Iran War Live Updates: U.S. Marines Arrive in Middle East, as Houthis Enter War

Tehran5:19 a.m. March 29 Tel Aviv4:49 a.m. March 29 Iran War Live Updates: U.S. Marines Arrive in Middle East, as Houthis Enter War A U.S. official said that earlier an Iranian strike at a military base in Saudi Arabia injured around two dozen U.S. troops, one of the most serious breaches of American defenses since the war began. - Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times - Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times - Amit Elkayam for The New York Times - Amit Elkayam for The New York Times - David Guttenfelder/The New York Times - David Guttenfelder/The New York Times - Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times - Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times - Ako Rasheed/Reuters - Hussein Malla/Associated Press An expeditionary force of American Marines arrived in the Middle East on Saturday, as the Houthis, the Iran-allied militant group in Yemen, entered the widening Iran conflict by launching an unsuccessful missile attack on Israel. Even though President Trump has said there are “very strong talks” underway with Iran on a diplomatic solution, a series of strikes on Friday and Saturday gave no indication the fighting was ebbing. Airstrikes in Tehran damaged residential areas and civilian facilities on Saturday, including a prestigious university, according to Iranian media and aid groups. Israel and the Persian Gulf nations reported missile and drone attacks from Iran. Israel continued its offensive in Lebanon. While there were no reports of casualties in the Houthis’ ballistic missile attack on Israel, the group, which controls much of Yemen, could further rattle global markets. During the war in Gaza, the Houthis disrupted international shipping by menacing vessels in the Red Sea. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, said that the attacks from Yemen would continue “until the aggression ends.” The 2,500 Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit who have been dispatched by Mr. Trump to the Middle East are part of the U.S.S. Tripoli amphibious ready group, accompanied by 2,500 sailors, U.S. military officials said. The officials would not say precisely where the Marines were for operational security reasons. Usually based in Okinawa, Japan, the Marines are expected to be part of Mr. Trump’s effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iranian forces have mostly closed. Though the Iranian Navy has been largely crippled by the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign, Iran can still deploy fast boats with mines or explosives from the strait’s rugged coastline or small islands. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday the United States did not need ground troops to achieve its goals in Iran and predicted the war would be over within weeks, not months. But Mr. Trump has not ruled out using Marines or special forces. The Iranians’ ability to close the strait gives Tehran leverage over world oil markets, and the war has driven the price of oil up, shaking stock markets. Here’s what else we’re covering: Americans injured: A U.S. official said on Saturday that around two dozen U.S. service members had been wounded in an earlier Iranian strike on a military base in Saudi Arabia. The attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base seriously injured two of the soldiers and damaged two military planes, according to U.S. officials. It was one of the most serious breaches of U.S. defenses since the war began in late February. Lebanese journalists killed: An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Saturday killed two prominent Lebanese television journalists and a cameraman, according to their news organizations and Lebanese officials. The attack, which Israel said was targeting a reporter it accused of being a Hezbollah operative, was condemned by the country’s president and rights groups, and it raised questions about the scope of Israel’s targets. Read more › Israeli strikes: The Israeli military said Saturday that it had begun a new round of bombardment in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Israel also reported more waves of incoming Iranian missiles, which killed at least one person in Tel Aviv, according to Israel’s emergency service. Iranian attacks: Drones struck Kuwait International Airport, damaging its radar, and the key port of Salalah in Oman. Both Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates said its forces were intercepting drones and missiles from Iran. Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said its forces had intercepted drones and a missile, without saying where they had come from. Industrial targets: The U.S.