Iran war updates: Trump says war to end ‘pretty soon’, Hormuz deal nears

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This live page will soon close. But before we go, here’s a look at some of today’s top developments:

• Trump said he is “extremely happy” with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and defended the war on Iran, saying it “is going very well!” He later added that the war will end “pretty soon”.
• Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis confirmed targeting multiple Yemeni Emergency Forces camps in the Marib and Hadramout governorates, including in the Ruwaik, Al-Abr and Al Thaniyah areas.
• Yemeni forces reported that Houthi strikes using suicide drones and ballistic missiles killed at least 17 soldiers and one officer.
• Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree says the group used “a large number of ballistic missiles and drones” to destroy and burn campgrounds, troop concentrations, depots, weapons and military vehicles.
• The latest round of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel has wrapped up in Rome, with the US State Department describing the talks at “fruitful”.
• Several countries have condemned Israel’s escalatory attacks in Gaza following a meeting in Amman, Jordan. Hamas has called on the signatories to prevent Israel “from sabotaging the agreement” in Gaza.
• At least 300 children have been reported killed in Gaza in the 300 days since the October 2025 “ceasefire”, UNICEF says, amounting to one daily.

The Saudi-led military coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised government has said that at least 11 civilians were wounded in a Houthis attack on the southern Saudi border region of Najran.

The wounded included seven Saudi nationals, among them a woman and a four-year-old child who suffered second-degree burns, as well as one Yemeni, two Egyptians and one Pakistani national, the coalition’s spokesperson said in a statement.

Major-General Turki al-Maliki said the Houthi attack “constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and its customary rules regarding the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian objects”.

Authorities in the occupied West Bank have given Al Jazeera an update on Israel’s large-scale military operation in Qalandiya, now in its second day.

The Jerusalem Governorate told Al Jazeera that the army wounded at least 51 people so far during its operation, and detained at least 70 in the camp.

In addition, authorities said the army demolished at least seven homes in the camp.

Israeli prosecutors have charged a settler with “reckless manslaughter” for killing prominent Palestinian activist Awdah al-Hathaleen.

Rights group B’Tselem said the charges are the first against an Israeli over a Palestinian’s death in the occupied West Bank since October 2023.

Watch our report below for more:

The Israeli military has issued a series of new orders targeting land in several towns in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, including uprooting trees and seizing more land in the town of Marka.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that the Israeli military ordered the removal of trees and plants from lands with a total area of 310,868 dunams – nearly 311 square kilometres. The order would affect the towns of Ya’bad, Arrabeh, Anza, and Ajjah.

Wafa reported that the new orders appear to be part of the escalating Israeli measures targeting land in the Jenin governorate, threatening agricultural land and damaging farmers’ properties.

President Trump did say the war would be over very soon, but what was important to note is that he was very careful not to talk about the ongoing negotiations between Iran and Oman to try to find a way to allow commercial shipping through the Strait of Oman and, more importantly, the Strait of Hormuz, without creating any sort of additional tension in that waterway.

Trump also talked about the fact that there’s been ample reporting in the last 24 hours about the US military not having enough munitions, either to conduct the war in Iran or, perhaps more importantly, be able to engage in other military operations, whether going into yet another war or defending one of its many allies as required by treaties.

There’s been a real run on everything, from Patriot missiles to Tomahawk missiles to sidewinders to basic ammunition, and the president is saying that despite all of these news reports, the production is ramping up, and the cost of those munitions needs to be paid for by the US Congress, and that the US military is not wanting for critical munitions for military operations.

Israel’s Mossad chief, Roman Gofman, has sacked two of the spy agency’s top officials over a failed plan to topple Iran’s government, Israeli media reports.

According to reports from Israel’s Channel 12 and Haaretz, one of the officials had served since December as the head of Mossad’s intelligence directorate.

The other was the head of the agency’s Iran division.

The reports say the two devised the written plan to remove Iran’s leadership by mobilising the country’s minority groups to rebel and whip up mass protests to oust the government.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to pay a one-day visit to Saudi Arabia as the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb Strait escalates.

Erdogan will meet Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, on Friday, according to a post on X by Turkiye’s Communications Directorate.

He is also due to meet Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif.

Israel carries out new air and artillery attacks on Lebanon after soldiers were killed for the first time since a fragile ceasefire began in June.

They came despite more Lebanese-Israeli talks in Rome, part of a US-brokered peace process.

So, where do things stand now?

Watch the latest episode of Al Jazeera’s Inside Story to hear the conversation:

The Israeli army has fired artillery shells on the town of Hadatha in Bint Jbeil district, reports Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA).

Israel has picked up the pace of attacks on Lebanon since yesterday, issuing forced displacement orders in the town of Mansouri.

As diplomatic efforts to end the United States-Israel war on Iran remain uncertain, Iranian authorities have tightened their internal security controls across the country, especially in the capital, Tehran.

Over the last weeks, security forces and religious morality police have intensified restrictions, arrests, and punishments for people and businesses deemed noncompliant with a wide range of regulations on practices deemed by the state as immoral and un-Islamic.

On Wednesday, United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement that at least 56 people have been executed on national security-related charges since March 19, including 27 in cases linked to the nationwide protests in January.

Turk added that more than 100 people face the risk of execution on similar charges.

Read more in our story here.

Iran has lost about 230 million cubic metres of gas on a daily basis due to US-Israeli attacks, President Masoud Pezeshkian says.

In a lengthy interview circulated by the IRNA government news service, Pezeshkian said attacks on power infrastructure caused “a daily shortage of approximately 230 million cubic metres of gas.”

“Our enemies expected the country to collapse due to the pressures they have exerted,” Pezeshkian said, noting such pressures have “reached their maximum”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – facing a crucial election later this year – has hinted that he may be considering taking unilateral action to prolong a costly war with Iran, even as Washington and Tehran appear to be close to an interim deal to open the Strait of Hormuz.

“We heard today the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ahmad Vahidi, declare that Iran intends to continue developing a nuclear weapon,” Netanyahu claimed in an assertion, even though no official statement from Vahidi on the matter has been released by the Iranian government or official media.

Still, Netanyahu saw the opportunity to once again frame Iran’s nuclear threat as existential.

“As Israel’s prime minister, I am determined to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Netanyahu told attendees at a state ceremony in West Jerusalem.

Describing the United States as “Israel’s greatest ally”, Netanyahu nevertheless added that he was prepared to do “whatever is necessary” to guarantee Israel’s security.

Read more in our story here.