The Iran War entered its nineteenth day on Wednesday with President Trump threatening on Truth Social to “finish off” what he said was “left of the Iranian Terror State.” In the same post, he expressed his frustration with what he called “our non-responsive “Allies,”’ who have so far resisted Trump’s calls to join a coalition to re-open the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s South Pars gas field, the world’s largest natural gas reserve, was targeted with airstrikes on Wednesday morning. An Israeli official told the Jerusalem Post that the attack was coordinated between the U.S. and Israel. Iran responded by threatening strikes on Saudi Arabia’s Samref Refinery and its Jubail Petrochemical Complex, the UAE’s Al Hasan Gas Field, and a refinery in Qatar.
Reacting to the ongoing closure of Hormuz and today’s strikes on Iran’s gas fields, the price of Brent crude rose to $108 on Wednesday morning. Gas prices continued to climb, with AAA reporting the national average gas price at $3.84.
For the second consecutive day, a drone appeared to strike the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Wednesday morning, with a security source telling AFP the aircraft “directly hit the embassy.”
Iran’s 60th barrage against Israel killed two in Ramat Gan overnight and damaged multiple sites across central Israel, including infrastructure at Tel Aviv’s Savidor Central station.
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Israel carried out multiple airstrikes in Beirut on Wednesday morning, targeting residential areas. The Lebanese health ministry announced that at least 10 people were killed in strikes on the Zuqaq al-Blat and Basta areas. Footage posted on X showed Israeli strikes on a residential building in central Beirut, which destroyed the entire structure.
Meanwhile, Israel issued overnight evacuation orders for the town of Tyre and nearby Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon, forcing new mass displacement as footage showed residents fleeing north. Lebanese authorities say more than 1 million people have been displaced since March 2.
The U.N Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on March 17 released a statement on the situation in Lebanon, warning that Israel’s displacement orders, which now include the region between the Litani and Zahrani rivers, “may amount to forced displacement, prohibited under international humanitarian law.” The U.N. Office also condemned “statements by Israeli officials threatening to impose the same level of destruction on Lebanon as inflicted in Gaza” as “wholly unacceptable.”
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