-Israeli coalition bombarded Iran’s industrial infrastructure on Friday, with attacks on two major steel production complexes that are vital to the country’s economy. American and Israeli officials have vowed to target the country’s military industrial base to prevent it from quickly rearming after the war. Israel’s military also said it had attacked nuclear sites in central Iran. Read more › Food supply: The war’s effects on fertilizer supplies are worsening by the day, and price increases for farmers are threatening to lead to food insecurity in some parts of the world. Read more › Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency has reported that more than 1,492 civilians have been killed in Iran, out of more than 3,300 total deaths. More than 1,110 people in Lebanon have been killed, the health ministry there said on Thursday. More than 50 people have been killed in Gulf countries, while in Israel at least 16 were killed in Iranian attacks, officials said. The American death toll stands at 13 service members. A human rights monitoring group said the number of attacks recorded over the past day in Iran was among the highest for a single day since the start of the war on Feb. 28. The group, Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, said it had documented 701 strikes over 24 hours on Saturday, resulting in at least 24 civilians being killed and 88 injured. Three-quarters of the airstrikes hit in the capital, Tehran, the group said. Since the start of the conflict, HRANA has recorded at least 1,551 civilian deaths, including 236 children. The Houthis, an Iranian-backed militant group in Yemen, entered the war by launching a ballistic missile at Israel on Saturday, as an expeditionary force of 2,500 U.S. Marines arrived in the Middle East. Saturday’s escalation also included a wave of Israeli strikes on central Tehran, the Iranian capital. The attacks came while President Trump gave reassurances that there were “very strong talks” with Iran seeking a diplomatic solution. The Marines are part of the U.S.S. Tripoli amphibious ready group, which also consists of 2,500 American sailors and is meant to be a part of Mr. Trump’s effort to open the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil route largely blocked by Iran, and ease global oil prices. Here’s what else happened as the war entered its fifth week: Saudi Arabia: An Iranian strike injured approximately two dozen U.S. service members on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. It was one of the most serious breaches of American air defenses since the war’s start. Most of the service members who were hurt suffered traumatic brain injuries, he said. The U.S. military intercepted several missiles and drones, but at least two missiles and a drone struck the base, he added. At least two service members were seriously injured, and two aircraft were damaged in the attack, according to multiple U.S. officials who also spoke on the condition of anonymity. Israel: The Iran-allied Houthis joined the war, launching a ballistic missile at Israel that was successfully intercepted by the country’s aerial defense systems. The Houthis are Shiite militants who control much of Yemen and have been at war with Saudi Arabia, which backs Yemen’s government, for over a decade. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, said in a video statement that the group’s attacks would continue “until the aggression ends against all the fronts of the resistance.” Iran: The Israeli military bombarded Tehran with a “wide-scale wave of strikes,” damaging residential areas and civilian facilities. Iranian state media outlets said that several research and educational buildings at the Iran University of Science and Industry were among the struck sites. The Israeli military said it was targeting naval and military infrastructure in the Iranian capital. Lebanon: An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed two prominent Lebanese television journalists and a cameraman, according to their news organizations and Lebanese officials. They worked for Al-Manar, a network owned by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, and Al-Mayadeen, a broadcaster supportive of Hezbollah. The Israeli military said it had targeted a correspondent for Al-Manar, accusing him of being an intelligence operative for Hezbollah. The three victims were traveling together in a car at the time of the attack. In a statement, Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, condemned the killings as a “blatant crime” that “violated the most basic rules of international law.” Persian Gulf: Iran has permitted several oil tankers from Thailand and Pakistan to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s deputy prime minister, said two ships would cross per day. The United Arab Emirates noted a significant increase in Iranian attacks over the past day, saying it engaged with 20 ballistic missiles and 37 drones launched from Iran. Authorities said debris from an intercepted ballistic missile caused a fire and injured six people in Abu Dhabi, the U.A.E. capital. Multiple drones struck Kuwait International Airport, causing significant damage to its radar system, the country’s aviation authorities said. There were no reported casualties. Two drones also struck near Oman’s commercial port of Salalah, injuring a worker. The Iranian military said it had been targeting an American “military support vessel” some distance from the port. The Houthis, an Iranian-backed militia in Yemen, said in a statement that they had conducted a second wave of attacks on Israel on