Israel strike on Iranian gas field reportedly coordinated with US

The Guardian-Maech18th2026

Tom Ambrose (now); Taz Ali and Wendy Frew (earlier)

he Israeli military told AFP on Wednesday that “debris” had hit Ben Gurion Airport following Iranian missile fire, without specifying when the incident had occurred.

Israeli media reported that private planes parked at the international airport near Tel Aviv had sustained damage.

The army lifted the censorship order regarding the incident on Wednesday but did not authorise the disclosure of the date.

UAE condemns targeting of South Pars gas field, after Iran blames US and Israel

The UAE condemned the targeting on Wednesday of Iranian facilities in a gas field shared with Qatar, calling the attack attributed by Iran to the US and Israel a “dangerous escalation” in a rare rebuke.

“The United Arab Emirates affirmed that targeting energy facilities linked to the South Pars gas field in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is an extension of the North Field in the sisterly State of Qatar, constitutes a dangerous escalation,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Targeting energy infrastructure poses a direct threat to global energy security… It also entails serious environmental repercussions and exposes civilians, maritime security, and vital civilian and industrial facilities to direct risks,”

William Christou

Israel and Hezbollah are engaged in intense ground clashes in at least three strategic areas in south Lebanon as Israel continues to push on with its ground invasion of its neighbour, according to a Lebanese security source and residents of the affected towns.

Much of the fighting was concentrated around the strategic hilltop city of Khiam, with the Israel Defense Forces carrying out an air and artillery campaign against Hezbollah fighters dug into the city. Fighting escalated there after days of clashes, with a Hezbollah spokesperson acknowledging there were “heightened clashes” on the eastern and northern outskirts of the city.

As fighting continued in Khiam, Israeli troops attempted to push into border towns in the central and western sectors of south Lebanon. A resident of the Aita al-Chaab border village said fighting was intense between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters there.

A Lebanese security source said that the village was one of a number of border towns that was the site of heavy fighting as Israel tried to infiltrate southern Lebanon through a number of points along the shared border. There, they had been met with resistance by members of Hezbollah.

The fighting came as Israel amassed troops along the border, bringing four brigades and columns of tanks ahead of an expanded ground invasion of south Lebanon. The Israeli military said that already it had started a “limited ground operation,” as the political echelon discussed expanding the campaign.

The war was triggered when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel on 2 March. Israel quickly launched a military operation on Lebanon with the goal of completely eliminating Hezbollah. Hezbollah styled the war as one of survival for Lebanon, saying it was defending the country from the near-daily Israeli airstrikes on the country since the November 2024 ceasefire between the two parties. Outside Hezbollah’s constituency, the move to drag Lebanon into a war was deeply unpopular.

The latest hostilities are a contest between Israel’s airpower and Hezbollah’s guerrilla fighters. Experts said the ground fighting in Lebanon was now centred on strategic axes, in particular Khiam, which could determine Hezbollah’s ability to fight off Israel’s invasion.

Fighting intensifies between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon

Iran made no effort to rebuild uranium enrichment after its capabilities were destroyed in a June 2025 US-Israeli attack, the US intelligence chief testified Wednesday, contradicting president Donald Trump’s justifications for his ongoing war.

“As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There has been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability,” Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said in prepared testimony to the Senate.