their national duty.” No other details were available.

Israeli airstrikes killed eight people in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry said, and local media reported that an Israeli drone hit a hotel in Beirut, killing four and wounding 10 others. The deaths come on top of at least 47 others killed Saturday in Israeli strikes.

Iranian president apologizes for attacks

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian apologized Saturday for attacks on “neighboring countries,” even as his country’s missiles and drones flew toward Gulf Arab states and hard-liners asserted that Tehran’s war strategy would not change.

A rift between politicians looking to de-escalate the war and others committed to battling the United States and Israel could complicate any diplomatic efforts. Conflicting Iranian statements came from two of the three members of the leadership council overseeing Iran since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the war’s opening airstrikes.

Pezeshkian, who is a member of the council, also dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for Tehran to surrender unconditionally, saying: “That’s a dream that they should take to their grave.”

Trump threatened that Iran would be “hit very hard” and more “areas and groups of people” would become targets, without elaborating. Already, the conflict has rattled global markets and left Iran’s leadership weakened by hundreds of Israeli and American airstrikes.

“We’re not looking to settle,” Trump told reporters Saturday aboard Air Force One. “They’d like to settle. We’re not looking to settle.”

He described the ongoing U.S. operations in Iran as an “excursion” and said issues such as rising gas prices and the safety of Americans would improve once the conflict ends.

Iranian leaders have limited power over Revolutionary Guard

Pezeshkian’s message underlined the limited powers exercised by the theocracy’s leaders over the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which controls the hundreds of ballistic missiles targeting Israel and other countries. It answered only to Khamenei and appears to be picking its own targets.

Pezeshkian’s statement said Iran’s leadership council had been in touch with the armed forces and “from now on, they should not attack neighboring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked by those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy.”

The U.S. strikes have not come from the Gulf Arab governments under attack, but from U.S. bases and vessels in the region.

Hard-line judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, another member of the three-man leadership council, suggested that war strategy will not change.

“The geography of some countries in the region — both overtly and covertly — is in the hands of the enemy, and those points are used against our country in acts of aggression. Intense attacks on these targets will continue,” he posted on X.

Iran’s U.N. mission later suggested, without offering evidence, that strikes on nonmilitary sites “may have resulted from interception by U.S. electronic defense systems.”

Late Saturday, top Iranian security official Ali Larijani asserted in an address carried by state media that “our leaders are united on this issue and have no disagreements with one another.”

Trump says the Kurds won’t be involved

In other developments, Trump said he has ruled out having Kurds join the war, even though Kurdish fighters in the region are willing to assist in efforts to topple the Iranian government.

“The war is complicated enough without having … the Kurds involved,” Trump told reporters.

Days ago, Kurdish officials told the AP that Kurdish-Iranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq were preparing for a potential cross-border military operation in Iran and that the U.S. had asked Iraqi Kurds to support them.

The U.S. and Israel have targeted Iran’s military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program. The war’s stated goals and timelines have repeatedly shifted as the U.S. has at times suggested it seeks to topple Iran’s government or elevate new leadership.

The fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 290 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six U.S. troops have been killed.

Missile lands at US Embassy compound in Iraq

Three Iraqi security officials said a missile landed on the helicopter landing pad in the U.S. Embassy complex in Baghdad. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. An embassy spokesperson declined to comment. There were no reports of casualties.

It was the first reported strike to land in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone since the Iran war began. Iran and allied Iraqi militias have launched dozens of attacks on U.S. military bases and other facilities in Iraq since then.

Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani called the embassy attack a “terrorist act” carried out by “rogue groups.”

Strikes target other Gulf countries

Hours after Pezeshkian’s apology, the United Arab Emirates said debris from an aerial interception fell onto a vehicle and killed a driver. Four people have now been killed in the UAE since the war began. Authorities have said all were foreign nationals.

Sirens sounded earlier Saturday in Bahrain as Iran targeted the island kingdom. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed drones headed toward its vast Shaybah oil field and shot down a ballistic missile launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts U.S. forces.

In Kuwait, authorities said a wave of drones targeted critical infrastructure, including fuel tanks at Kuwait International Airport and a government building in Kuwait City. At least two people were killed by strikes in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

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Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Magdy from Cairo, Egypt. Associated Press journalists Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad, Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo, Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem, Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, and Aamer Madhani in Doral, Florida, contributed reporting.