Saturday with a “barrage of cruise missiles and drones” targeting key military sites. There was no immediate, public confirmation from the Israeli military of the attacks, which the Houthis have vowed to keep up. At least four deafening sonic booms were heard in Beirut on Saturday night, shaking buildings, rattling objects and sending people into the streets in a panic. The explosive booms came after a few relatively quiet nights in the city. The persistent buzz of an Israeli drone had been audible in the sky for hours beforehand. Iranian state media reported that an airstrike struck a water reservoir in the southwestern city of Haftkel on Saturday, citing a provincial law enforcement official. The official said a 10,000-cubic-meter reservoir in Khuzestan had been targeted. He said there were no reported casualties, and that other water sources remained operational, with no disruption of the supply of drinking water to residents nearby. The report could not be independently verified. Airstrikes damaged residential areas and civilian facilities in Tehran on Saturday, including a prestigious university, according to Iranian media and aid groups. Residents of the capital described particularly intense waves of strikes on Friday night into Saturday, with the sounds of explosions heard across the city. Nassrin, a 62-year-old resident of Tehran, said the ground had shaken overnight with the force of the blasts. “I can’t even put into words what it was like in Tehran last night,” Nassrin, who asked that her last name not be used out of fear of retribution, said in a text message. “We got no sleep, it was hours and hours of explosions.” The Israeli military said on Saturday evening in the Middle East that it had completed a “wide-scale wave of strikes” targeting naval and military infrastructure in Tehran. It said the strikes were part of a “broader phase aimed at deepening the damage to the core systems” of Iran’s government. On Saturday, U.S. Central Command said it had struck more than 11,000 targets in Iran since the war began. The U.S. military has not been specific about the locations of its strikes, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not held a news conference since March 19 to answer questions from journalists. Video footage shared by BBC Persian showed razed buildings and flames at the Iran University of Science and Industry on Saturday, a university in downtown Tehran. According to Iranian state media outlets, several research and educational buildings were damaged at the university, though no casualties were reported in that specific strike. Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, claimed in a social media post on Saturday that the strike on the university was “among many universities and research centers deliberately attacked” since the war began. Videos posted by the Red Crescent Society of Iran showed emergency teams responding to damage in residential areas of Tehran after what it described as airstrikes on Saturday. The exact locations of the affected neighborhoods were not immediately clear from the reports. The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a Washington-based human rights group, has reported that more than 1,492 civilians have been killed in Iran, out of more than 3,300 total deaths since the start of the U.S.-Israeli military campaign. Israeli and U.S. officials have said strikes in Iran are aimed at military targets, including sites and individuals linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. But both targeted killings, as well as strikes on police stations and other security or military institutions, are often happening in densely packed residential neighborhoods with high-rise apartment buildings. The airstrikes do not just hit the targeted buildings, but can cause significant damage to residential units in the area. Across the country, tens of thousands of residential units have been destroyed since the start of the war, according to the Red Crescent. Israel announced this week that it would intensify attacks on Iran’s infrastructure. The Israeli military has said that the industries struck are often “dual use,” with both civilian and military applications, or have ties to the government and armed forces. In recent days, two major steel production complexes have been hit. Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting. On Saturday morning, phones across Dubai pinged with public safety alerts: Potential missile threats were incoming, and people should seek immediate safety. On the same day, the Dubai Racing Club issued a warning of a different kind. Attendees to the Dubai World Cup horse race would not be permitted to wear ripped jeans or torn clothing of any kind, “even if considered designer fashion.” It also offered advice — ladies were encouraged to wear hats. Few things better illustrated Dubai’s surreal efforts to maintain normalcy amid the Middle East war than the richest day in horse racing’s happening undeterred on Saturday. The event’s nine races awarded a total of $30.5 million in prize money. Many of the Gulf States have been striving to protect their image as safe havens for leisure and luxury. Dubai and