Iran war: Top intelligence chief killed in Israeli strike

Kuwait's Health Ministry said six people were injured by "falling projectiles and debris in a residential area" in the north of the country as Iran launched attacks on Gulf countries Monday.

The United Arab Emirates also reported an injury after drone fragments fell onto an industrial area.

Iran also claimed to have targeted US forces on Kuwait's Bubiyan island in the Persian Gulf, but these reports were not immediately confirmed by the US military.

Civilian infrastructure in Gulf countries has come frequently under attack, and Gulf nations said air defenses had been activated in response to wave of fresh strikes from Sunday to Monday,

Lebanese state media reported an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Monday, as the Israeli miliary said it was continuing to target Hezbollah militants.

The area south of the Lebanese capital is considered a Hezbollah stronghold, and its residents have largely left amid repeated Israeli attacks and evacuation warnings.

Live footage from AFP news agency showed smoke billowing from the area.

After Israel and the US launched attacks on Iran, Tehran-backed Hezbollah began launching strikes on northern Israel. The Israeli military launched a ground invasion in parts of southern Lebanon targeting the militant group.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, and 1 million displaced since hostilities resumed.

The intelligence chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Majid Khademi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Monday, Iranian state media reported, without sharing more details.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed that Israel had targeted Khademi.  

"The Revolutionary Guards are shooting at civilians and we are eliminating the leaders of the terrorists," Katz said. "Iran's leaders live with a sense of being targeted. We will continue to hunt them down one by one," he added.

Khademi was among 25 people killed in a wave of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran on Monday.

Iran also fired drones and missiles at targets in the Gulf and Israel. At least two people were killed in Israel's Haifa in an Iranian missile strike on an apartment late Sunday.

Several senior Iranian security officials have been killed since the war began, among them security chief Ali Larijani, and the Guards' commander-in-chief Mohammad Pakpour.

Analysts have pointed out that a decentralized command structure has enabled Iran's regime to continue coordinating attacks, even when senior officials are killed.

The US and Iran have received a draft ceasefire proposal calling for a 45-day halt in fighting and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, according to unnamed officials speaking to news agencies on Monday.

The Associated Press reported that the proposal came from Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators, and it was sent late Sunday night to both Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.

Iran and the US have yet to officially respond.

An unidentified Iranian official told Reuters news agency that Iran would not reopen the strait as part of a temporary ceasefire, and would not accept any deadlines to review the proposal.

The reports of a ceasefire plan come after US President Donald Trump issued a new Tuesday deadline for Iran to reopen the strait or else face attacks on energy infrastructure.  

South Korean officials say diplomatic efforts are underway to secure alternative oil supplies as the conflict in the Middle East continues to disrupt global energy shipments.

South Korea's economy is heavily dependent on crude oil imports, with some two-thirds of its total transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The threat of Iranian strikes on shipping vessels has largely closed the vital waterway since the war began in late February, setting off a global shock in energy supplies.

In mid-March, Seoul released part of its strategic oil reserve to cushion short-term shortages.

On Monday, ruling Democratic Party lawmaker Ahn Do-geol told reporters that South Korean authorities are working with oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman and Algeria to ‌secure alternative routes.

This could include dispatching special envoys to assist in the process.

Additionally, South Korea's Industry Ministry is planning the deployment of South Korean-flagged oil tankers on the Red Sea route. The tankers would be sent to the Red Sea port of Yanbu in Saudi Arabia, from where crude oil arrives via pipelines from The Gulf for export.

Israeli rescuers are continuing to search for missing people after an apartment building in the northern city of Haifa was hit by an Iranian missile on Sunday and partially collapsed.

Firefighters said they were looking for two missing people in the rubble. Two others had earlier been found dead.

The seven-story building took a direct hit, the military said. Dozens of Israeli security and rescue service personnel were deployed at the site, according to AFP news agency.

Israel, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates reported fresh missile and drone fire early on Monday. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries.

Kuwait's army said its air defenses had been working intercepting missiles and drones in the morning, after responding to a similar barrage overnight.

In Abu Dhabi, authorities were responding to an incident of falling debris from an intercepted projectile on to an industrial facility. A Ghanaian man was injured by the falling shrapnel. 

And the Israeli military said it had identified missiles launched from Iran, with air defenses working to intercept.

Hours earlier, Iran's central military command warned of "devastating and widespread" retaliatory operations if civilian targets in Iran were hit.

The warning came after US President Donald Trump threatened to destroy Iran's civilian infrastructure if Tehran did not open the Strait of Hormuz.

Gas outages have been reported in parts of Tehran after a strike on a university, Iran's state broadcaster said on Monday.

The attack "hit the Sharif University gas station and we are facing a temporary gas outage in the Sharif neighborhood," state broadcaster IRIB quoted the head of Tehran's District 9 neighborhood as saying.
 

An airstrike early Monday hit a residential building near Iran's capital, Tehran, killing at least 13 people, according to Iranian media.

The semiofficial Fars news agency and Nour News reported the attack near Eslamshahr, southwest of Tehran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that Israel helped the United States rescue the missing US service member whose fighter jet was shot down over Iran.

In a post on X early on Monday, Netanyahu said he had congratulated US President Donald Trump on "his bold decision and a perfectly executed American mission to rescue the downed pilot from enemy territory."

"I am deeply proud that our cooperation on an off the battlefield is unprecedented, and that Israel could contribute to saving a brave American warrior," he added.

The Democrats have sharply criticized US President Donald Trump's threat to wipe out Iran's power plants and bridges in an expletive-laden social media post.

Senator Chris Van Hollen questioned Trump's mental state. "Trump is clearly unfit to be President," he wrote on X.

Trump's post was also rebuked by Senator Chris Murphy, who called Trump "completely, utterly unhinged." 

Senator Brian Schatz also said, "Bombing civilian infrastructure is a war crime."

Thank you for joining us. Before we move on to cover day 38 of the Iran war, here were some of the major developments from Sunday:

• US President Donald Trump again threatened to bomb Iran's power plants if Tehran doesn't reopen the Strait of Hormuz in an expletive-laden post on Truth Social
• Iran has vowed to reciprocate any attacks on its infrastructure if Washington goes ahead with Trump's threats
• The US rescued the missing crew member of the US F-15 fighter jet
• The OPEC+ oil cartel agreed to raise oil production quotas for May by 206,000 barrels per day