Name: Israel and Iran launch fresh wave of strikes | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-03-05T16:36:23.000Z
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The United States and Israel are intensifying their bombing of Iran on day six of the war.

Israel said it had targeted a missile launcher in Qom and an aerial defense system in Isfahan.

Pentagon officials claim there's been an 86% drop in Iranian missile launches.

President Trump says the United States is now in a very strong position.

Their missiles are being wiped out rapidly.

They're attacking their neighbors, they're attacking their, in some cases allies or not so long ago, allies.

But air raid sirens have been sounding through the night in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Explosions could be heard as missiles were intercepted.

There have been further attacks on Doha in Qatar.

The Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, who is in Australia, says he can't rule out his country's military participation in this escalating war.

And according to political Mexico this morning, the Pentagon has been making plans for operations to last through September.

A notification they seen calls for additional intelligence personnel and funding that may stretch long beyond President Donald Trump's four week timeline.

Let me bring you up to speed with all the other news this morning.

The British Defense Secretary, John Healey, is heading to Cyprus.

The UK's allies have criticized Downing Street's slow response to Tehran's retaliatory strikes.

Cyprus High Commissioner to the UK said the least his country expected was robust defense of the island.

HMS Dragon, brought out of maintenance, will not be there until next week.

In Washington, the bipartisan resolution that may have curbed President Trump's ability to wage war against Iran was voted down in the U. S.

The war powers measure was rejected in a 5347 vote, largely along party lines.

The Iranian ship sunk by a US submarine off the coast of Sri Lanka was reportedly heading back to Iran from an eastern Indian port.

This is the hospital where the sailors are being treated.

The Pentagon video purporting to have captured the attack showed the warship being hit by a torpedo that blew apart the stern of the vessel.

Iran says it is sending a second warship to Sri Lanka and claims this morning it has targeted a US tanker in in the Gulf in retaliation.

The first evacuation flight that has been organized by the British government to bring people home has been delayed by a technical issue in Oman.

A second is due to leave London sometime today.

Some commercial flights are now resuming from the Gulf countries.

48 flights an hour through an air corridor in the UAE and Ben Gurion Airport in Israel has just reopened to limited flights.

Let's bounce across the region and get you up to speed with events there.

We can speak to Leena Singap, who is in Beirut.

Yes, indeed, in south of Beirut and in the south of the country, but

also on a highway that has lots of movements of civilians.

Israel says it's targeted, targeting members of Hezbollah, but many civilians are caught in fire.

The government says at least 70 people have been killed so far and, you know, hundreds injured with almost 80,000 now displaced.

They had to flee their homes and towns and villages seeking shelter in schools or just sleeping in the street waiting to see what's going to happen.

And as this is happening, also Israel gave, you know, warning of evacuation from villages across the border from the south of the Litany river, ordering them to move to the north of the Litany river, which is making people really worry about Israel's expansion and boots on the ground and how long this is going to last.

What are we hearing from the leader of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem?

Well, this is also adding to the worries because he made his first appearance yesterday in a televised speech where he basically defended Hezbollah's position, saying that Israel was breaking the ceasefire agreement over the past 15 months with continuing attacking Hezbollah.

And he said that the group is going to continue defending itself and fighting Israel.

But this is something really what every many people in Lebanon are criticizing because when Hezbollah responded, they responded to Israel after the assassination of the Iranian supreme leader Khamenei, dragging the country into a war that everyone was warning Lebanon not to allow Hezbollah to get involved in this war.

And now it's really hard to see how this is going to stop.

Although the government made it clear that Hezbollah should be banned from any military and security activities.

And any war and peace decision are solely made by the government.

Yet the government, yet Hezbollah broke all the rules and got this country involved in war again.

Yeah, very difficult situation for the government in Beirut, Lena, for the moment.

Barbara Fledasher is there and they're evacuating the area around the base of Al U Date.

Well, they are evacuating the area around the U. S. embassy.

That was a notice put out yesterday evening overnight, actually

saying that this was being done as a precautionary movement.

So not indicating that there was an immediate threat.

But of course, US Embassies have been hit in other parts of the region, in Riyadh and Kuwait and in Dubai.

And also Al Udaid was hit, the US Military base was hit two days ago.

So according to the Qataris, this is just to make sure that they are taking every step possible to protect citizens.

Although we have been hearing in the last 10, 15 minutes quite a lot of explosions, anti aircraft or defense, air defense, fire, I think.

So there is, there does seem to be missiles or drones coming in at the moment.

The Qatari foreign minister has spoken to his Iranian counterpart.

And how long do you think the Gulf states are going to sit on their hands?

So the foreign minister called his counterpart in Iran yesterday.

It's the first time they spoke since the conflict began.

And he rejected the argument that the Iranians were giving, which is that we're not targeting the state of Qatar, we're targeting American interests in the territory.

You're also hitting residential and civilian infrastructure, he said.

He accused the Iranians of, of trying to harm the Arab, their Arab neighbors and of trying to drag them into a war, he said, that is not ours.

And so he demanded that the attacks stop immediately.

But you have had various Gulf states issuing statements of condemnation since Saturday and saying that they reserved the right to respond.

So far they're very focused on defense and they have a very robust defense.

They have anti, they have air defense systems, very expensive air defense systems that they have been employing for the past six days.

But what we understand from the Pentagon briefing yesterday is that the number that Iran's strikes are, have dropped sharply, which suggests that they are, they might be running out of both weapons and launchers.

If that is the case, then perhaps that will, that will, it will stay this way in a defensive mode.

But the, the Gulf states are also, I think, considering whether they will need to move on the offensive at some point.

Everything is being considered at the highest levels we have been told.

Barbara Platasher in Doha, thank you very much for that.

You land Interceptors fired through the evening.

We're being told by the Pentagon that they've dampened the firing of ballistic missiles, but

We just came out of an air raid shelter a short time ago.

So that was another incoming Iranian missile warning.

Sirens went off here in Jerusalem between three and four in the morning, waking up Many people sending them off into their shelters.