the United Arab Emirates as a whole have taken it further, aided by the mostly successful interceptions of the over 2,000 Iranian attacks. Still, there are limits. At least eight civilians have been killed in the Emirates, including one in Dubai, and the strikes have damaged luxury high rises, the Fairmont The Palm hotel and the airport. On Saturday, the Emirates said there had been a significant increase in attacks from Iran, adding that it had intercepted 20 ballistic missiles and 37 drones launched during the past day. Debris from an intercepted ballistic missile caused a fire in Abu Dhabi, injuring six people, the Abu Dhabi government said. Other events, such as Art Dubai and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, have been postponed. The Dubai Racing Club, which organizes the race, did not respond to questions about whether it considered postponing the race or about the security precautions in place. In a statement, the club said that it “works closely with all relevant authorities to monitor conditions and ensure the highest standards of safety and comfort for all participants and guests.” Described by one Emirati newspaper as Dubai’s “biggest social spectacle,” the Dubai World Cup has perhaps become more synonymous with style than sport in its 30th year. Tatiana Maltseva, 40, had not seen the dress code advisory before she and her family arrived at the Meydan Racecourse. When her friend saw her dressed in a yellow sundress sans hat, she asked, “Didn’t you read the rules?” Few of the women in the affordable grandstands, where Ms. Maltseva was located, appeared to have taken the headwear advice seriously. Most of the visible hats were red Emirates Airlines baseball caps worn by men poring over the race booklet and filling out scorecard predictions. Ms. Maltseva, a wedding planner who left Russia with her family three years ago because of the war with Ukraine, said her only reference point for such an event was the polo match scene from the movie “Pretty Woman.” “And people were dressed really nice,” she said, making a show of looking around her at the dressed-down crowd in the grandstands. She laughed and shook her head. Instead, that glamour was mostly in the V.I.P. sections above, where Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was in attendance, or down on the grounds where judging took place for several categories of “best dressed.” Ms. Maltseva was ready to leave after the second race, but her friends had filled out predicted results for the third race in hopes of winning prizes. So they stayed to watch the race. As the horses and jockeys came around the final stretch, the horse that had been leading for much of the race was suddenly overtaken by the rest of the pack. All around her, men leaped from their seats, cheering and pumping their fists as Fairy Glen, owned by Dubai’s crown prince, took the lead at the final moment and won. A bit later, near the track, Deepshika Sriram, dressed in a navy dress and a matching blue lace headpiece, looked around for the best view of the fifth race. Ms. Sriram, a 22-year-old compliance officer, said she attended her first horse races while studying in Britain. Now back in Dubai, she was attending her first Dubai World Cup. “You have to fit in with the attire,” she said, touching the edge of her hat. “I feel like whatever I was wearing wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t wear a hat.” Pakistan’s deputy prime minister on Saturday announced that Iran agreed to let 20 vessels sailing under the Pakistani flag through the Strait of Hormuz. Two ships will cross per day, Ishaq Dar said in a statement on social media. “This is a welcome and constructive gesture by Iran and deserves appreciation,” he said. U.S. Central Command said on Saturday that the United States had struck more than 11,000 targets in Iran since the war began, adding that it had damaged or destroyed over 150 Iranian vessels. The announcement, posted on social media, represents one of the few concrete updates provided by officials on the status of the war. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have not conducted a news conference since March 19. Operation Epic Fury: March 28th Update pic.twitter.com/WG1adY5YaR — U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 28, 2026 An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Saturday killed two prominent Lebanese television journalists and a cameraman, according to their news organizations and Lebanese officials. The attack was condemned by the country’s president and rights groups, and it raised questions about the scope of Israel’s targets. The Israeli military said it had targeted Ali Choeib, a correspondent for Al-Manar, a Lebanese television network owned by Hezbollah. The military accused him of being an intelligence operative for the Iran-backed militant group, but did not respond to requests for evidence to support that claim. Fatima Ftouni, a correspondent with Al-Mayadeen, another Lebanese broadcaster whose editorial line is generally supportive of Hezbollah, and Mohammad Ftouni, a cameraman, were also killed in the strike, according to Al-Mayadeen and Al-Manar. The three were