The explosions outside Beirut ended a yearlong cease-fire and threatened
to expand the conflict. In an interview with The New York Times, President
Trump said the U.S. plans to keep up the assault on Iran for “four or five
weeks.”
1.
Israel
Strikes Hezbollah in Lebanon:
Israel
launched attacks on Hezbollah
in Lebanon,
breaking a fragile year-long truce.
2.
Trigger
for Escalation:
Hezbollah said its attacks were in retaliation for the killing of Ali Khamenei, who died
in an Israeli missile strike based on U.S. intelligence during a joint U.S.
operation.
3.
Casualties
in Lebanon:
At least 31 people
were killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
4.
Massive
U.S.–Israel Strikes on Iran:
The United States
and Israel struck over 2,000
targets in Iran,
including missile launchers, air defenses, IRGC
headquarters, and naval assets.
5.
Iranian
Retaliation:
Iran launched hundreds of
missiles and drones toward Israel and Persian Gulf countries.
6.
U.S.
Military Casualties:
o Three U.S. soldiers were killed at a base
in Kuwait
— the first American deaths in the conflict.
o Additional U.S. troops sustained minor
injuries.
7.
Regional
Civilian Casualties:
o 9 killed in central Israel (worst Israeli
casualty event so far).
o 5 killed across United Arab Emirates,
Kuwait, and Bahrain.
o 4 killed in Syria.
8.
Oil
& Shipping Disruptions:
o An oil tanker, Skylight, was reported
ablaze off Oman.
o Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — route
for one-fifth of global oil — was shut down.
o Maersk halted some Red Sea shipments.
9.
School
Mass Casualty Event in Iran:
Iranian state media reported at least 115
deaths at Shajarah Tayyebeh girls’ school near a naval base —
one of the deadliest incidents of the campaign.
10. Iran’s Political Transition:
Ali Larijani
announced an interim committee would govern until a new supreme leader is
chosen by the Assembly of
Experts.
11. Trump’s Position:
Donald Trump
said strikes on Iran could continue for “four or five weeks,” acknowledged
likely further casualties, and claimed Iran’s new leadership sought talks —
though Tehran publicly rejected negotiations.
12. Wider Regional Impact:
The conflict is threatening broader Middle East stability, oil supply chains,
and global energy markets.
The
conflict has rapidly expanded into a multi-front regional war involving Israel,
Iran, Hezbollah, and U.S. forces, with significant military and civilian
casualties, disrupted oil shipping, and heightened risks of prolonged
instability across the Middle East.
Israel began attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon early Monday
(02.03.2026), shattering a fragile truce that had been in place for about a
year and threatening to destabilize the region, as both the United States and
Israel ramped up strikes on Iran.
The Israeli military said it was responding to attacks from
Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group. The group took responsibility for
the attacks and said it was acting to avenge the death of Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei. Iran’s supreme leader was killed on Saturday in a joint U.S. military
operation, dying in an Israeli missile strike based on U.S. intelligence.
At least 31 people have been killed so far in Israeli airstrikes
in Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry said in a statement carried by the
government’s official media.
In the second day of intense airstrikes and bombing runs on
Iran, the United States and Israel hit more than 2,000 targets, while Iran
launched hundreds of missiles and drones against Israel and Persian Gulf
countries.
One strike killed three U.S. soldiers at a base in Kuwait.
President Trump expressed condolences for the slain American troops and
predicted there would be more causalities in the coming days. “Sadly, there
will likely be more before it ends,” he said. “That’s the way it is. Likely be
more.”
Kuwait’s Defense Ministry said early
Monday that “a number of” U.S. military aircraft crashed, but all crew members
survived. Footage posted to social media, and verified by its location in Al
Jahra in Kuwait, appeared to show a fighter jet spiraling
down as smoke billowed from its back end. U.S. officials did not immediately
return a request for comment.
In an interview with The NYT, the
president said the United States intended to keep up the attack on Iran for
“four or five weeks,” but he didn’t lay out a clear plan for how power might be
transferred to a new government. In a video on Sunday, Mr. Trump repeated his
calls for the Iranian people to take over, but later refused to say how — or if
— his administration would defend them.
Amid fears of a wider conflagration with no clear endgame, Mr.
Trump said that Iran’s new leadership had let him know they wanted to speak to
him and that he was willing to do so. But early Monday, Ali Larijani, Iran’s
top national security official, said on social media that the Islamic Republic
would not negotiate with the United States.
The three U.S. troops killed in action in Kuwait, who were not
identified, were the first Americans to die in the war with Iran. At least nine
people were killed in a strike in central Israel, the country’s worst casualty
event since the start of the conflict. At least five people were killed in the
United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain, which all host U.S. military bases,
and four people were killed in Syria, according to official reports tallied by the
NYT.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it had struck Iranian
missile launchers, air defense systems, missile
launchers, plus government headquarters and command centers.
The United States kept up a barrage of strikes on Sunday, targeting Iran’s
ballistic missile program and trying to sink the Iranian Navy, a U.S. Central
Command official said. U.S. forces struck Iran’s “hardened” ballistic missile
facilities and destroyed the headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards
Corps and sank at least one warship, the military said.
Iranians received text messages early Sunday from the armed
forces warning them against protesting. Any actions seen as disrupting security
would be “met with the iron fist” of the Revolutionary Guards,” read the
message, which was viewed by The Times.
Here’s what else to know:
·
Oil tanker
ablaze: Videos verified by The Times
showed an oil tanker, the Skylight, ablaze off the coast of Oman on Sunday. It
was one of three ships in the Persian Gulf that reported coming under attack
after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps claimed it had targeted U.S. and
British tankers in the region.
·
School death
toll: Iranian state media reported that dozens of
children had been killed at a girls’ elementary school near a naval base. The
death toll at Shajarah Tayyebeh school in southern Iran rose to at least 115
people on Sunday, according to Iranian state and state-affiliated media. It
appears to be one of the worst mass casualty events of the American-Israeli
bombing campaign so far.
·
American
casualties: The U.S. Central Command said
that, in addition to the three service members killed, several other troops
“sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions and are in the process of
being returned to duty.”
·
Iranian
succession: Iran’s top national security
official, Ali Larijani, announced on Sunday that an interim committee would run the country until a successor to the supreme leader was chosen. The Israeli
strikes killed several other senior Iranian figures, Iranian state media said.
The power to choose a new supreme leader rests with the Assembly of Experts, a
conservative body of clerics.
·
Shipping
effects: The fighting shut down shipping
through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil
supply, according to shipping companies and Tasnim, Iran’s semiofficial
state media. The shipping company Maersk said it was halting some shipping
through the Red Sea, hundreds of miles to the west.