Iran updates: Tehran says ready for invasion amid US-Israeli bombing

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If you’d like to read more about the US decision to attack Iran, you can find the latest updates here.

You can also read more about the human impact of the joint US-Israeli attack on Iranians living in Tehran here.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a quick recap of the main developments today:

• At least 330,000 people have been forcibly displaced across the Middle East amid multiple ongoing conflicts, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has said. That includes at least 100,000 people estimated to have fled Tehran in recent days, more than 84,000 in Lebanon and roughly 118,000 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• US Central Command says it has struck approximately 200 targets in Iran over the past 72 hours including deeply buried ballistic missile launchers and at least 30 Iranian vessels.
• Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announces what it said was a combined drone and missile attack in Tel Aviv and areas in central Israel.
• The Republican-led US House of Representatives has voted 219 to 212 rejecting an effort to stop President Donald Trump’s war on Iran and require that any hostilities against Iran be authorised by Congress.
• Trump said he wants to be involved in choosing the next supreme leader of Iran, reiterating his goal of giving rise to a new leadership that is friendly to the US within the Iranian ruling system.
• Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has warned the country is in a “state of near-emergency” economically as the Middle East war threatens to drive up prices.
• Iran’s government has condemned a US and Israeli strike on the Azadi Sports Complex, a 12,000-seat stadium in the outskirts of Tehran, calling it a violation of international law and the Olympic Charter.
• Trump has also renewed his threats to topple the government of Cuba, stating that US action there could come after his administration completes its war against Iran.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Defence Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz and Dubai Crown Prince, UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum spoke on Thursday about the deepening regional crisis.

The leaders “condemned the aggressive attacks” that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and all other Gulf nations have faced over the past week from Iran.

Evidence assembled by The New York Times suggests a strike that hit an elementary school in the southern Iranian town of Minab were carried out by the US.

The newspaper reports that satellite imagery, social media posts and verified videos indicate the school building was severely damaged by a precision strike at roughly the same time as attacks on an adjacent naval facility operated by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Iran held a mass funeral ceremony for 165 schoolgirls and staff killed in the strike. US officials have not confirmed responsibility for the strike, and no side has publicly claimed it.

According to The New York Times, statements by US officials about strikes on naval targets near the Strait of Hormuz suggest US forces were the most likely to have carried out the attack.

General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a briefing that US forces were conducting strikes along southern Iran at the time. A map shown during the briefing indicated an area including Minab had been targeted during the early phase of the operation.

Caine also said Israeli forces had largely been operating farther north in Iran, according to the report.

Etihad Airways will resume limited commercial flights between March 6 and 19 to and from Abu Dhabi and key destinations including Cairo, Delhi, London, Frankfurt, New York, Paris, Moscow, Toronto and Zurich, the company said in a statement.

A short while ago, Iran’s IRGC announced what it said was a combined drone and missile attack in Tel Aviv and areas in central Israel.

They said they included in the attack package the Kheibar Shekan, with a cluster munition warhead.

We have seen videos of what look like cluster munitions detonating over central Israel and raining down submunitions across a pretty wide area. There are no casualties that are being reported.

Kheibar Shaken means “the fortress buster”. It’s a pretty new weapon in Iran that has only been operational since 2022, and it’s quite sophisticated. It has a manoeuvrable warhead that – when in its descent phase – opens up so that about 20 submunitions come out of it, each with about 2.5 kilos (5.5 pounds) of explosives.

When it’s spread over a big area, it can cause a significant amount of destruction.

Cluster munitions are banned under an international treaty, but only if the countries themselves have signed that convention – and neither Israel nor Iran has signed.

Iran’s government has condemned a US and Israeli strike on the Azadi Sports Complex in Tehran.

In a post on X, Iranian officials said a strike hit the 12,000-seat stadium at the complex, describing it as a site deeply embedded in the country’s collective memory.

Iran’s sports minister, Ahmad Donyamali, visited the site and called the attack a violation of international law and the Olympic Charter, urging global accountability.

Iran said the stadium was heavily damaged in the strike. The United States and Israel have not commented on the claim.

Hundreds of displaced people gathered in Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square after Israeli evacuation warnings prompted residents to flee the city’s southern suburbs.

Among them was Aliyeh Hijazi, a 66-year-old mother of 10 from southern Lebanon who has been displaced twice in just four days.

Hijazi said she fled her hometown and spent 17 hours on the road trying to reach safety in Sidon, travelling with children who were crying from hunger. After a night in Saadiyat, she briefly found refuge with relatives in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

But when new evacuation warnings were issued on Thursday, she was forced to leave again.

“They said they were going to strike Dahieh, so we left, and here we are sitting in the street,” she said.

Now stranded in central Beirut with her husband and one daughter, she says she does not know where her other children are.

“I have 10 children … each one is staying somewhere different,” she said.

Around them, families sat on the pavement with bags and blankets, uncertain where they would go next.