traveling together in a car close to the southern town of Jezzine at the time of the attack, the outlets said. Lebanon’s health minister, Rakan Nassereddine, said late Saturday that a paramedic had been killed in a second strike. The Israeli military did not respond immediately respond to a request for comment on the deaths of the paramedic or Ms. Ftouni and Mr. Ftouni. In a statement, Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, condemned the killing of the journalists as a “blatant crime” that “violated the most basic rules of international law.” The Lebanese government now plans to file a complaint with the U.N. Security Council, according to Lebanon’s minister of information, Paul Morcos. Mr. Choeib and Ms. Ftouni were fixtures on Lebanese television, particularly during the current war between Israel and Hezbollah. The conflict erupted earlier this month after the militant group fired rockets into Israel, opening a new front in the broader U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. The two journalists frequently reported from Lebanon’s southern border towns as Israeli forces have expanded their ground invasion there. Both have expressed views in support of Hezbollah, which the United States designates as a terror organization, but it is also an established political party in Lebanon with support particularly among Shiite Lebanese. The Israeli military accused Mr. Choeib of being part of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, which has played a central role in the group’s long-running conflict with Israel. It also accused him of using his work with Al-Manar to expose Israeli military positions and disseminate propaganda for Hezbollah. Israel did not make similar claims against the other two journalists. Hezbollah condemned what it described as the “deliberate” targeting of journalists and rejected what it called “false claims” by Israel, an apparent reference to the accusation that Mr. Choeib was a Hezbollah operative. Legal experts and human rights groups say that expressions of support for an armed group such as Hezbollah do not make someone a legitimate target under the laws of war, unless they actively participate in hostilities. “Just reporting on the advancement of Israeli troops or engaging in propaganda does not make someone a military target,” said Ramzi Kaiss, the Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. He added that the United States-based watchdog group has “documented repeated deliberate attacks on journalists in Lebanon, including those working for both international and Lebanese agencies, amounting to apparent war crimes.” A British correspondent for RT, the Russian state broadcaster, and his cameraman were wounded last week in an Israeli strike on a bridge in southern Lebanon. In 2023, Reuters cameraman, Issam Abdallah, was killed and six other journalists were injured in southern Lebanon when an Israeli tank fired on their position. The Committee to Project Journalists, a rights group, concluded that the killing was “an early example of the Israeli military deliberately targeting journalists for their work.” Aaron Boxerman, Dayana Iwaza and Sarah Chaito contributed reporting. Over 200 Iranians from diverse backgrounds gathered in London for a two-day conference on Saturday to discuss the future of the country after it has been convulsed by months of deadly anti-government protests and now the war. Observers say this is the first time opposition groups unrelated to Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed shah who ruled the country before the 1979 revolution, have gathered in this way. Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a prominent Iranian author and filmmaker, told The New York Times that the meeting was intended to help prevent Iran from “falling into an internal war” if the Islamic republic is ousted. After an Iranian strike on a Saudi air base that houses American warplanes, around two dozen injuries to U.S. service members have been reported, most of them traumatic brain injuries, as of Saturday morning, said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He cautioned that in such cases, those numbers can go up as more troops come forward to report traumatic brain injury symptoms caused by the explosions. At least two service members were seriously injured, and the attack significantly damaged two aircraft, including a refueling tanker, according to multiple U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Estimates of the damage differed, and an earlier account given to The New York Times said both damaged planes were refueling planes. Iran had prepared to launch a volley of ballistic missiles and drones at the base, but U.S. forces struck a number of the launch strikes first, one of the officials said. The U.S. also intercepted several missiles and drones that did get into the air, he said, but at least two missiles and one drone got through and struck Prince Sultan Air Base. Ukraine on Saturday refuted claims by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that it had destroyed a depot in the United Arab Emirates where Ukrainian air defense experts were working and storing equipment. Herohii