US-Israel-Iran War: Trump Threatens Iran with Power Plant strikes over Hormuz Oil Blockade

Japan's Foreign Ministry says Japanese national detained in Iran last year has been released

Air defenses early Sunday tracked the launch of three ballistic missiles toward Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, intercepting one, while the other two fell in an uninhabited area, according to the defense ministry.

The ministry also said it downed six drones headed toward the kingdom’s eastern region, one of its least densely populated areas near Iran and home to major oil installations.

No casualties or damage were immediately reported.

AP

The Israeli military says it is striking targets in Tehran. Saturday’s Israeli strikes come after dozens of people were injured in Israel by Iranian missile strikes targeting two areas not far from the country’s main nuclear research center.

International law governing armed conflict forbids the targeting of purely civilian targets such as power plants, said Rachel VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School and a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force who served chief legal adviser for international law at U.S. Central Command.

Plants that are confirmed to be dual-use — meaning they also benefit the military — can be targeted only if the strategic advantage outweighs the harm it causes to civilians, she said. Causing excessive suffering to civilians makes it a war crime under international law.

“It could be lawful, but the way he said it sounds awful because he doesn’t provide any kind of nuance,” VanLandingham said of Trump’s social media post.

AP

The Strait of Hormuz remains open ​to all shipping except vessels linked to "Iran's ‌enemies", Iran's representative to the U.N. maritime agency said on Sunday, after U.S. President Donald Trump ​threatened to target Iranian power plants ​if the waterway was not "fully open" within ⁠48 hours.

Israel’s ⁠Defence Minister Israel Katz has said ⁠that he and ⁠Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed the military to accelerate ‌the demolition of Lebanese homes in “frontline villages” to end threats to Israeli communities.

The military ⁠was instructed to ⁠immediately destroy all bridges over Lebanon’s ⁠Litani river which ⁠he said ⁠were used for “terrorist activity”, Katz said in ‌a statement released by his office.

The Israeli military says it has killed a Hamas operative in Lebanon who it claims was involved in financing the group’s activities.

In a statement, it said Walid Muhammad Dib was targeted earlier this week in a strike carried out on the direction of the Shin Bet intelligence agency.

It alleged that Dib was responsible for transferring funds to Hamas networks in the occupied West Bank, Lebanon and elsewhere, as well as recruiting operatives.

The claims could not be independently verified.

Oman says a group of its citizens has returned home safely from Iran, as repatriation efforts continue.

In a statement reported by the Oman News Agency, the foreign ministry said the evacuation was carried out via land and air routes, coordinated through diplomatic missions in Tehran and Ankara.

It added that monitoring of Omani citizens abroad is continuing “around the clock” to ensure their safety and security.

Israeli settlers rampaged through multiple Palestinian villages overnight on Saturday (March 21, 2026) and into Sunday (March 22, 2026), smashing cars, setting fires and wounding several men in the latest flare-up of violence in the occupied West Bank.

ran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has warned that attacks on the country’s power plants would “immediately” be met with retaliatory strikes on energy and oil infrastructure across the region.

“Critical infrastructure and energy and oil infrastructure throughout the region will be considered legitimate targets and irreversibly destroyed, and oil prices will rise for a long time,” Ghalibaf said on X.

His comments come after US President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to attack Iran’s power plants if freedom of navigation is not fully restored at the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.

The Israeli PM has called on world leaders to join the US-Israel war on Iran, speaking from the site of an attack in the southern Israeli city of Arad.

He claimed some countries were already moving in that direction, as he urged broader international involvement.

Netanyahu accused Iran of targeting civilians and claimed it had the capability to strike long-range targets deep into Europe.

Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and Social Security has said it is assisting more than 2,700 people forced to evacuate their homes due to Iranian strikes, Israeli media reports say.

The figure includes about 1,000 residents who evacuated the southern cities of Arad and Dimona that were heavily attacked overnight.

As we reported earlier, the Israeli emergency service said at least 180 people from the two cities were hospitalised due to the attacks.

The UAE’s Defence Ministry has said it intercepted four ballistic missiles and 25 drones on Sunday.

Since the start of the war, the country has intercepted 345 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles and 1,773 drones, the ministry said.

Iranian attacks resulted in the killing of two soldiers, six civilians, and the injury of 160 people, it said.

Israel’s military says Iran has fired more than 400 ballistic missiles at Israel since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran and 92 percent of them have been intercepted.

“Iran has fired over 400 ballistic missiles. We have had great interception rates. We have approximately a 92 percent successful interception rate,” Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told journalists.

Iranian missiles struck two towns in southern Israel on Saturday, leaving about 180 people needing medical treatment.

The Israeli military says it has killed a commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force and two others in a strike in southern Lebanon.

In a statement, it said Abu Khalil Barji was killed along with two other Hezbollah members in an air strike in the Majdal Selem area.

The military added that it carried out more strikes on what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas of southern Lebanon.

The claims could not be independently verified. More than 1,000 people, including more than 100 children, have been killed in Lebanon since the latest escalation began.

Kuwait has filed a complaint before the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regarding dangerous airspace disruptions caused by Iranian attacks, the country’s Civil Aviation says.

“Iran’s attacks are a blatant violation of international conventions, as they exposed passenger safety to serious risks,” it said.

The Lebanese armed group says it has carried out a series of missile attacks targeting Israeli soldiers near the border with Israel.

In separate statements, the group said it targeted gatherings of Israeli troops at the Marj site opposite the town of Markaba, as well as in Jal al-Hammar, south of Odaisseh.

It also said it carried out a third missile barrage targeting Israeli soldiers in the Taybeh project area.

The claims could not be independently verified.

Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB has quoted the country’s health minister as saying the war has killed 210 children and injured a further 1,510.

The minister added that attacks have so far damaged 300 health, treatment and emergency centres.

As we have been reporting, Iranian officials are warning the US against attacking Iran’s nuclear power plants following Trump’s threats to do so.

Now, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has released a statement, saying that should the power plants be targeted, the Strait of Hormuz will be “completely” closed and will not be reopened until the facilities are rebuilt.

It also said that Israel’s power plants, energy infrastructure, and information and communication technology would be “extensively targeted”, and that similar companies in the region with US shareholders would be “completely destroyed”.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has condemned Israel’s targeting of key infrastructure in southern Lebanon in a statement carried by the official National News Agency.

Aoun denounced strikes on bridges, including Lebanon’s Qasmiyeh Bridge over the Litani River, calling it a violation of sovereignty and a potential precursor to a “ground invasion.”

Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, has congratulated Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

“Iran will overcome challenges with courage,” Lukashenko said in a statement carried by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency. “At the moment of the New Year, Iran continues to courageously fight difficult external challenges.”

Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia’s Vladimir Putin who has led Belarus through more than three decades of authoritarian rule, said he’s “confident that the wise people of Iran, relying on their great experience gained over centuries, will overcome all difficulties with courage and will preserve their right to continue on the chosen path of independence and sovereignty”.