Tykhi, a spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, said the IRGC claim was “disinformation” and denied that Ukrainians had been hit, although it was not clear from his statement whether or not there had been an attack. Teams of Ukrainian air defense experts have travelled to several Mideast countries in recent weeks to consult on intercepting Iranian-designed Shahed drones, which Russia has for years been firing at Ukraine. Ukraine has signed a defense agreement with Qatar that would include an “exchange of expertise in countering missiles and unmanned aerial systems,” according to a statement from Qatar’s defense ministry. The deal was signed in Doha as President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine made a flurry of visits to Gulf countries that have been facing attacks from Iran. Some 2,500 Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit arrived in the Middle East on Friday, U.S. military officials said. The Marines, accompanied by 2,500 American sailors, are part of the U.S.S. Tripoli amphibious ready group. Usually based in Okinawa, Japan, they are supposed to be part of President Trump’s effort to open the Strait of Hormuz — largely closed because of attacks by Iranian forces. It remains unclear what the Marines will be charged with now that they have arrived. U.S. airstrikes have forced the Iranians to forgo their larger naval vessels and deploy fast boats carrying mines that can evade aircraft. These boats can launch from an archipelago of islands closer to the strait. With the arrival of the Marines, the Pentagon will be able to quickly launch raids onto the islands with infantry Marines who will have logistics and air support, military experts said. But clearing all these islands would be time consuming. Pakistani officials will host talks beginning Sunday with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said on Saturday, in the country’s latest efforts to mediate the war in the Middle East. Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, Hakan Fidan of Turkey and Badr Abdelatty of Egypt are expected to hold “in-depth discussions” on regional tensions over two days in Islamabad, the capital, the foreign ministry said. They are also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan. Pakistan has its own stake in the regional crisis, including an energy crunch, and it has recently intensified efforts at shuttle diplomacy between the United States and Iran. Pakistani leaders, who are close to both President Trump and President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran, have passed messages between the two countries and engaged in a flurry of telephone calls. Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, the country’s army chief, has been focusing on Mr. Trump, while Pakistan’s top two civilian leaders, including Mr. Sharif, have spoken with at least 20 world leaders over the past week, according to the foreign ministry. On Saturday, Mr. Sharif spoke by phone with Mr. Pezeshkian for over an hour, according to a statement from Mr. Sharif. Mr. Sharif condemned “continued Israeli attacks on Iran, including recent strikes on civilian infrastructure,” the statement said. It did not make any direct reference to the United States. Mr. Sharif also briefed Mr. Pezeshkian on Pakistan’s outreach to Washington and to countries in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere in the region, “to facilitate dialogue and de-escalation,” the statement said. The diplomatic outreach comes even as Pakistan is in a state of open conflict with Afghanistan, where it has carried out dozens of airstrikes that have killed at least 200 civilians, according to the United Nations. Pakistan shares a roughly 560-mile border with Iran. The chaos there threatens to spill over into Balochistan, a resource-rich province in southwestern Pakistan along that border, where the Pakistani government is battling a separatist insurgency. Pakistan is home to one of the largest Shiite populations outside Iran, and many of them look to Tehran for religious guidance. The Pakistani government must navigate differing priorities among its Middle Eastern partners, particularly Saudi Arabia, which it signed a defense pact with last year. Analysts say a prolonged conflict could fuel sectarian tensions, further disrupt fuel supplies and deepen economic pressure in Pakistan. “By advocating de-escalation and serving as a messenger, Pakistan has signaled it does not want to be drawn into a broader conflict,” said Farhan Hanif Siddiqi, an international relations professor at the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi. The United Arab Emirates said there had been a significant increase in attacks from Iran. U.A.E. air defenses had engaged with 20 ballistic missiles and 37 drones launched from Iran over the past day. Debris from an intercepted ballistic missile caused a fire in Abu Dhabi, injuring six people, the Abu Dhabi government said. The country has faced 398 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles and 1,872 drones since the start of the war, the defense ministry said. Two prominent Lebanese television journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Saturday, their channels said in statements. They were Ali Choeib, who worked for Al-Manar, a channel owned by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, and Fatima Ftouni, a reporter for Al-Mayadeen, another broadcaster whose editorial line is generally supportive of Hezbollah. The Israeli military said Choeib was a member of Hezbollah’s military wing and had used his work for Al Manar to expose Israeli military positions. It did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Ftouni’s death or for evidence that Choeib was a combatant. Human rights groups say that supporting a militant group does not make someone a legitimate target under the laws of war unless they actively participate in hostilities. The attack on Israel on Saturday morning by the Houthis, an Iranian-backed militia in Yemen, was an escalation in the monthlong U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, and threatened to expand the war’s reach across the region. The Israeli military said early on Saturday that its aerial defense systems had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen. No casualties were immediately reported after the attack. Israel has been targeting the Houthis for years, and many believed that the group’s military capabilities had been severely degraded. After the United States and Israel began attacking Iran in late February, expectations grew that the Houthis might enter the conflict, especially as other Iranian proxy groups in Lebanon and Iraq became involved. The Houthi attack on Israel on Saturday demonstrated that, despite heavy Israeli strikes on its leadership and infrastructure, the group remains capable of responding. There has also been concern that, if the Houthis were to enter the war, the group could disrupt global shipping through the Red Sea, which it has done previously by attacking passing ships, in some cases sinking them or killing their crew members. The global economy is already reeling from Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial choke point for energy shipments in the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s northern neighbor, has been funneling crude oil exports through the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, using an overland pipeline that was built to bypass the strait. The Houthis said in a statement on Saturday that they had launched ballistic missiles targeting “sensitive” Israeli military sites, acting in tandem with Iran and with Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group based in Lebanon. The statement said the attacks would continue “until the aggression on all resistance fronts stops.” The Houthis are Shiite militants who have been engaged in a conflict with Yemen’s internationally-recognized government for nearly two decades. In 2014, they captured the capital, Sanaa, forcing the government to flee to the southern port city of Aden. An alliance led by Saudi Arabia to remove the Houthis faltered and led to a devastating civil war that precipitated one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. “It is a very bad day for Yemenis,” said Farea Al-Muslimi, a research fellow focused on Yemen and the wider Gulf region at Chatham House, a policy institute in London. “The Houthis have decided to take a reckless decision to join a war that is not Yemen’s war and to basically respond to their sponsor in Tehran.” The attack on Saturday was the latest escalation in a yearslong conflict between Israel and the Houthis. In 2023, shortly after the onset of the Gaza war, the Houthis began launching drones and missiles at Israel and ships in the Red Sea. They described their actions as a campaign to force Israel to halt its bombardment of Gaza and to allow more aid into the enclave. The attacks disrupted traffic through one of the world’s major maritime corridors, forcing shipping companies to reroute around the southern tip of Africa. This detour, which added thousands of miles and several days to transit times, significantly increased shipping costs and delays. The United States responded with military action that included more than 1,100 strikes on Houthi targets. Despite the campaign and a 2025 cease-fire agreement between the United States and the Houthis, some major shipping companies continued to avoid the routes as the militia kept up attacks in support of the Palestinian cause. The Houthis consider themselves part of Iran’s “axis of resistance,” a loose network of groups that includes Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and Shiite militias in Iraq. The axis has weakened in recent years, primarily because Israel has targeted the groups’ leaders with airstrikes, disrupted their operations and struck key infrastructure. In Yemen, Israel has killed senior members of the Houthi cabinet, including the prime minister, Ahmed al-Rahawi. It has also conducted a series of punishing strikes on the country’s main international airport and ports, lifelines for food and medicine entering the country. The Houthis continued to carry out drone and missile attacks on Israel throughout 2025, but paused after the U.S. brokered a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas last October. Since the war began in late February, there have been expectations that the Houthis would eventually join. The group’s leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, in a televised address earlier this week, reaffirmed their strong ties with Iran and signaled their readiness to intervene militarily. “We will take the initiative with full trust and reliance upon God Almighty, just as in previous rounds,” Mr. al-Houthi said in his speech. On Friday, large crowds of the group’s loyalists gathered in Sanaa, brandishing weapons and waving the flags of Yemen, Iran and Palestine, as they participated in protests in support of Iran. It was not immediately clear how far the group might escalate its attacks now that it has joined the war. But Mr. Al-Muslimi, the Chatham House researcher, said there was widespread concern that its involvement could have major implications for regional stability, as well as trade and energy costs. The Houthis, he added, have “the geographical ability to destabilize not just the Middle East but the entire world.” On Saturday, some people in Yemen said that they feared the Houthi attack could provoke Israeli strikes on the country, bringing further devastation in one of the world’s poorest countries. “If anything comes of it, it will bring us nothing but misery,” said Ali Ahmad Hameed, a 65-year-old grocer in Sanaa, referring to the possibility of an Israeli retaliation. Shuaib Almosawa and Ismaeel Naar contributed reporting. The Israeli military just warned Lebanese in several towns near the southern city of Tyre to flee their homes or expect impending Israeli operations that could put them in danger. The threats are likely to intensify fears in Lebanon that Israeli forces -- which are currently invading southern Lebanon -- might advance toward the city. Israeli soldiers have been clashing with Hezbollah across southern Lebanon as part of Israel’s efforts to uproot the Iran-backed armed group. Iran acknowledged attacking near Oman’s commercial port of Salalah after Oman said it had been targeted on Saturday. In a statement, an Iranian military spokesman said that Iranian forces had targeted an American “military support vessel” some distance from the port. Oman said two drones had struck the port, injuring a worker and damaging one of the cranes. Iraq’s defense ministry said a drone had crashed into an oil field in Basra, in southern Iraq. The drone did not explode and caused no casualties or damage to the Majnoon oil field, according to the Iraqi authorities. Iran has repeatedly fired on oil and energy fields in its Persian Gulf neighbors in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli campaign, while Israel has bombarded fuel depots and a gas field inside Iran. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Saturday that he had met with the President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates to discuss security and defense cooperation. He said they reviewed the security situation in the Emirates, focusing on Iranian strikes and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively shut down. Zelensky also highlighted that Ukrainian experts were assisting the U.A.E. in defending against aerial threats and safeguarding its airspace and infrastructure. Iranian missiles and drones have targeted a variety of facilities in the Emirates, including energy, aviation, military and civilian infrastructure since the war began on Feb. 28. The thuds of artillery are echoing across the city of Tyre on Saturday, as fighting intensifies along Lebanon’s southern coast. My colleagues and I can see the white smoke from strikes rising above Bayada, a town just south of Tyre where there have been clashes between Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces over the past day. That has stoked fears among the residents we have spoken to that the fighting could soon reach Tyre. Pakistan’s foreign ministry has announced that the country’s foreign minister and his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey will meet in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, on Sunday and Monday to discuss “efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region.” The ministers will also meet with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, who has been spearheading his country’s efforts to broker peace by relaying messages between the United States and Iran. Two drones struck the port of Salalah in Oman on Saturday, causing limited damage and injuring a worker, the authorities in Oman said in a statement. They did not say where the drones came from. Salalah is an important port in the region and is on key international shipping routes. There were no reports of casualties in Israel on Saturday after the first known Houthi attack since the war began four weeks ago. But the group, which controls much of Yemen, has the ability to further rattle global markets. During the war in Gaza, the Houthis disrupted international shipping by menacing passing vessels in the Red Sea near the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, prompting a bombing campaign by the United States and its allies.